Science Pre K & Up Sticker Activity Book

Ineffective – tricks you into thinking learning occured.I was looking for a sticker based workbook that taught science concepts to a just 3 year old boy. (We were able to find that type of workbook for all other subject areas, just not for science). I like Kumon’s dexterity books for 2 year olds like cutting and folding, so I thought I would give Kumon a chance. However, this workbook’s sticker section is SO easy that a 2 year old could do it without reading or learning anything. In fact, the book is so ineffective at teaching science concepts that I cannot recommend it to anyone. (I am an educator who specializes in science education, so my opinion is worth considering.)First, you need to do this workbook along with your child (even if your child can read). Why? because it is possible to place all the stickers correctly merely based on SHAPE and/or COLOR alone OR by looking at the answer key in the back of the workbook. In fact, a two year old can place the stickers correctly without reading the instructions, reading the concept’s explanation, or understanding/learning the concept in any way. Color-coding and/or shape-coding the stickers was an extremely bad choice by the publisher. Coding serves only one purpose – to give the appearance of learning because a page is completed correctly, BUT without any way to know if the child actually learned anything or even read the material. So this book tricks parents into thinking their kid learned something when the child may merely be matching colors and shapes (a 1-2 year old task). Therefore, to get anything out of this book, YOU the parent must be involved. One option is you do the entire workbook with the child – You explain the concept, discuss the stickers and have the child decide where it should go BEFORE looking at the workbook page where the answer would be given away, then allow the child to put the stickers on the page. Another option is to let the child put the workbook together knowing full well there is going to be a quiz afterward and then you ask the child to explain WHY for each answer on each page (to show you they learned the concept instead of matching colors and shapes). This second option will be harder than the first, because the workbook is already done in the child’s mind so they are not going to want to engage, whereas the former method takes place as the book is completed in real time when the child is more willing to engage. In my opinion, if a parent has to put that much effort into a sticker workbook simply to force the workbook to be an effective teaching tool, then it is not worth the price point.Second, the book does not even try to build mastery of those concepts in any way. For example, living vs. non-living is covered on only one page with two stickers. There are no review pages, no repeat practice, and nothing to ensure that something is learned and remembered. This it is a sticker workbook, where each concept is essentially mentioned once and essentially are forgotten just as quickly. So, for true mastery to occur, that means the parent has to supplement for every single science concept. For example: to teach the living vs. nonliving effectively, I would need flashcards of many objects (I would probably use the images on first word flashcards) and then have the child sort them into living and non-living – this could be repeated over and over with many different images until the child got it right, could explain WHY something was or was not alive, and had no errors. Therefore, if the parent must add in supplementary materials and projects for every single topic this workbook presents in order for a child to learn anything – why get the workbook in the first place?Third, teaching science concepts in mazes was grossly inappropriate for this age group and the mazes were also extremely ineffective at teaching the concepts. Frankly, Kumon should remove all 5 mazes from the sticker book (as they are a waste of learning space) and replace those pages with something that matches the rest of the workbook, builds mastery of concepts, and reviews learning.Lastly, the book feels SO SHORT and WAY TOO simple. There are 48 pages for the student/child to complete (5 are mazes we skipped). Yet, those 48 pages speed through ideas at such a rate (one concept a page) that it leaves you feeling “unsatisfied” like there should have been more to it. Most of the sticker pages have only 2-3 stickers too so those activities speed by as well. For example, the book only classifies mammals and not mammals – it does not even deal with other animal classifications like fish and birds which even a my 2 year old already knows. Mentioning something once, in a brief way, and then speeding by it is not effective nor is it satisfying. Sure your child might feel proud they did the whole workbook, but seriously they could do all of it in one sitting and with questionable learning outcomes.Overall, if you child is ages 4 or up, you really should find a better science workbook (or better yet, READ a lot of science books at the library). If you have a 2-3 year old, you can use this workbook, but to make it an effective teaching tool, you have to put a lot of effort into it. As for myself, I wish I never bought this workbook. I can find a lot of free stuff online to teach each concept that is more effective and memorable.