One topic, three steps
Most of these sets don't give a picture just one card. They print the same topic several times, and each card asks a little more than the one before.
- Community Helpers goes from a job's name, to where the person works, to what they do and the tools they use.
- Patterns & Sequencing asks what comes next, then which item breaks the rule, then shows the answer with the rule spelled out.
- Ten Frame Cards show a number to say, then a frame to fill in, then the addition and make-ten facts for that number, for every number from 1 to 20.
- Human Body & Five Senses names a body part, then says what it does, then gives one everyday way to look after it.
Two sets climb in a different way. The Telling Time cards and the Shapes & Spatial Reasoning cards each have 60 cards in four groups of 15, running from the easiest idea to the hardest. The clocks start at o'clock and half past and end with "one hour later" puzzles, and the shape cards start with naming a circle and end with reading position clues.
Chinese and English
Two sets are bilingual. The Community Helpers and Weather & Seasons cards are in simplified Chinese with pinyin and in English, and the Chinese is the largest text on the card. If you're after English-only cards, pick one of the other sets.
The weather set also covers some seasonal markers from the Chinese calendar, such as the winter solstice, along with everyday weather like drizzle and hail. The Patterns & Sequencing cards lead with English and add a small Chinese label with no pinyin.
Picking by subject
Math. Ten frames, patterns, shapes and telling time. The ten frame cards always fill the dots from the top left, so a child learns to see seven as five on top and two below without counting. The telling time set includes a second, line-art copy of all 60 clocks that saves ink and can be colored in.
The world around them. Community helpers, weather and seasons, and the human body and five senses. The middle weather card shows a child dressed for that weather, so the deck doubles as a what-to-wear chart on busy mornings.
Safety. The Kids Safety set has 60 picture cards, each with one short rule a child can repeat, in home, outdoor, traffic and personal safety groups. Its parent guide breaks down what a child can do at each age from 4 to 8.
More than cards
Every set comes with something to do once the cards are learned, and it's usually the part that gets a group playing together.
- Games. The community helpers and weather sets each have bingo with four boards, a memory game and a board game. The patterns set has a Pattern Path board game, the ten frame set a Roll & Cover game, and the telling time set a Clock Race game with a blank clock to write on. The safety set turns its cards into three games: spot the danger, sort it and match it.
- Hands-on pages. The human body set has three cut-and-build body puzzles, a five senses sorting game and coloring pages. The shapes set adds shape puzzles, a shape hunt and a printable tangram with challenge cards.
- For the grown-up. Most sets include answer keys, and several add a progress tracker and a certificate. The body and shapes sets have a parent and teacher guide, and the safety set has a parent guide.
Card sizes
The sets aren't all the same size, so check the product page if you want them to match. Community helpers, weather, and patterns print four cards to a page at 3.5 x 5 inches. The human body cards are 5 x 7 inches, two to a page, and the telling time cards are 6 x 4.75 inches, also two to a page. The safety cards are 4 x 5.25 inches, four to a page with cut marks. The shapes and ten frame cards fill a whole page, which makes them easy to hold up in front of a group.