OneLuckeyWife

When I was a kid I had the hardest time learning to read. My aunt found out I was dyslexic and that is what was making it so hard to read and spell. With our Timberdoodle curriculum we got AAR Lv 1  (All About Reading). Last year we had the Prereading  version and loved it so I was very pleased to see they kept this as part of their curriculum. The main thing I like is that it is written in a way that I can understand what I’m supposed to do in order to teach reading effectively. The teacher manual has a bunch of tips through to help you along the way. The word and letter cards have examples so you know how to pronounce them or what sound you are teaching for that lesson.  What I did was tear out the pages in the student booklet; they are perforated. All the pieces that it said to cut out I also laminated. Some people have asked in the homeschool groups how to laminate. What I do is cut out the item, laminate and cut again. It makes a seal and last longer...

I Can Doodle Rhymes  is such a cute book to help with rhyming. I got it with our Timberdoodle curriculum. What I love about this book is that it works on writing as well as rhyming. A hard thing when learning to read is being able to rhyme so anything to make it a fun experience while learning is a huge plus. Each spread in the book works on either 2 to 3 words that rhyme. Our daughter loves drawing so that’s what really makes this book engaging for her. She’s able to have a visual for the words that rhyme. I like to have her try to think of another word that rhymes and draw it as well so I know she is getting the idea of rhyming and not just writing and coloring her way through this book. Another plus for this book is that she can practice drawing, which she really likes.

I love doing science and want our daughter to have a love of science as well.  Building Blocks of Science Book K  is the book that came with our Timberdoodle curriculum this year. There is a lot of coloring involved but I feel that makes it more appealing to kids. The workbook is divided into different sections so your not skipping from topic to topic. What I like to do is make it interactive. When it teaches about making a wave or things that go up must come down we did those activities to make it more involved. The beginning talks about atoms and different elements. While most would think it’s a bit advanced for a kindergartener we made it simple. My husband and I pretended to be elements and had our daughter join in. We linked arms and legs to have a visual representation that elements can join. To me it doesn’t matter if she remembers the names of the elements or the compounds they make; she’ll learn that in chemistry when she’s older. What she was able to learn w...

Who hasn’t played with dough before? Well this Djeco Kit helps your child form and create with dough.  Djeco Modeling Dough Funny Faces  has different cards for you to place the shaped dough and then you can use the stick provided to make different designs. We’ve had this kit for months and the dough is still soft which is nice. I make sure to close the containers properly to keep the dough as fresh as possible. One downside is the smell of the dough. To me it smells very weird but at least the dough isn’t sticky. Our daughter loves when we do this kit. Her favorite part is using the stick to make designs in the dough. It’s also a great art activity to keep her busy if I need to get something done. The manual is all pictures so she can easily tell what she needs to do for each card. Even if the manual doesn’t show a design for the dough she makes one and that’s what so great about Djeco kits. Your child can be as creative as they want.  

Science is alway fun but what makes it exciting for kids is doing hands-on experiments.  Boom! Fun with Science  came with our Timberdoodle kindergarten curriculum kit. It has everything you need except for some basic household items. We had everything extra we needed right in our pantry except for soda. It comes with an instruction manual and the items that may cause irritation are labeled so you know to be careful with them. Our daughter’s favorite experiments are the ones that explode and there is a whole section of exploding experiments. The manual has different experiments grouped together with other experiments that go together so you could do a whole unit on crystals if you like. Some experiments didn’t turn out like the book says. For example, we have still yet to make slime that wasn’t super sticky or soapy. It’s ok though as the lesson can turn into things don’t always work out and we can retry the experiments to see if we can get them to work out properl...

Last year we used the  preschooler version  of this book. The  kindergartener book  goes over lots of things for your child. What I like about these books are that they incorporate a lot; from history to science to art and more. On my Timberdoodle groups on FaceBook there are lots of people asking how to use this as part of their curriculum. I just read it my daughter. We read a few sections a week. I don’t skip around the book, just start at the beginning. When we get to science portion we do the experiments if we haven’t already done them before. My daughter really likes the stories, they are mostly children’s stories perfect for her age. Some we’ve read before but who doesn’t enjoy reading cute stories. 

For teaching how to cut we used the Kumon Cutting Books  so when I saw the folding set  on Timberdoodle’s website I just had to add them to our kindergarten curriculum for this year. Each book starts out easy and gets progressively harder as the book goes on. The pictures have dotted lines so your child knows where to fold. Once they fold on all the lines it shows a new picture. My daughter loves the pictures and thinks they are so funny. The books have really helped her fold a proper line. When we started the books she would fold a diagonal line instead of a straight line but after using these she has really progressed in her folding ability. What I really like about Kumon books is that after you complete the book they have a certificate.