Let's Cut Paper! (Kumon First Steps Workbooks) Paperback – Illustrated, September 30, 2005

I have been reviewing all of the books currently available in the Kumon First Steps Workbooks series, and LET'S CUT PAPER is the 4th and final one. It is just wonderful, like the other 3 books: LET'S STICKER AND PASTE, LET'S COLOR, and LET'S FOLD. This book gives young children (recommended age 2 and up) a fun first experience handling scissors.My son is 8 yrs. old and is a normal boy in every way, except like many children, was slower to develop some of his fine motor skills. He has loved using all of these first steps workbooks, along with the regular Kumon workbooks. He has gained much in his ability to cut carefully using the simple exercises in this book. Please be sure to give your child a GOOD pair of scissors with this book! Cheap and junky scissors will lead to the projects looking chewed, not cut. Do your child a favor and let his projects look beautiful by giving him a good pair of scissors. Fiskars for children, with blunt or pointed tips are very good. We use the Crayola child's scissors, with all metal blades (not plastic) and these cut extremely well too.Now armed with a good pair of scissors, what will your child be cutting? Well, there are 39 small pages for him to cut, beginning with simple things like cut the whiskers on the cat, the dog, and the tiger. Project #4 is cutting the square paper in half on the thick grey line, and arranging the 2 pieces to make a picture of a car. #6 has you do this, but cutting the square on a diagonal, and arranging the 2 pieces to make a boat.#7 has the child make 3 cuts across the square, and tape the 3 cut pieces in order to make a rocket. Project #8 is the same, with 3 cuts making 4 pieces to tape together...it is a tug of war rope with animals! My son loved playing this game, we each took an end and pulled to see whose animals won the tug of war (the tape will snap apart). The next few are cutting the aquare into 4 small squares and arranging the picture correctly, like a 4 pc. puzzle. Several projects involve cutting from the outside in, to free up the arms and legs of a teddy bear or cat, the wings and tail of a bird, etc. Some pages have the child cut and then fold the edges to make animals in a fenced pasture, etc.Then there is a section where the child cuts across the mouth of people and various animals. The mouths are wavy, curved, etc, and when cut, you can make the mouth closed, or open to see what they are eating. Several more pages are having the child cut along the grey line either in a spiral, or diminishing square, triangle, etc. to cut apart a spider web, or a fish line, or roses on a vine, or watermelons in a patch, or make a curly snake. All these teach the child to cut and turn the paper when the direction of the cutting line changes. Other pages have the child cut a square, circle, oval,triangle out of the center of the page to flip corrctly to be the lions face, the rhino's nose, etc. And at the end are objects to just cut out: #33 is a beach ball, #34 is a half a sandwich, #36 a hippo head, #38 a rabbit's head. Very simple, yet again teaching the children to carefully cut and reposition the paper while doing so. This is a very fun book, the artwork is fun and not babyish, is colorful, and printed on heavy paper. Many children LOVE scissors and love to cut things! So give them this book, and maybe it will save baby sister's hair from being cut off! After your child completes this book, I recommend Kumon's MY FIRST BOOK OF CUTTING, which has 40 more project pages for the scissor happy child to cut! In conclusion: a wonderful, wonderful little book!

I ordered a bunch of the Kumon books because I work full time and felt that I have not been working with my pre-schooler on skills her friends have been learning. I also wanted a set of organized activities I could just grab and go when we have time to fill because I don't have the time to be supermom organizing my own homemade activities and crafts.So far this cutting book has been the favorite, although all the Kumon ones I ordered are 5 stars too. My daughter is addicted to this book and is always asking to work on her cutting book. Definitely follow the recommendations in the book such as to only do a couple pages at a time and leave your child wanting to do more. If you rush through the pages, you just waste the book and it is not as enriching. Take your time with each page; discuss and explain it. AND we also get some use and play value from the pages after the cutting is completed! Many of them have been cute little crafty things/animals that encourage imaginative play.They have done a superb job of stepping up the skill level every 2-4 pages. I'm thrilled as we turn each page and see what is next. It's incredible quality throughout with the full color, slick pages and adorable drawings. And with almost all the pages we've done so far there is some additional skill-building activity after cutting - such as to match up the pieces to create a scene, fold the edges, tape pieces together.The parent is supposed to cut each page from the book, but I've been letting my daughter do that for extra practice. I help her hold the page and book while she cuts it across.I'm thrilled with how she has been developing her cutting skills and how much enthusiasm she has for it. We just did three pages where you cut slits above and below an animals arms and legs so you can make them flap their limbs. My daughter went the extra mile to also cut off a lot of the extra paper around the animals too.This book is exactly what I wanted and I can't say enough good things about it. The Kumon people put a lot of time and thought into stepping the skills from beginning to end - I just never thought of things in this way. When you know how to use scissors, you just don't realize that it actually is pretty tough! Cutting to a certain point and then stopping. Cutting all the way through. Cutting lines that intersect. Cutting around a shape, etc. Learning to hold the scissors and turn the paper. It's wonderful and helps me spend enjoyable time with my child and feel confident she is learning the skills her friends are.We have not finished the book - we're maybe 1/3 or so of the way through. I'm excited to see what comes next!