An Animal a Day (A Timberdoodle Review)

 

Timberdoodle's 2025 Second Grade Curriculum Kit is now available with engaging new materials—perfect for active homeschoolers. Including the colorful science book, An Animal a Day, this new kit is filled with educational games, activity books, and manipulatives; along with the core subjects. 

My elementary-age boys gravitated toward the stunning cover as soon as this book arrived in the mail. Though educational, they did not want to wait for our typical school-day hours to dive right in. Once situated on the couch, I thumbed through the book to find that day's date. After reading it, the kids were engaged, talking about what they had learned about the unique creature of the day. The facts presented in this book are bite-sized and my youngest son was surprised with how short the text was. Yet once we began incorporating the concept of reading An Animal a Day in our homeschool, it clicked. This is a fun, added resource to brush up on your animal facts—to build your child's knowledge and feed his curiosity one day at a time. 

Once it started becoming an established part of our routine, my youngest son began asking for it. As we would work through our traditional materials he would remind me not to forget about the Animal a Day book! This is when you know you have done something right in your homeschool, when your child is asking without the coaxing or the tears. Sure, we need to press through and teach them to be disciplined in the subjects that they are not fond of, but it is also important to take note of their interests and push them to thrive in them. It has surprised me to see which of my children are drawn to the sciences, and even though science is not my strength, there are plenty of resources out there to place in front of them—including An Animal a Day!

From January 1 to December 31, An Animal a Day provides a snippet of information about animals from the aardvark to the zebra shark. Your child will learn about the owl butterfly, snail kite, tufted gray langur, and Indian bullfrog. Complete with its scientific name, animal group, length/weight, location, and endangerment status, your child will learn the basics and a fun fact about common and not-so-common animals all around the world. The graphics are stunning— a nod to 70s-style children's encyclopedias, with a modern upgrade. From the inside cover to the variety of dark and light backgrounds on the pages, this resource book is one to keep on your homeschool bookshelf for years to come—and even keep on hand for the grandchildren!

The table of contents, glossary, and index are beautifully designed, too. Divided into months, you can see which types of animals you will be learning about. May includes animals that migrate in addition to desert animals. The September animals are described as animal assassins and those who can survive the cold. The glossary in the back is detailed and easy to use complete with important definitions from throughout the book. What a perfect way to help your child if you want to use this as an independent reading book! The daily readings are short and the difficult vocabulary words are described in the back of the book. You can easily use this as an opportunity to teach your child how to look up challenging words during independent reading time. This book can also be used for practicing reading comprehension skills. A quiz can be found in the back of the book (along with a puzzle) to help your child retain what he was read (or what you read to him). 

Before digging in, I highly recommend reading over the different variety of animal types in the beginning on the book. Two colorful pages are dedicated to rehearsing the scientific definitions of vertebrates, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates. Buy your copy today!

Disclaimer: Many thanks to Timberdoodle for providing the above resource in exchange for an honest review. 

All thoughts are 100% my own.