Toys and Games Books

I ordered this after seeing the fourth grade book in a local bookstore. My daughter is in 3rd grade, the store was out of that level, so I came to Amazon. I originally was interested mainly in the math section, as she has struggled in that area and, so far, it has really helped. The activities have been a good a match for her school curriculum: evens and odds, addition and subtraction with regrouping up to 3 digits, rounding, multiplication and division, fractions and decimals, measurement, time and money, and word problems. There are other one page and two page exercises thrown in (graphs and charts, lines, signs, etc.) that have been helpful, as well. We follow BrainQuest as she moves through her curriculum and it definitely helps.

What has pleasantly surprised me is how great the other content areas of the book are. When she was struggling with alphabetical order and dictionary skills, the BQ Workbook had activities for her. When she had a test on common and proper nouns, the BQ Workbook had a page we could use as test review. When she needed more study on main ideas, topic sentences, and supporting details, the BQ Workbook had activities for us to use. When she was studying the human body or the US Constitution or animal habitats or maps ... this Workbook has not yet disappointed.

The absolute best thing about this Workbook is that my child (age 8) *asks* to use it. She thinks it's fun. When she's "bored" either at home or in the car, she'll turn to this Workbook. I really cannot recommend this highly enough. (*Note: my pre-schooler also loves his Pre-K BQ Workbook!)

After having worked with several different series I think I've finally discovered one to stick with. We homeschool. I am always looking for the best curriculum and a great "guide" for general education.

Brain Quest is well written, colorful and engaging. My son asks if he can spend extra time working in it! (As my jaw hits the floor.) The writing section is especially awesome.

My niece was very happy to get a copy of this book for her sons. She is home schooling them and the store she normally bought for closed. She said the book arrived in good time and was just exactly what she needed.

This is one in a series of workbooks, each of which offers an abundance of learning activities, exercises, and games that are presented with superb production values. Appropriate to the given age level, much of the material focuses on basic subjects such natural science, mathematics, history, and social studies while enabling children to strengthen their reading, reasoning, and writing skills. The editors of Brain Quest believe that:

"All kids are smart - though they learn at their own speed

All kids learn best when they're having fun

All kids deserve the chance to reach their potential - given the tools they need, there's no limit how far they can go!"

I agree, while presuming to add that children will learn more and have more fun meanwhile if, when completing various exercises, adults are involved. As a parent of four and a grandparent of ten, I can personally attest to the pleasure an adult will also have. Each volume in the series is a WORK book. Exercises are completed with crayolas or pencils on the page on which it appears. Correct answers are provided. One caveat: Resist the temptation to control the learning process as a child completes an exercise.

This volume, Grade 3 (ages 8-9), was written by Jan Meyer, with Anna Shults serving as consulting editor. It is worth noting that Shults was a 2004 National Teacher of the Year Regional Award Winner. The material consists of organized curriculum-based exercises that help children to gain an understanding of spelling and vocabulary, language arts, reading, writing, math skills, addition and subtraction, multiplication and division, fractions and decimals, measurement, time and money, word problems, social studies, and science. Also included are more than 150 stickers, an all-new Brain Quest Mini-Card Deck, and a fold-out "Times Table" poster.

Here is a representative selection of exercises:

There's an Ant on My Aunt!
Complete each sentence with the right homophones. (Page 27)

Whatever Do You Mean?
Write what you think each highlighted idiom really means. (48)

A Native American Myth
Read the story.
[Then] fill in each missing cause and effect. (82 & 83)

That's the Point!
Read the persuasive paragraph. Then answer the questions.
Now it's your turn to write a persuasive paragraph.
First think about an issue you feel strongly about.
Use some of the persuasive words from the Word Box to strengthen your writing. (124 & 125)

Multiplying by One
Find the product of each multiplication problem. (178)

Rosie's Restaurant
Read each fraction problem.
Write the equation in the box.
Then write your answer on the line. (214 & 215)

It's About Time
Write the time below each clock.
[Next] Answer the questions. (240 & 241)

What Came First?
Use the time line and your knowledge of history to answer each question.
Circle the correct answer. (277)

Each of the volumes in this series (pre-K through Grade 4) would be an excellent book for parents, grandparents, and others to purchase and then share with a child at an appropriate stage of her or his development. No doubt there are precocious children who will prefer more challenging material associated with later grades but I think it would be a mistake to rush the learning process. Worse yet, to indicate little interest in it.

Congratulations to the Workman Publishing Company and especially to the editors of Brain Quest. How pleased they must be to know that their materials have already helped to nourish so many young minds and to delight so many young hearts and, fortunately, will continue to do so for the development of other children in months and years to come

Every child develops different skills at different levels, so it's difficult to find developmental workbooks that are targeted exactly for where your kid is at. However, BrainQuest Pre-K does a fabulous job at providing a variety of educational activities in their workbook that is great for children at different stages of their learning and development.

The book states that it is targeted for ages 4-5, but I would have to say that some of the exercises will be quite easy for some 4-5 year-olds. So, I would say that you can probably use this workbook for ages 2-5. (Of course, you have to select and target the activities to your child's specific learning level.)

The table of contents include 10 different areas of learning: ABCs, 123s, Phonics, Vocab, Shapes & Colors, Sorting & Matching, My World, Science, Fun & Games, and Extras. As I said, there's a range of difficulty levels within each section. For instance, in the ABC section, there's a lot of exercises with identification of capital and lower-case letters. This is something that my 2 year old (and maybe your 1-3 year old) can already do. But then, there's a section on pre-writing the alphabet, which helps kids start to write each of these letters. The numbers section also has figure identification (which my 2 year old has down) but also teaches the concept of numerosity (i.e. not just counting or recognizing the numbers, but actually UNDERSTANDING the concept of numbers) through presenting pictures of lions or trucks or boots and asking "How many are there?".

I also love the section on Shapes and Colors which allow children some free form thinking and creativity with the workbook. They provide large blank space with a prompt like "Can you think of something purple?" and ask the child to color it. It's wonderful. The extras section has a bunch of flashcards with questions on one side and the answers on the other. It is a compilation of all the things the child should learn from the workbook. You can cut them out and use them as actual flashcards.

Other things that I like: The book is large, but not overly so. It's about 12 inches tall and 8 inches wide and 2 inches thick. The paper is not too thin, so the flashcards may be a little flimsy, but not too bad if you take care of them. But the best things may be the wonderful fold out alphabet poster that you can put on the wall or the STICKERS! There are 150 stickers for those of you who have little sticker fiends. Half of them are stickers of the capital letters of the alphabet, but half of them are pictures of little cats, dogs, mice, lions, or rabbits saying things like: "Yeah!" "Cool!" or "Wow!"

A WONDERFUL book and highly recommended for your 2-5 year old.

The Pre-K edition, a large collection of tear out work sheets, lists ages 4-5 on it. I think this book is suitable, in one way or another, for children as young as 2 up to the age of 6. One could sit down with a younger child and talk through some of the worksheets together as a great introduction to basic concepts (colors, matching, etc). For an older child, some of these might make nice 'rainy day' activity sheets, or for times out in public where you need to occupy them.
There is very little direction or instruction given on how to use them/incorporate them at home. My intention is to use them less for structured curriculum, but more for applying already understood concepts (colors, shapes) to my two and a half year old as well as for the introduction of new concepts (sorting, letter and number characters). Then, when she's a little older, or ready, I plan to use the writing (ABC, 123) and phonics chapters in more of a, loose, home/un school type set up.
As mentioned, the worksheets are tear out, which is great. However, I do wish the book would've been formated so that when you tore out one sheet, the same 'activity/exercise' was on both sides. It is formated in a book style so that when it's open, you're viewing the exercise on two pages. Thus, if you tear out a page, you are losing half from the exercise before, or after along with the one you want.
Overall, this is a great resource to have on hand for a multitude of ages and purposes!

I have two little girls and lots of PreK workbooks in our house. I ordered this not thinking it would really be any different than the ones I have. BUT, it is! It really is better than the other books I've seen on the market. I love the pictures and the colors on the pages. It is easy to look at and clear. The publisher didn't pack the pages with information, but just put on there what was important. There is a section on safety and another one on science which are completely appropriate for a PREK 4 yr old.

The one thing I would say is that it doesn't have any instructions for parents going through it with their child and you do need to sit down with them to read the instructions on each page.

These are my observations that I wish I had known before trying to teach my older daughter her letters (but now I know). I hope this will be helpful to share them in this review because it is relevant to using this book. To begin reading instruction with children, first children need to learn to recognize all of the letters (the first section of this book), and then learn the sounds that go with them (which this book put in the second section). Not all 4 year olds have developed their fine motor skills enough to write and learn how to write their letters, but they can experiment. When using this book and teaching them how to write their letters, have them trace the letters several times with their index finger before they try to write. They have to imprint it in their brain what the letter looks like. It is really easy for me to get frustrated and think that my children should remember what the letter looks like, but I know I shouldn't. It takes all children time to make those connections and a lot of practice.

One more quick note that really encouraged my husband. When children are learning to count, don't get frustrated when they struggle to count one number for each item. It is completely natural. They are learning one to one correspondence. Developing Number Concepts, bk 1 by Kathy Richardson has a great introduction that explains what young children struggle with when they are learning to count. I did not understand it at all until I read her book. It helped me to have a lot more patience with my children after I learned that and now I have gotten to see how my oldest daughter really can count this year after a lot of practice last year.

This is a great book and I do highly recommend this book if it is what you are looking for!

We've been using the BrainQuest card sets in our family for over a year, so we've used both the set for 3 year olds and the set for 4 year olds. I was excited to give this book a try, and we are really delighted with the variety of activities inside. The book is divided into nine sections -- ABCs, 123s, Phonics, Vocabulary, Shapes and Colors, Sorting and Matching, My World, Science, and Fun and Games. In addition, there are alphabet (capital letters only) and star stickers, character stickers, and an alphabet poster included as well. All pages are perforated for easy removal from the book. There are lots of letter and number tracing activities, as well as matching -- uppercase to lowercase letters, circling groups of objects that have the same number of objects, and even identifying twins in the "Sorting and Matching" section.

Each activity will require some parental involvement -- some may require only that you explain the instructions, while others, depending on your child, may require more discussion and interaction. The pages are colorful and the illustrated characters are cute. The "Sorting and Matching" and "My World" sections are full of funny, fascinating pictures to look at (I'm enjoying the "silly scenes" in "Sorting and Matching," which have pictures of "something wrong" like a kitchen with a TV inside the refrigerator and a bathroom with a tree in the tub!) All of this makes a very engaging activity book. I expect that this book will help pass the time on many a cold, wet afternoon this winter. And it's educational to boot!

This book is a great tool to help parents teach (or reinforce what they have already learned) their kids basics such as alphabet, numbers, colors, shapes, etc.

Colors and drawings throughout are appealing and helpful. This workbook does a nice job of having a variety of activities included so that things do not get boring and at the same time there is enough repetition and simple instruction so none of the activities are overwhelming.

With over 300 pages, I think it is a good value because there is so much to keep a little one busy and learning.

I appreciate the tear-out pages because then you can take just a few pages with you on the road instead of always having to bring the whole book.

As a mom, I am grateful that there are quality tools like this one to help me in teaching my daughter.

I happened to be in a bookstore in Williamsburg, Virginia, when the delightful author was there signing her books. Our son is too old for this book, but we immediately purchased a copy for the silent auction at his school. This is a delightful book that I've enjoyed reading myself. I can imagine that parents and their children will have many happy, snuggly bedtimes together reading this lovely book.

There is an excellent story, and the illustrations are beyond words to describe. The entire book is a quality production, and is a must-have for families who are looking for books that not only entertain and stir the imagination, but thoughtfully teach teamwork, hope, curiosity, kindness (which this world could use more of!), courtesy, manners, and much more. This book will open up avenues for conversations with children and allow us to teach them our values in a way that doesn't seem "preachy" and is a lot of fun. I recommend this book very highly, and will be giving it as gifts to young nieces and nephews, and hopefully to my future grandchildren! I can't say enough good things about The Bramble Thicket...the book speaks for itself. I'm sure it is destined to become a future classic.

Composed from an original manuscript used in elementary schools and highly acclaimed by students and teachers, Deborah E. Thomas' The Bramble Thicket offers an engaging narrative for children ready to progress from picture books to more complex reading titles. The story follows eight rainbow-colored, friendly bears searching for a new home after losing their old one to a forest fire. When they discover a "girl with wheels" lost in the forest, they take on one obstacle after another to help her return home. The Bramble Thicket is filled with adventure, colorful and gentle paintings by former Disney contract artist James Seward, and a positive, uplifting message about help and kindess.

This is a super, high quality hardcover with beautiful illustrations. Parents and children will both be drawn in by the story and its characters. Kids will love the colorful (literally!) bears and their endearing personality traits, while parents will enjoy the book for its emphasis on moral values and the importance of good manners. The book would make a wonderful gift for any family, to be cherished for years. I look forward to more adventures with the Bramble Thicket bears!

By the end of the first chapter, I had fallen in love with the eight adorable bears in this book. My children (ages 2-7) had fallen in love with them from the moment I opened to that first page. The colorful pictures kept the smaller ones entranced, while the morality and adventure of the storyline "hooked" the older one! I cannot recommend this book enough. As a matter of fact, we also got one for our church preschool!

I collect carousel material and do glass painting and polymer clay.this book is such an inspiration.Its one of the best to just have and try out techniques before making that color choice on the real thing.B.W.

Based on the reviews here, I bought this for my niece's birthday. She loved it so much she has carried it around with her for weeks. And she will not share it with her sister, so I am buying another one for her sister for Christmas.

This is a must-have for carousel enthusiasts(sp?)!The drawings are large and easy to see,and kids will spend a while coloring the pictures!

Carousel collectors and children who love to color will appreciate the attention to detail and beautiful blackline illustrations of this book. Many styles are represented, presentation is accurate and merry-go-rounds are always a favorite. Sure to be a best-seller in museums, bookstores, and amusement sites. Not limited to ponies, the book contains other creatures as well -- I particularly liked the tiger! I also liked the create-a-pony page, where young artists may add their own details to the drawing. Price is within even a limited budget.

This is a very good book on no matter who you are you can always make a friend.

When I first received this book, I thought my 6 yr. old niece would think it was a "baby" book, with only one easy sentence per page. Was I wrong! She read the sentence on each page, then grinned as she looked at each picture. She laughed out loud when she got to the page of them making faces at each other. She even went back to the book later to look up that page and laugh again. I can tell it will be one of our favorites.

When I first received this book, I thought my 6 yr. old niece would think it was a "baby" book, with only one easy sentence per page. Was I wrong! She read the sentence on each page, then grinned as she looked at each picture. She laughed out loud when she got to the page of them making faces at each other. She even went back to the book later to look up that page and laugh again. I can tell it will be one of our favorites.

This is an excellent book for beginning readers. There is a lot of repetition and simple words early readers will recognize. And of course, it's Clifford!

Unwrap and unfold the entire book to receive a pop-up house and a small monkey, complete with two 20-page booklets stored in the pockets. Kids ages 3 and older will enjoy playing with the 43 press-outs and cardboard figures of this pop-up house with scenes based on the classic George.

Bought this to take on a trip for those down times when something quiet is a good thing for everyone. This is a fantastic playset for kids very familiar with Curious George- great gift for 3 or 4 year olds! Lots of punchout pieces (best stored in a ziplock rather than the book's envelope). My 4 year old LOVES this!

My daughter was given this book for her 3rd birthday and LOVES it! It has literally provided hours of entertainment every day since then. We've lost a couple pieces and parts of the house are torn apart but she keeps playing with it. It's so great that I've purchased a few as gifts myself. I highly recomend it paired with the Curious George story book.

I highly recommend this pop up 3 D hous book!!
Also, I recommend to buy this with other curious george series~
Kids would love them all!

This is such a good book for each grade. I highly recommend it. They are short problems for each day and my twins don't mind doing them once a day (sometimes they even do more!). It reinforces what they already learned, which gives them the confidence to continue. This book also challenges them on other types problems that require me to explain, but the concept here is to get them thinking and possibly even get them prepared for what they will soon cover in school.

i got this book to keep my ingoing fourth grader focused during the summer. It has short varied activities that she looks forward to doing on a daily basis. The problem set only takes about a half an hour to complete and discuss. Great little workbook!

The book presents 36 weeks of work in M-F segments. The segments are short so there has never been a battle with my son over doing them. He is in 5th and I am using this to keep his skills fresh as they delve into newer concepts. It covers basic math facts such as add/sub/mult/div as well as ratios, some geometry and word problems. Good all-around review.

The Daily Math Practice is a wonderful tool to help keep the students up on all math skills thanks to the wide variety of problems. It is quick and easy to use in the classroom.

Excellent daily practice for those little-ones having a hard task in breaking down "word problems". Not overwhelming, but simple clear exercises. I would recommend this booklet.Daily Word Problems, Grade 2 (Daily Word Problems)

My Child is a bit of a slow, when it comes to reading, and Math that's why a got her this book to help her boost her understanding of Math and Reading.
So far, so good she is doing A lot better, but to make sure she get it is better I sit and help when she get stuck.
Overall this is a great book to help you 2nd greader, with Math and reading.

This was my daughter's favorite book last year. She begged me to get the third grade one for this coming year as well. She liked the different themes every week (she would try to guess the next theme and enjoyed the anticipation). The problems themselves were solid (made the kids think) but not overly tricky. She solved 95% of them with no guidance at all (I will state math is her strong subject though). Overall, this is a great book to get kids enthusiastic about word problems.

My 7 year old loves to work on the daily problems before school. It has helped him become a better math student.

For those of us who admire, collect, make and renovate 1920s and 20s-inspired art dolls, Susanna Oroyan has written a thoughtful volume focusing on boudoir dolls from the Art Deco period. Although the topic is covered better visually in another of my favorites, "The Magic and Romance of Art Dolls" by Stephanie Farago, the strength of this book is in Oroyan's excellent research, writing and wonderful storytelling ability. Her fresh and fun-loving writing style shines in this book (the illustrative drawings also are quite good.)

Unlike her other fine books, which focus more directly on the art, design and mechanics of doll-making, this book is a loving tribute to a period, aesthetic and style of doll that she very much values, appreciates and knows well. And for that we can be thankful, as Oroyan has contributed so largely to the doll-making world, with her vision, her instruction, and her art.

Highly recommended as another fine book to add to the resource library of "students of the doll."

In Dolls Of The Art Deco Era, dollmaker Oroyan provides a survey of the history, makers and collectible items of the art deco era, providing both a step-by-step set of instructions for reproducing the style of doll popular in the era and covering the history of dollmaking during the era, and restoration techniques after. Packed with ideas crafts and collectors alike will appreciate.

a real authentic and easy way to understand and MAKE dolls.
mrs.Oroyan must be a magician to write so many books,so variabile & so full of culture & reserch that is related to the art, craft, etc...
the book is reach, easy and wonderfull for the dollmaker! even
for the beginer! www.geocities.com/pushadolls/

there is no other book that gives so much information on bed dolls called boudoir dolls. This is like a "bible" for doll collectors. You do not need another book if you have this one.

An excellent book! My 5 year old has improved dramatically thanks to this wonderful book on addition. The use of Dominos is such a clever idea. We use our own set of Dominos to practice and my son loves it.

I liked this book because it can teach little kids addition. So thay know how to do pluses. It has a great ending on it. This book goes all the way to twelve. A lot of kids would realy like this book. Maybe all the little kids on earth would realy like this book a lot.

Using dominoes is a great tool for teaching young children how to add. Perfect for 4-5 year olds....this book was too basic for my first grader. The only problem is you're limited to combinations up to 6. For example, you are not able to make 10 using 7 plus 3. All combinations need to be learned (obviously!) and this cannot be done with this method. It's still a fun and interesting way for young children to learn the basics.

I have just borrowed this book from a library and my four year old loves it. I had no idea, till today, that he can actually understand that 2+2=4 and that also 3+1=4. But today everything seemed so easy and so fun. We have seen quite a few "counting" books and this is so far the best of them. Another one I can reccomend is "My first number book" by Marie Heinst