OneLuckeyWife

Our daughter loves arts and crafts.  Djeco So Pop  is another amazing art project that she had a blast doing. I got it through Timberdoodle and it also comes with their PreK Curriculum Kit. The kit comes with 4 different projects and all the pieces you need to put them together. This particular kit came with little envelopes for each project that had sequence in them so I popped out each item for the projects and put them in the envelopes so everything would be ready go when do each one. Djeco also give you a glue stick so you can glue the pieces on the boards but I have found the glue they provide isn’t that great so instead we use hot glue. What I really like about Djeco art kits is that they give you a little booklet that shows where to put each piece on the boards. It shows you through pictures so if your child doesn’t read yet it’s not a problem. Easy for a young kid to follow and great for the parent because you don’t have to read a lengthy instruction book.  I’d

The book  What Do Grown-ups Do All Day?  came with our 2018-2019 Timberdoodle PreK Elite Kit. It goes through 14 different job sights and explains each job within them. The explanations aren’t to long so it’s easy for kids to grasp the concept of each job. Even though it only does 14 job locations it showcases different jobs for each place. For me there was a huge downside. The very first job sight is a school which I don’t mind but it never mentions that some families homeschool. As a homeschool mom I’d love it if this book also included this way of doing school. Since the book doesn’t mention homeschool I found a book called This is My Home This is My School by Johnathan Bean. To better explain that some families send their children to public school while others, like ours, do school at home. What I do like about What Do Grown-ups Do All Day? is seeing which job our daughter would like to do if she was on that job site. Or having a great one-on-one conversation about what each

Animals + Places  is great for building creative skills. Although, it shows you how to draw facial features and other things in different ways. It allows kids to draw them anyway they want. Some pages are blank to let the child get extremely creative by drawing whatever they please. It is however very repetitive either with “draw what’s missing” or just coloring. I wouldn’t say it’s a must have but it’s definitely fun for kids. Going to the doctor or somewhere that your kiddo would get bored then this would something fun to keep them occupied.

I love math and wanted our daughter to gain the same passion for it I have. Mathematical Reasoning  Beginning 1  and  Beginning 2  have been an amazing curriculum for early math. Beginning 2 came with our Timberdoodle PreK Elite Kit and was a hit right off the bat. Our daughter loves the bright and colorful pages. She was doing so well with this book I went ahead and got Beginning 1 because I figured always getting the answers right would help build confidence and it did. The books get increasingly more challenging but then go back to an easier concept which is great reviewing and not getting burnt out. I love that they include riddles, number writing practice, drawing shapes and a ton more. However, I do wish they talked more shapes and colors. I’ve taught dark/light colors and a ton of shapes but we’re over halfway down with the book and it has only gone over triangle, square and rectangle.

ThinkPlay STEM  are great for getting your kiddos excited about building. I love that they come with a book with different things you can make but you also have the choice to get super creative and build whatever you can imagine. It comes with a bunch of different block pieces in different colors. They can be stacked or stuck together by sliding the pieces into each other. Our daughter can’t slide them together yet but she’s getting close. I even think they are hard to put together and take apart. So when we use these I start the pieces but let her slide them all the way. It would be better if they snapped together. What is great is the sense of accomplishment and pride she gets from completing a project.

Love me some  Bob Books . I think these are great for little readers when kids are just starting out reading. They don’t use many words but rather focus on certain letters at a time. The pictures aren’t to busy so the child doesn’t get distracted from the actual reading. Best of all these books are short. Our daughter started reading these about a month before turning 3. She has such a sense of accomplishment after reading one herself. Brings me such joy to see her gain a love of books. I do plan on getting the workbook that goes with them. The first workbook goes with 3 different Bob Books set.

Stages: Emotion Cards  have been an excellent tool for teaching our daughter not just about her emotions but also how to handle different situations. I simply show her a card and ask her what she thinks is happening, how each person feels and what they could do to become happy or what she thinks might happen next.  If she has trouble with a card we talk about different things the people could do from sharing to apologizing to asking for help. She’s learning great ways to deal with her emotions. I’d definitely recommend these especially if you’d child has trouble expressing themselves or dealing with certain situations.

This years Timberdoodle PreK kit has  Smart Start STEM . Since I’m using last years kit I went ahead and bought this separately from Timberdoodle. It is great for hands-on activities. There are 14 different STEM projects within this book. Each starts with a brief explanation followed by a short series of questions that go with the reading. After you get to build something that goes with the lesson. What I like is that it has a spot to draw out what you plan to do and what you think will happen then a spot for how your test run went. Great way to introduce how to do science experiments. It is not a comprehensive science curriculum by any means but it is a great way to get your kids involved with hands-on science fun.

These alphabet and number cards are amazing! I love them for teaching little kids. Price: 20$ for a set of 6 + shipping if shipped You may choose and color you like. My items are intended for decoration purposes. Not intended for children or infants to play with as some parts can be a choking hazard. 

I love these play foods for decoration or teaching kids about food groups. Our daughter loves to use them in her play kitchen. For some reason I’m not able to make a comment but I wanted to answer the question about washing them. Surface wash is best but I’ve put the ones I’ve made for our daughter in when I wash our clothes. Price depends on the food order + shipping  Food Choices: 3$ + shipping  Carrot 2 Cherries Lemon Cucumber  Tomato  Plum 2 Strawberries  Orange Pear Potato  2 Kiwi Halves 2 Mushrooms Eggplant  Turnip (purple) Radish (pink) Corn Green Grapes Purple Grapes Banana 2 Watermelon Slices Broccoli 2 Sunny Side-Up Eggs 2 Waffles Ice Cream Cone Food Choices: 10$ + shipping  Whole Cake 3 Cake Slices 3 Pizza Slices My items are intended for decoration purposes. Not intended for children or infants to play with as some parts can be a choking hazard. 

Sticker Science  by Kumon came with our Timberdoodle PreK Elite Kit. I love this book! It has a bunch of different things that kids need to know about but does it in a fun way. My daughter loves that she gets to use stickers. Not every page uses stickers. There are maxes, connecting like things, drawing and coloring. This keeps my daughter engaged and wanting to do more because she thinks it’s so fun. One thing I wish it had was a review. Since it doesn’t I review with her. The lessons are short but give you a great entryway to go further by talking to your child about the concepts. There is a lesson in the beginning about things growing and has a small maze with an egg that goes through its’ lifecycle. A great example to use for our daughter was our chicken and how we hatch them then they eventually grow into a chicken.

Three Little Pigs  is another great game by Smart Games. It came in our Timberdoodle PreK Elite kit. This game comes with 3 pigs and a wolf, a book of challenges and a little picture boo of the story of the Three Little Pigs. My daughter absolutely loves this game! She thinks it’s funny to pretend the wolf eats the piggies. As she goes to place the houses on the pigs she turns the wolf toward the pig she’s about to save. My favorite thing is when she finds a solution that isn’t the one suggested in the challenge book. It shows me that she is really gaining the critical thinking skill. My favorite things is when she finds a solution that isn’t the one suggested in the challenge book. It shows me she is really gaining the critical thinking skill. Another cool thing is the challenge book has 2 sets of challenges. One with day so the wolf isn’t there and the houses get placed around the pigs so they can play during the day. Then 2nd set is night so the wolf in incorporated and the

Stages Blocks finally came in. They were ordered from the manufacturer’s website in January and arrived 6 months later because they were on backorder. They are made by Stages Learning and included 40 colorful blocks and 120 cards. You can also download a free app that gives even more building ideas. I like these blocks because not only do you get the critical thinking aspect from building what’s on the cards but you can do grouping activities with them or even counting. I do think the first 20 cards that come with the blocks are unnecessary. They only show 1 block so there isn’t much thinking required to complete those. The blocks are a good size for little hands and like that they are colorful. Our daughter’s favorite thing to do is make her own things with them.