Momma, Don't Let Your Baby Grow Up To Write Like A Doctor
Written: Mar 25 '02 (Updated Nov 20 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Helps to reinforce good printing skills, word recognition, wipe off pages, extremely sturdy!
Cons: A little hard to wipe clean.
The Bottom Line: A great introduction to basic printing skills. This book provides a fun yet educational approach to perfect penmanship!
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| Freak369's Full Review: |
Once again, I spent most of the day in the garage, trying to weed though boxes and boxes of homeschooling items. Buried at the bottom of one box was a series of books I received as a gift from my friend Jane [the converted soccer mom]. Since my boys were a little too old for them, I tucked them away in case the stork ever decided to visit again. Since it will be a cold day in hell before I even get a date, let alone breed again, I have decided to send them off to friends who have kids that could benefit from this series.
The Basics
This is one of the premier books in the Home Learning Tools series. The ‘easy wipe off’ format allows the book to be used over and over again for reinforced learning. Unlike the cheaper books that ‘look’ like this, the pages are thick, sturdy and accept a variety of different mediums [crayon, washable marker, dry erase pens etc]. For children just starting out, this is the perfect introduction to writing letters the correct way.
Starting Out
Since my own children never used this book, I decided to try it out myself. Yes, I know how to write, but I wanted to see how this book stood up to some heavy use from an adult. One of the nicest things about the book is that each letter [upper and lower case] has their own line. At the top of the page is an example of the letter along with a persons name [example: Alvin], a picture of animal and the animal’s name [example: alligator]. At the bottom of the page there are two words, one for each letter [example: ant and bat] with enough room to write the word several times.
On the back of the book is a practice page with the directional arrows showing the correct way start and finish each letter. I was a little surprised to find that numbers were not covered in this book, but after some searching on the internet I found that there is a Home Learning Tools book just for writing numbers.
I chose to try this out with crayons since I had several different brands that I could use to see which would clean up the easiest. If you are going to give this to a child and have them do the entire book, trust me, it will take some time and elbow grease to get the pages clean so you might as well try and make it as simple as possible to get the pages cleaned up.
Crayola: The Crayola crayons gave the best results when writing. Almost every letter came out prefect with no crayon gunk left on the pages and no skipping. Clean up is another story – these required the most amount of work to get the pages back to the original form.
RoseArt: These worked almost as good as the Crayola brand, but required a little more pressure to get the letters to show up crystal clear. Cleaning up was a little easier than Crayola but it still required some effort to remove all the lettering.
Generic [these were from the grocery store] These were awful in the printing department. Crayon goop everywhere, smearing and skipping all over the place. These cleaned up with hardly any effort mainly because not much of the crayon managed to stay on the page.
Things To Know
When wiping off the pages, it helps if you are standing rather than sitting. You can get a better grip on the book and avoid having to chase it across the table. Don’t try to clean the pages with Kleenex, you will be there forever and go through half a box. If you must use Kleenex, make sure that it is not Aloe enriched – it makes a huge mess! I suggest a nice thick paper towel for the clean up since it can be folded over several times and gets the job done right the first time.
Don’t try to use chemicals such as Fantastik or Orange Brite, these will dull the surface of the page and residue might lead to a skin irritation or allergic reaction the next time the child uses the book.
There is an introduction from the manufacturer on the front inside cover that gives some detail about creation and design of the book, clean up instructions and a non-removable “I Can Print My ABC’s” name card.
The Test
After writing on every page using the three different crayons I had at my disposal, cleaning up all the pages and checking the book for any type of wear or damage, I have to say this thing is practically indestructible. None of the pages ripped, tore, wrinkled or came loose from the binding [staples]. If you have a child that is a little rough with books, this is a must have! I wish these books were available when my children started writing, it would have eliminated mounds of paper strewn about the house.
The Final Word
Overall, I am highly impressed with this book. When I looked at some of the books at Target, Wal-Mart and K-Mart the pages seemed thinner and gave me the impression that they wouldn’t hold up to much use and in most cases, the corners were already worn from customer use [and abuse] and shelf wear. If I were a child, I’d prefer this over the spiral bound activity books as well. The spirals get in the way and can be awkward when in the first stages of writing. Plus, there’s nothing worse than having the spiral come away from the book – before you know it – the pages are everywhere and the spiral binding becomes a cheap Slinky.
I highly recommend this to any parent that has a child just learning to write, it is a great way to properly reinforce early learning skills and designed to both educational as well as fun. This could also be used for older children that have mastered the alphabet but need a little work on penmanship.
The States
Complete Title Printing by Home Learning Tools
ISBN: 1-57759-136-4
Price: $2.99
Pages: 16
Age Range: K – Grade 1
As always, thanks for the read!
^V^ Freak ^V^
© 2004 Freak369
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Recommended:
Yes
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