When my youngest son expressed an interest in learning how to tell time I found myself empty handed at the bookstore. It seemed that all the books available were either too advanced or too ‘childish’ for his personal learning curve. After about two weeks of trying his hardest he finally mastered the wonders of telling time the old fashioned way – from an analog clock instead of a digital. Proving once again that I have some pretty bad luck, I came across this book a week or so ago at Barnes & Noble. Even though all the boys have mastered telling time and the basics of American money – I picked this up for them in case I missed any little details.

Make no mistake about it – this is a huge book so don’t get shocked at the $14.95 price tag if you go looking for this online. Published by McGraw-Hill in conjunction with American Education Publishing, this 352 page book makes an excellent addition to any childs standard educational packet. Since I home-school all the boys, I am always on the look out for new books to incorporate into their learning structure.

Unlike a majority of the books I buy for this purpose, this is in color. It’s not that I don’t like color books – but it makes it much easier to make copies of the pages if it’s black, white and gray. In any event, I only encountered a few minor issues when making copies – the blues and reds tend to either not copy at all or completely black out the area making it impossible to see.

The Basics

As the title suggest, this book teaches the basic of both time and money. The book is spit into two sections – time and then money. I would have liked if they would have had the lessons stacked against each other so that the easier parts of both run side by side with one another. Still, I can adjust the lessons since I make copies and lesson plans each week. Each of the sections are quick referenced on the right side of the book and broke down by colors. This is nice if you are trying to find a particular section in a hurry or need to see how far along your child has progressed through the book. The time sections are in orange tabs and the money in green.

Time

The lessons start off slowly, teaching the basics of the clock face, small hand, big hand, and the direction in which they rotate. It progresses to learning to write the time by the hour, half hour and quarter hour. Along the way there are short stories that ask for your help – simply write the time in the boxes or draw the hands on the face of the clock to help the characters along. Some smaller children may need to have some of the stories read to them as well as some of the directions.

There are four main sections in the time category – time to the hour, half-hour, quarter-hour and minute. Each of the sections has a bounty of practice pages and I highly suggest that you make some copies of these pages in case you need them in the future.

The Complete Book of Time & Money teaches both digital as well as analog lessons. The introduction is in the analog then the digital in introduced about five lessons in. Personally I feel that most people don’t put enough emphasis on learning how to tell time ‘the old fashioned way’. Yes, almost everyone has a digital watch but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be taught at an early age.

The section comes with a complete review [15 pages] as well as an answer key located in the back of the book. Be warned – the printing on these pages is small! If you are going to let a child correct his or her own pages, I suggest that you enlarge the answer keys for them so they have the correct information.

Money

This section is a bit more complex than the time part of the book. This incorporates addition, subtraction and less than / more than equations. I highly suggest that you go over each page before you create a lesson plan in case there are some areas that you haven’t covered with your child. One thing I want to add is that the coin colors are also taught; brown for pennies, silver for nickels etc. In the introduction pages of each coin there are sections where you child is asked to color the coins so make sure you have brown and gray on hand. Toys ‘R Us had a huge bin of clearance Halloween crayons that carried silver crayons so you might want to be on the look out for them if you plan on buying this book. Yes, I am slightly obsessive :]

Each section in the money category starts with a basics of each coin; penny, nickel, dime, quarter. The new dollar coins are not taught in this book so you may want to have a few on hand to show your child. But on a positive note, there is a page on the .50-cent piece, what it looks like and how it is used when making change.

As the lessons progress they become more difficult – asking you to make change from various amounts and quizzing you on you past efforts. You had to then use both dollar bills as well as coins to purchase things at a store, matching dollar amounts to price tags and how much money you will have left over after a purchase.

There is also a quiz section at the end of the money section – this one is 30 pages long since it deals with a lot more information than the time sections and quiz / test pages. These tests are not only fun, but they help to reinforce previous lessons and give you a gauge as to how far your child has come. This is a great way to see if any areas need additional attention.

Extras

In addition to a very detailed index of the lessons and activities, there is complete answer key located in the back of the book. As I mentioned, the text on these pages are extremely small so be prepared. When you child competes the time and money sections, there are small, half page award certificates that can be filled out with his or her name, your signature and the date. There are also two incentive pages that can be used as a reward or to mark an accomplishment or reaching a goal.

Each page comes with a place the to top for the childs name. This is very helpful if you have more than one child doing the pages or to train them to have their name on all schoolwork. When my boys were younger they loved to get colored foil stars next to their name when they completed the days lessons. Now they just ask for Lego’s :]

Overall Thoughts

While some of the lessons were basic and we were able to skip over them, my youngest found this to be an awesome addition to his regular schoolwork. When did you ever hear a child as for extra pages of homework? As I said, some of the lessons were a little too basic for him but he wanted to try and do all of the pages from start to finish. He breezed through the time section in just under a week and has made it about half way through the money section and is showing no signs of slowing down.

I’d highly suggest this book to anyone who home-schools or wants to have a nice, fun supplement to an already existing curriculum. Some non-home-schooling parents use these books and offer a reward or have a point system in place based on the number of pages completed and the percentage done correctly.

My only real complaint is that the lessons don’t run side by side. If you are using the book as a whole rather than making copies, you’ll have to flip from the front of the book to the middle of the book each time you want to switch lessons. This might not sound like a real issue to most people but I’d rather have things taught on the same level rather than having to waste time flipping around. Keep in mind that this book is in color so if you are planning on making copies you should try to lighten up the scale on pages that are heavy in reds and blues.


Stats

Title The Complete Book of Time & Money
Publisher: McGraw Hill
Pages 352
Age Range 5 – 8
ISBN: 1-56189-500-8
Price $14.95



For additional information please contact:

McGraw-Hill Children’s Publishing
8787 Orion Place
Columbus, Ohio 43240-4027

Or visit their website: www.mhkids.com


As alway, thanks for the read!

^V^ Freak ^V^

© 2004 Freak369


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Recommended: Yes