Lake Washington senior gifts preschoolers Busy Boards

Have you ever heard of Busy Boards? To preschool students, they are like a magic box, or wall, full of fun things to touch, turn, zip, button and explore. Matthew Huang, a senior at Lake Washington High School (LWHS), built and customized some of these amazing Busy Boards just for preschoolers at Old Redmond Schoolhouse (ORSH).

Matthew is working hard to earn his Eagle Scout badge. For his volunteer project, he wanted to do something meaningful for students in Lake Washington School District (LWSD). After visiting ORSH and doing some research, he came up with the idea of creating Busy Boards for every classroom.

Busy Boards are an effective and interactive educational tool to support early childhood development by engaging in multiple areas of a child's cognitive, motor and sensory skills. They come with all sorts of engaging activities, including zippers, buttons, knobs and much more. Busy Boards help students build important skills like problem solving, independence and self-regulation. Students also learn how to play cooperatively and gain social skills among their classmates.

Matthew began by collecting different items to put on the boards. He even made some all by himself with the use of a 3D printer. Then, on Saturday, March 22, Matthew and a team of volunteers gathered to assemble 10 Busy Boards for each of the classrooms.

Now, ORSH preschoolers are having a blast playing with their new Busy Boards. They are learning life skills through play and exploration and Matthew’s creativity and generosity will benefit the preschool students at Old Redmond Schoolhouse for years to come.