My children and I recently received some great manipulatives to review for Eureka®. Since it is currently summer, Eureka® manipulatives are a great way to practice math, spelling and many other concepts my preschool and elemetary school aged children learned about during the school year. I also have a 2 year old at home that was too young for these manipulatives (many of the manipulatives contain small parts and are not meant for children under the age of 3 due to the choking hazard), but was allowed to join in the fun under my close supervision.
The first product I will talk about is the Spelling Tiles ($11.99). The spelling tiles feature upper and lower case letters for practicing spelling. They come in their own plastic tub for easy storage. This tub is key in my house as my two year old cannot open the lid when it is closed tight. Not only does this keep him away from small tiles he could choke on if he got into them, but it also means they don't get dumped out all over my house! The tiles link together making word building a bit easier, and with 156 tiles the kids can make a LOT of words without easily running out of the letters they need to spell several words. My oldest daughter will be starting second grade and prefers to write, but the spelling tiles were great for my 5 year old to practice building words.
Next up is the Number Tiles ($10.99). These tiles can serve a wide age range. For those children that are just learning to count and recognize numbers, parents can arrange the number tiles and practice counting and number recognition with their child. For the older children, they can use the mathematical symbols to build and solve math problems. There are 175 tiles in a set and they feature numbers 0-9 and mathematical symbols. Like the spelling tiles, the number tiles come in their own plastic storage tub with lid. This was a great product for both my five and seven year old to practice their own sets of math skills.
We also received the Learning Clock ($4.99) from Eureka®. I loved seeing my girls play with this one as my 7 year old knows how to tell time and my five year old has not yet learned. When they took the clock out of the package, my seven year old immediately started explaining to her younger sister how to tell the time. The Learning Clock includes a colorful plastic clock, a 16-page activity booklet, and a sheet of reward stickers.
The Money Tray Clamshell ($7.29) was a popular item with my 7 year old. She LOVES to count money and quickly claimed possession of this item. The set includes dollars and coins and is an excellent tool to practice skills from counting money to making change. My girls love to pretend to sell things and the money provides a great learning experience for them to use during their play.
The Matching Interlocking Puzzle ($4.49) is a great tool for children just learning to match objects that go together. The 12 interlocking puzzles come in a clear storage pouch (I really love anything that comes with its own storage!) and helps with not only matching objects that go together, but also picture and word identification. My five year old loves puzzles and played with these, but they were a bit easy for her age.
Another item that was a bit easy for my 5 year old, but she still really liked was the Lace and Learn Safari Animals ($3.99). My daughter learned to sew in preschool this past year, so she loved the practice of lacing through the holes on these animals. These colorful animal shapes and laces promote muscle strength in the hands and fingers of children.
I saved the Counting Bears with Cups ($8.99) for last because it was the favorite of all of my children. This manipulative comes with 5 brightly colored cups and 10 small plastic bears in each color. My two year old loved sorting the bears into the correct corresponding colored buckets. This manipulative does contain very small plastic bears and is not meant for children under the age of three. My girls can already count to ten and sort, but they still loved this manipulative because it is brightly colored and has cute bears! It's no wonder this product is a Eureka® best seller!
These manipulatives are wonderful learning toys for my young children. If you are interested in learning more about these items, please click on the links for each item. The products can be found online at the Eureka website, or in our area, Eureka® products can also be found at the following locations:
Lakeshore Learning- Sterling Heights
Teachers Store- Sterling Heights
Learning Gizmos- Warren
Eureka® will be hosting a special giveaway for Macaroni Kid readers! Stay tuned for details!
