Ever heard of TouchMath? I hadn’t…not sure why…this is an AMAZING program!
Oh my goodness – can you say, “Mom couldn’t open the boxes fast enough?” My son was super excited about this from the second he saw it! This is an wonderful program that uses a serious HANDS ON approach to learning numbers and math.
I was provided the Preschool Curriculum, the Touch Shapes, the Texture Cards and the 3-D Numerals.
The curriculum ($59.95) is 203 pages consisting of six modules and is meant to be a complete (not supplemental) program. The modules cover:
- Counting and Number Sense
- Comparing and Classifying
- Sorting, Classifying, Graphing, and Patterning
- Identifying, Sorting, and Classifying 2-D Shapes
- Identifying, Sorting, and Classifying 3-D Shapes
- Representing Quantities and Numbers
The Touch Shapes ($30.00) are 108 plastic shape pieces. There are six shapes in six colors in three sizes. These are wonderful because they show the student that regardless of color and size, it is still the same shape. These are also handy for sorting by size. We used these quite a bit with this program.
The Texture Cards ($99.00) are very unique! They are six sets of nine cards (45 cards total). The sets are: TouchPoint Texture, Animal Texture, Shape Texture, Sea Life Texture and Fruit Texture. We only used a couple of these sets in our review time and although this program can easily be done without these, I would highly recommend them for younger preschoolers as I can really see how they would help them learn that a number is something more than just something on paper. For instance, the Animal Texture number 5 shows five donkeys. As the child touches the soft fur of each donkey, and counts to five, they are learning in SO MANY WAYS!
The 3-D Numerals ($79.00) are such an amazing way to teach learners who need to touch to understand. I absolutely LOVE these! They are such an easy way for kids to learn! For the most part we used these as a way to put numbers in order and to pick which number goes between others and things like that.
“The TouchMath Pre-K Homeschool Program is designed to build the pre-K foundational skills that will lead to success in kindergarten.”…”At the pre-K level, mastery of each skill is not the goal. The goal is exposure to the skills through experiential activities to build the foundation for kindergarten success.”
At first I had a hard time putting all the pieces together for this…but once I figured it out, it was VERY EASY. I ended up printing most of the pages and putting them into a binder with separators for each module. Once that was done, ALL the work for the teacher / parent is prepared for you and I LOVE THAT!
The actual curriculum works by itself – you do not NEED the manipulatives to complete it. However, I HIGHLY suggest them as they are the part that really “completes the picture” for the kids. Although you can use “everyday items” if you’d like – to me this added some FUN to the program. It added items that my son didn’t use other than when learn with this curriculum. That makes is more fun!
In all honesty, I think this program was a bit easy for my five year old son. However, I still TOTALLY LOVE the concept behind this curriculum! I can definitely see how this program would be beneficial for those with special needs.
Here are some the pages he did:
Make sure to hop over and see what my other crew mates had to say (this program covers PreK through 2nd Grade):
Here’s praying you have fun learning!
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this product through the Schoolhouse Review Crew in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way. All opinions I have expressed are my own or those of my family. I am disclosing this in accordance with the FTC Regulations.
[I think it's called a unit study, right?] 
