Winterpromise users...

[*Kate*]

Tell me about your experiences/opinions with Winterpromise. What do you like? Dislike? Do your kids enjoy it? About how much time does it take each day? I see some people complain about reading from several different books at once, does that bother you? Do you use all the books they suggest?

 

I'm thinking of using Quest for the Ancient World with my 7th grade ds next year (so I was looking at the junior high level), but I'd love to hear more thoughts about it.

 

Even if you have used a different theme - talk to me! :)

Edited June 19, 2009 by *Kate*

[*Kate*]

anyone?

[Lovedtodeath]

What I don't like about it: They do not have teachers notes and warnings pertaining to the books. It appears from posts that I have seen that they have not even read some of the books scheduled especially in the LA. Themes are generally too dense for our family and take us at least 2 years to get through. It is expensive if you get all of the books and resources for the program.

 

What I like: Their great activities and book selections keep things interesting. The guide tells you how to prepare ahead for activities with supplies and copies needed.

 

I am currently using half of Shoot and Sprout Buzz and Bite, and stealing ideas from other themes in their catalog.

[Laura W.]

Hi, Kate,

 

We used WP Sea & Sky when my oldest was in 4th grade. She enjoyed the book selections and the activities.

 

Likes:

1. The reading schedule was pretty good - we only dropped a few books.

2. I liked having activities scheduled.

3. The books themselves were excellent.

4. It was nice having an independent study assignment sheet each week for the student.

 

Dislikes:

1. I got the main program for 4th-6th graders plus the materials to allow K-3rd graders to join in. The K-3rd plan didn't fit my younger children. However, I've used most of those books with our FIAR studies, so the material wasn't wasted.

2. I had to work around the young-earth content in some of the materials.

 

Just a note:

After my experience, I strongly agree with other WP users who have said to pick a program where your child will be at the upper end of the recommended age range. While your child will get a lot out of the program at the lower end of the recommended range, they'll be much more independent and able to handle everything if you wait a little. In fact, some people find the 4th-6th grade programs a perfect fit for a 7th grader to do independently. That might be something for you to consider. Doing a 4th-6th program with my dd in 4th grade, I had to drop a couple of readers because of the maturity needed to deal with the content. I also dropped a couple of the science books because they were too information-dense for 4th grade (but would have been fine in 2-3 years). Also, some of the things that were put on the independent study sheet she wasn't able to do independently, and there were a lot of the activities we just didn't get to (though that might not be the fault of WP, it seems that no matter what I try, we don't get a lot of hands-on activities done in our family). However, if she had been a little more mature, she could have handled her independent study assignments and the activities...well, independently.

 

WinterPromise has some great programs. We enjoyed it, though we aren't using any of their programs right now. There are several of their science programs I'm seriously considering trying out over the next few years, though.

 

Blessings,

 

Laura

[siloam]

Kate,

 

We enjoyed WP. I did AS 1 and AW both in the same year as History and Science. My oldest was 3rd/4th grade at the time (now going into 6th). She is a history buff and avid reader so I did have to add for her, but that wasn't too difficult. They all adored the hands on. The schedule is really easy to sue and my kids loved the books.

 

At first we spent a lot of time on the programs taking a couple of months to get through about 3-4 weeks of program, but that was because we were coming from SL and my kids were starved for something to do and had to do every single craft/project. Once they got their fill I was able to pick and choose projects and it took us about 30 mins per program per day 4 days a week. I would explain the project, and have them start while I read the core material, then they would finished while I read the RA. Given QAW is for an older age set, I am sure it would take more time.

 

WP is still my back up plan if TOG ever becomes too much to do.

 

Heather

 

[*Kate*]

Thanks for all the replies so far! You have been very helpful and I would love to hear more!

 

So for those of you who have used this you think I should go with the 4th-6th grade level for my 7th grader? I'm glad that possibility was brought up because I hadn't even thought of that. I will look into that program.

[Mandy in TN]

Tell me about your experiences/opinions with Winterpromise. What do you like? I like the books selections and the approach in general.

 

Dislike? I dislike having so many IG pages, but this is true of any lit based program.

 

Do your kids enjoy it? My middle ds and little ds used WP this past year. It was a very good fit. I changed our plans for next year, because middle ds wanted to use it again.

 

About how much time does it take each day? This can fluctuate quite a bit depending on if we visit websites, watch a DVD, do a project, and how quickly we happen to move that day.

 

I see some people complain about reading from several different books at once, does that bother you? No, it doesn't bother us. We like it. :)

 

Do you use all the books they suggest? I do not use the adventure reading. SL was not a good fit for middle ds because he does not like and is not moved by historical fiction. I also tweaked S&S a little to better accommodate our goals. Next year with Quest for the Middle Ages middle ds will use all the books except the adventure reading and the Survey of the New Testament. Then we will add in books from Ambleside.

 

HTH-

Mandy

[SnowWhite]

Tell me about your experiences/opinions with Winterpromise. What do you like? This is coming from a younger child perspective, so take it FWIW. I am seriously in love with WP. We're talking commitment-long term relationship love. LOL. We have completed Animals and Their Worlds, American Story 1, LA1, LA2, most of World Around Me, and part of I'm Ready to Learn and the younger Chess program.

 

Likes:

1-Multiple learning styles are used to approach the material, so that things never get boring and everything seems to "gel".

2-The instructor guide is very easy to use. There are no superfluous notes for me to wade through... WP trusts me to discuss the material with my child based on my own understanding and intellect.

3- The books are SUPER.

4- The LA program is gentle yet thorough (workbook based). The readers and creative writing prompts integrate with the theme (and each instructor guide includes the schedules for those items for ALL of the age appropriate WP themes, so you can easily reuse the LA guide another year with another child and another theme).

5- There is no guilt, because the activities are all a "buffet" from which to choose and the reading schedule is reasonable/doable.

6- It is easy to combine children who are far apart in age.

 

Dislike? Honestly- The resale policy. Not for myself, but because it is such a can of worms to so many potential customers.

 

Do your kids enjoy it? Yes.

 

About how much time does it take each day? Depends on the theme. For us it has been about an hour for the main themes.

 

I see some people complain about reading from several different books at once, does that bother you? We prefer it. Once we had a longer book scheduled with larger assignments and I found ds sighing over it, though he adored the story. I took that as my cue to split up the assignments if needed. (by scheduling another book along with the long one so we could do shorter lessons in the long one).

 

Do you use all the books they suggest? I use all of the ones sold in their themes and LA programs. There are an abundance of supplemental book suggestions in the IG, those I do not use. (they're completely optional, provided just for those families who would like to add for any reason)

 

[*Kate*]

Dislike? Honestly- The resale policy. Not for myself, but because it is such a can of worms to so many potential customers.

 

Please explain - what is this resale policy? I have heard nothing about this before.

[truebluexf]

WP requests that you do not resell or even give away any of their exclusives, including the IG and a few of the workbooks they put out. It kind of stinks, but it's their way of trying to stay afloat (so people have to at least buy the IG from them even if they get the other stuff used). That said, you can often find used IG's around anyway.

[2cents]

I wanted so much to give the American Culture program a try. The site had it available, took my money, and then I found out it wasn't even close to being finished yet (written). I didn't want to get it in pieces so I took a refund. They never indicated on their website that it was not available. I thought that was really misleading and soured me on any further business with that company. I would be more inclined to give them another chance if they had been upfront about the status of that product. Even after I complained, the status never changed. I wonder how many people are waiting on their curriculum? That is my experience.

[SnowWhite]

That is really not good... but just FYI, WP has an outsourced tech team I believe, and it seems to only update the website VERY sporadically (like a couple times each year). This is one area I really want WP to improve upon, but I'm not sure whether they have the capacity yet. They really don't have "employees" per se, at least not full time ones all year.

[SnowWhite]

WP requests that you do not resell or even give away any of their exclusives, including the IG and a few of the workbooks they put out. It kind of stinks, but it's their way of trying to stay afloat (so people have to at least buy the IG from them even if they get the other stuff used). That said, you can often find used IG's around anyway.

 

This is correct, and the consensus around the forums (fora?) seems to be that legally, it can only be a "request" whether it's couched as a policy or not. One thing to remember is that the price of the instructor guide is credited to folks who buy the whole theme program from WP (along with free shipping... the shipping alone for my theme this year cost the WP company $70 or so).

[Lovedtodeath]

 

This is correct, and the consensus around the forums (fora?) seems to be that legally, it can only be a "request" whether it's couched as a policy or not. One thing to remember is that the price of the instructor guide is credited to folks who buy the whole theme program from WP (along with free shipping... the shipping alone for my theme this year cost the WP company $70 or so).

This makes it difficult to buy or sell used any part of WPs programs b/c it isusually not worth it. I like to pick and choose rather than buy the full deal, but I would be likely to buy the full deal if I knew tha I could resell it that way. But people selling WP books used need to keep in mind the cost of buying just the exclusives from WP and charge less than I typically see. IMO. I mean, you used the full program and now can sell it. Isn't it okay to go less than 50%? If I go into it thinking that I can get 30% back by selling, that is still a good deal.

[momtotkbb]

I wanted so much to give the American Culture program a try. The site had it available, took my money, and then I found out it wasn't even close to being finished yet (written). I didn't want to get it in pieces so I took a refund. They never indicated on their website that it was not available. I thought that was really misleading and soured me on any further business with that company. I would be more inclined to give them another chance if they had been upfront about the status of that product. Even after I complained, the status never changed. I wonder how many people are waiting on their curriculum? That is my experience.

 

 

Do you mind me asking - when you tried to order it? I know that it wasn't suppose to be avail until after the retreat in April and samples weren't up until recently.

 

I'm debating bet/ it and just doing the 2nd half of SL Core 100 for 8th grade dd. But my understanding that there was only a delay with a book or two ---not the whole program. I need to begin in July --so if AC isn't even written yet then I will need to go with SL. I was just getting ready to order AC this weekend. Maybe I will wait until Monday when I can call.

[BizyPenguin]

When did you place your order? I spoke to someone at WP earlier this month and she said they were hoping to have this program ready by the end of June. One of the books went out of print and they were searching for a replacement and then needed to fix the IG to reflect the changes. Like someone else mentioned, this program wasn't initially meant to be ready until after the WP retreat in April. I do think they should mention something about this on their web site so potential customers know this in advance. Their web site, while nice, can definitely stand some improvements, more samples, and regular updating.

 

I wanted so much to give the American Culture program a try. The site had it available, took my money, and then I found out it wasn't even close to being finished yet (written). I didn't want to get it in pieces so I took a refund. They never indicated on their website that it was not available. I thought that was really misleading and soured me on any further business with that company. I would be more inclined to give them another chance if they had been upfront about the status of that product. Even after I complained, the status never changed. I wonder how many people are waiting on their curriculum? That is my experience.

Edited June 20, 2009 by BizyPenguin

[4wildberrys]

I wanted so much to give the American Culture program a try. The site had it available, took my money, and then I found out it wasn't even close to being finished yet (written). I didn't want to get it in pieces so I took a refund. They never indicated on their website that it was not available. I thought that was really misleading and soured me on any further business with that company. I would be more inclined to give them another chance if they had been upfront about the status of that product. Even after I complained, the status never changed. I wonder how many people are waiting on their curriculum? That is my experience.

 

What a bummer! :glare: The AC looks awesome though! FWIW---WP has had to work out major kinks since starting up---it seems like they always have books that have gone out of print and they drop ship a lot from Amazon or other publishers, but I know they are trying desperately to fix this. I placed a HUGE order with them in May---and I have pretty much everything. With my first box, there was a notice that said the rest would ship shortly. Well, 3 weeks later I sent an email inquiring when I would get the rest and within a day I had the response on exactly what books and items were coming and which ones would take a few extra days coming from the publisher---this is a HUGE improvement over last year when I ordered CAW and still had some books coming months later. We LOVE SL here---the book lists are awesome---but I also have found a new love with WP!! The delving into a subject is so much richer than SL. I really like how WP doesn't cram as much daily reading into the schedule as SL and I LOVE the DVD lists---in fact, dd is finishing up SL100 this year, which has been a good program, but a whirlwhind reading marathon! I plan on using SL 100 over 2 years for ds alongside the WP AC1 and ACult. because I want to slow down and savor studying American hist instead of rushing through it again---which their high school add-on sheets allow for.

[2cents]

Do you mind me asking - when you tried to order it? I know that it wasn't suppose to be avail until after the retreat in April and samples weren't up until recently.

 

I'm debating bet/ it and just doing the 2nd half of SL Core 100 for 8th grade dd. But my understanding that there was only a delay with a book or two ---not the whole program. I need to begin in July --so if AC isn't even written yet then I will need to go with SL. I was just getting ready to order AC this weekend. Maybe I will wait until Monday when I can call.

 

I ordered in March. I never knew anything about it not being ready until April. I wish they had put that on their website. They told me via email about 2 weeks after ordering that it would be ready mid April. I waited. At that point I still didn't have it so I called and they told me they could give me the first two lessons and more later. That wasn't going to work for me since I plan a year in advance.

 

They can't use outsourcing the website as an excuse because if they take money (and the product isn't cheap!) without fully disclosing the product is incomplete then it could be a consumer fraud. They need to work on their service because I consistently hear that they fall short in filling orders timely. They have been around long enough that 'growing pains' no longer can explain the problems they have.

 

The cultures program looked really good but upon reflection, I could easily come up with a fantastic plan that would sound great too, but putting it into a marketable package is another thing. I would never consider selling my 'idea' as a full and complete package. I was just glad to get my refund. :)

[BizyPenguin]

nt

Edited June 22, 2009 by BizyPenguin

[momtotkbb]

Actually on their website it has stated that the program wouldn't be avail until after the retreat in April. http://www.winterpromise.com/american_culture.html

This is a new program, and will release after our WinterPromise Retreat in April.

 

 

I'm pretty sure the catalog said the same thing - but I don't have it in front of me. I do think though that they should update that. I knew that they were behind schedule bec of their forum. I also had waited until I could see the samples and they weren't put up until recently.

[2cents]

That is good that they have it on the website now but when I ordered it wasn't and in April they weren't even close to being done. Hopefully they are closer now but I would want a guarantee before I considered ordering. They really have to work on those issues.