Home School Product Reviews

I am so THRILLED I found your company. We’re using the 2nd grade core curriculum and this is our FIRST YEAR with NO TEARS, no I HATE SCHOOL. It’s a breeze and she looks forward to school everyday! I wish I could rewind and redo the past 2 years!

Timberdoodle carries Complete Homeschool Curriculum for Babies – 10th Grade

Wahoo - The happiest, jumpiest, bounciest puppy ever.

My little ones have been burning up a lot of extra energy with this puppy, which is a very good thing as we have been very snow-bound all winter!  Our youngest named it “Rover” (how original!) and it has been dragged and loved on all over the house. It is definitely lots of fun for little, energetic legs.

I was so pleased to find a physics text geared for an age range instead of a narrow grade level–particularly for this younger age range. I have a gifted child who has never fit the standard scope and sequence.  He really wanted to study physics, but most books are for older middle school and have pre-requisites. This was perfect for him! He has chronic fatigue syndrome and we work hard to find material that motivates him.  He loves the humor in it and is moving through it quickly (2 lessons at each sitting).  He also loves that there are Bible verses associated with each lesson. I like the fact that the writers call the end of unit tests “Show what you know”–in public school he had developed some test and grade anxiety.  Draw backs–I don’t like that the writers include humorous answer options in the end of unit tests. If someone were to check his portfolio, would this be taken seriously? I am not THAT concerned about it at this age–and with my son I am far more concerned that he enjoys what he is learning and is motivated, considering his special needs.

Pathway Readers are by far my favorite way to teach reading skills while at the same time discussing all the true-to-life character dilemmas faced by all children growing up in close-knit families today.  The children portrayed in the readers are real kids, not perfect by any means, but they demonstrate a teachable spirit when corrected, and a thoughtfulness of others’ feelings.  The parents in the stories are wise and kind and worthy of the children’s respect.  Some of my most cherished memories with my kids growing up are our reading times around the Pathway Readers.  The reason I would not buy them again is because they are tough hardback books, and aside from a few crayon marks, are still good as new after all my kids read from them, and can be passed on to my grown children to use with my grandkids (the first one will be old enough in about 2 years!) On second thought, I may be buying them again after all, if my kids don’t live close enough to pass them around, or if they have kids the same age (don’t want to start any bickering between siblings after all these years of character training!)

If there were 10 stars. I would give that many!! We started with Abeka from 1st grade, there was LOTS of crying and not getting it! All the way through 4th grade my daughter just hated math. Then we found Teaching Textbooks, and I almost can’t believe its my daughter who sits down, wants to do MATH FIRST, and LOVES IT! It’s just the right amount of work to do everyday, I can go over it and see how she did, but it takes me out of the equation!! She asks if she doesn’t understand something, and I think that has only happened once! We started this the beginning of September and she will be done in about a month. She is excited that she gets to start 6th grade math before she in 6th grade! Thanks to Timberdoodle for having such a great item for us to purchase!

Wow, this (Building Thinking Skills Beginning) book is full of wonderful exercises for even the youngest children. My daughter just turned 3 and she can’t wait till schooltime so she can do “her school” which is this book. I was amazed at how much she could comprehend at such a young age. The exercises are worthwhile and will lay a foundation for learning. A definite worthwhile purchase, I was skeptical with the price tag significantly higher than the Kumon Books, but it’s been worth the difference.

We received our Bubber three days ago. It has already provided HOURS of hassle-free entertainment for our boys, aged 9 and 6. They say it’s like cotton candy and Delta sand mixed. I’m glad to say it isn’t near the mess that Delta sand is..or cotton candy for that matter I find it irresistible, as well – before I knew what my hands were doing, I sculpted a turkey and carved it. You simply cannot go wrong with this stuff.

Evan Moor Daily 6 Trait Writing- I just found this style of writing instruction to be all breadth and no depth. After 3 or 4 years with trait based writing, I suppose students can turn out simple compositions which would go over well on state writing tests, such as our own FCAT. The trait based writing system hits all of the main writing “traits” that someone grading a student’s paper would be marking for. However, in elementary school I would prefer for my students to copy excellent written passages (such as the Classical and Charlotte Mason model suggest) OR just write their little hearts out (with personal narratives, journaling, story telling, etc.) This seems like teach-to-the-test writing to me.

The Key To Math series has been perfect for my son who has wanted to learn math mostly on his own. He talks about “what they are teaching me” even though all he has is workbooks. The only thing I’ve had to do is check his work, and the answer keys make that task very easy. This is a great program for a student who is “advanced” or “behind” since there are no grade levels.

I bought my 6.5 year old son this K’Nex set because I wanted a specific way to challenge him in new engineering and building methods.  He spends many hours with Legos during the day, but I would like his mind to be more well rounded.  This suited him perfectly.  I assigned one project at a time, and he was able to follow all the steps with minimal help from me.  He enjoyed doing it mostly on his own, but I enjoyed the opportunities to walk him through the challenge of thinking outside the box, and tackling a new sort of building toy.  They are also very well made, and next to impossible to break, with a sturdy reusable storage case.  Once again another winner from Timberdoodle.