Wile E. Coyote Science: A Timberdoodle Review
This is a sponsored post. I received this item from Timberdoodle in exchange for an honest review. These thoughts and words and opinions are, as always on this page and in real and regular life, all completely and totally my own.
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Everyone’s a homeschooler!
Wheeeeeee!
It’s a weird world, am I right?
I’m not making light of our current world situation.
But in my life I’ve never coped with any hard thing without a certain touch of levity. (It’s how I manage.)
So you and your friend and your neighbor and the people who never thought they’d give it a try are homeschooling this year.
Even if you aren’t technically “homeschooling” – you are definitely doing more school at home than you’ve ever done before.
For all of the new folks – for all of the seasoned folks – you’re looking for resources.
Timberdoodle is such a fantastic option.
They are easy to work with. They have options galore. They cover ALL the grades and ALL the things. You can buy a one and done sort of box set or you can pick and choose.
I’ve been working with Timberdoodle for half a decade (at least) and I love the world they offer to homeschoolers – particularly folks new to the world of homeschooling.
Earlier this month my family received the Wile E. Coyote Physical Science Genius set. It’s four small books covering four major elements of science explained in a fun way with Wile E. Coyote.
(You can buy your set right here.)
The topics covered are:
Forces in Motion
Flight & Gravity
Speed & Velocity
Simple Machines
Here’s the truth. (And I say this with some measure of shame.) I don’t super duper enjoy science. I’ve not really been The Experiment Mom over here. (I wasn’t The Crafts Mom either. Oops.)
But I DO want my kids to like science. I do recognize its importance. So I have sent my kids to science camps, signed them up for science classes at local farms, local co-ops, local museums. I have farmed out this subject for a long time. And. I have put lots and loads of books about science in their lives.
(I’m hoping that all equals enough.)
Our homeschool co-op doesn’t officially begin until September but we start our own homeschool classes (at home) in August. Which means that I use August to make extra headway in math and to read extra novels and to spend some time on grammar and to fill in gaps with extracurriculars that may not get to shine during the bulk of the school year.
And that’s where these Wile E. Coyote books came in.
I actually handed these to Otto and Piper, my sixth and seventh graders.
These books actually come as a part of the 2nd grade curriculum if you order the entire kit.
Now, obviously my kids are older than second graders. And, let’s all agree to hope that they are wiser than second graders too. (No need to look for evidence to support this hope.)
I’ve never actually stopped using picture books and simple books in my line up for school, even for any big kids I have taught. Certainly, the simple books are not used exclusively and I’ve still got kids reading Les Mis or Winston Churchill.
But here’s what I like about giving my big kids younger books occasionally and as a part of a full and varied spread of reading material.
A older kid can feel like an expert when he reads a book like this.
And yet, he’s having big ideas reaffirmed, reexplained, clarified in his mind – cemented there, if you will.
I do this in several ways.
- I have them read this to a younger sibling. Or, in our case, to a nephew who might happen to be visiting.
- I let them read it very quickly. As in – it’s just a day’s assignment.
- I have them fully narrate and answer questions about this book – which they can do simply and efficiently and clearly.
This way, when these big ideas – mass, gravity, inertia, centrifugal force – come up in later reading and studies, they are prepared. They feel confident. They already know the terms.
A book intended for a younger audience distills gigantic information down to bite sized pieces.
And this Wile E Coyote series does just that.
I don’t love Wile E., I’ll admit. Don’t be mad at me – but I don’t like any of the Bugs Bunny sort of characters. I never have. It pained my brothers growing up, who thought that Daffy Duck was actually funny. Ugh.
But I do like taking big scientific concepts that are critical to understanding so much of science fundamentals and creating a way for kids to learn about them quickly and easily, to feel confident that they understand the way pulleys and levers work.
And I like that handing them these books, listening to their narrations and hearing them explain these scientific ideas intelligently brings some ease to our August education.
Because these books were lying on our table, Bergen also picked them up and refreshed his memory on these facts too.
You can order the Wile E books here.
You can buy the 2nd grade curriculum here.
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