Essential Prep for Preschoolers: A Guide to Kindergarten Readiness

Jennifer Saligan: Has great song , story’s , tell you what to ask your child to get them thinking and learning. I recommend

United States on Oct 24, 2023

MissManda: This book is so very American.
History is very American centric (well only American), the "art" is very American. There is a whole world out there, and they only hint at that in the section that people are adaptable.

It's a hard pass, returning.

Canada on Oct 21, 2023

Travis sodenTravis soden: The media could not be loaded.  I pick one poem a day to read aloud or one song to sing. When I move into the history/science part of this book I’ll probably do one page a day. Just a lot of fun, easy things to introduce my son to learning. He’s 4 and we are homeschooling. I think this is a nice resource to have.

United States on Aug 13, 2023

jo: Brilliant book, title leads you to believe it at a list of things your child should know.. it’s a book full of poems songs stories some science history etc. my daughter loves looking though and listening to the stories.

United Kingdom on Jul 21, 2022

Katie: I got this for my eldest son during covid, as in-person schools weren't happening. We used this over one year. Then for his kindergarten year we used "What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know," "180 Days of Spelling" kindergarten book, and a kindergarten grammar workbook. We also used the first two sets of Bob books. At the end of kindergarten he tested in the 99th percentile for reading and is reading at a fifth grade level.

Being as this book constituted basically all of his curriculum for his pre-school year, I think it laid a terrific foundation.

I had my then fourth-grader listen along, as some of the content she didn't know, despite having attended a private school for preschool.

I even learned a couple new things from this book, and I graduated summa cum laude with a bachelors of applied science. I didn't know turtles hibernate, until I read this to my son. (My degree is in computer science.)

Because the schools we're interested are all using COVID as justification as child abuse, we continue to use the Core Knowledge books to homeschool and could not be more pleased.

United States on Jul 19, 2022

P.CusackP.Cusack: This is a great book! This is a part of the Core Knowledge curriculum which is a fantastic knowledge based k-8 curriculum and this, and the other books, are an amazing resource for parents who home school or who’s children go to a regular elementary with a hit or miss curriculum. It’s based on the well studied educational theory that children need background knowledge to become good readers, the curriculum exposes them to a wide range of the most drawn upon knowledge that American school children will need.

Another great thing is that the vocabulary and topics are age appropriate and will use words that your child doesn’t know so you have a chance to teach them about new words.

Now, with all this good curricular background, somehow I was expecting a newsprint booklet with lots of worksheets to copy. Not so! It’s a high quality book, with thick, glossy pages and vibrant images. It’s full of poems and stories, it’s FUN! My daughter immediately wanted me to to read the whole thing (not possible in one evening!).

In summery, I love this book. It’s easy to add into our reading circulation and it makes me feel confident that I am exposing my daughter...

United States on Feb 25, 2021

Leanne: Not what I was looking for, the book gives you outdated songs and poems. Nothing structured about what a child needs to know before pre-school eg numbers, colours. It’s a song and poet book. Very disappointed. Not as book advertised

United Kingdom on May 17, 2020

kdea473: I bought this book for myself, to help in preparing my young child for her educational future. She is currently 16 months old, and not going to be ready for kindergarten any time soon, of course. But I was hoping it would give me some "material" to use as a supplement for daycare.
As it turns out, she is fascinated by this book. She knows where it has been stashed, will point for it, and will sit for an hour in my lap to read it. (No joke.) I like the nursery rhymes and finger play songs because they remind me of my own childhood. (Do most kids even know nursery rhymes these days?)
She has her favorites, and will point at them to do them repeatedly. She aslo knows several of the movement songs.
Shes not interested in the history, art or story parts of the book. She will look at the animals in the nature section.
I'm not sure that this book will be as interesting to most toddlers her age, but it is great for parents to look ahead and start working some of this material into their repertoire so that it comes naturally and isn't forced.
I liked the history section, because I might not have known what type of history was important for a preschooler. I don't recall...

United States on Jan 08, 2019

B Lindsay: There are lots of rhymes, stories and songs in it which the children like. The history is all American so a British version would be nice too. I used it in conjunction with other materials and we've been very happy working through it.

United Kingdom on Jun 14, 2016

Laura Z: I enjoyed the higher level books growing up when they were available at Costco. Now I have my own children and wanted help with readiness. This book has many poems, stories, discussion topics and great ideas, lists (kindergarten readiness, music, further reading), illustrations etc... No complaints on the content, but with the formatting: I wish there was distinction between notes to parents in stories such as different background or text formatting. Also I found the placement of the illustrations after the text meant a lot of flipping back when discussing images. I also wish the song list in the reference section that is sold as a CD on the book site was sold on iTunes.

Canada on Mar 16, 2014