Timberdoodle Kits for Hands-On Learners
(The following is a video transcript. Scroll down to watch the video if you prefer.)
Deb: Welcome to Timberdoodle! Today, we’re going to tackle the question of whether our curriculum is suitable for a kinesthetic child. Why would that be important, Hope?
Hope: Mainly because your kinesthetic child is the hardest type of learner to tailor a curriculum for. A visual learner is probably the easiest child to teach. An auditory learner is not far behind because you can read most of the stuff to them, and that’s how they learn best. Typically, it is hardest to find a curriculum that will suit a kinesthetic learner exactly.
Deb: The quick answer to that question is yes! For a longer answer, let’s take a look at some of the different ways we do that. We’re going to walk through different topics.
Math
Deb: We’re using Math-U-See from kindergarten through 12th grade. It’s a natural. It is using these blocks for the most part. Do you want to show us?
Hope: They’re number units. You’ve got your hundred blocks and then ten, nine, eight, and so on. As your child is working the problems, they can have a physical representation of what the number stands for. That’s the kinesthetic learning.
Language Arts
Deb: For language arts, we start pretty young with Playfoam Alphabet where they’re taking different letters of the alphabet and using the Playfoam to shape it.
In the next grade up, Pre-K, they’re using Wikki Stix to do the same thing.
Starting in Pre-K, we use All About Reading.
Hope: Yes, and that’s very kinesthetic. There’s coloring of the letters, and they have a lot of hands-on activities for you to do, whether it’s make the letter out of play dough… or shaving cream… all of that. Going up from there you’re using either magnetic tiles or you’re doing it on your iPad using tiles to form the words and such.
Deb: My recommendation, if you’re doing it with a kinesthetic child, is don’t use the app. I think you can. I think you could get some benefit. But I think they get more benefit actually manipulating the tiles. So that will be my recommendation, but you’ve got both options.
Hope: The other one in language arts is Spelling You See, which covers all kinds of learning styles. For the auditory learner, it’s the dictation. For the visual learner it’s where they’re circling the letter combinations and color coding on the passage. Then, for the kinesthetic learner it’s all of the actual writing it out.
Thinking Skills
Deb: Thinking skills is really where we shine in a lot of ways. When some people think thinking skills they think just workbooks. We’ve got some amazing workbooks that we have carried since you were little and they’re just great. But some kids are going to learn better hands-on. That’s where something like the Smart Games comes into effect. Starting from preschool through 12th grade we include some kind of hands-on way to learn the thinking skills. Show us.
Hope: For example, Three Little Piggies here. You’ve got the board and you’ve got the booklet with the challenges and the solutions. You’re going to set up the board. You’ll be using these houses on this challenge to cover the pigs up to protect them from the wolf.
Deb: We have different things like Colorku which is a Sudoku with colored marbles.
Hope: We’ve got Smart Cookies where your child is using logic to deduce where each cookie goes on the cookie tray. Then clues become more abstract and there’s more of that critical thinking / logic as they’re figuring out where to put the cookie on the tray.
Deb: We have bambinoLUK and miniLUK that are imported from Europe that are a great hands-on way to teach a number of thinking skills.
We also have doodle books that we start in kindergarten. Doodle books are a great way for your child to be thinking with their hands. They’re going to ask questions, give scenarios and situations. This is the kindergarten book but we’ve got them up through most of grades. The children will be asked to complete the picture using thinking skills.
Geography
Deb: Geography is an easy one because we use a lot of puzzles in geography. We’ve got Geopuzzles. We’ve got the Global Puzzle. In 3rd grade they’re actually building a globe puzzle.
We also have, in 1st grade and in 5th grade, the Scrunch Map which the kids love. It’s a map that they’re not going to ruin. You can scrunch it and stick it back in the bag. It’s a great hands-on way for a child to look at geography.
History
Deb: Most of our history has a corresponding activity book with it. For hands-on learning your child will probably listen to you read the book or listen to the audiobook CD and then they’ll be motivated to want to build something to go along with it. Maybe they will build something out of clay or maybe they will build something out of paper and tape or whatever. That will help reinforce what they’ve just learned in the history.
We also have Famous Figures. Why don’t you show us that one, Hope?
Hope: All right. This is Famous Figures of Ancient Times. You’ve got your figures, which are pre-colored, that you can cut out and then use brads to attach all the different pieces, and also the one for your child to color. We put these in the grade that correlates with the same time period so that your child gets to be creating these same characters that they’re learning about in their history program.
Art
Deb: For art, again, that’s a natural one for hands-on. Some people approach art with just a book and learn about great artists. Our approach is a little bit different.
We’re going to actually have the kids doing the art, replicating great works of art. In 3rd grade, they’ll be doing that.
In 5th grade they’re going to be doing stop-motion. That works well for history. They can set up a scenario that will show what they’ve just learned in history using the stop-motion. They can use it to show what they’ve learned in any of the topics. It’s a great art program.
Science
Deb: For science, we have a couple of options. New to us this year is the Berean Science. It’s great for a kinesthetic child. It is Christian. It is has a whole slew of activities. In fact, you’re going to do an activity for every topic. Anything in blue is going to be the activity, and then you’ll have a little bit of information, and then more activity, a little bit more information, and so forth. So you’ve got lots and lots of experiments with that. On the secular side, with Building Blocks of Science, you will have a lot of experiments with that one, as well, and ways to document it. So our science, again, is a natural way for a kinesthetic child to learn science.
Plus in some of the grades, kindergarten particularly, with Boom! science, there are 60 experiments that they will be doing. Lots of different activities in there. The hands-on child is going to love Boom! science. Through different grades we’ve got different ways for kids to learn science that way.
STEM
Deb: For STEM, that is one that we, again, really shine on, because I think all of our STEM is hands-on. So let’s look at some of the highlights.
We really like the Robotis. We’ve got the Robotis for 1st grade. They’re going to be building the robots like that. We also have Robotis in 4th grade and again in 12th grade. This is an example of what they’ll be doing being the 4th grade one. They’re building a dynamo. You can see the light going on right here.
We also have ThinkPlay that we import from Europe that is going to be construction, starting in Pre-K and kindergarten, using gears and so forth.
We have Zoob which is an excellent STEM program where they’re presented with a problem they have to build to solve it.
Engino, again, an import, that will have them building vehicles and simple machines in the 7th grade. In 11th grade they will be building robots that they learn how to program.
We also have, new this year, Aviation which is a great STEM program. They will learn a lot about aviation but they also have a lot of hands-on activities. If you haven’t seen the video on our aviation course I really recommend you to take a look at it.
We also have a Duinokit where they’ll learn about that. That one’s a really fun one because it’s kind of a mystery and they’re learning how to solve a mystery and code for it.
And building an engine, which was one of your favorite things to do. You actually built a working engine.
We have a lot of STEM things that are hands-on.
Hope: I think that about covers how the Timberdoodle program is not only well suited for the visual and auditory learner but how we actually specialize for the kinesthetic learner.
If you have any more specific questions we’re happy to answer them at mailbag@timberdoodle.com.
Why Timberdoodle?
Here are 7 quick reasons to consider Timberdoodle’s comprehensive curriculum kits.
- Our curriculum is award-winning. Timberdoodle curriculum kits received first place in Practical Homeschooling’s 2017 and 2018 reader awards. Meanwhile, the individual components of our kits have received countless additional awards.
- Hands-on learning. Parents and kids love how Timberdoodle integrates hands-on exploration into our curriculum. Reinforce geography with puzzles. Build a robotic dog or bird. Put together a human body torso or a Roman arch bridge. Now this is learning that sticks.
- STEM skills. Because STEM skills (science, technology, engineering, and math) are all so crucial to real life we have included purposeful STEM activities into every grade from Tiny Tots through high school.
- You can customize. Every kit that Timberdoodle offers is fully customizable so you can adapt it to your unique child without breaking the budget.
- The checklist system. Our super simple weekly checklist allows for the unexpected, giving families the freedom to enjoy life without losing momentum in their homeschooling assignments.
- Independent learning. Timberdoodle handbooks promote self-directed learning so students begin to learn how to manage their own education and schedule. Less hand-holding, more independent learning, is what your student will need for college and beyond.
- Works for charter schools. Now for over a year Timberdoodle has provided kits for every grade which are charter school compatible.
For all these reasons and more you will want to consider Timberdoodle’s curriculum kits today. Crazy smart homeschooling.
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