Kindergarten Count to 100 – A cute counting book, but save your money!
Written: May 23 '08 (Updated May 23 '08)
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Pros: Nice pictures in the book, visual "counts" of the number.
Cons: Choppy and awkward reading, helps count 1-20, awkward break in the middle of the book.
The Bottom Line: This is an ok book, but don't spend very much on it. If you get it as a gift, great, but it's not very fun to read.
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| Magick1's Full Review: Kindergarten Count To 100 |
This book was given to my daughter by her preschool teachers. The children had a program for the parents just the other day. The children did about 6 songs and then they received their diplomas from their teachers. The teachers gave them a very special gift, or rather, gave the parents a very special gift. They collected things my daughter has done over the past year and date stamped the items that my daughter had worked on during the year. They were the same worksheets spaced out say July 2007, November 2007, January 2008 and May 2008. The worksheets ran from the number practice sheets to the letter practice sheets and some miscellaneous artwork they collected during this same time.
Along with the gift they provided to the parents, they gave their students a book. My daughter received this particular book, and I am very happy that she received it. The book is very thoughtful and helps children learn to count in an interesting way! (The book even has a little picture of my daughter inside with her cap and gown and a sticker that told her good luck in kindergarten signed by all of her teachers. How thoughtful! What a great group of teachers she had! They certainly will be missed we when move into our next adventure - KINDERGARTEN.
The story
The day starts like any other. A little boy wakes up, starts waking up the household and we begin the countdown. The book does not read with the slight rhyme of a poem or really in a way that makes it easy or even enjoyable to read out loud. I think it’s a bit awkward. But, it does have sentences that beginning readers enjoy and can follow along with easily and enjoy reading!
Here’s a small snippet from the book:
“Wake up! Wake Up! I shout down the hall.
1 jumping puppy
2 sisters to tickle
3 eating breakfast
4 lunches to pack
Race to the bus!
5 friends with baseball caps”
As you can see by reading the above collection of pages aloud, it’s not very user friendly! Reading it sounds unnatural, choppy and almost makes it difficult to read. But, again, it’s not us that benefits most from this book! My daughter enjoys it tremendously! She likes the pictures of younger kids doing regular things and going to school She’ll be joining that group in a short few months and seeing the kids in action is really exciting to her!
There is regular home and school activities and a short game in the middle where your child will help identify colors of crayons on the page. They show a calendar with some many days being marked to show which day of the month the class is currently on and what day of the week it is!
They do mix in, briefly, ordinal numbers (first, second and third) and then continue the countdown. The book essentially is divided in the middle of 1 – 10 and then 11 – 20. In the middle, the number 100 is tossed in pretty casually and kind of strangely. Then, the book resumes the count with 11 – 20 and ends with the main character walking all over the back couple of pages creating 100 steps that children are encouraged to count through.
The book, overall, is 20 pages (front and back) and this includes the lead in pages like the title, and forwards. On a couple of pages, there are 100 crayons mixed into color groups that children can count it they want to do so.
The drawings in the book are decent watercolor sketches of the little boy that we are following and his classmates and the things that they do during the day. The overall feel of the book is nice, playful and enjoyable.
Overall Impressions
While I am touched by the gift from the preschool teachers, I am a bit dismayed by the book itself. The way the book reads, choppy and lackluster for me, makes it difficult to truly enjoy reading. There are some books that I can read over and over again and I never tire of them. This, on the other hand, I can and did tire of quickly! I really don’t have to have sing-songy books that glide you through reading them aloud like a ballerina dances a waltz. If you were to find the book really cheap, it’s not a bad book to have. It allows children to visually see the numbers that they are reading about in the story. It shows them a number (for example - 14) and gives them 14 actual items to count out if they want to do so. Visual helpers are always wonderful to have when children are learning to count. This helps the children recognize the actual number and helps them get an idea of just how many 14 items looks like.
If you receive the book as a gift or find it dirt cheap and have a little one that is learning how to count, this is a decent book to have. But, I would not spend much money on this book, nor would I want to give it to someone as a gift. There are much better, more fluid books out there that are fun to read and have some really great pictures that really pique a child’s interest.
Thanks for spending time with me today!~
Here are some other books that I think are much more fun to read:
Bedtime Battle
Hug and Make Up
Trouble with Chores
Trouble with Commercials
The Truth
The Bad Habit
No Girls Allowed
Dollars and Sense
Count Their Blessings
Too Much Junk Food
Get in a Fight
Forget Their Manners
Too Much Birthday
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): Gift
Type of Toy: Educational
Age Range of Child: 3 to 5 Years
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