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Any current reviews for Winter Promise?


mykidsrmyjoy
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It seems like most of the reviews are from several years ago. Has anyone used this recently? What did you like/dislike about it?

I looked at American Story 1 this evening and it looks so good! But I would love to hear from someone who's actually used it because it's $$$. I've been seriously considering MFW Adventures in US History but WP American Story really looks a lot more interesting, TBH. Any thoughts or reviews?

Edited by mykidsrmyjoy
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We loved Children Around the World last year and found WinterPromise to be extremely responsive and helpful any time we had a question. It was our best year yet. We are going to start American Story 1 after Christmas.

 

We used Children Around the World a couple years ago.  It was our best year.  I heavily adjusted it, but I used their exclusives, mostly digital.

 

I have no experience with anything else they make.

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We are using sea and sky this year and are enjoying it. My DS loves the Captians log. We have really like the Winterpromise exclusives. The chosen materials that they've included are really nice too. Customer service has been great with them too. My da is enjoying the activities suggested.

 

A few things we/I am finding as cons.

It is pricey- even buying the digital (which I like since I can easily reuse it if they change things and print more than one activity book). Once buying the Winterpromise exclusives, any extra books and supplies, it adds up!

For us, it seems like a lot of work. It may be because I am doing four separate curriculum at the moment (it wasn't the original plan) and my DS is on the younger end (3rd grader).

The TM has mistakes. There are pages not correctly recorded. Since the topic is noted it's not a huge deal, but not as convenient. Also there are things that aren't necessarily noted or written conveniently. For example the timeline figures for each week are in a different area than the weekly instruction sheet. The organization bothers me which could just be me, but for the price I had hoped for more.

Again with organization, the exclusive don't always make sense. In the captains log, the pages are not in the order they are assigned. I think the only reason this really bothers me is because it is their exclusive which they made and are assigning and it could have made it easier. Again might just be me.

One con I've also found is that the read aloud books don't always directly align with what we are learning. We covered Vikings and it was some time later we read a Viking read aloud.

 

Overall, some of that is nit picking and my preferences or specific to the program we are using. The major reason we won't be using it again next year doesn't have anything to do with quality or content, but because I wanted the living books. So with American Story, they rewrote it this past year and took out the living books and replaced it with their exclusives only. With buying digital to make it more cost effective, I can't resell anything and the overall cost is very much the same as it was when they had the living books.

 

I'd add more specifics but since you are looking at a different program than one we've used I can't comment other than this and the quality we have been happy with.

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My experience with Sea & Sky mostly echoes that of the previous poster. My son enjoys it, but the workload is very light for him. He is a 6th grader so on the older end. My son was very frustrated with not being able to find the answers during the first couple weeks until we realized the page numbers were incorrect. The answer key is not great - we have had wrong answers, some pages (usually maps) not in AK at all, and another instance where they directed me back to the reading material to find answer. These are small issues, I guess, but I feel like this program is way overpriced to have these issues.

 

My ds's only complaint is that the science is pretty much nonexistent. For example, last week he read a few pages about fish, and did a couple notebooking pages that included things like "draw a school of fish" and "draw a fish being chased by a predator." He is a sciency kid, so he'd like me to add something. Again, considering the money I spent, I'm not thrilled about that.

 

And final complaint, we did have trouble with shipping. I waited about 6 weeks to get all the books from them. They were always very kind, and they offered to give me a digital copy for the inconvenience. Unfortunately, I never got that either...

 

Having said all that, it's not all bad. I love having the year planned out for me. My ds likes it and is learning from it. I doubt I'll ever order from them again, though.

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I am a big fan of Adventures in MFW!  I am doing it for the second time starting very soon- I need to purchase student sheets, but if I had those I would have already started.  I might have to wait until January, I was planning on starting now, but finances are tight right before CMAS-kwim.  I did Adventures with my oldest son and a few other children many years ago, but wanted my "middles" to do this also, as it was one of my favorite years!

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I am a big fan of Adventures in MFW! I am doing it for the second time starting very soon- I need to purchase student sheets, but if I had those I would have already started. I might have to wait until January, I was planning on starting now, but finances are tight right before CMAS-kwim. I did Adventures with my oldest son and a few other children many years ago, but wanted my "middles" to do this also, as it was one of my favorite years!

Ok, I think you've helped tip the scales back in favor of MFW. :-)
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If you can swing it, I think the giant MFW sale is going on right now until Jan 1st. I still need to buy Creation to the Greeks. It looks like the preschool curriculum is almost half off. (Maybe I need to buy preschool too...)

Is this their best sale or do they offer these prices any other time?
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Oh I didn't even see the part about thinking about MFW Adventures.  If you have a 2nd or 3rd grader, this is a great program and appropriate for the age group.  We used this with a 2nd grader and a K and they enjoyed it.  The only downfall in our opinion is that we would have liked more hands on things included (Pinterest helped out with this).  

I do believe that the sale right now is the best they offer and as the year goes on (after January 1) the discount gets less.

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