Who doesn't love Wikki Stix? They have some practical applications around the house, but their best use is for kids who are visual learners. They are wonderful for art projects but they are also wonderful for learning letters and shapes and even hand-eye coordination.

What are Wikki Stix? Well, the Wikki Stix website describes them like this: "Wikki Stix are made of hand-knitting yarn enhanced with a microcrystalline food-grade, non-toxic wax, the kind used in bubble gum and lipstick." Wikki Stix stick to almost any surface and can be peeled off and repositioned and/or reused over and over. They are mess free and can be cut to any size with a simple pair of kids' scissors.

The Basic Shapes Creative Fun Kit is a series of cards accompanied by a variety of different-colored Wikki Stix. The cards are like dot-to-dot worksheets, but they introduce the basic shapes. What a great preschool/kindergarten tool!

The Wikki Stix Book of Wiggles, Squiggles and Curlicues is a board book with illustrations that need to be completed with the accompanying Wikki Stix. There is a story as you go along as well as instructions on how to complete the picture. A star is the beginning point for each Wikki Stix embellishment.

My kindergarten-aged grandchild is having a blast with these kits. Working on her numbers and letters is very painless with Wikki Stix because she is "playing -- not working."

I highly recommend these and other available Wikki Stix kits to homeschoolers because they make learning fun.

Product review by Christine Hindle, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, June 2011