Felt Boards from Betty Lukens: Review and Giveaway! Ends 2/26

I've jumped into homeschooling my preschooler with all hands on deck. While it's easy to find lots of resources and curriculum materials on the internet and in various stores, I've found it a bit overwhelming to find easy projects and activities that are relevant to what I'm teaching, have virtually no prep time, and with an easy clean-up too. Some days are just so hard to fit it all in and on those days a painting session is out of the question! With this in mind, I'm so thrilled to share my favorite new find....felt boards from Betty Lukens! They have a large variety of felt activities to choose from including educational to "fun" to Bible -themed as well. You will love the selection and have a hard time just choosing one favorite!

 Betty Lukens very generously sent me 5 felt boards from their Learning Fun with Felt line to check out and review for you. I could hardly wait for them to arrive and see what Buddy thought! (Needless to say, he definitely knows by now that a quick photo with a smile is the fastest way to get to the opening part!) These pre-cut felt boards measure 13" x 15" and include at least 20 pre-cut felt pieces, depending on the set of course. Betty Lukens products are all manufactured right here in the US (wahoo!) and only the highest quality polyester felt is used. 

These educational felt boards from Betty Lukens provide endless hours of creativity and storytelling. Every session is different and the hands-on learn experience is a valuable tool for young children. They are great as a travel toy or for play time at home, preschool and day care. Flannel board sets are also great resources for homeschool and special education. Felt manipulative pieces develop hands-on learning and hand-eye coordination. Inspire creativity with a Learning Fun with Felt set today!

Something I have learned very quickly is that prepping activities for homeschooling your preschooler is A LOT of work since most activities at this age are not boring worksheets. At the same time, activities need to be fun, engaging, colorful, and interactive to keep their attention and actually teach them something in the process. What I absolutely have LOVED about these felt boards is that there is NO prep whatsoever. Just pull one out and have at it! For the two "academic" boards we received I sit with him to teach and direct him as needed. With the 3 "fun" boards he makes each scene however he wants and his imagination just goes wild!

We've started out by doing a pieced-together "Letter of the Week" type homeschool curriculum until we start another program for preschool in the fall with a homeschool group. The Learning Your ABCs board is the one I would highly recommend for all homeschool families. Not only are you able to teach letters, but it's also easy to connect the letter sounds to a brightly colored visual picture and the written word if you choose. Since we are just starting out, we opted for just the picture-matching on this activity for now. This was an excellent way for me to also evaluate where he is right now with letter recognition and sounds. Since it's the entire alphabet, once Buddy puts down pieces he knows best, it's easier for him to narrow down which ones he is not great at yet. He loves the independence he's slowly gaining with this board each times he pulls it out! The board and pieces are also a very nice quality, and will definitely stand the test of durability with a busy toddler or multiple children. 

The felt pieces "stick" well to the felt board which is very convenient. When Buddy picks up a felt board to show me what he created, the felt pieces don't fall off unless he's overly rough and starts to tip it upside down. Clean-up is extremely fast and simple. I love that the contained "mess" really isn't a mess at all! The boards just slide into their own little carrying case with a handle. We took a couple felt boards to Grandma's house last weekend and it couldn't have been any easier! These have proved to be my favorite "toy" for traveling, which we do quite often to visit family.

A couple weeks ago we were finishing up the letter A. One of the themes we had talked about was astronauts so I was excited to receive the Adventures In Space felt board just in time. It really brought the whole concept together full circle in a hands-on way.

Since Buddy enjoys cars and anything that goes, he's been taking the tractor from the Fun On The Farm set and folding the wheels under, pretending the wheels are broken! He makes the animals talk to each other and make their animal sounds too. He has so much fun with these felt boards! They open a whole new avenue of creative play and are an excellent hands-on activity for children. I believe these felt boards are a very powerful tool in teaching your child, especially in the preschool years. These are great gifts for kids birthdays, and would certainly be appreciated by the recipients' parents too!

Price: Each set I received is $16.99 each

Buy It: Check out BettyLukens.com to buy today!

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Disclosure: I received the above mentioned product(s) to facilitate this review. No other compensation was received. This is my completely honest opinion above and may be different from yours. This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.