Inchimals Review

I have another product to share with you from Timberdoodle, Inchimals!  Inchimals is manufactured by Fat Brain Toys and is geared for kids 3 and older or toddler through Kindergarten/First.  This fun and colorful block set is a great math introductory tool for younger learners.

What's included in our set?   There are 12 wooden Inchimals blocks, a dry-erase marker, and a spiral-bound dry-erase book containing 100 math puzzles.

Each wooden block is a different length and represents a different animal.  There is the one-inch ladybug all the way to the twelve-inch giraffe.  I really like that one end of each block has the number of inches, and the opposite end has the corresponding amount of dots.  The sides of the block have the unit measurements marked as well!

 

Above you can see one end of the blocks that has the numbers on it.

And above you can see one of the block ends with the corresponding amount of dots.

And here you can see the side unit measurements.

There are so many great things about this set.  It's very hands-on and the younger boys love to play with it.  It helps encourage creative thinking and dramatic play and the boys love to build towers and creations.

Above you can see that G created a staircase for his figurine.

The spiral math puzzle booklet helps children explore counting, number value, addition, subtraction, multiple numbers, etc.  The puzzles continue to increase in difficulty so kids will be challenged as they progress through the booklet and there is an answer key for all the puzzles.  Puzzles 1-25 use the addition of two numbers and only use the first 10 wooden Inchimals blocks.  Puzzles 26-50 are subtraction problems that likewise only use the first 10 blocks.  Puzzles 51-58 uses the addition of three numbers.  In the last few puzzles, students will find multiple ways to create a given number.  Let me show you some examples.

 

Puzzle 1

Puzzle 27

 

Puzzle 53

Puzzle 65

 

Puzzle 97

This is such a fun way to do math with young kids.  One frog plus one snake is equivalent to one ostrich.  I like that these blocks help children learn sequencing, shortest to longest.  They can also be used to guess measurements of household objects.  There are so many games you can use these for.  You can even discuss the animals on each block and learn basic zoology facts 😉.

G wanted to see how much taller all the blocks were than him!

 

Check out the Timberdoodle video on Inchimals below to see more for yourself!

 

 

Inchimals is a great hands-on resource to have in our homeschool that can be used both at home and on the go and if you can't tell we highly recommend it!

Disclosure:  Huge shout out to Timberdoodle for selecting me as a Timberdoodle Blogger.  I received Inchimals at a discount in exchange for my honest review.  All opinions are my own.

Timberdoodle's What's New? What's Missing? What's Different? Product Review

I have another fun Timberdoodle book to share with you, What's New? What's Missing? What's Different?.  This workbook for early learners combines the love of learning with the love of creating.  This book features hundreds of unique and fun things to hunt for, find, and color.  Children will match, spot differences and create new things of their very own.  E, who turned 7 last October and is in 1st grade, has been working on this book.  F, who turned 5 this month and is in PreK, really enjoys "helping" her with it.  Even G, age 2, likes looking at the illustrations and showing your what he finds.

E with her new workbook.

What is meant by What's New?  What's Missing?  What's Different?  For New - you can make your own drawings using colors that you like, adding extra decorations or whatever you would like making it something NEW.  For Missing - looking at two pictures you can tell that something is not the same, something is missing - you can circle what's missing, copy the missing parts or draw them in your own way.  For Different - looking at the drawings spot the one that is different.  

New and Missing

Different

Catch all the bugs by circling the ones that are different on the corresponding trees.

Looking at the trees

Catching the different bugs by circling them

F "helping" E.  She doesn't need help but he likes to find them too!

On the left page, you circle all the things that are missing from the pet shop on the right.

 And then on the right, you draw all the things that were missing!

 

I love seek and find pages like the one above.

As you can see from the examples above, this workbook is filled with creative, vivid images and fun ways to engage children in early learning.  They will learn to distinguish between subtle and large differences and have the opportunity to respond uniquely and creatively to them.  I really like that it helps enhance focus and helps teach kids attention to detail in such a fun way.

What's New? What's Missing? What's Different? is part of Timberdoodle's 1st grade curriculum kit.

Disclosure:  Huge shout out to Timberdoodle for selecting me as a Timberdoodle Blogger.  Timberdoodle sent my family What's New? What's Missing? What's Different? in exchange for our honest review.  All opinions are my own.