Knot So Fast: Knot Tying Dexterity Game

Knot So Fast is a game for the individual to figure out and practice different knots. In the box, you are given a rope, a ring and booklet of 40 different knot challenges ranging in difficulty. Since there are no step-by-step instructions on how to make the knot, that is most of the challenge... to figure out how the knot is made. Some of the knots really need a lot of concentration to figure out how to maneuver the rope to make the actual knot.
I wish there was more information about how each knot is used in real life though. However, there are interesting facts or tips about the knot on the cards.

Knot So Fast is included in the 10th Grade Curriculum Kit from Timberdoodle but it is nice for almost any age. I love to practice the knots to see how quickly I can get them completed and my 8-year-old likes to take Knot So Fast in the car. It is a great game for the individual that is on-the-go or as a quiet time activity.

This knot below took a little bit of thinking and laying out of the rope to figure out. Note: the rope has a foam core and sometimes twists up or gets tangled on itself making maneuvering the rope a little difficult.

 Mr A says that this is his favorite knot: Bowline on a Bight.

We love this individual game and you never know when you'll need to use a knot for something.

What's New? What's Missing? What's Different?

What's New? What's Missing? What's Different? is a book with "Hundreds of Fun Things to Search For, Find & Color". It is included in the First Grade Curriculum Kit from Timberdoodle.
My kindergartener wanted to give it a go. He had a good time. With books like these, my kids just like to flip through and find a page that appeals to them.
This first was one that had a playground scene on one page and the next page asked you to fill in the missing equipment. Mr Z did a pretty good job at adding the missing pieces.

This page Mr Z had to find 12 pairs of matching snakes from both pages. This took quite a while since some of the snakes were hard to find a mate for.

There are several different activities to keep the interest of the child. Pages vary from compare and contrast (or find what's different) to draw what's missing from the picture (like fill in the blank) to complete the picture (like draw your own picture to match the scene already provided.)

I've found that my kindergartener likes the pages where you find the matches or find the differences. My 8-year-old likes the pages where he can fill in the missing parts to complete the picture. Between the two of them, the book should be finished in no time.

Books like What's New? What's Missing? What's Different? inspire creativity and imaginative thinking. It's also teaching them to draw while doing the What's Missing? pages.

This book is great for quiet-time and likes to live in our 'on-the-go bag' so that we have something to do while waiting at an appointment, driving in the car or just need to be occupied at a restaurant.

Colorku: A different kind of Sudoku

If you are one that loves puzzles, Colorku is one to try. It's exactly like Sudoku, but uses colors instead of numbers. This particular version that we received from Timberdoodle is made of wood. It's large and sturdy. I love it.
Included in the box are cards ranging in difficulty to set-up your initial gameboard. So, you set up your board with the colored balls according to the card. Then, you play as normal; get one ball of each in every row, column and 9-square.

My 8-year-old loves this game. I love this game, probably more than him. Puzzles are such a great way to exercise your brain and my brain certainly needs help. Colorku was a bit of a challenge at first since I was used to playing with numbers like in Sudoku. My brain had trouble locating the colors in the columns and rows and I messed up quite a bit. (If you notice in the photo above, I have two light green balls in the same 9-square. I had to restart this board.) There is a sheet of answers for all of the puzzles to check your board too, just in case you need a little help. After a few puzzles, my brain did adjust and located the colors missing more quickly.
Sometimes my 8-year-old and I will play together to solve a puzzle, but its usually played individually when we need to take a break or need some quiet/ alone time. I'd love for this game to just hang out on the coffee table so that it gets more use, but with wooden balls about the size of a large marble, the game lives in the closet most of the time. But, seriously... this game is fun and I am glad that it lives with us now.

This Colorku game is included in the 2018 4th Grade Curriculum Kit Elite from Timberdoodle.
We do recommend it to anyone that enjoys logic games. It would make a great present too.

Solitaire Chess... A New Favorite Game

Timberdoodle has amazing products and games. We love so many of their things and are super excited that we get to review some of them. Timberdoodle provides curriculum and games for all ages and when we received a box of goodies my 8-year old went crazy. He was happy about everything, especially this Brain Fitness Solitaire Chess game.
Mr A has been wanting to learn how to play chess for years. I am no good at it and don't really understand the game. I've never taken the time to learn so I could teach it to someone else. So, when Mr A saw this tiny version of chess he immediately opened it to figure out how to play.
Solitaire Chess is a single player game with 80 challenges to strengthen mental speed and focus. You are given 10 pieces with a challenge booklet and solutions pages. Challenges range from Beginner to Expert. Mr A has begun with the Beginner levels to get used to how the pieces move around on the board. He is doing a great job at these early levels. The Movement Rules page shows how each piece can move and has helped him become familiar with what each one does.

Basically, with this game, you are playing against yourself. You are trying to eliminate one piece with every move. I love watching and listening to Mr A play this game. He talks himself through the plays and resets when he doesn't get it right. It's a process of elimination with one last piece standing. Some challenges take one try and others take over 10 until he gets it right.

I love things that can be taken on-the-go. This is probably one of our new games to take in the car or to the restaurant. Small, individual games are great for road trips or just quiet time.

Mr A is happy to finally be learning a little bit more about chess. This Solitaire Chess game is great for strategic skill building and becoming familiar with the game before moving to a real board. It would also be good for individuals who just love chess and want to play more frequently.
We are happy to have this game in our cupboard now. Mr A loves the progressive play and working his mind through the challenge until he gets it right.
Solitaire Chess is included in the 2018 6th Grade Curriculum Kit from Timberdoodle, but would also be great for any chess lover or a simple gift idea.
Have fun with this single player game... because we are.

Kwik Stix ... The Best Paint Ever

Timberdoodle sent us a set of Kwik Stix, a pack of 12 solid tempura paints. I have to say that these are the best paints in the world. My kids like painting, but I hate the mess. These are a fantastic alternative to wet paints with a brush. It's paint in a solid state that looks like a glue-stick and feels like a smooth crayon while drawing. It only takes about a minute to dry too.

Little Miss loved them and of course, only wanted to use pink.

Mr Z wanted to join in the painting fun too. He immediately started saying things like, "This is paint!? ... How do they get the paint in there?... It looks like a glue-stick... Wow, this is paint!?"

Mr Z was busy filling his entire paper with Kwik Stix paint.

The two of them also painted together on the same sheet and I was surprised that the paint didn't smudge or transfer.

I had to try them too and made a simple picture. I was amazed at how quickly the paint dried. No paint smears or any left on my finger about a minute after I had finished.

Kwik Stix can be found in the 2018 Preschool Curriculum Kit from Timberdoodle as well.
These Kwik Stix will be a go-to favorite for gifts and I can definitely see them being completely used up very quickly. I love that I was completely stress-free from start to finish during their painting time.
These Kwik Stix are my favorite craft/art item now. I love them... and my kids do too. I totally recommend these to anyone that wants stress-free and limited mess for any project.

Stages: Emotions Cards review for Timberdoodle

Timberdoodle sent us these Stages: Emotions Cards that are included in the PreK Curriculum kit. We've been having a good time with them. Included in the box are 3.5x5 inch cards with photos of people showing different emotions and a set of scenario cards.

The emotions cards include photos of sad, disgusted, angry, surprised, and happy. I do wish there were more emotions. The 5 that there are, have several different people showing the emotion. We were able to match the emotion in games of Memory or Ispy.

The scenario cards were fun to engage in conversations about feelings during certain situations. We also talked about our memories and emotions when talking about the photo. There are conversation questions on the backs of these cards to encourage discussions which does help guide you.

Also, on both sets of cards are columns for noting when the card or emotion was introduced and when it was mastered. Its a good way to track the development of your child and their understanding of their own and other people's feelings. I'd say, we have a lot more work to do before my kids understand their own emotions and that of others.

I've mostly used these emotions cards with my 5 year old. He has extreme explosive emotions and is quick to react. I was hoping using these cards with him would help relate to how other people feel when he does something or reacts with a temper, but I haven't seen any change quite yet in his behavior. He is able to connect with the photos and match the emotions or feelings when we play games with the cards, but actually applying what we talk about does not always stick in his brain.

My 2 year old really only understood happy and sad when looking at the emotions cards.

This is her being sad, above, after looking through the pictures of sad people.

We only get about 5 minutes of using the cards before they end up everywhere and Little Miss tosses them everywhere.

Overall, these cards a wonderful resource to connect with themselves and others. Emotions and feelings can be a really hard thing to understand and control. I'm glad to have these cards as a tool. Hopefully, we will be able to get ahold of personal feelings, though it can take a lifetime to learn. We do enjoy our Stages: Emotions Cards when we add them to our day.

All About Reading Level 3 review for Timberdoodle

All About Reading Level 3

A review for Timberdoodle

All About Reading Level 3 was sent to us by Timberdoodle to use and review. I was really excited for this experience since we have had a hard time finding a Language Arts curriculum that has worked for us.
Here is what you get with the Deluxe Kit in the All About Reading Level 3:
*Teacher's manual
*Student Activity book
*2 reading books
*Flash cards/ review cards
*Box for review cards with dividers
*Letter Tiles with magnets
*Tote Bag for easy storage
*Phonogram Sounds App

So, it's a lot of stuff and honestly it was a lot of prep to get it all set up. The flashcards come printed on sheets of cardstock and it all had to be cut apart. If I thought about it better, I would have used a paper cutter instead of hand scissors. Then all of the Letter Tiles had to be torn apart with a little magnet square added to the back. All together it took a few hours to prep all of the tiles and flash cards.
This set is included in the Grade 2 Curriculum kit. It is a great resource for reading, language arts and phonics awareness.
There is an assessment in the link of the AAR product that you can give your child to see if this is the right level for them. I actually had a hard time deciding if this was the right fit for my 2nd grader. Turns out, it wasn't. Mr A is 8 and in second grade, but he's probably more of a first grade level reading. He could read all of the words on the assessment, but slowly and the number of pages or amount of words on a page gives him anxiety.

This is a page from one of the reading books and this was way too much for him. He's gaining more confidence now, but I still have to read to him when there are pages with this many words on them. We do love the stories in the readers though.
I have noticed however, that this curriculum has been better suited for us to use the pieces individually than as a daily lesson. We use the readers for reading before bedtime. We take the Letter Tiles and a magnet board in the car to build words. The flash cards/ review cards we pull out randomly for review, but now that my kindergartener is starting to learn letter sounds, we use them more for him in phonics review.

We do love the Letter Tiles. We used a cookie sheet to stick them too for awhile, but it was heavy and luckily I found a smaller one that is better for travel. I would say a word and Mr A would use the Letter Tiles and try to spell it.

Here is a page from the Teacher's Manual. It is easy to follow and layed out nicely, but I haven't used it much. I personally, am not attracted to the book since it's all black and white. I do better with colorful pages. I get a general idea of the lesson and wing it. I think Mr A, my 2nd grader is the same way. He hasn't been willing to do the activities in the activity book, unless I color them first.

This one above, was one that I colored first. It had review words on the strip and we tried to read them as quickly as possible. You can see in his body language and facial expression that this isn't his favorite thing.

There is a of variety of activities in the Student book. This one above is a little flip book that we haven't done yet to practice the suffix ending -ness. 

The flash cards have been a great tool for practicing words, letter blends, phonics of individual letter, vowel teams etc. I love the storage box and the dividers. It's easy to find what was mastered, needs review and what is up-coming. I have been using these on occasion with the kindergartener too for letter phonics. He struggles with Language Arts, so any practice helps. 

But, like I've said before, we do love this curriculum, but as individual components. I think that is what makes learning at home worthwhile. That, you can use what is available in any way that you see fit. The daily structured lessons don't work for us as a family. We take what we are given and use it in ways that fits us. The kids are learning what they need in a way that is special for them.

Mr A says that he likes the Letter Tiles the best because "I can spell the words without writing with a pencil."

My advice also is, be careful choosing the level of curriculum for your child. Mr A was overwhelmed with the amount of reading that he wasn't quite ready for. He can read the words in Level 3, but its also too much. We are finding our way through the curriculum and adjusting accordingly. 

Kumon Science Sticker Book ... A review

The Kumon Science Sticker book from Timberdoodle has been a fun little book for my 5 year old. He's been completing a few pages at a time and loves the different activities that it has.
We have been briefly talking about the subject matter on each page with the help of these little Facts that are found in the top corner. The sticker pages are his favorite out of the all of them.

Mazes are fun too. This page was talking about how living things change as they grow. The evolution of the egg to a chicken was one of the examples.

Coloring is another activity in the book. Here he was reviewing how living things like animals can move, but plants cannot move on their own.

Finding matches of an object and its close-up is another page in chapter 1. Mr Z had a great time doing these different things and said that why he liked it was, "because there's so many things to do."

The Kumon Science book is included in PreK Curriculum kit from Timberdoodle, but I am using as a review for my boy who's going into kinder. He can do everything, but its just something to do while his brother is working on something too. Workbooks like this one are great for taking to restaurants or waiting rooms as a busy activity. It is a great book with beginning introductions to subjects and topics in science. It covers a little of
Kumon Science Sticker Book is a fun one for younger learners. My 5 year old enjoys it. Thanks Timberdoodle.

Dot-2-Dot Philadelphia review

Timberdoodle gave us the opportunity to review the Dot-to-Dot Philadelphia book. It is a book with extreme dot-to-dots with hundreds of dots to connect to form the picture. I figured that my almost 8 year old would like to have a go at it, but I found that I love them too.

I like that the numerical dots are separated in the picture and you have to search around to find the next number. Most of the pictures have instructions to connect the dots until you reach a star, then you find the next number and pick up where you left off. So, instead of drawing one continuous line you are doing sections at a time until you reach the last number. Trying to color it at the end is a bit confusing, to me at least. But, it was fun nonetheless.

In the back of the book is a page with small descriptions of the dot-to-dots that you can complete. This book is dedicated to Philadelphia and the Parkway Museums Districts.

Some of the pages are described to be completed like the picture below. I have had a great time doing these extreme dot-to-dots. They have been a good way for me to take a break when I get overwhelmed with stuff at home. What a great destresser this book has been. I've always liked those adult coloring books, but this worked my brain a little bit differently. I loved discovering what the picture was as I completed more numbers. It was satisfying to say, "Oh, that's a face and here's the hat."

I do think that this is a great addition to any curriculum, age appropriate, that is learning about The United States. It's a fun way to 'connect' with the theme and a different way to remember the academic aspect. This dot-to-dot is included in the 11th Grade Curriculum Kit from Timberdoodle.
Mr A, my almost 8 year old, worked on the first page which only has 156 dots. He did well, but was stumped sometimes when it took him a little while to find the next number.
Several of the pictures have over 1000 dots and one has over 1600.

Mr Z, the little brother, was interested in the book as well and liked to watch and tried to help a number from time to time.

After reading the description in the back of the book, we learned that his picture is the Love scultpure in the Love park in Philadelphia. Its a great fit for the location since Philadelphia means, brotherly love.

Mr A said he liked this dot-to-dot page. I could tell he was getting irritated when it took too long to find a number, but he wanted to finish. He did enjoy this but we'll have to see how a page with more dots works out. I know I like extreme dot-to-dots to use a destresser. We do recommend this book, Dot-to-Dot Philadelphia for anyone that wants to mentally check-out or is learning about the United States.
Thank you Timberdoodle for letting us discover this book.

UPDATE:
Since posting this review, Mr A has been asking to do more of these dot-2-dots. He has really started to like them and will sit in bed at night and work on them for quite awhile before he goes to sleep. Mr A has even asked for more of these types of books.