My kids have always been fascinated by books. As infants, they loved flipping through board books and as toddlers and grade-schoolers they love cuddling up with me for a great story. In their free time, they also love retelling the stories based on the pictures or actually practicing reading (or at least my 6-year-old). Books are a huge part of our lives so introducing a My Big Wimmelbook into our little library seemed perfect!
Both of my kids, aged 4 & 6 and at different stages of learning, truly enjoyed this open-ended activity book. Any child between the ages of 2-5 will learn many pre-reading skills, without even realizing it.
You can purchase it individually on Timberdoodle.com as part of Timberdoodle’s Preschool curriculum kit.
In exchange for our honest review, we received a complimentary copy of My Big Wimmelbook: Fire Trucks.
* This post includes Affiliate Links.
My First Experience With My Big Wimmelbook
At first, I wondered what the hype was with My Big Wimmelbook. I thought it was another version of a ‘look and find’ activity book for kids. But as we started exploring the book together, I started to realize all the benefits that come along with, not only all ‘look and find’ books, but particularly this kind.
Let me backtrack a bit.
I’m not educated as a teacher. And, as a child who recently moved to the US, I missed some beginner reading comprehension basics. But I became very attentive and involved during my son’s first year in Kindergarten. We did a virtual/homeschool combination and it was absolutely amazing for all of us.
From this experience, I was able to learn alongside my son all of the valuable skills for pre-reading and beginner reading comprehension. And I felt that the My Big Wimmelbook was and is a fantastic introduction to all of these skills for little ones in an exciting activity book format.
How My Big Wimmelbook Works
If you’re not familiar with the common ‘look and find’ format, Where’s Waldo books are possibly the most known comparison.
The My Big Wimmelbook is intended for children 2-5 years old. Each book contains various sets of pages of complete visual storylines. The introductory page shows some of the objects and characters and a little bit about them. Some are formed as open-ended questions to get your child’s observational skills firing. Each of these objects and characters is shown on all pages in a slightly different way.
For example, the first page of our My Big Wimmelbook: Fire Trucks! lists, “Two paramedics Noah and Stacy make sure everyone is OK.” Alongside the text, is a picture of the ambulance, a man in a paramedic’s uniform helping someone, and a female paramedic standing inside the ambulance. We flipped back and forth to find them each time. We practiced remembering their physical characteristics as well as their names. And talked about what they were doing at each part of the progressing story and why.
And there are several different My Big Wimmelbooks, each with a different theme. We have the Fire Trucks one, all about Firefighters, Fire Trucks, and fighting fires.
What Skills Does My Child Learn From My Big Wimmelbook?
I love doing activities with my kids that excite them while secretly teaching them multiple skills. And with multiple kids at different stages of learning it’s a great open-ended activity to do together. No matter how old your child is, there are many skills they can develop and continue to improve without even realizing with a My Big Wimmelbook.
For a lighter experience with My Big Wimmelbook, or younger kids, you can focus on finding each object and character on the pages, growing on your child’s memory and attention skills, as well as building some vocabulary by naming some of the objects on each page.
If your child is ready for it, expand on skills such as making connections between each page or within real-life experiences. This is a valuable reading and writing lesson that will come in handy. You can also ask more open-ended questions for further thinking and explanation. This allows your child to make stronger connections and invite them to create their own stories based on their observations.
In expanding on their memory and attention skills, have them compare and contrast similarities and differences between different pages, creating a continuous storyline. For example, in My Big Wimmelbook: Fire Trucks, the paramedics are getting ready to leave the fire station on the first page, but on other pages, they are assisting others in different situations.
When we compare and contrast, we can also add reasoning and background knowledge to form the full story. As well as ask and answer various questions within each story. We can also establish a multi-part framework with ‘before, during, after’ or ‘first, next, last.’
All of these skills are part of pre-reading comprehension curriculum for early readers.
Our Final Takeaway
We loved our My Big Wimmelbook!
It may seem simple at first but it’s incredibly open-ended and secretly educational.
You find something different and create a whole new story each time you look at it. And further grow multiple skills at once. I highly recommend it for all kids aged 2-5!
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My name is Paula and I’m a mom of two scrumptious cuties. Thanks Mommy Blog became a project for me to help guide other new moms and current moms through any of my own personal experiences and struggles. My hobbies include singing, doing jigsaw puzzles, baking, designing and trying to stay creative.
