Customer Reviews

Teaching Tunes Audio CD and Mini-Books Set: Favorite Songs: 12 Best-Loved Children's Songs With Sing-Along Mini-Books That Build Early Literacy Skills

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I love this book (I bought the whole series). My class enjoys listening to and singing along with the CD. I make a class sized book by enlarging the pictures and putting the book together in a binder. We practice every day with the CD. Then on Friday, I give each child their own child-sized book and we practice with the CD. Then I send the book home with the children. I've gotten so much positive feedback--parents love it!
The children also tell me how much they enjoy the books, and we have review days where they can choose their favorites.

My Preschoolers enjoy singing along with the CD and "reading" the poem as they sing. They take the poem home and sing it to their parents. I have also put a set of mini poem books in my reading center for the students to enyoy.

I enjoyed this purchase because it has an all-in-one easy to carry set. That is important when you are traveling between different campuses. The children enjoy the music and making the books that we can practice and they may take home. The dark line pages make copying easy. The songs are familiar and are sure to be ones that the parents can join in as they read together.
It does take time to create the books and prepare the materials.

When teaching special education, songs are perfect. With the help of this book, Every student can have a book that they colored in their hands to use as they sing their favorite songs. I increased the size to 5 1/2" by 8 1/2 " for each page and produced them in bulk so each child had their own book. They used them all year and could take it home at the end. Perfect!

This set is one of my son's favorite toys. He has autism and really gets a lot of satisfaction from 'reading' through each mini song-book while listening to the CD.
That being said, I was a bit disappointed that, while the stock photo of the cover of the book shows each mini-book in color, in fact all you receive is a workbook of sorts, with black & white pages. (Not sure-I may have missed that in the description of the product.) You have to cut the pages out and staple them together in order to make your own book, then painstakingly color them in, if you want them in color.
Also, if this set is going to be used more than a few times, you'll want to pony up about $50 @ Kinko's to have the mini-books at least laminated, if not bound. We've only had our set for a week, and even though we're always gentle, the books have fallen apart and will soon tear.
I would MUCH rather have paid twice or three times the price for a well-made set, instead of getting a cheaper do-it-yourself product.
Also, it should be noted that many of the songs are sung EXTREMELY slowly-enough to be quite frustrating to anyone trying to clap or sing along, especially to children on the autism spectrum who may have become used to singing at a quicker (normal) rate in the classroom. Some of the words in classic songs, such as Ring Around the Rosy have been noticably changed as well, which can cause frustration.
Overall, I still would recommend this product-just know you'll have some 'homework' to do before your kid can actually use it.