Check out the YouTube video I made of our EmbarK12 “unboxing.”
In the video, I go through all of the materials included in the EmbarK12 Comprehensive curriculum kit and the basic “I Am Special” kit. Instead of purchasing the manipulative/material kit from K12, I decided to piece together our own set of materials from our local dollar store and Amazon. I got lucky because of timing with school supplies at the dollar store, and I ended up saving probably about $15-$20. If you can’t get very many items from a dollar store, it is better to buy the kit from K12, because buying everything on Amazon will be more expensive.
I did buy the basic “I Am Special” kit from K12. Right now it costs $29. The most important thing it includes is the “I Am Special” workbook, which you can’t do without. It isn’t something you can DIY, and you need the workbook in each of the 18 units. Also included in the kit is the guide for Unit 1. You can also buy an entire set of the guides, 1 for each unit, for around $130. I didn’t do this, because you can access the guides free online after you purchase the program, but it is a bit difficult to navigate them. If spending that extra $130 is in your budget, you should do it. Finally, several sets of flashcards are included. They are high-quality, the kind that are nearly impossible to tear. Much better than the sets of flashcards we’ve purchased from learning stores and our dollar store. The flashcards come hole punched, but only 1 binder ring is included. If you want a ring on all 8 sets of flashcards, you’ll have to buy some. Here are the sets of flashcards included: Alphabet Cards (these have an upper case and lower case version of each letter on one side and a picture of an item that starts with that letter on the other side), Letter Cards (these have an upper case version of the letter on one side and a lower case version on the other), Color Cards (these have a swatch of the color on one side and the name of the color on the other side, there are 11 colors), 2-D Shape Cards (there are 3 two-dimensional shapes included), 3-D Shape Cards (there are 2 three-dimensional shapes included), Solfege Hand Sign Cards (these show the American Sign Language signs for the musical do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do), Animal Coverings Cards (these show an animal on one side with their covering (e.g. skin, fur, etc) highlighted, and the corresponding word on the other side), and Number Cards (these have the numeral on one side and the written name of the number on the other, 1-20).
Whether you purchase the manipulative kit from K12, or choose to buy your own items individually, you still need a complete set of manipulatives. Here is what you need:
- Magnifying glass
- Mirror
- US map
- World map
- Inflatable globe
- Magnetic wand
- Unifix cubes
- Sphere (2.5″ ball)
- Counting bears, set of 80
- Tactile uppercase letters, magnetic
- Tactile lowercase letters, magnetic
- Tactile numbers, magnetic
- Buckets, 6 (as I said in the video, after going through the guides for every single lesson in all 18 units, I am fairly certain we will only ever need 2 buckets for EmbarK12 at home, but I could be mistaken)
- Eyedropper
- American Flag
- Attribute blocks, classroom set
- Foam number dice (set of 6)
After going through each lesson, I have concluded there are 3 other items that are pretty much a necessity but aren’t included in the materials kit.
- Rhythm sticks (these are used in almost every unit for music. You might be able to substitute something for these, but I found a set for like $2 on Amazon)
- Hand drum (this is used several times, and you can use a container with a lid as a substitute, but I thought it was worth buying the instrument for L)
- Blocks (we don’t have blocks at our house, and they are used frequently throughout the program. So, I decided to buy an inexpensive set of 100 blocks on Amazon…it was $13)
As far as the books for EmbarK12 are concerned, they sell a set of all required 18 story books for about $75. It’s a good price. I elected not to purchase the books for a few reasons. First, to save money, duh. Second, we already have a few of the books in our home library. And third, our local library does have all the other books we will need (I checked ahead of time in their catalog to be sure). So, in advance of beginning each unit, I will have to go and place a request for the book(s) we will need. If you don’t have a library nearby or it’s not as stocked as ours, I’d definitely recommend buying the book set. As I said, that is a great price for new books, and you certainly don’t want to skip the reading aloud portions of the lessons. Reading aloud is proven to help instill a love of reading in your child, in addition to a bagillion other benefits.
We are almost through with unit 1 and we are having fun!
supplementathome 