10 Funny Sheep product reviews

We have a couple of books with this similar tune and counting theme going on. I like books that help introduce numbers to my kids. Especially, when they are starting to get into school there is a lot of value in books that help them recognise number shapes, patterns and counting forwards and backwards.

This book is filled with sheep. For my eldest this is important because she gets more value out of things involving animals. She is able to engage more deeply for animals and she is more likely to listen. My youngest just loves songs and dancing, so any book where I can sing the words is great for her because she is engaging in the words in a whole other way.

This book is soft covered and I think for $19 is alright value. It would have been better if it had included a CD. The illustrations were pretty neat. We were able to sit with the book after the story and just look through and see if we could find hidden things. Each page has a hidden number on it, most of them were easy but there were a few where I was surprised that my daughter found them. I did like that aspect, it gave this book another use or angle for learning.

Overall we liked this, and we have re-read it several times. Sheep are great, because most kids like them plus counting sheep and sleep go hand in hand.

We all know the song 10 green bottles (sorry now the song is stuck in your head too), recently there have been several books published adapting the song to suit animals. 10 Silly Sheep is part of an Australian series that includes 10 Green Geckos, 10 Hooting Owls and 10 Silly Wombats, the latter being the same Author and illustrator as 10 Funny Sheep. It is a format that works because the kids love this book, but then they love any one where I make a fool of myself singing it and they are able to join in the repetitive song.

I am grateful that there is a bit of variety in the verses, as compared to the original that was the same thing for every number. The words fit in well to the tune which makes it easy to sing along to even on the first reading. The children love the antics that the sheep get up to and the illustrations are fantastic at portraying the fun. The sheep are all very animated and have great facial expressions.

As a former New Entrant teacher and now as a homebased educarer I love the maths that the children get out of it. For my five year old it is predicting what number will be next as she learns to count backwards. For Miss 3.5 it is finding and reading the numbers that are hidden on each page. For her and my other children it is also about counting the number of sheep on each page. We even counted how many sheep there were in the whole book, including the cover which is great for those that stop counting the moment they reach 10.

Another valuable lesson that came out of this book with Miss 4.5 (carekid) was that sheep is both the singular and plural. She started of singing 10 funny sheep, but after I explained it and with the repetition throughout the book she soon learnt. We also identified the rhyming pairs in the story which was easier when sung.

This is a great book for taking in the car with you on a long drive (provided there is another adult to do the driving). The children will love singing along to it and you don't have to read it the whole time so hopefully that will prevent nausea. It is also one that a creative child can adapt easily to different animals or antics. This is a simple book the kids love but has so much learning in it too.