Not your average workbooks

We received a free product for the purpose of writing this review. Our family only reviews items that we actually find valuable and are able to be 100% honest about regarding our experience. We received no monetary compensation for our opinion. Links contained in this post may direct to affiliate sites.

I have a friend who calls me “Queen of the Littles.” I think it’s a compliment. It could, I guess, just boil down to numbers. After all, I’ve logged quite a few years with Brown Bear, Brown Bear. But my guess is that she’s picked up on the one part of parenting small folks that I’m fairly adamant about: engaging hands and minds.

Most of my focus in keeping little hands occupied is in physical tasks. I love the Montessori approach to toddlerhood and preschool, and lean heavily in that direction even in early elementary school. That being said, there’s a definite place in early learning for using quality published materials. The key, in my opinion, is the focus on the word quality. It’s super easy to snag a handful of inexpensive workbooks at the warehouse club store and call it good. Do I do that? Absolutely. But those little gems serve as a form of glorified coloring books in our house, filling the time when Momma is working with other kiddos, but not necessarily making a concerted effort to spend one-on-one teaching time with that little one. When I want that kind of interactive instruction, I reach for a volume of Developing the Early Learner, a series I have used with every one of my kids thus far.

Developing the Early Learner is a four book set. It’s an integral part of Timberdoodle’s Kindergarten Curriculum Kit, and is also available on its own for $36. I’ve used Developing the Early Learner with preschoolers, kindergarteners, and a child with special needs who needs continual review and challenge on key concepts. Each page includes directions (and an answer key is included), but I’ve also found the activities to be somewhat open-ended. So yes, your child is practicing pencil skills and mastering critical thinking while weaving his way through a maze, but a later page which is designed to test the concept of sequencing can also become a listening skills activity (“Circle the smaller dog.”) if that’s what you really need to focus on that day.

The range of perception skills exercised is impressive; visual, auditory, motor, and comprehension skills are all addressed over the course of the four volumes. A progressive sequence of activities starts your earliest learner out slow, then builds over time. Illustrations are engaging but not busy line drawings that keep kids focused without overloading their senses.

This set was not designed to be handed off; this is a one-on-one series of exercises that require a parent’s continued guidance to address those foundational skills. Parents will be reading directions, giving support in activities, and assessing progress. A section in the back not only contains answers, but gives helpful direction on things parents new to homeschooling might feel less competent in addressing, like judging a child’s eye movements within a normative range.

I have enjoyed working through these books with my kids, but even more than that, I’ve found that the time spent in them has helped me to create something of a baseline as I’ve moved forward in homeschooling that particular child. Using Developing the Early Learner clued me in, for example, to an auditory processing issue in one of my children. It also helped me to see that a kid who I had assumed would have strong kinesthetic leanings actually has a preference for visual learning. Those insights have been invaluable as we’ve tiptoed into foundational math and reading concepts—almost as valuable as the skills the child has learned through gaining an understanding of the “learning to learn” ideas that Developing the Early Learner walks through.

I highly recommend Developing the Early Learner for all homeschoolers, no matter your family’s education model. Classical homeschoolers, Charlotte Mason advocates, textbook adherents, eclectic learners, and everyone in between can use this set to build a solid base for the many exciting years of learning still to come.