Lakeshore Learning :: U.S. States & Capitals Match-Ups Activity {Review}

In an effort to prepare Buddy for Kindergarten next year, I'm always on the look out for fun educational products to foster his love for learning. To create a creative, positive learning environment, I turn to education experts, resources, and products from places like Lakeshore Learning. They offer high quality educational products that make teaching your kids as effective as possible.

In Buddy's room we have a giant political map of the United States. Since putting it up about 3 months ago, Buddy has been fascinated with it. He's always loved looking at maps but this has turned into a huge teaching tool. I figured it would be neat to teach him a few states, where our country's borders are, the names of the oceans, etc. In just a few short months he knows the names of over 40 states by heart, Canada, Mexico, the oceans, where family lives around the country, and can even use the legend to identify wetlands, deserts, lakes and more.

My son has clearly taken to this geography memorization quickly and easily, so I was thrilled to receive the U.S. States & Capitals Match-Ups from Lakeshore Learning to review. He's almost done learning the states, so capitals are next! This product includes a total of 18 three- and four-piece match-up puzzles that make learning states and capitals fun and easy. These puzzles are divided into five colored sections of the United States and the pieces are self-correcting with their different shapes. So eventually, the pieces all end up in the right places - it's a confidence booster for Buddy for sure.

Although this products is intended for kids age 7+, Buddy is not too far off from being able to fully use all the individual puzzles on his own. Right now I will pull out the puzzles from one set of colors so he's not too overwhelmed. I try to sit with him when he wants to pull these puzzles out so I can read the names of the capitals and have him repeat each one with the name of the state after.

Buddy loves these puzzles. What's neat is that even though he's not reading on his own yet, he can still tell me the names of the states based on their shapes and a little sounding out letter by letter if he needs it. I'm pretty amazed! It was definitely a proud mommy moment to see that he's actually been learning and he's enjoying it too.

Overall I love this activity. It's made well, stores in it's own study box and has real educational value to it. It's a great tool to have up your sleeve when teaching young children states and capitals. It's also great as a unit review or for test prep too. Lakeshore Learning scores again!

Price:  U.S. States & Capitals Match-Ups - $14.99

 

Buy It: Check out LakeshoreLearning.com to shop today!

 

Disclosure: I received the above mentioned product(s) to facilitate this review for free. 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.