Timberdoodle Review–3D Feel and Find–Toddler Core Curriculum

Life is full in our homeschool.  I am currently mother to a 5th grader, a 1st grader, a Kindergartener, a Preschooler, a Toddler, a 6 month old baby, and I’m pregnant with baby number 7.  One of the challenges I face daily is what to do with my little ones during our homeschool time, when they want to be a part of all the fun and are not really old enough to participate in much.  When Timberdoodle gave me the opportunity to choose an item from their Toddler Core Curriculum to review I was a very happy woman!  I received the Guidecraft 3D Feel and Find as well as the Toddler Planning Folder. 

My 2 and 3 year old boys have loved the 3D Feel and Find.  Inside the cloth bag are 20 rubberwood shapes with 20 puzzle boards.  The puzzle boards have a bit of extra room for each piece to fit, making it easy enough for my 2 year old to have success doing puzzles all by himself.  I love that this is a sturdy tool that will last through multiple children!We’ve played with these a lot of different ways.  First we did the puzzles.  I found that for my 2 year old Oliver it is important to only offer him a few puzzle boards and pieces at a time.  When the entire set is out he has trouble finding what he needs.  His big brother Daniel needs the challenge of using the whole set at once though.We’ve done a guessing game by putting a few of the wooden shapes into the bag.  A child reaches in the bag and feels a shape.  They then try to guess what shape they have before they pull it out. Sometimes the boys just want to play with the wooden shapes.  They act out things with the animals and trees, or they try stacking them into crazy towers. Another way we have used the 3D Feel and Find is for learning and practicing colors.  With Oliver we simply ask him what color a shape is, or to find a green shape.  Daniel takes it further and sorts the pieces into piles by color.Let me share a little bit about the Toddler Folder as well.  Inside this folder are pages of information with ideas for using each of the items in the Toddler Core Curriculum.  There are articles about teaching young children through play, homeschooling, and even disposable toys versus childhood tools. Another helpful page in the folder is a recording sheet that lists the components of the Toddler Core Curriculum and has day of the week boxes to check off when you use an activity.  I really like this because in a glance I can see what activities have been used recently, as well as remind me of all the options we could be using that week.  It would be easier to get a variety of activities in this way because I would see when we were getting in a rut.  Guess what – the Toddler Folder is available free as a PDF, so you can read the articles and see the recording sheet yourself by clicking here.

Timberdoodle offers Complete Curriculum Packages for babies through 10th graders.  While you may or may not be looking for a complete curriculum, their packages are a great place to gather ideas for age-appropriate materials.

{Disclaimer:  I received these materials free to review as a member of Timberdoodle’s Blogger Review Team.  I received no other compensation and all opinions presented herein are my own.}