This is a split-page board book. The top left tells you the name of the shape, the top right is the picture of the shape and the bottom half are items you need to find to match the top half. The shapes in this book includes: circle, semicircle, square, squiggle, triangle, dome, almond, diamond, rectangle and crescent. A fun and interactive way to learn about shapes.
For more pictures of the book, click here - My Very First Book of Shapes
(If you don’t see the pictures, it means the book has been sold).
About The Book:
The pages are high gloss, non-stick and dry erase. That means you can use it again and again. The illustrations are colorful and lively. Each book features a teacher and a classroom of multicultural children known as the Cedar Valley Kids. You can meet them at http://www.cedarvalleypublishing.com. You can also view pages of the books at their webpage. They also have an impressive list of awards attesting to the brilliance of these books. The books cover reading, spelling, math and science.
Here is a quick look at what the books cover. Let’s Get Ready for Kindergarten:
Learning the alphabets
Initial sounds
Colors
Shapes
Left & Right, Names of the fingers
Counting to 100
Skip Counting
Money
Opposites
The Seasons
Rhyme
Positional Words
Body Parts
Five Senses
High Frequency Words
Telling time
Learning the Months and Days
Learning to write their name, address and telephone number
Let’s Get Ready For First Grade:
Vowels and Consonants
Long and Short Vowel Sounds
Word Families
Prefixes and Suffixes
Contractions and Compound Words
Capitalization and Punctuation
Plural
How to Measure
Geometric Shapes
Even and Odd Numbers
Skip counting and Ordinals
Addition and Subtraction
Fractions
Graph
Food Groups
Internal Organs
Counting Money
Day and Night
Solar System
High Frequency Words
Reading Comprehension
Telling Time and Making a Calendar
Primary and Secondary Colors
The US Government
My Review:
What can I say? I’m totally impressed by these two books. As a mother who does home-preschooling, I sometimes ask myself the question “what else do I need to teach?” Then there is also the fear that I’ve forgotten or missed out a skill. Now with these two books, I can check myself. The books cover all the basics needed for each level. You could say that it provides a ’syllabus’ for me to follow.
Each lesson is only a page long. There are questions and tips at the bottom of the page to help parents make the lessons interactive and interesting. So learning is made simple and fun.
This book makes learning flexible. If you don’t have much time or have a little waiting time, you can whip out this book and have a quick, short lessons. If you want to have a proper lesson, this book serves as a good opening exercise. Sort of like an appetizer before the main meal. Use your own imagination on how you can expand on the lesson.
The last page of the books highlight tips for parents and caregivers. The author shares some really good advise.
I highly recommend this book. Not only for it’s educational value, but also because it encourages parents to play a more active role in teaching their children. Whether children are homeschooled or attending regular school, parents are still their no.1 teacher. These books will help you inject some fun into learning. Happy Teaching!
Strawberry Shortcake: Peek-A-Boo in the Berry Patch
Lift-the-flaps & shiny mirror!
This has been one of my baby’s favourite lift-the-flap book. Every baby loves a good peek-a-boo session. My baby especially loves the end where he gets to see his own face in the mirror. Very difficult to find books that have mirrors. So this is a real gem. And Strawberry Shortcake is so very cute. I also love the red strawberry colours. It makes the book look bright and cheerful.
Each book is based on a famous nursery rhyme. The pages on the left is the nursery rhyme. The pages on the right have bigger, bolder and simple words and serve to build the child’s vocabulary and reading skill. The nursery rhymes make it a great way to share books together.
I love the big, big illustration of the sea animals. I also love how the book is put to rhyme. If you can read music, there are music notes at the back. So instead of reading, you can sing the words. The 10 sea animals in this book include the manatee, orca whale, clown fish, hermit crab, sea otters, tiger shark, sea horse, turtle, jellyfish and octopus. Reinforce your child’s counting skills by counting out the babies on each page. For older children, there are 5 pages of “Fun Facts” at the back of the book. This is where you can learn more about marine life as not only are there little writeups on the 10 sea animals but also on coral reef, invertebrate, kelp forest, pod, sea anemone, sea urchin, tide pool and vertebrate.
I see this book as a wonderful supplement to lessons on the oceon and it can work at various levels. For very young children, you can just introduce the sea animals and enjoy the counting. For older children, you can go a little bit more in-depth and read the “Fun Facts”.
This book currently still available at my Malaysian Online Bookshop for RM19.90. Only 1 copy available. BUY NOW before someone else grabs it.
Is your child a fan of Dora the Explorer? Well, transfer some of that excitement to this book. Here we are looking for Boots (the monkey). He wears red boots. So, on every page, you have to look for something red. When you find it, open the flap to see if it is Boots. Look out for swiper, he is always luring somewhere. You know what to say, “Swiper no swiping, Swiper no swiping!” (My children’s favorite chant.)
You can use this book to support your children’s learning of colors. Out of all the colors on the page, see if your child can identify the correct one. Each page also shows a different place e.g. garden, forest, playground etc…. Ask your child if she were to hide, where would she hide. Maybe you could even follow-up with a game of hide-and-seek!
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