In October 2016, Colin M. Drysdale of How To Raise A Happy Genius reviewed the first edition of The Toddler’s Handbook. Fast-forward five years, and the book has sold thousands of copies, has been reviewed more than 1000 times on Amazon, and has been translated into 24 languages. Here is the original review:
Basic Book Information: ISBN: 978-1772261059; Date of Publication: September 2015; Number of pages: 48.
The Toddler’s Handbook aims to introduce toddlers to one hundred and seventy-four words across seventeen basic, but important, concepts. These include numbers, letters, colours, animals and their sounds, emotions, sports, body, time, opposites and relative sizes. Each word and concept is accompanied by a bright and colourful image to illustrates it, and this book will help your child learn these important concepts before kindergarten, giving them a good start to their intellectual development. It’s in a handy 8.5 by 8.5 inch (21.6 x 21.6 cm) format that’s small enough to carry around, but large enough to share with your child, and it’s got enough in it that it will keep your child occupied for many minutes, even at times when you can’t read it with them. However, they’ll get the biggest benefit from it if you sit down and read it with them for a few minutes each and every day.
What Age Of Child Is It Aimed At? This book is aimed at children between the ages of one and four. Younger children will enjoy looking at the pictures and doing things like making animal sounds, while older children in this range can use it to learn more complex concepts like emotions, letters, numbers and time.
How Long Will It Take To Read? This isn’t really a book you sit down and read with your child from cover to cover, but rather it’s a book that you will dip in and out of, exploring the different concepts at different times.
What I Like About This Book? The reason I like this book is because it provides a range of useful concepts and words in a single volume. There are many ranges of flash cards which allow you to explore similar concepts with your child, but they’re not nearly as portable and handy as having them all within the pages of a book. This also makes it easier to pull it out and work on these concepts with your child whenever you have a few minutes free. It also makes it easier to allow your child to explore these concepts and the pictures that represent them on their own (while you can do this with flash cards they will end up everywhere!). Probably the most beneficial way to use this book is to sit down with your child and let them decide which set of words, or concepts they’d like to read at that particular time. This will not only ensure that they have fun while learning, but also that they remain focused for longer periods of time. However, remember that you should aim to keep any learning sessions short enough that your child doesn’t become bored, and as a general rule of thumb, for any one session, aim to work on these concepts for one minute for each year in your child’s age before taking a break.
What Core Life Skills Will It Help Develop? This book will help with the basic building blocks of core academic skills, such as numbers, letters, shapes and colours. However, it will also help introduce your child to their body, sports and emotions, which will help with developing core intrapersonal, interpersonal and physical skills.
Are There Other Books In The Same Series? Yes. There are dedicated books in the same series on numbers, shapes, animals and other concepts. In addition, The Toddler’s Handbook is available in a range of bi-lingual editions including English-French, English-Spanish and English-Italian.
About The Author: This post was written by Colin Drysdale, the creator of How To Raise A Happy Genius.
You can find out more about The Toddler’s Handbook and it’s 24 languages by clicking here.