Hello everyone!
I already wrote about the School of Seven Gnomes for 3-4 year olds. But we ended up doing it before my kid was 3 years old. He fell in love with these books and loved doing them, so we completed all 12 books in 1.5-2 months. And of course, later on, he'd occasionally remember them and ask me to buy more. But these next books were for kids aged 4-5 years. We were a bit too young, but we decided to get them eventually, and at that time, my kid was 3 years and 4 months old.
WHERE TO BUY. PRICE
We bought it at Detsky Mir. The annual set of 12 books costs 1199 rubles.
DESCRIPTION FROM THE MANUFACTURER
The materials were developed in accordance with modern educational standards and will be useful for both parents and professionals: educators, methodologists, and governesses.
This set includes a complete annual course of lessons for children aged 4-5 years. The fifth year of life is a period of intense growth and development in the child's body. Their perception becomes more developed: they can recognize and name simple shapes, recreate complex objects from them. Their imagination and figurative thinking are actively developing, and their stability is increasing, with a significant development of visual activity.
A four-year-old child is more selective in their communication, and games are still very important for them. They start to form permanent partners in games. At the age of 4-5 years, competitiveness and rivalry appear, which are essential for the development of a child's self-image, its detailing.
ABOUT THE SET
The books are packed in a cardboard box with bright packaging, and there's a gnome on the cover.
You can see the images of other books in the set on the back. There aren't any gnomes there, just penguins.
Inside, there are 12 books and a diploma that you need to give to your child after completing all the books.
There's also a sheet of achievements where you can mark the completed books.
AGE. MY RELATIONSHIP WITH THESE BOOKS
Every kid's different, and they all develop at their own pace. So, of course, you've got to remember that these books were created to certain standards, where it's laid out what kids should know by the time they're 4 or 5. Our kids aren't exactly standard, and that's awesome. So, I think it's a total waste of time to worry about whether your kid's getting the hang of things or not.
I went into these books with a pretty open mind. For me, they're just another set of developmental books. As long as they're not riddled with obvious errors and they've got some useful info that's presented in an engaging way, that's a win in my book. They cost 1,200 rubles, which isn't bad when you compare it to the 3,500 rubles we pay for a month's worth of daycare in our city. That works out to about 100 rubles per book.
I buy a lot of developmental materials for my son, and I usually get them from Sima-Land because they're so affordable. You can read my review of the store here. I've seen the same materials in bookstores for twice the price.
For me, the most important thing is not to freak out if my kid's struggling in a particular area. These activities with little kids aren't just about mastering the material - they're also about teaching them to be patient, to persevere, and to communicate effectively. They're learning to read, write, and count, but it's not just about the skills themselves.
The key at this age is to make sure they're having fun, not dreading the process. Let them enjoy the journey, not just see it as a chore.
Each book on its own
Time and space
The tasks in this book are pretty similar to the ones in the 'Time and Space' book for 3-4 year olds. You can check out the photos of the books in my review (link at the top of this review). The tasks are similar, with a focus on helping kids use prepositions like 'over', 'under', and 'in'.
The coloring task in this book is similar to the one in the 3-4 year old book, but with different pictures. There's also a task that tests kids' understanding of the words 'left' and 'right'. In the 3-4 year old book, there were similar tasks, but they were a bit easier. This book assumes kids can already count, which is a big assumption. In our case, we did the counting book first, and then moved on to this one. It's probably better to do the counting book first, especially if your kid is still struggling with numbers.
Inside the book, there's a cardboard insert with different activities. Each book has its own set of tasks. In this one, we had to cut out a mushroom to practice using prepositions to describe objects in space. And there are cards to help my kid remember the seasons. These activities are meant to be done repeatedly. If my kid completes the book and doesn't go back to it, these tasks remain to reinforce what they've learned.
In the task on the photo below, we were asked to draw a mushroom to the right of the girl. But we had to draw it to the left, so for the girl, it would be to the right, and for us, it's to the left. Essentially, the task is written incorrectly, and it can be interpreted in two ways. For kids who are still learning to distinguish between left and right, the explanation needs to be more straightforward.
Inside the book, there's a insert with stickers. The stickers are what got my kid excited about these books. He loves the idea of completing a task and sticking a sticker on it.
Colorful Toy
This book is all about introducing kids to different types of traditional toys. I, myself, wasn't familiar with all of them. Each page has a description of a different toy, like bogorodskaya, dymkovskaya, and gorodetskaya, and you have to color them in the correct way.
The book is interesting, and the information is great for expanding your knowledge. However, my kid will likely forget most of what they read unless they revisit the book. This is one of the books we didn't throw away after completing it.
Inside the insert, we had to cut out and assemble a barishnya, and we also had to color in two toys, a man and a woman. My kid enjoyed coloring on the smooth paper, and it turned out really well.
I'm glad I stumbled upon this one, because we already have A Child's Encyclopedia. The Amazing World of Dinosaurs and Reptiles on hand, but one never hurts, right? This book tells the story in a super simple way - it's about a boy who has toy dinosaurs, and his grandfather, a paleontologist, explains their characteristics to his grandson.
The stickers are to be stuck on randomly, because there are no specific tasks. All you need to do is color in the dinosaurs.
The insert inside is a puzzle - you need to put the picture together.
My kid isn't really into coloring, to be honest. Sometimes he does it with interest, tries his best, and sometimes he just doesn't want to. And in these books, there are often tasks that require coloring, so I have to skip them or we both try to do it together, and then we work on it enthusiastically.
Language Development
As the title suggests, this book is designed to help improve a child's language skills.
I've got to say, the task on using the right pronouns 'my, mine, my own' was a no-brainer for a 4-5 year old. They're already using these words in their speech, and parents are always there to correct them if they make a mistake)
There were a few times when my son didn't understand what was expected of him, so I just explained it to him. For example, the task on word formation was a bit tricky for him to grasp at first. Why is a 'button' called a 'button'? I don't think every kid would know the answer right off the bat - 'because it's used to fasten clothes'. My son had never even seen those kinds of buttons before) But that doesn't mean it's a bad task. Even if he didn't get it right away, we can try again later. We started playing with antonyms when he was around 2 years old, and he could only say 'big' and 'small' at first) But he loved the game, and now we can play it on the go - I come up with words, and he comes up with antonyms. It's fun and educational) Word formation can be made into a game too)
The task in 3 required us to find a common thread between two objects. And there's a little boat on green waves. The two objects are connected because they're both made of paper. We had to figure out that the wave is made of paper. What's the point of this task, you ask? To me, it's amazing they couldn't come up with something more straightforward and visually appealing.
In task 5, part 2, they ask the kid to say which animal makes a certain sound. And they've got a chicken on the list, but the picture is actually of a duck.
The instruction booklet has pictures of animals with their family members and how they communicate) But it's not 'ga-ga-ga' - that's something they learned in infancy) The sheep baas, the bear growls, the fox barks, and so on. And there are cards with colors.
What's made of what?
This book is all about what things around us are made of. It's useful and educational) Yes, there are some complex words in it, but I didn't really focus on them.
When I flipped through the insert, I noticed the metal items. There's a picture of a blacksmith hammering away at the metal. The task was to come up with a sentence using the words blacksmith, forge, anvil, hammer, furnace, and iron. I only learned what a furnace is thanks to Google - it's a furnace for melting metals. I managed to get by without that info before, but nowadays kids need to know everything. I didn't even ask my son to do it; I just pointed out the items on the picture and came up with the sentence myself.
But the insert in this book is actually really cool! It's a domino game with pictures from the book. I cut out all the pictures, put them in a bag, and we play it from time to time. I guess it's the only book where the inserts were actually interesting for us. My son figured out what materials the dominoes are made of after just one game - thanks to the Origami Подарочный набор 3 в 1: лото, мемо, домино + 3 мини-пазла. "Фиксики" set. We also have another one with Pippi Longstocking, and those are the games we actually play, not just throw on a shelf.
Who's the best?
This one's a book we'll read later. There aren't any tasks besides the insert, so it's basically a really short book. It was fun and educational to read.
One of the coolest things about this book is that you get to cut out pictures from a poster and stick them into the right place in the book.
Fast, Higher, Stronger
This book is all about sports, and it's got a ton of different types of sports that my kid had never even heard of. To make it more interesting, I showed him some short videos from the Olympics, but I'm not sure if he remembers them now. It was still pretty cool at the time, though!
The activities in this book are actually pretty cool. You get to train your kid in different sports, and they get to earn medals and diplomas. It would be even more fun if you had a few kids to compete with, though - that way, it's like a real competition!
Logic and thinking
I was surprised by the logical thinking exercises in this set. We've seen similar tasks before, but they're not easy for kids. The more they practice, the faster they'll understand the connections.
There are also magic squares, which are a bit more challenging than logical sequences.
Other tasks include finding a general term, identifying similar objects, and finding differences.
I was a bit disappointed with the game that comes with this set. We played it once and it was boring. There's also a picture to color, which is similar to a task from a set for 3-4 year olds.
Stars and planets for kids
We have a book on this topic - Cosmos. The Amazing Encyclopedia. Disney Academy.
This set includes information about constellations and planets, along with a worksheet where you have to glue in pictures of the planets, which you need to cut out yourself.
It's also a mini-encyclopedia that you can leave for later reference.
Counting, shape, and size
I noticed that this book is similar to another one from the 3-4 year old book set. There was also a separate book called 'Counting to 5'. So, it's the same thing, but with different activities.
In the insert, there's a gnome figure that I showed earlier. Cards for different games. What's interesting is that there are no tasks for the carrot and strawberry cards. It's probably just for practicing knowledge of comparison signs. By the way, we didn't have comparison tasks before.
Alphabet for toddlers
This book was also in the previous set, but the shapes for tracing are a bit more complex here.
The insert was there too, in the same vein.
Lessons in literacy.
I was actually looking forward to doing this book, but we ended up leaving it for last. We've got a Bukvar for future straight-A students. Olesya Zhukova for learning letters and reading.
The tasks, to be honest, didn't seem that complicated at first glance. But I'd read reviews saying the book is tough even for kids aged 4-5. So we put it off for now. If my kid wants to do it, we'll give it a go.
THE VERDICT
We really enjoyed the books! We didn't complete them as quickly as the 3-4 year course because our son became less of a 'jack-of-all-trades'. Now he knows when and what he wants to do, so we did these books in between other resources. We stretched them out over six months, although you could definitely finish them in 1-2 months.
The books on topics like 'Logic, Thinking', 'Speech Development', 'Counting, Shape, Size', 'Grammar Lessons', 'Time, Space', and 'Alphabet for Little Ones' are available in both the 3-4 year and 4-5 year sets. The tasks are similar, but slightly more challenging.
There are a lot of books that are just for reading. They're designed to introduce kids to new topics: dinosaurs, planets, colorful toys, Olympic sports, materials, and the like. They're also about the most amazing animals and plants.
I'll say it again - at this age, parents shouldn't overdo it with lessons. It's not just about teaching kids to be patient, curious, and interested in learning, but also about training parents to be supportive in their help. After all, there's a lot more to come, so don't force them to do things they don't want to do. We need to learn how to present information, new tasks, in a way that makes them appealing, not a chore. If the child struggles, they should learn to ask for help, explain what they don't understand, so they're not afraid of complexity and don't shut the book with 'I'll go play with my toy car instead.'
As for which books to get, that's up to you! I tried to show a lot of photos so you can decide for yourself if you need them or not.
Good luck with your learning!
