All You Need to Know About Channie’s Visual Handwriting & Math Workbooks

A Unique Approach to Proper Penmanship

Learning to form letters and numbers is one of the very first skills children learn in school. We recently reviewed two products from Channie’s Visual Handwriting & Math workbooks. The first, Channie’s Dry Erase Flashcard for Alphabet and Number, I used with Lenora, my preschooler. The second, Neat Numbers, I used with Olivia, my first grader.

The Channie Difference

Channie’s Visual Handwriting & Math workbooks came about from a mom trying to solve a problem and help her son. Tired of watching her son struggle with handwriting, Chan created a program to address the problems she was seeing with other resources available.

So, what sets Channie’s apart? For starters, there are individual blocks for each letter or number to help with consistency in size. Next, the area above and below the dotted line are shaded differently. For letters, the blocks are actually divided into thirds, with the center shaded green. This colored visual helps with the proper placement of lower case letters. Finally, there are double vertical lines after each block to ensure proper spacing between letters and sentences.

These key differences address many of the issues children have when they first begin writing. I know that my own children have struggled with proper sizing and spacing as they have learned to write. Channie’s addresses this problem is such an easy and straightforward way. It’s unfortunate it wasn’t around when my other children were younger.

Channie’s Dry Erase Flashcard for Alphabet & Number

The flashcards are approximately 4.5 in by 5.75 in. and are double-sided. There are 26 alphabet cards and 10 number cards. On the letter cards, the green side is the capital letter and the blue side is the lowercase letter. For the yellow number cards, each side has a different number from 0-9.

Each card also contains a corresponding picture. For example, the letter /f/ contains a picture of a fish. The number six shows six fish. This is another visual to accompany learning.

How We Used Alphabet & Number Flashcards

Lenora just turned three and has been excited for all things school. Like many younger siblings of homeschool students, she wants to be involved.

These came at the perfect time as I was looking for something age appropriate and simple.

Lenora’s favorite part is using the dry erase marker. It is a real treat to her to be able to write on the cards with the dry erase marker.

I like the dry erase aspect as well, for a few reasons. One, I am not constantly printing worksheets and two, when she messes up, it is easily erased and corrected.

Lenora was excited to use these right away. I was impressed at how quickly she progressed in being able to replicate the letters. As she practiced she became more confident.

Channie’s Neat Numbers

Channie’s Neat Numbers contains four separate activities to help your student practice writing their numbers. There is a section to trace, add, subtract, and trace & try. The trace & try section gives visual math problems. The first answer is dotted for the child to trace and then that same problem is repeated without the dotted answer for the child to try. In the back there are several blank practice pages.

The blocks for numbers are broken into two sections–a white top and a green bottom–since numbers never fall below the bottom line.

How We Used Neat Numbers

I was interested in Neat Numbers for Olivia because she still frequently writes her numbers backwards a lot of the time. While this is still an age appropriate problem, I want to work on correcting it. Muscle memory from tracing is one of the exercises that can be done.

I did have to pay attention with her to make sure she did not get lazy while writing. When she was only focused on being done, instead of doing it correctly, she fell back into old habits.

I do believe having the shaded area helped her with knowing where to place the number. It was much more obvious that the first part of the letter three was above the dotted line and the second half below. Having the vertical lines for spacing also provided a good visual for how far apart they should be, without her using her finger to space every time.

The Power of Channie’s

The unique approach to proper penmanship provided by Channie’s materials is just what many students need. Channie’s has more products available to help your student perfect their handwriting (or at the very least make it legible!) Be sure to check out the other Crew reviews by clicking below to learn about more of Channie’s products!