Home School Product Reviews

Beyond Wonderful!  
If the creators of this book (The Reading Lesson Book) need a spokesperson, I am perfect. My first year homeschooling, I ordered a curriculum package from another company. What a complete and utterly awful mistake. I ended up having to pay a teacher to help catch my daughter up in reading. It was not an option, we had to try something else, especially for my next homeschooler. This book made teaching to read childs play. I can’t tell the creators of this book thank you enough.

No one is too young for B. Pop-Arty Beads!!

I bought these (B. Pop-Arty Beads) with my sweet 5 year old daughter in mind. I was thinking it would her and my 3 year old daughter something to do while I was working on harder school stuff with their big brother. LITTLE did I know EVERYONE would enjoy them, my 8 year old son, my 39 year old husband, a 12 year old girl, and myself! There is so much you can do with them beyond make jewelry. My children’s favorite thing to do it make people!! They make babies and even our family in cute little bead people. I love these so much I have even given them as a birthday gift. They are an ageless, genderless, timeless toy that does not play for you! Thanks again Timberdoodle for only carrying the BEST!! Again and Again I say it….I LOVE AND TRUST TIMBERDOODLE!!

Challenging but not frustrating

I got this(miniLUK Starter Pack) for my 5 1/2 year old who will be starting kindergarten at home this year, and she LOVES it. We haven’t even officially started school yet and she’s done half the puzzles. I was concerned they would be too frustrating for her, but she enjoys them very much and is always excited to see the pattern match up. The one thing I think is a bit misleading is that they count each tile moved as one exercise–I didn’t read it carefully and so thought there were 168 total puzzles that came with it. There are 168 tile moves, but only 14 puzzles. That aside, it just means I need to buy more books because she is going through it so quickly!

I started gently teaching my son letter sounds at the age of 2.  He had learned colors, numbers, shapes, and letter names already, so other than fine motor skills, it was about all I could think of to teach him.

I started with another reading program and he did it, but he didn’t particularly like it.  When I found The Reading Lesson, this was the perfect fit for him.  The pages are very uncluttered, so a child isn’t looking at a bunch of words that he can’t read yet (but that you can).

We took it really slow.  As he got older, he was able to handle a little more.  We have finished the book and are moving on to Phonics Pathways.  When you finish The Reading Lesson, your child should be reading at about a 2nd grade reading level.

Not all children at a young age are ready to learn to read, but if you’ve got a young eager beaver, I’d say this program is perfect for children 2-7 years of age.

My 5 year old loves to complete these logic problems.  For the first five or six problems I read the clues and helped to guide her through the deduction process.  Now all I do is read the clues to her and she is able to solve the problems on her own.  I appreciate that the problems slowly get harder and that the order or content of the clues are not predictable.  Through this my 5 year old has started to grasp other concepts, such as the oldest child may not have the biggest dog – something she would have previously assumed.

We purchased this watch (Crocky Crocky – Flik Flak Childrens Watch) for our youngest son as his very first watch. He was just learning to tell time and we thought that the added detail might be helpful. I also appreciated the fact that it’s water-resistant and washable. The quality is obvious and excellent, and our little guy loves the crocks on the band. I was a bit more expensive than what we would usually pay for a watch, but I really think that we got what we paid for.

My family tends to be fairly eclectic, so I wanted a wide variety of books handy to use and was browsing around for an easy and cost-effective way to collect those items. I happened to pick up a catalog at a HS conference and noticed this “curriculum.” It’s varied enough that we don’t feel trapped into doing worksheets constantly, yet if I need to help my 6 year old and 4 year old understand a topic there’s enough material here that I can find something suitable that fits each of them. They love the included puzzles, and the science kit has been a huge hit, full of easy experiments the children can do themselves with a little help from me. I added a few other items that I felt should be included, such as a Hugg a Planet, and customized the mathematics — it was simple to upgrade with an e-mail to Timberdoodle staff — and had the materials I needed to teach my children all year for under $400! I will very likely order the next level up when we’re ready and customize it as well.

miniLUK Starter Pack

I ordered the 1st grade curriculum and when I saw that it came with the MiniLUK I honestly didn’t know what to think.  What I did think was that my son was going to have trouble with it and probably not like it.  Boy, was I wrong.  I had opened it up to figure it out and he starts playing with it.  He spent the whole evening playing with the MiniLUK.  My husband had to drag my son away from it so he could go to bed.  I am excited about buying more books for this game.  This is defiantly worth the money!

Jill K.

Mount Pleasant, PA

Timberdoodle carries many additional miniLuk and BambinoLuk sets.

A Reason for Writing - Kindergarten

My kindergartener, Daniel, and I really like this writing program. It breaks down each day into a very manageable amount of writing to practice. My favorite part is at the end of each week, the student writes the whole verse on a blank page of their choosing (included at the end of the book). They then color it too, and we get to display their work! I chose to get the 1st grade workbook for him, since he started kindergarten already knowing how to write all of his letters. This book is teaching him how to write them nicer, including things such as writing them the right size & using proper spacing between words. We’ve been using this book for 5 months now, and his writing looks so much nicer already. I plan to stick with this series!