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This week my children have had the pleasure of not only reading a story, but creating a story. They have done this by playing/reading along with
Flip Along Fun. How can you play with a book, you ask. Author Michael J. Dowling explains how the book works:
Flip Along Fun is a board book with nine pages. Each page is divided horizontally into three panels. The child starts creating the story by randomly picking any one of the nine panels on the left, and then continues by choosing any of the nine panels from the middle. In the process, the child is learning animals, colors, numbers, sequencing, rhymes, and beginning/middle/end.
To end the story and learn the concept of matching, the child finds the one panel on the right (there's always only one right match) that contains all of the animals pictured in the first two panels. When the animals match up, the numbers add up. So Flip Along Fun teaches addition, too!
For example, to learn what happened when "3 pink pigs dancing jolly jigs" (panel 1) "saw 2 yellow cats in very funny hats" (panel 2), the child looks for the one matching panel (panel 3) that contains 3 pigs and 2 cats. And there's the answer: "They all 5 had a laugh while they sat in the bath"! When the animal illustrations match up, the numbers add up!
Both Kennedy and Zach are really enjoying reading
Flip Along Fun. For Kennedy, she loves all the rhymes and silliness of the stories that we can create. We can not wait to share this book with her class. She is in a special education class and I think with the varying cognitive levels in her class this book will offer something for all of them. Whether it is working on matching, counting or identifying colors, numbers and animals....There is something fun for all!
I think Zach gets the most out of the book. He has always loved numbers, so having a number on every card in the story really drew him in. He loves being able to point out all the numbers, count the animals, and now we are teaching him addition by adding in the third card. This also really helps him creatively. He has fun choosing which cards he wants to flip to next.
This book is recommended for 2-6 year old children. I think these recommendations are right on. I really can see this lasting that long. The younger children can start out with some simple color, animal, or number recognition and the silliness of the stories...and then as they get older you can add in counting and then addition.
The illustrations, by Sarah Buell Dowling(wife of the author), are really cute. They are very colorful and full of life. She really brings out the silliness of the characters. Just looking at the animals' faces make you want to smile.
Michael Dowling loves working with his wife and this is what he says when asked, "What is it like to work as a team?"
It's a hoot! I love watching her illustrate my ideas and bring them to life. We laugh a lot as she is drawing the characters and giving them personalities. Most authors and illustrators don't even know each other. But I think it's a big advantage for us to be able to work closely together. We're able to interact and improve the book as we go along.
As for the costruction of the book, this is another plus. It is large size (9" X 12")sturdy board book. I agree that this large size makes it ideal for group settings, one-on-one interactions, or independent play. The pages are very sturdy and can withstand the young children flipping over and over. It has a nice strong yet flexible spiral binding which also makes it easy for the children to handle and flip the pages.
I honestly can not find anything that I disliked about this book. I would love to see more of them!
You can find Flip Along Fun and other fun educational toys(many that illustrator, Sarah Buell Dowling has helped create) at
www.UndertheLamb.com.
You can purchase this at the
Flip Along Fun website or from
amazon for $17.99 (You may also see my review on amazon.)
Want to save a few dollars? You can get an autographed copy of this book for $14.95 ($3 savings) by going to
http://www.flipalongfun.com/ and entering coupon code P-01 at the checkout.
disclosure-I received a complimentary copy of Flip Along Fun from the author to review and am an affiliate.
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