Timberdoodle Kit Review: a Montessorian Perspective

I have been a big fan of Timberdoodle for years now. To the uninitiated, Timberdoodle is a small family business that offers curated curriculum choices both secular and religious. They tend to offer very unique and hands-on materials. We’ve reviewed a few here.

Usually I just supplement our school days, road trips and many hospital visits with a selection or two of products. Last year however I was offered the chance to review a full curriculum at half price, so I jumped at the chance. I mean — who wouldn’t?

Because my oldest has mild intellectual disability, I picked the 1st grade curriculum to give us a good starting point. Timberdoodle kits incorporate well-known and loved curriculums like Math U See (which is very familiar to us and uses concrete blocks to help teach concepts) and Story of the World. The kit came with a number of other awesome things I loved. But not so Montessori-like were the number of text and workbooks in the curriculum, which I initially balked at; so did we learn to love them?

Is a Timberdoodle kit a good fit in the Montessori home? My answer may surprise you.

Ok so what do I like? What didn’t I like? Do I recommend a kit? Why so many questions!?

First of all, Timberdoodle has an online scheduler that I’ve never seen the likes of before. It comes with any kit purchased; the curriculum comes preloaded, but you can also input your own. I played around with it for a long time. You schedule days off, speed up or slow down or double-up your lesson plans, set holidays or start and ending dates, generate a daily schedule or set it over a range of dates — it’s extremely customizable. It’s sort of a marvel. While I did have a lot of fun with this feature, and I know this will help a majority of homeschooling parents out there — AND I even think the online scheduler alone is worth looking at purchasing a kit — I didn’t actually end up using it.

I know, I know. I love it, but it wasn’t for me. I really like to “follow the child” and while scheduling lesson plans, especially in elementary is very important, the idea of a schedule of lessons that looks out past a few weeks gives me anxiety. I do think it would be a comfort to most though. But I am more a go with the flow type. I once took all the kids to the beach on a whim — 2 in diapers — with nothing but a pack of wipes and a few extra diapers. Packing is a pain, hey lets just have fun. And it went very smoothly thankyouverymuch. So no judgment.

But if that story scares you, the scheduler would probably be perfect for your family.

I loved how some of the materials fit in so beautifully on our shelves. I don’t know if it’s heresy to say — well among the AMI-trained folks clearly it will be — but I think Maria herself would have liked the Math Wrap Ups. They’re hands on, they’re self-correcting, they’re, well, not so beautiful, but for plastic keys, they really helped my kids want to work on math fact memorization.

Likewise, the MiniLuk materials are very engaging, self-correcting and fun. And I love how they’re travel-friendly. They make a fantastic addition to the shelf. I did a review here but I really encourage you to check out the Montessori-inspired Pinay Homeschooler who said it all so much better than I did.

I liked Story of the World a lot, but felt like it just moved way too fast. I plan on using it again after we’ve spent more time studying history this Fall.

All of the art and math games were fun and were activities I would purchase to supplement our work. I do not recommend the Mad Mattr. I do not care what anyone says (and I am not one to be afraid of mess), but this stuff got everywhere. Luckily you can customize your kits with Timberdoodle so you can ask to skip this product. Though maybe you like getting play sand everywhere. Maybe you’re in fact mad. I do love a good OT-type break for the kids, but I would try therapy putty to be honest or the Faber-Castell Coloring with Clay which was particularly enjoyed by my artsy middle daughter. Also enjoyed were builder options like Robotis Pets. These activities incorporate critical thinking skills, fine motor and creativity all in one. Win, win, win — plus some.

I have mixed feelings on the printed resources. We watched the DVDs from Math U See and did some work pages though it was review for all my kids. I basically shunned the test booklets — but then decided to be fair and have the kids give it a go. They didn’t hate it. I liked there being something pre-printed and ready to go while I made dinner. Same for the logic books though my oldest really struggled with them and we had to do quite a lot one on one. Which is good but hard when you have 4 kids. I much prefer self-correcting work that can be repeated over and over for mastery (a la Montessori materials).

Also — I HATE GRADING COMPLETED WORKSHEETS. I’m sorry to yell that but I just collapsed on the floor in agony and wasn’t sure if you could hear me ok.

Grading worksheets is a deal breaker. Nope. Not ever choosing to do it. I would rather make sure they got the technique down and let them practice it and not worry that there was a miscalculation. I’m much more focused on mastering the steps and concepts than accuracy. Mistakes in accuracy cause frustration. This is why in working with the moveable alphabet you have to cover your mouth to not correct any spelling mistakes. The important thing is inspiring the love of the work itself — the kids will want to master it in their own time. I have seen this again and again in my experience with the Montessori method. Workbooks like Spelling You See are very well thought out programs, and there are many reasons to love them. And I would recommend them to most homeschooling parents; but for us not so much. They don’t vibe with our philosophies quite as nicely as some of the other offerings.

Lastly — I hated the scrunch map. I realize it’s to alleviate the pain of map folding, but this thing was chemical-smelling and it kind of defeats the idea of establishing order. We take so much effort to create order and inspire the kids to restore materials that scrunching something up felt kinda wrong. It’s ok. We’re not fancy nancy’s or anything, but I really believe order has its place in the classroom — as explained amazingly well in this inspiring read about Montessori handwriting.

Ok I know I’ve written far too much. Any additional questions please reach out (especially on Instagram because I don’t tend to get messages here or on Youtube always).

An aside: Timberdoodle corporate folks — hope I’m not shooting myself in the foot with my candidness. Haha. Thanks for the discounts and products. We truly do love y’all.