Written by Cali @chasing50toes

All right, all right, the secret is out: my kids are clothespin-obsessed—and I totally get it. There’s something incredibly satisfying about clipping, pinching, snapping, and matching. It’s one of those low-lift, high-impact tools that gets pulled out constantly in our house.

Over the years, I’ve made endless wheels and boards for color matching, math facts, letter recognition—you name it. But the real magic started when I began pairing clothespins with our Domino & Juliette Placemats (yep, one of the reasons we designed them the way we did).

Our mats are intentionally built with a trim along the edge for hands-on learning—and it’s spaced just right for clothespins, chips, scrabble tiles, page flags… you get the idea. But clothespins? Clothespins are the star of the show.

Let’s start with the Colors Placemat. Just color the tips of your clothespins with markers (or go full Pinterest and buy a rainbow set), and start matching them to the color trim on the mat. You can do the same with the Shapes Placemat and even stretch this into pattern play with the Numbers Placemat. One of our favorites? Using purple and red clothespins to mirror the beetle-ant-beetle-ant pattern around the border. Sensory, visual, fine motor... all in one.

Now let’s switch to math. Grab a handful of pins and write numbers on them with a permanent marker. Then pair them with the Math Basics 1 Placemat to match numbers to their domino representations or number words. Want to go further? Try using clothespins to represent sums. For example, if your child sees the number 42 on the trim of the Counting Placemat, they can clip a pin labeled “6” to show 4+2=6. It's simple, visual, and reinforces number sense in a way that sticks.

Another easy entry point is odd and even number identification. Write an “O” or “E” on each clothespin, then let your child clip them onto the Math Basics 1 Placemat, sorting the numbers by type. You can even take just one labeled clothespin and let it dance along the number line to practice skip counting, basic addition, or game scoring. We’ve used this trick during board games when we’re tracking points—it's so fun and tactile that the kids don’t even realize they’re reinforcing math.

Let’s talk letters. If you happen to find the elusive alphabet clothespins at Target (and please send me the link if you do), you’re already one step ahead. If not, don’t worry—I made a full set with a Sharpie and some wooden pins from the craft store.

Pair them with the Phonics Placemat or our Uppercase and Lowercase Placemat and you’ve got endless options: matching uppercase to lowercase, clipping the first sound of a picture, or even practicing blends and ending sounds for older learners. All those carefully illustrated icons along the mat trims? Yep—they’re meant to be clipped.

There’s just something about clothespins. They’re cheap, endlessly useful, and sneak fine motor work into nearly every subject without your child even noticing. Plus, the satisfaction of snapping that pin into place? You’ll want to try it yourself.

So grab a bag of wooden clothespins, pull out your D&J mats, and see what kind of learning unfolds. Don’t forget to tag us @dominoandjuliette—we love seeing your ideas in action and sharing them with our community!