Preschool End of Year Curriculum Review

Links updated April 2022

Dear Sis,

We started our school year in March of 2020, just after we completed potty training, when my son was three and a half. We purchased Timberdoodle’s customizable preschool 2019 curriculum kit. We did a review after using it for six weeks. You can read that review here.

This review encompasses all the items we used for preschool, many of which were not part of the curriculum kit. I hope you get some inspiration! It can be tricky finding just the right materials for each of your little students. 

Scheduling

Our family fits into a category known as unschoolers. We school all year round, so that we can be less committed to a dedicated schooling schedule. That’s the beauty of homeschool! It can be tailored to your unique family desires and needs!!!

Timberdoodle includes the use of their online scheduling tool with your curriculum purchase. I played around with it, but in the end decided a spread sheet was best for us. Each spread sheet contains one of 36 weeks of school work. We don’t necessarily finish a week of work, in a week. We use the checklist and moved on when we finish. Sometimes in three day… sometimes three weeks…

Art/Fine Motor

  1. Let’s Cut Paper! & Let’s Cut Paper! Amazing Animals & Let’s Fold! by Kumon
  2. Little Children’s Drawing Book by Usborne
  3. Crayon Rocks, 16 colors, Write Size Pencils & Kum 4-in-1 Pencil Sharpener
  4. Washable Tempera Paint Sticks, 24 colors

Cutting & Folding Workbooks: My son really enjoys the cutting and folding books by Kumon! We did have to start on strips of paper, just opening and closing the scissors for a few weeks before we had success with the first cutting worksheets. 

Drawing Book: My son is very discouraged by crafts and art, if he feels that his results are inadequate. This book sets him up for success!!!

Writing Tools: These particular tools helps encourage a tripod grip, while catering to the current level of dexterity your 2-4 year-old has.

Paint Sticks: We paint at least once a week, but sometimes my son wants to paint when I’m too busy to help him. That’s when we use paint sticks. Timberdoodle includes Kwik Sticks in the kit. I opted for an off brand that was a bit cheaper. 

Emotional Intelligence/Health

  1. Feeling Flashcards by Todd Parr
  2. My Very First Body Book by Usborne
  3. Erwin the Little Patient Doll by Sigikid
  4. Cosmic Kids Yoga & Kids Yoga Mat by Gaiam

Flashcards: Although, flashcards of any kind are usually not my go-to teaching tool, these ones are enjoyable and make discussion of feelings more relatable and approachable between parent and child. We’ve found that making emotional intelligence part of our schooling has really helped us get better at talking about and managing emotions in more appropriate ways.

Body Book: All young children are curious about their bodies! Reading books like this one with your kiddos helps you figure out what questions they have. This book was actually our second attempt. It is part of Timberdoodle’s PreK curriculum kit, but we found it was a perfect fit for my son’s level of interest this year. 

Plush Anatomy Doll: This was a gift we got about halfway through the school year. My kids love dissecting Erwin and putting him back together! It’s a great way to make learning the names and functions or different parts of the body a tactile experience.

Yoga: Young children run around much of the day, so formal exercise, although not necessary in childhood, is a healthy habit we hope will follow our children into adulthood. My son really enjoys this children’s yoga show available through AmazonPrime.

Language Arts

  1. Alphabet Activities & Read Alouds
  2. The Reading Challenge in the Timberdoodle curriculum handbook
  3. My Big Wimmelbooks
  4. Osborne Picture Puzzle Books

Alphabet Activities & Read Alouds: We do four activities or read aloud each week to practice letter sounds and names. Some of our favorites include: 

The Reading Challenge:

“This challenge is detailed in the handbook. It has several levels of intensity: The Light Reader (13 books), The Avid Reader (26 books), The Committed Reader (52 books), and The Obsessed Reader (104 books). We love to read, so we went all in and obsessive:) I love how it is diversifying our book choices! There is another section in the handbook that has 637 title suggestions, a list for each challenge, if you get stuck and can’t find something that fits the parameters of the challenge on your own.”

This quote is from my start of the year review. As the year progressed, it ended up feeling like a record keeping chore for mom. We sign out 50 books from the library every two weeks, so we hardly need reading motivation. I’ll probably skip the reading challenge until William is reading independently. Then he can set his own goal each year, and work to achieve it. That being said, if you, as a parent, need motivation to read to your child, this may be a great fit for you!

Wimmelbooks: Timberdoodle includes a set of three in the curriculum kit, we went a bit off script and replaced At the Construction Site. We own Animals Around the World, Cars and Things that Go, and On the Farm. It might be fun to let your student pick the three books that interest them most! It’s nice when kids can feel part of their curriculum selection.

We went through each book once, by scene, narrating a bit as we found each character. Each book takes 6 weeks to complete. The second time through, we went by character, narrating as we found that character in each scene. Each book has more than 6 characters, so you’ll have to pace yourself accordingly to finish in the remaining 18 weeks. We’ve finished up a bit early, and now my son just flips through them independently.

Picture Puzzle Books: Timberdoodle’s kit used to include Under the Sea & Zoo. Both are out of print, so the kit now includes Jungle. We finished these early and dropped them from our weekly checklist. Honestly, between the Wimmelbooks in Language Arts and the Big Book of Things to Spot in Mathematics, these books can probably be omitted entirely.

Mathematics

  1. Number Activities
  2. Farmland Math bundle by Timberdoodle
  3. Mathematical Reasoning: Beginning 1 workbook by Critical Thinking Co. 
  4. Big Book of Things to Spot by Usborne

Number Activities: We do four activities or games each week to practice numbers and the quantities they represent. Some of our favorites include: 

Farmland Math: 

“This active math storybook is actually written by the folks at Timberdoodle. It was a slow start, but William has come to enjoy it very much! There is one lesson for each of the 36 weeks. Some weeks we do the lesson twice because we need more practice or because we want too:)”

At some point, we started calling “Farmer Brown” (inspired by Doreen Cronin’s farm books, staring a very ornery duck) on our toy phone each week, to see how we could help around the farm. Our lesson is our farm chores. This personal touch adds continuity between lessons and also helps my son know what to expect. 

Mathematical Reasoning Workbook: Spiral in approach, with very little writing, especially in the beginning of the book, it is great for young children. We photo copy the few pages that do require markings, so we can reuse the book for my daughter in a few years.

Things to Spot:

“This book can be a bit overwhelming, so we usually do half a scene at a time. We also use ten glass counters to use as place markers. We count the correct number of counters before we begin looking for the animal or item, so that it is self correcting. My son knows he has found seven when all the counters are gone. We struggle to get our two scenes in each week.”

As the year comes to a close, my son is able to work without the glass markers and we can work through one or even two scenes in a sitting. We had to grow into it! 

Science/STEM

  1. Primary Science Set by Learning Resources
  2. Plus-Plus Big building set with weekly models in the Timberdoodle handbook
  3. ThinkPlay Preschool building set by Morphun
  4. Koala Crate monthly subscription by Kiwi Co.

Science Kit: My son loves science! He thinks all the tools in this kit and the experiments are great. I love it for his sake, but really it’s just okay by mom’s standards.

Plus-Plus Building Set:

“These blocks have such a simple design. They go together with just enough resistance to challenge children without frustrating them. The building template cards are actual size, so children can build directly on top of the instructions. There is a great extension for this building set in the handbook with a weekly template and a second building idea.”

Schooling aside, every kid that comes over to play loves these… no matter their age!

ThinkPlay Building Set: 

“This building set is compatible with LEGO DUPLO, but contains a larger variety of unique blocks. It comes with a very good building manual.”

At times these were agonizingly frustrating for my son, because he wanted to work independently, but had trouble following the steps in sequence or noticing subtle differences in block faces. He is getting much better at building with and without instructions as the year comes to a close and is very excited about the ThinkPlay set that is coming in his PreK kit. 

Kola Crate: We actually began the year with a Little Passports subscription as our geography curriculum. After the first three months, we realized it wasn’t quite what we wanted. Kiwi Co. crates have great internet review, so we gave them a try. We’re hooked! We even purchased their summer camp program and enjoyed working through it for the better part of a month. 

Social Studies/Geography

  1. What Do People Do All Day? by Richard Scarry
  2. Then and Now an Usborne Talk About Book by Peter Firman
  3. Montessori: Map Work
  4. Globe

What Do People Do All Day? is easily one of my kids favorite books! It explains how different jobs are done and their place in society. It’s a bit dated, but that somehow adds to its charm. A classic for any children’s library!

Then and Now: This book is out of print, but somehow BookShark still sells it. It compares a street, store, or room in the home. On the left, there is a scene from the Victorian era, and the right, has a scene with its modern counterpart. It’s a great way to introduce the concept of history to young minds!

Map Work: This board book is a great way to help young children learn about continents. Globe: The globe reenforces what is learned in map work and shows how it applies in 3dimensions. 

Thinking Skills

  1. Building Thinking Skills: Beginning 1 workbook by Critical Thinking Co.
  2. Bugzzle puzzle game by Fat Brain Toys
  3. Bunny Peek-a-Boo puzzle game by Smart Games
  4. Day and Night puzzle game by Smart Games
  5. Play Smart series by Gakken Workbooks

Thinking Skills Workbook: is very similar to Mathematical Reasoning: Beginning 1 workbook and we use it the same way.

Bugzzle: Once we completed the other two logic puzzles included in Timberdoodle’s kit, we found this to fill the void on our checklist each week. Each challenge is a new shell design for a beetle. There are three rings in each design with pieces of various sizes and colors. The challenge card shows you where each color should be, but not which pieces create the pattern. 

Bunny Peek-a-Boo:

“The challenge card is a 2-D image that must be created with 3-D pieces. As I talk my son through the puzzles, we also use a lot of placement language… over, under, behind, inside, left, right, etc.”

Day and Night: This logic puzzle shows an image on a card that has to be recreated. In the beginning, you stack the pieces as they appear. The second half of the card, repeat the patterns of the first, but as a black and white silhouette. 

Gakken Play Smart Workbooks: Timberdoodle’s curriculum kit comes with a set of three of these workbooks. The set includes: Play Smart Skill Builders Age 2+, Brain Boosters Age 2+, and Brain Boosters Age 3+. 

My son sailed through these books! In hindsight the age 2+ books were a bit too easy! We leveled up once with: Play Smart Animal Picture Puzzlers Age 3+ and Play Smart Skill Builders Age 3+. William also finished those in a hurry and we leveled up a second time to: Play Smart Brain Boosters Age 4+ and Play Smart Skill Builders Age 4+.

We also enrolled William is a biweekly, 2.5 hour, preschool program at our local YMCA, which started in September and ends in May. Pandemic standards removed most of our opportunities for social interaction, this was our solution, along with starting our own monthly book club. We post each month sharing our book club experience, in hopes that other families can benefit, and save themselves some planning hours. You can check out our archives in our home school corner.

Homeschooling has become very second nature in our home. We wish your family all the best in its home school journey!

Love,

b

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