Handwriting and math facts are things that kids need to practice over and over again. But, just using the same old materials can get boring. That’s why I was eager to review two different Channie’s Visual Handwriting & Math workbooks. After looking at the amazing options available, I selected the Channie’s Dry Erase Flashcard For Alphabet & Number for my four- and six-year old kids to use, and One Page A Day 2 Digit Multiplication Practice to help my ten-year-old son improve his multiplication skills.
What Were These Products?
I received both the flashcards and the multiplication book. They are physical products. Here’s a little bit more about each of those.
Channie’s Dry Erase Flashcards For Alphabet & Number
These sturdy flashcards are meant to be used with a dry-erase marker. Kids can use them to practice writing their letters and numbers. The cards have uppercase letters on one side and lowercase letters on the other. On each, there was a picture clue (like Z for zebra and K for kite).
There’s plenty of room for young fingers to successfully write in the space provided. This kept my kids from being discouraged, which was wonderful.
In addition to the 26 letters of the alphabet, the set includes the digits 0-9.
One Page a Day 2 Digit Multiplication Practice
Learning to line your numbers up is essential when you’re moving into long multiplication problems. If you have a child who has a bit sloppy handwriting, that skill can be a struggle. Then they end up with crazy wrong answers to their problems because they’re multiplying the wrong digits.
This book can help with that problem! Each of the problems is already lined up, and there are visual clues to help students multiply correctly. Students are meant to do a page each day. My son preferred to rip them out, as when we tried just leaving it as a workbook, the pages kept coming out.)
This repetition helps them memorize their multiplication facts (since they get sick of looking them up and realize they’d knock this out a whole lot faster if they commit them to memory…)
How Did We Use These Products?
I had two of my younger kids take turns with the dry-erase flashcards. They created a fun game where they each hid them for the other person. Then once they found them all, they’d divide them up and each practice writing.
We also used them as flashcards, me holding up the card and them saying the letter and sound.
I had them practice writing several letters a couple of times each week. At least once over the review period, I made them each write every letter. That was a bit much for their young attention spans. But, it helped me to see which letters we should really focus on in our practice.
For the multiplication book, my son used it independently. He just showed me his page each day so I could quickly scan the answers. It took him between 7-20 minutes each day, depending on how motivated he was to just get it done. Most days, he was under ten minutes. But, there were a couple of times when I was impressed at how long he could drag out this task. 😀
But he must have enjoyed working on this workbook, as he packed it into his fun bag on our last trip, and I saw him working on a couple of pages in the van.
What Did We Think of These Products?
The products are designed well and were a good fit for the kids I had use them. The flashcards were sturdier than I thought they’d be and held up to gentle playing and getting hid. There are some bent corners and things, but nothing major that you wouldn’t expect after lots of use.
They erased fairly well. Every once in a while, we’d get out the baby wipes and give them a better scrubbing, as the kids weren’t always great at erasing everything after each use.
Here’s what they had to say:
4-Year-Old: I like writing my letters. I’m working hard learning to read.
6-Year-Old: My handwriting is getting so much nicer. I like these cards.
10-Year-Old: The multiplication book is easy to use. I like practicing math each day and have gotten better doing multiplication.
If you’re looking for a fun new way to practice important skills, I definitely recommend these products from Channie’s.