Links updated April 2022

Dear Sis,

Homeschool looks different for every family, and often… every child. Our journey began last March, just after William finished potty training. This new skill marketed a huge mindset change for him… a desire for independence and to be BIG! That is when we purchased a preschool curriculum package from Timberdoodle. We did both a start of year and end of year review on the curriculum as a whole, each individual component, and they changes we made throughout the preschool year. 

For our pre-k experience, I knew I wanted to continue using Timberdoodle’s kit. We have added additional curricula and materials to expand the kit to accommodate my expectations and William’s interests, but that is for another post. This particular review, will focus on the Timberdoodle Pre-K.

Timberdoodle Pre-K

I think I will always begin my curricula search with Timberdoodle! I love that they curate kits from such a wide variety of sources, with attention to thinking skills and plenty of hands-on components! Additionally, their kits are customizable and available in both secular or Christian world views. Timberdoodle annually releases new kits in Mid-April. We purchased at the beginning of March, so our kit is already dated:)

Pre-K Handbook 2020

The handbook is easy to read and navigate, and is updated each year. This year, I bypassed much off it because I have a bit more experience under my belt. Here is a list of the parts of the handbook we still use:

• The start of year interview, which we repeat at the end of the year, and include in our homeschool portfolio. 
• Although we adapt the scheduling suggestions heavily to include additional curricula, the scheduling table is a nice place to start.
• Junior GeoStix weekly building suggestions, that expand this component beyond the 30 building cards that come with the set.
• Geoboard A-Z and 1-10 templates, that expand this component beyond the 20 templates that come with the set.

Language Arts

1. All About Reading, Pre-Reading, Deluxe
2. Channie’s, My First Letters
3. What Your Preschooler Needs to Know
4. Alphabet Bingo by Peaceable Kingdom
5. Wikki Stix Alphabet Deluxe
6. GeoStix Letter Construction Set (2021 addition, not pictured above)

We will also be using Torchlight Pre-K: Curiosity and Character, which suggests using Logic of English for pre-reading and writing, and schedules weekly use of the Doodling Dragons: an ABC book of sounds by Denise Eide and Doodling Dragons ABC Songs by Jill Pearson. We enjoy the book and songs so much, we recently purchased the entire Foundations A Set, knowing that we will use some of it this year and all of it in kindergarten. Consequently, we opted not to use All About Reading, Pre-Reading set and Channie’s, My First Letters. 

We also decided against the read-aloud collection: What Your Preschooler Needs to Know.  The literature we are using for our pre-k year comes from our Torchlight curriculum, which we reviewed here.

In addition to the use of the Doodling Dragons book and songs, each week we schedule four letter formation and sound activities. We use both Alphabet Bingo and Wikki Stix Alphabet Deluxe as two of several options. We really enjoy both! 

Mathematics

1. Mathematical Reasoning: Beginning 2
2. My First Sticker by Number Book
3. Geoboards by Guidecraft (dropped from 2021 kit)
4. Junior GeoStix by edx (dropped from 2021 kit)
5. Tiny Polka Dot Games by Math for Love

We got them all! We use very few workbook style learning tools, but William did well with Mathematical Reasoning: Beginning 1 and was willing to continue the series. 

We alternate use of the sticker book and the Tiny Dot Game in our weekly schedule. We only do one page of the sticker book at a time, even if the full image spreads over two pages. William gets worn-out with tedious crafts and coloring. The Tiny Dot games actually provides instructions for a dozen different games, of varying levels. We’ve only tried the two simplest so far, and William approves.

Geoboads and GeoStix are fun forms of activity based learning. I feel that they could be used for preschool, pre-k, and/or kindergarten. I was sorry to see that both were dropped from this years curriculum package. 

Thinking Skills

1. Developing the Early Learner Series and Guide Book (dropped from 2021 kit)
2. bambinoLUK sets A and B
3. Three Little Piggies logic puzzles by Smartgames
4. Camelot Jr. logic puzzles by Smartgames
5. Lion in my Way game by eeboo
6. My First Picture Puzzles
7. Building Thinking Skills: Beginning 2 (2021 addition, not pictured above)

The Developing the Early Learner series is black and white, dated, and is often reviewed as difficult to use and check. The guide book published by the folks at Timberdoodle provides clarity of instruction and a straight forward answer key! We are about a dozen pages into book 1, and we are really enjoying it. I love that it is a multi-sensory experience. I’ve never before encountered auditory activities in a workbook:) We modify activities that require coloring, with circling, because William doesn’t enjoy coloring. I’m sorry to see that this series has been dropped, but I understand the world must keep moving forward. That being said, it was replaced by Building Thinking Skills: Beginning 2, in the 2021 kit. We used the beginning 1 book last year as part of our preschool, and enjoyed it. It is similar to the mathematical reasoning workbook. We’ve found both the thinking skills and mathematical reasoning series to be very well executed. It is parent led, and many pages require the learner to point out answers instead of write.

The bambinoLUK puzzles books, use a simple picture matching system for set up, and visual dot patterns as an answer key. Because of this design, the learner can use it with very little assistance. We threw away the book that came with the controller because it uses puzzles from the other 15 books and mixes skill levels, to the annoyance of the learner. I’ve gone through all 15 titles, and used the scales of difficulty on the back to number of books, so William will be able to navigate the series, easy – difficult. I’ve shared the list below, hoping it may save someone a few precious hours:)

bambinoLUK sets A and B, by level of difficulty

1. See and Sort
2. Transpiration and Traffic Signs
3. Starting to Count
4. Seek and Compare
5. Concentration Games
6. Zoo Animals
7. All About Colors and Shapes
8. Farm Animals
9. What Belongs Together
10. What Belongs Together 2
11. Starting to do Addition
12. More Concentration Games
13. Think and Associate
14. Brainteasers for Kids
15. Identify and Relate

Each book contains 11 puzzles. We schedule a minimum of 4 each week, but William can do more if he wants to.

William is head over heals for logic games! Three Little Piggies and Camelot Jr. are no exception. We schedule 2 of each puzzle per week, even though he has played ahead.

Lion in my Way is a cooperative problem solving game, that is sure to have your family laughing. Our favorite part, is narrating our journey at the end of the game. 

William was puzzle-booked-out in his preschool year! I see that Timberdoodle has amended the issue in this year’s material changes. In any case, we opted not to purchase My First Puzzle Book.

Social Studies

1. First Sticker Book: Jobs by Usborne (dropped from the 2021 kit)
2. My Very First Our World Book by Usborne (dropped from the 2021 kit)
3. World of Wonder: Great Buildings by Mack van Gageldonk (2021 addition)
4. Spot the Differences All Aound the Wold by Genie Espinosa (2021 addition)
5. World Map Puzzle by iPlay iLearn (2021 addition, pictured below)

We decided against the sticker book and replaced it with The Usborne Book of Things People Do by Anne Civardi. It is out of print, but we found it on BookShark. It is a slightly more advanced version of Richard Scarry’s What Do People Do All Day?, which we fell in love with during our preschool year. 

My Very First Our World Book is also out of print. I assume that is the reason it was dropped from the 2021 kit. Although we are using this book in pre-k for William, I think I will bump it to preschool when it is Charlotte’s turn to start schooling. We read just one topic per week.

My Very First Our World Book

3 (12 week) cycles

1. Our World & Planet Earth (page 2-5)
2. Seasons (page 6-7)
3. Deserts (page 8-9)
4. Rainforests (page 10-11)
5. Polar Regions (page 12-13)
6. Mountains (page 14-15)
7. Rivers (page 16-17)
8. Coasts & Under the Sea (page 18-21)
9. Underground (page 22-23)
10. Weather (page 24-25)
11. Volcanos & Earth Quakes (page 26-29)
12. Energy & Conservation (page 30-31)

We are also adding extensions to many of the topics. For instance, our first week we painted land and water on a world map and our third week we made a desert sensory bin. I plan to go over our extensions for this book in more depth in our end of year review.

William and I were excited to see the new additions to the 2021 kit and ordered them all earlier this week. We can’t wait to add them to our schedule.

Science/STEM

1. Show Me Science Kit by Timberdoodle
2. Smart Start STEM PreK Workbook
3. My Very First Body Book by Usborne
4. The Berenstain Bears’ Big Book of Science and Nature by Stan & Jan Berenstain
5. Junior Extra Build Block Set by Morphun
6. Stages Block Set (2021 addition, not pictured above)

A hands-on science kit is a must-have! We’ve only done one experiment so far, so I don’t feel I can review this particular material well until our end of the year.

Smart Start STEM PreK is divided into 14 units. Each unit has three parts: a short reading, 3 worksheets, and a hands-on project. We are stretching our 36 week program over 14 months, so we are doing a single unit each month. 

We used My Very First Body Book last year, for preschool, because William is fascinated and always has questions about the human body and how it works. We used it on an as-desired basis. We purchased the kindergarten book to use for pre-k: Look Inside Your Body: with Over 100 Flaps to Lift by Usborne. Here is our reading schedule:

Usborne Look Inside Your Body Book

4 (9 week) cycles

1. Look inside Your Body (page 1)
2. Eating Food (page 2-3)
3. Staying Alive (page 4-5)
4. Your Bones (page 6)
5. Your Muscles (page 7)
6. Your Brain (page 8-9)
7. Your Senses (page 10-11)
8. Growing & Healing (page 12)
9. Fun Facts (page 13)

My only complaint is that some of the terminology is dumbed down. For example the “trachea” is called a “windpipe.”

We really enjoy the Big Book of Science and Nature! We often reread our weekly portion. We’ve turned it into a full science curriculum with read-aloud, activities, experiments, and field trips to span our 36 week program.

The Berenstain Bears’

Big Book of Science and Nature

36 Reading Portions, Activities, Experiments, and Field Trips

1. What is Nature? – page 65-73
2. Sensing Nature – page 74-78
3. Senses Nature Walk
4. Animals – page 79-84
5. Beauty of Nature – page 85-87
6. Nature Photography
7. Mammals – page 88-91
8. Visit a zoo
9. Birds – page 92-95
10. Make a Bird Feeder and Observe
11. Reptiles & Amphibians – page 96-99
12. Frog Life Cycle
13. Sea Animals – page 100-101
14. Salt/Fresh Water Egg Float Experiment
15. Insects – page 102-103
16. Insect Collection and Observation
17. Plants – page 104-109
18. Visit a Conservatory
19. Kinds of Plants – page 110-115
20. Leaf and Bark Rubbings
21. About Earth – page 116-126
22. Visit a Cave
23. What is a Machine? – page 130-135
24. Simple Machines: Lever – page 136-139
25. Simple Machines: Wedge – page 140-142
26. Simple Machines: Wheel – page 143-147
27. What is Matter? – page 148-151
28. Kinds of Matter: Solid – page 152-157
29. Kinds of Matter: Liquid – page 158-162
30. Kinds of Matter: Gas – page 163-169
31. Water in 3 States Experiment
32. What is Energy? – page 170-173
33. Energy from Food – page 174-175
34. Energy from Fuel – page 176-177
35. Energy from Wind & Water – page 178-190
36. Balloon Powered Paper Plane

Almanac

Read at the start of each season.

Winter (Jan, Feb, Mar) – page 2-19

Spring (Apr, May, Jun) – page 20-37

Summer (Jul, Aug, Sept) – page 38-51

Fall (Oct, Nov, Dec) – page 52-62

Both STEM building sets in preschool were a growing experience for William. He had a hard time following instructions in sequence and would get very frustrated, until all of a sudden, in the last few weeks, it clicked. Those few weeks of success made him excited that a building set was included in the pre-k kit. We schedule 3-4 models a week, and celebrate their completion by watching YouTube videos. We’ll have to share our themed playlist at the end of the school year.

Emotional Intelligence

1. A Whole Bunch of Feelings: What do they mean? by Jennifer Moore Malinos
2. Language Builder Emotion Cards by Stages Learning Materials

Our Torchlight program also uses A Whole Bunch of Feelings. It is a great book, for expanding feeling word vocabulary. You can see the rest of our emotional intelligence materials and our reading schedule for this book in our Torchlight review.

We opted to purchase the What’s Going On Here? conversation cards from the kindergarten level, which are also used in our Torchlight program. They are wonderful!!! We discuss 2 each week.

Art/Learning Tools

1. Draw + Learn: Animals + Places Workbook
2. Ferby Triangular Colored Pencils
3. Write Size Pencils
4. Kum 4-in-1 Sharpener

The art category also contains 3 craft kits. We always have craft kits on hand, so both William and I didn’t feel the need to purchase more.

William struggles with drawling because he wants things to turn out like he sees them in his mind, although his current level of dexterity and skill, irksomely prevent it from transferring to paper as he envisions, so we did decide to purchase Animals and Places drawing workbook. It teaches basic drawling and provides valuable pre-writing practice. We are a dozen pages in and we’ve avoided frustration so far… so I consider it a win.

We are still using our rock crayons from preschool, but they are too cumbersome for making thin lines. The triangular colored pencils are perfect, as are the “write size” pencils. We only had a normal pencil sharpener, so we also purchased this sharpener, which has a broad sharpener, as well as a traditional sharpener, on each side.

Overall, we have no purchasing regrets, and a few new household favorites! Stay tuned for a Torchlight review, fun hands-on curricula extensions, and our family schedule. We hope our experiences can help your family decide what will be a great fit in your homeschooling adventures. 

Happy Homeschooling!

Love,

b