Support your child's learning with Treasures From Jennifer

Treasures From Jennifer is a beautiful small business run by Jennifer and her husband Joe in the US. All their products are handmade from only the highest quality wood and they have created a stunning collection of educational resources. When you can see the products in person and feel them you will be blown away by the quality – sometimes photos just can’t do them justice, no matter how hard I try! Oskar's Wooden Ark stocks the whole range of Treasures From Jennifer.

 

Why I love Treasures From Jennifer?

I love the effort that has gone into creating resources that kids can use to learn new concepts in such a tactile way. My daughter started Kindy (first year of school in our state here in Australia) last year, and our favourite resource was the From Jennifer Hundred Frame as it was able to be used in so many ways to reinforce what she was learning in class, as well as during our learning from home time. These resources are great for supporting your child's learning, whether your child attends school or you are a homeschooling family.

📸 by Steph @steph.soj

Simple activities using the Hundred Frame 

The Wooden Hundred Frame is a simple but a very effective resource that will help your children learn to count while allowing them to visualise addition and subtraction practice with numbers 1-100. It comes with 100 colourful wool balls which can be used for counting, colour sorting and which support the hands-on learning experience. The Hundred Frame contains one hundred dimples that can be filled with the wool balls, loose parts or different coins: Number Coins, Alphabet Coins, Fraction Coins, Symbol Coins, Multiplication Coins and Grammar Set Coins. 

Depending on what you use the Hundred Frame with, you can practise and focus on counting, pattern creations, mathematical equations, discovering cardinal directions, spelling, and much more.

Fun spelling activities

We started with simple activities, like using our alphabet coins to spell out some of the first letters and words she was learning – who remembers s,a,t,p,i,n? We have two sets of the alphabet coins which I found really useful, especially as she was able to form more and more words. However, what I love about even a single set is that there are multiples of all the most commonly used letters – so handy! The wonderful thing about the combination of the Hundred Frame and letter coins is that the letters are kept in place but can be moved around at the same time. If your child makes a mistake, it can easily be fixed.

📸 by Steph @steph.soj

From there we moved on to little games to help with her learning. Some of the favourites were spelling out words – either from her weekly spelling list, or a favourite book or theme – and then hiding a letter or two from each, and putting them in a bowl for her to sort though and complete each word. This was especially helpful in learning which words use ‘c’ or ‘k’ to make the same sound, or for practising the difference between ‘b’ and ‘d’ when she was getting mixed up! Another version of this was word scramble, where we spelled out the words on her weekly list, and then scrambled each one up for her to unscramble and then practise writing.

Counting games

We also have the number coins, and the hundreds frame was a great way to start counting bigger numbers and for her to see the patters forming in each row of 10 so clearly.

Another game we loved was rolling a dice to select two numbers, finding the matching coins for each number and then adding them together. When we started this we also used some Grapat mandala pieces to help with counting and adding together. Most of these fit well in the hundreds frame so we could use the frame for this game too.

For younger children who are still learning their numbers, you can start with asking them to put the number coins 1-10 in order and then work your way up to 100. Once they know they numbers, you can fill the board with all the number coins in order and then take a few out. Your child then has to find to correct spot for the number coins you've taken out.

📸 by Steph @steph.soj

Where learning meets fun

Games like this were great for homework, as she was so tired after school and not in the greatest mood, but this was a way to make it fun and keep her interested. She also loved when I helped her to write a message on the frame with the coins, and then she could use that to copy the message and write onto a card for a friend.

All of these games can be tailored to kids of different ages and levels. I plan on starting some with my preschool age son if he shows an interest as I noticed even last year he often loved playing with the coins while I was helping my daughter with her practise. I found the Twenty Frame was really handy to have for him to play with at the same time. And if you have two kids, they can also share the Hundred Frame and work side by side - one can work on letter recognition and the other one can sort and match colours using the wool balls. 

📸 by Allie @woodentoyplay

Play and learn with Treasures From Jennifer resources

The Treasures From Jennifer range includes many resources that target specific areas of learning. However, these resources can be used in many ways to help your child learn in a playful way and make learning a fun experience. Over time we have added some other Treasures From Jennifer to our home and I have used them to set up different activities for my kids. Watching our children learn and have fun at the same time has been great for both my husband and me.

The Reversible Alphabet Tracing Board has been amazing for helping both kids to practise their letter formation. It is double-sided, with capital letters on one side and lower case on the other, and comes with a wooden stick for tracing. As well as tracing, we have been using the board in sensory play, to fill up the letters using a sensory base such as rainbow rice, beans, chickpeas or even flower petals. A great way to use it is to ask the kids to fill a specific letter at a time – so they can practise both letter recognition and letter formation.

Our other beautiful From Jennifer resources include the Weather Chart and the Wooden Clock – both have been perfect for introducing concepts of weather, seasons and time. Getting to spin the weather wheel and temperature dial, or spin the hands on the clock gives them a great hands on learning experience. The kids also love to get our Grimm's weather set out and recreate the weather on the weather chart with the wooden weather blocks. 

The whole Treasures From Jennifer range is well worth checking out, and it is constantly growing! I can’t wait to add to our collection as the kids get older – for instance the fraction coins or multiplication coins will be so useful when we get to that stage, or the symbol coins for doing sums. They are so well designed and create wonderful learning opportunities for kids in a way that makes it fun for them!

I hope you enjoyed reading about my experience with the wonderful resources from Treasures From Jennifer. If you have any questions, please leave a comment or feel free to contact me via my Instagram account @steph.soj.

Happy learning,

Steph

 

Thank you so much for your informative blog post and sharing all your fun ideas Steph. We love watching your children play and learn with the Treasures From Jennifer range and it's so lovely to hear that your daughter has enjoyed learning with them after school despite being tired. 

Please make sure to follow Steph on Instagram for more fun activities and play sessions as well as seeing one of Australia's most beautiful playrooms.

Our Treasure From Jennifer range includes more than 50 products. Many of these products can be paired with other products in our store like Grapat Mandala pieces and Grimm's weather set. Our next restock is happening this week on the, 22th of April, 2021, around midday (Adelaide time). If you have any of Treasures From Jennifer on your wishlist, please don't wait too long because we don't know when our next shipment will be sent from the USA. If you'd like to get a better idea of the Treasures From Jennifer that we stock, check out our Treasures From Jennifer YouTube playlist.

Your TOP 5 Treasures From Jennifer

From Jennifer Bow and Arrows Set

The Bow and Arrows Set from Oskar’s Wooden Ark is one of those toys the whole family will enjoy. Our safe, durable bows can be used by children as young as 2 years old, while still being a blast for older children. They were designed to be easy to use and work extremely well featuring a hole through the shaft to guide the arrow. The arrows with felt ball tips to soften impact, and a bungee cord to send the arrows soaring through the air.

 

From Jennifer Hundred Frame

The Wooden Hundred Frame with Wool Balls from Oskar's Wooden Ark will help your children to learn counting as well as addition and subtraction practice with numbers 1-100. It comes with 100 colourful wool balls. You will receive ten of each color (red, orange, yellow, light green, dark green, blue, indigo, violet, pink, and white). The Wooden Hundred Frame is made from precious walnut or maple wood and finished all naturally with linseed oil and beeswax. 

 

From Jennifer Crayon Holder

Oskar's Wooden Ark offers two types of Crayon Holder From Jennifer. One for Stockmar beeswax block and stick crayons and one for Kitpas Art Crayons and Block Crayons. They house either 8 or 16 of each type and are either made from creamy white maple wood or rich dark walnut wood, both are solid hardwoods. You can choose them in combination with the suitable Stockmar Crayons/Kitpas Art Crayons or just the Crayon Holder itself. 

 

From Jennifer Perpetual Calendar

The Wooden Perpetual Montessori Waldorf Calendar is an artisan calendar crafted from solid maple hardwood to last year after year. It is not only beautiful but a very useful tool in both teaching and organising your days. Use your calendar to bring attention to the purpose of the day and upcoming events and teach children about weather conditions and cycles of the moon. There is so much learning and fun to be had with this calendar while adding beauty and joy to your home. 

From Jennifer Alphabet Tracing Board

The Reversible Wooden Alphabet Tracing Board offers your child wonderful learning opportunities. It will help them to learn how to form their letters correctly. Trace the gently curved grooves to feel the motion of writing each letter with either your finger or the included tracing stick. At Oskar’s Wooden Ark we offer a "reversible" option which is a wonderful combination of the lowercase and uppercase alphabet letters. You simply flip it over to change sides. It comes with a thick tracing stick.