marsha617 Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 I have had my eye on this curriculum for 2 years now. I haven't bought it yet...although my plans are to do just that this spring. My ds loves animals so I know he will enjoy the curriculum/content. My concern is the way the IG is laid out. It seems confusing and somewhat overwhelming. Now I have only seen the sample and read some posts on the WP forum in order to reach my conclusion. So before I purchase it I would like to know what others that have used it for any amount of time think. Thank you! Marsha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sands31210 Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 Hi Marsha, Our last day of Animal Worlds is tomorrow. I found the schedule very easy to use. I used a 2006 version of the IG. It is laid out in a grid format. It is designed to follow the grids by day vertically with you doing assigned pages and activities from several books. Some chose to follow by topic (book) horizontally. What I mean by this is, instead of reading from one book 5 times that week, you would do all the reading from that book on one day all the reading from another book the next day, and so on. There are also many crafts and hands on assignments to do, which does look overwhelming, but you are to pick only the ones you care to do. It was not designed for you to do every hands on activity. If you have ever used Sonlight, it is similar in style to their schedule. I hope this helps and if you have anymore questions, just ask. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowWhite Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 I guess I need more information... what about the IG appears to be confusing or overwhelming? Is it the "Working on My Own" checklist you can give older students? I am finishing up week 36 of this program and I find the IG *extremely* user friendly and easy to use. Because I am a perfectionist, I did make my own schedule deleting the resources we weren't using (we skipped the Alphabet Art book) and putting the independent reading list on my checklist (ds wasn't up to reading them yet). BUT, if I had used all the resources of if ds *was* old enough to read the independent assignments on his own, I would not have done that. I won't be doing that for American Story 1 next year. As far as the forum posts about "choppiness", they leave me completely clueless. With the exception of some farm animals stuck in the Polar Unit (there is no farm unit, and there's a dearth of Polar animals), I didn't find the schedule choppy. Maybe that's because I approach schedules from a weekly viewpoint rather than daily. I don't mind reading about Sharks on Tuesday and completing the notebook page about them on Friday (since Friday is notebooking day). And we just do activities on any given day that feels like activities day, so I wasn't looking for the craft to correspond with the "animal of the day". I feel the term "animal of the day" is a misnomer anyway, because WP never uses it. They schedule an Animal Encyclopedia reading each day, but to me that doesn't designate the it "day of the Shark" because you happen to read about them in the Ency. KWIM? I'm happy to give more detailed info if you have more detailed questions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4arrows Posted May 7, 2008 Share Posted May 7, 2008 I found it very easy to use. Just remember to NOT try and do everything that is scheduled. You will burn out very, very quickly. Choose from among the activities. We enjoyed our year with Animal Worlds, and just finished up American Story 1 a few weeks ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marsha617 Posted May 7, 2008 Author Share Posted May 7, 2008 I should have been more detailed. The confusing part seemed to be the Working on My Own Pages in addition to another scheduled sheet of work for the day. Also, the readings looked to go from book to book. Maybe I need to read from one or two books a day instead of three or more. Once I buy the program I will probably have more questions. I can go to the WP forum to ask away if need be! Thanks! Marsha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sands31210 Posted May 8, 2008 Share Posted May 8, 2008 Hi again Marsha, I don't have the IG in front of me, but if I remember correctly the Working on My Own Pages repeated the activities listed for older students and then had maybe one or two additional assignments that were not on the parent IG page. The readings do go from book to book, but as discussed in other posts you can alter the schedule to concentrate on one book at a time if that works better for you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mchel210 Posted May 8, 2008 Share Posted May 8, 2008 I loved the layout of the schedule . Very easy to use...and the books are very nice. BUT...my dd who loves animals...hated it. I have no clue why. She begged me to stop using it. I ended up keeping the craft books...but she hates those too. She loves painting ...but hates the WP crafts. She liked the links on the websites...but didnt want to read anymore about the topics. She didnt like how they went on for weeks about one topic...like the rainforest. Oh well. She was 5 and my other dd 6 would never sit with us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4arrows Posted May 8, 2008 Share Posted May 8, 2008 I should have been more detailed. The confusing part seemed to be the Working on My Own Pages in addition to another scheduled sheet of work for the day. Also, the readings looked to go from book to book. Maybe I need to read from one or two books a day instead of three or more. Once I buy the program I will probably have more questions. I can go to the WP forum to ask away if need be! Thanks! Marsha The On My Own pages list the things on the main schedule page that a student should do on their own (as opposed to being read aloud to, etc). So it is partial repetition. The readings do go from book to book. I tend to read bigger chunks out of one or two books one day, then do another book or so the next day. We just prefer it that way. I look at what I need to cover for that week, and I group it how it works for me. But the guidebook gives me the goal for the week, and it is organized so I know what to do when, if that makes sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowWhite Posted May 8, 2008 Share Posted May 8, 2008 I think it sort of depends on the age of the child. My ds was a first grader doing the program, and it was perfect for him to read about ONE animal per day and read two pages in the One Small Square book. To read more from that book would have overwhelmed him. What I do to make our reading session go smoothly is to open up each book to the assigned pages ahead of time. Then I may lay them out on the table and we'll move from one book to the next, or put the light ones on top of the Ency and just go down the stack. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
babybryte Posted May 9, 2008 Share Posted May 9, 2008 I will agree that it depends on the age of the child(ren). I did Animal Worlds when my oldest was in Kindergarten. We ended up only doing a few of the Make Your Own Animal notebook pages. It was just too much for him. But we LOVED the rest of it!! The books were great. Now, if we had done it when he was in 2nd, I think the notebooking pages would have gone a lot better. HTH!:001_smile: Jacquelyn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marsha617 Posted May 9, 2008 Author Share Posted May 9, 2008 Thank you for all the info you all offered. You gave valuable info and encouragement. I am no longer ambivalent concerning my purchase of AW. Blessings to you all! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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