I can remember how scary it can be for little ones getting ready for going to school for the first time, so I couldn't help but smile nostalgically when we received this collection of books from Priddy Books featuring The Schoolies. They introduce the idea of going to school in a really positive way, as well as approaching simple key lessons such as the alphabet, counting, colours and telling the time.
The first book that we looked at was My School Day, which opens out so that you always have a clock with moving hands on the left as you turn the pages and follow the story, copying the hands to tell the time at various stages throughout the tale.
Pierre had great fun copying the positions of the hands and, even if he is still no closer to knowing how to tell the time, he has now learnt that there is a big hand and a little hand, which is a great first step !
The book has some lovely interactive elements in it too, for example spotting things in the picture, which Pierre and Juliette got quite competitive about, wanting to be the first one to find each item !
The educational bits are appealing to little learners, with bright colours and cute characters. Pierre pointed at all the colours and named them all in English and French (showoff !), while Juliette was intrigued by the colour sums.
There's so much going on in the pictures that both of them - even Pierre who can't read yet - often pick it up to have a flick-through, pointing things out in the pictures and naming colours, letters and numbers.
On to the next book, My First Day At School, which introduces us to Spencer the owl, who is very nervous about going to school, but ends up having a great time, discovering the school bus, lessons, playtime and some lovely new friends.
Pierre excitedly pointed to Spencer's skates and said that they were just like his new blue roller skates that we reviewed a couple of weeks ago ! I have to agree, they do look very similar !
As well as the brightly coloured, cute illustrations on each page, Pierre and Juliette loved discovering the two pages of stickers which represent all the Schoolie friends and various classroom objects. There aren't any specific places to stick them in the book though, which did confuse them slightly !
The final book, Let's Get Ready For School, is a wipe-clean book that encourages young readers to practise writing numbers, letters and words by tracing over the dots. Juliette had great fun playing with this one, even if she is well past this stage of learning now !
Pierre has also been having fun trying to stay on the lines, so it's great for honing fine motor skills. The pages did seem to stay a bit grubby after they'd been wiped clean but I think that's probably because they didn't wipe them properly - I'll have a proper clean up before we use it again.
star rating : 4.5/5
RRP : My School Day £9.99 ; My First Day At School £3.99 ; Let's Get Ready For School £5.99
for more information : http://shop.priddybooks.com/range.aspx?id=4294967352
Disclosure : I received the books in order to write an honest review.
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A well written review! Thank you! You are a star by far!
ReplyDeletewhat a great collection, they look good fun
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