My youngest child is 4 years old. Many times I have wonderful intentions of doing this and doing that with him. Sadly, many times these ideas continue tobe just ideas. We read together and do a few letter crafts here and there, but for the most part that is about it.
When we got the opportunity to review a fun and interactive preschool curriculum called Flowering Baby I was pretty excited. After I looking over the sample activities, I knew that they would be a good fit for Little Bits, and simple enough for me to implement. You may also have read that I am contemplating/ taking classes to open a home daycare. I also thought that Flowering Baby would be a great fit for a home daycare curriculum.
Flowering Baby is a simple, yet effective, curriculum that helps children to develop cognitive, language, gross and fine motor skills, emotional, social skills and independence.
We were given Volume 4: Three to Four Years & Volume 5: Four to Five Years in CD form to review. While we used Volume 5: Four to Five, I did look over Volume 4: Three to Four Years. I felt that they were similar in nature, just a younger level.
The Flowering Baby curriculum is laid out by calendar month, and includes 10 -15 days of activities, each taking about 30-45 minutes per day. During the month of January you learn about the color blue, ears, healthy foods, and cold days, while reading books like Blueberries for Sal, Owl Moon and The Berenstain Bears: Too Much Junk Food.
The Flowering Baby curriculum is laid out by calendar month, and includes 10 -15 days of activities, each taking about 30-45 minutes per day. During the month of January you learn about the color blue, ears, healthy foods, and cold days, while reading books like Blueberries for Sal, Owl Moon and The Berenstain Bears: Too Much Junk Food.
The suggested activities focused on the areas of language, math, music, science and foreign language. More specifically you do things like:
- practice writing and counting numbers
- focus on a new letter each day by practicing to write that letter and looking for things that start with that letter
- when learning about shapes you do activites like reading a book about shapes and then making some of your own from paper
- reading and then having children retell (narrate) back to you what they just heard
- learn about holidays and make various crafts to go along with that particular holiday
- learn about body parts, colors, weather, firestations, magnets, etc..
- learn Spanish words for colors, shapes, numbers, etc..
The second part of the curriculum is the theme or mini-unit study part. Each month gives 2-3 suggested themes. For instance, the themes that they suggest for January are Aquarium, Arctic Life & Dinosaurs. The activities in this section include books, crafts, field trips and fun ideas to cement what you are currently learning from the reading.
What I liked about Flowering Baby:
Just as I suspected! It is fun, creative and SIMPLE, SIMPLE, SIMPLE! This curriculum allows me to focus my time on my son and teaching him, not on planning. The curriculum guide is easy to understand and very detailed, giving you a list of supplies needed, suggested books to read and specific activities to do with your child.
I liked the different themes, I think they offer the perfect amount of activities. They study a topic long enough to learn about it, but then they get to move on to something new and exciting the following week. I feel that the activities included are enjoyable, engaging and challenging for my little guy.
If you know me, then you know I have a love for books. I think Flowering Baby did a superb job with their literature selections! And I LOVE that she has these little guys narrating back! Never had I thought to do that with my little one.
I also did not feel bogged down by this curriculum, you type A mommys now what I mean! Things were simple enough to accomplish in a short period of time, it was just enough. It was freeing to me that there where not scheduled activites to do every s.i.n.g.l.e day, especially at this age.
I also did not feel bogged down by this curriculum, you type A mommys now what I mean! Things were simple enough to accomplish in a short period of time, it was just enough. It was freeing to me that there where not scheduled activites to do every s.i.n.g.l.e day, especially at this age.
What I would change:
As far as the curriculum itself, I think they did a fine job and I really would not change anything. They have letters and number concepts down. And they include LOTS of great books and activities!
Purchasing Info:
Flowering Baby is currently available in CD and PDF form, which is great for keeping costs down. I actually received the CD for this review. They are currently working on a printed option.
The CD and PDF files are available for each age level. Birth to One, One to Two, and Two to Three are $30 and Three to Four and Four to Five cost $38 each. You may also purchase all five year plans for $132. This is a very reasonable price for all that is included. The Flowering Baby curriculum is available for ages:
Would I recommend this?
I would indeed! If you are interested, but kind of on the fence, try out a months worth Flowering Baby for FREEEE! You can do this by clicking on one of the links above and scrolling to the bottom.
Birth to One
One to Two
Two to Three
Three to Four
Four to Five
Birth to One
One to Two
Two to Three
Three to Four
Four to Five
When you order PLEASE take advantage of a 10% discount by using the CODE: Blog10
(good only at www.floweringbaby.com)
(good only at www.floweringbaby.com)
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this product through the Schoolhouse Review Crew in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.
0 comments:
Post a Comment