susiej/reviews

Five-year-olds live in a wonderful magical world, when recognizing the letter “B” is an amazing discovery. So, I was thrilled when the Parent Bloggers Network planned a School Zone launch and asked me to review both the School Zone Kindergarten Magnetic Tin and the Start to Read Level 1. “Finally,” my 5-year-old said, “I can start doing my homework.” I was glad the kit arrived when it did. School Zone’s products are no stranger in our house, and I know that their award-winning educational products have always stood up to the rigorous durablitly tests my boys give them. This tin and kit are no exceptions.

The box was barely in my house for 10 seconds before it was opened, and all four boys were busy helping to organize the 137 letter, number, and shape magnets. I was so happy to see that the entire case is fully magnetized, inside and out. Wow. A toy designed with common sense. The tin keeps all the magnets corralled in one case. The case opens to create a dry erase board and a lap worktable. This is the best toy for travel.

Yes, 137 magnets is a lot for a little guy to manage. And these are small magnets. The small size is good for building dexterity in their fingers, as they work to match the shapes and letters on the printed color grid on the tin. But, I would suggest keeping the numbers, letters and shapes separate, so that your child will only need to track one set at a time. There are also 10 larger softly-padded “pillow” magnets that my 3-year old loved.

There is a dry-erase marker so that he can practice writing his name, and then use the little portable eraser to wipe off, and try again. But writing is just something my 5-year-old is not interested in right now.

And that brings me to something else that I love about this kit. It grows with your child. Today, maybe all he would like to do is listen to one of the 2 audio story CDs in the Start to Read, and follow along and look at the pictures in the matching storybooks. Tomorrow, he may want to break open the journal and try a little scribbling, or use the stickers to make a story.

You, the parent, as the organizer and keeper of these pieces, can refer to the teaching guidelines. If you’re short on ways to wow your child, the kits provide lots of additional activities. For example, creating a treasure hunt by writing clues on cards.

But even though the title of the product is Start to Read don’t let yourself get caught up in a contest with your child. The key word here is “Start.” Once our children feel like they need to preform, or if they sense our own pressure for them to get it right, the magic is lost. This is a great kit for fueling your child’s built-in intrinsic sense of discovery. This is the perfect tool to do that.

The only bad thing? The title of one of the kit’s storybooks is “I Want A Pet.” I’m just not ready for all of that again.

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