When our homeschool curriculum arrived back in July, Jade looked at the books I was pulling from the box and asked, “Where’s my books?”
I thought, “Uh-oh!”
I’d considered ordering preschool books for her while I was ordering the older girls’ books. Then I told myself she’s only three and didn’t really need books. She had a different opinion about that! She is, apparently, three going on six and wants to be doing whatever her older sisters were doing.
So I was very excited to have the chance to review the preschool MathSmart books with her.
I received two MathSmart books for the purposes of this review; all opinions expressed are my own.
When I shared what curriculum Sunshine and Lily were doing this year, I didn’t mention Jade. I didn’t really have a plan for her. I’ve been scrambling since September to find activities for her to do while her sisters are doing school. A lot of our school work happens around the table. Since her older sisters have workbooks, Jade wants workbooks too. She loves doing homeschool preschool.
So far, math is Jade’s favourite subject. She loves the Preschool MathSmart Activities and Preschool MathSmart Hands-on Activities books. In fact, she finished her Preschool MathSmart Activities book in a week.
Preschool MathSmart Activities begins with easy tracing activities. Jade really enjoyed drawing the lines. It was easy for me to see how these activities would lead into number and letter formation soon. I showed Jade how to hold her crayon, although she prefers just fisting it.
The next chapters cover sorting and matching, identifying size (smaller/bigger, taller/shorter, wider/wider, light/heavy), and which group has the most. The last chapter in the book is about numbers. Jade had a row of numbers to trace, as well as a picture to trace, colour or circle. Many of the activities included stickers to place on the page or some cutting and gluing.
Preschool MathSmart Hands-on Activities also had tracing and cutting activities. Jade loved putting her stickers on the right pages. This book had thick, glossy pages and the end of the book includes several gluing activities. Jade glued cheeries to 3 flowers or buttons to a tree. These activities could be torn from the book and hung on the wall or fridge for a child to look at.
Jade loved the bright colours in the Preschool MathSmart Activities. She flew through the pages, begging to do more school each day. It was fun to see her excitement over preschool. Sunshine and Lily also liked being her “teachers” and reading the instructions on each page for her.
If you have a preschooler, I recommend checking out MathSmart. It’s a great way to introduce math concepts to your kids. If they’re already excited about school, they’ll enjoy the bright pictures and variety of activities. If they are a bit more reluctant about school (or don’t have older siblings to provide an example), then MathSmart is a fun way to ease them into workbooks.
Was your child eager to start preschool? How did you introduce math concepts to them?
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