I’ve had a great response to things people are interested in, in my Online Store.

The most popular items people seem to be interested in so far are the Bringing Up Boys and Bringing Up Girls books by James Dobson, the Animal House kitchen items, and the products I have in the pre-school section.

These pre-school Books by Kumon are some of my favorite first books that I’ve used with my kids.

Kumon is a learning system made up of both curriculum and learning centers which administer lessons in math and reading from pre-school up to college.

These pre-school books can be found in my online store on this site, as well as at your local bookstore. I’ve even seen them from time to time at Costco.

This first one I want to show you is a book for pre-schoolers used to better acquaint them with the alphabet.

One of the things I love about these books is the suggested age level on the top right corners of all the books. This makes it easy for a busy mom like me to sift through the selection quickly and find the books that will work with the skill level of my child.

Kumon workbooks like these, range in suggested skill level from ages 2 – 8.

In the Alphabet Book there are these fun and simple dot-to-dot lessons, but with letters instead of numbers. Each dot-to-dot starts with letter “A” and moves to consecutive letters of the alphabet.

This beginner lesson is used to introduce children to the first 3 letters of the alphabet so it only goes up to letter “C”.

This elephant lesson is further along in the book so the letters go all the way from “A” to “Z”.

Each lesson also has a corresponding page of alphabet letters to practice tracing.

Alphabet lessons in this book progress to more typical dots-to-dot with no outlining grid to follow…

And a mastery in tracing and recognizing both upper and lowercase letters from “A” to “Z”.

Here is the book of Numbers.

Again… notice how great these books are at giving you just the information you’re looking for right on the cover. In the top right corner you can see the suggested age level for the book and it lets you know it covers lessons and games for numbers 1 – 30.

There are additional Kumon workbooks that progress up through greater numbers.

This Numbers Book also contains dot-to-dot lessons.

I love that the beginning dot-to-dot lessons in both the Letters and Numbers books provide a highlighted white grid around the projected path each created line should follow.

When my 3 year old wants to do dot-to-dot games without this kind of path, (like on kids menus at restaurants for example) her lines from one number to the next take on such strange and totally non-DIRECT paths, that when she’s done it’s hard to tell what the final picture is.

The dot-to-dots in these Kumon books start out with highlighted paths to train on, and then eventually progress to more advanced dot-to-dots, without highlighted paths.

The Numbers Book also contains corresponding pages of number tracing.

When I’m busy at the table working on Home School with my 8 year old, my 3 year old will bring these books to the table and joining us she announces,

“I’m doing school too.”

I’ve never required that either of my children do work in these Kumon Workbooks. I’ve just kept them available to my children, on a shelf they can reach next to some crayons and pencils, and both of them have ended up learning from the books on their own time because they’ve wanted to.

I love when learning happens like that!

The Numbers Book advances to standard dot-to-dot exercises, as well as fill in the missing number exercises like this.

None of these Kumon Books are expected to be the primary source from which your children will learn. They are just an additional resource to reinforce lessons already being taught. While little ones may be interested enough in doing these workbooks on their own, it’s beneficial to have a parent’s involvement or at least nearby to keep the child progressing according to the directions of each lesson.

Here are a couple of Kumon Books that insist a parent be nearby and ready to help.

Both my kids have REALLY loved the Cutting Book.

Cutting is one of those things that you might not allow your pre-schooler to do very often, simply because it’s unsafe unless you’re supervising. For this reason they may not have as much access to time spent with scissors, as they do other skill building tools such as books and crayons.

Then, when you finally take the time to sit down and do a craft project with your pre-schooler, which includes cutting, you realize how neglectful you’ve been of allowing them to cut, and how much they struggle with it simply because they haven’t had much practice. And then you both are so anxious to create your project, and they are so frustrated with trying to cut out all the shapes, that they say,

“Mommy will you just cut out the shapes for me?”

And you oblige because you’d like to make some progress as well, and keep the day’s schedule somewhat on track.

And then once again… they get no practice at cutting.

Or am I the only one this happens too?

If I’m not the only one this happens to…

Here is a fantastic Book to get both you and your child more frequently practicing cutting.

Because my pre-schoolers have LOVED this book, it’s hard for me to forget to do it with them… they ask to do it every day!

And the great thing about this book is that the lessons are short, but challenging enough that when we’re done, my little cutters are ready to move onto something else.

This book starts out with cutting strait lines.

In lesson 5 displayed above the cutting has progressed to being able to create a little craft. Once all the pieces are cut out you can tape them together to make one long train.

In the Cutting Book, projects progress to cutting curves, shapes, and eventually more intricate objects like animals.

And here is the Pasting Book.

It really should be called the Cutting and Pasting Book because each lesson offers the opportunity for both.

And of course if any of the cutting required in this book is too advanced for your pre-schooler, you can do all the cutting and allow your pre-schooler to just get some practice at pasting.

Using the Cutting Book and the Pasting Book will allow your child to advance in both areas, and they provide a great way to have some quick, fun, skill building time together at home.

The Pasting Book starts out simple like this.

Cut out square. Glue on Apple.

It progresses like this.

Cut out eyes, nose, mouth. Glue on Pig.

The pasting exercises don’t really advance in difficulty, but there are some variations in the fun you can have with them like in this lesson where squares must be pasted correctly in the grid like a puzzle to form a picture.

Kumon makes several other Pre-School development books such as, Drawing, Tracing, Telling Time, Mazes, Coloring, and more.

I’ve loved using these books with my kids and I’m sure you’ll love using them with yours.

To purchase check out my online store, or click the advertised links below.

Spend some time playing with and teaching your pre-schooler today! You’ll be glad you did and so will they!