birchbark Posted September 27, 2012 Share Posted September 27, 2012 I discovered this program a year and a half ago and have waited till now to use it with my K-er. We are in our third week and loving it. The seasonal focus, the fun, easy activities and field trip ideas are great! The very flexible structure makes it so doable. Our library has had all of the books so far. I switched around some of the units so we could catch the apples and leaves and so forth at the right times here. This week we are doing the apple unit and today the two littles did the apple prints. Tomorrow we are heading to the orchards and Fri we'll be making the apple bread! My DS loves quoting "Little Boy Blue" every day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.... Posted September 27, 2012 Share Posted September 27, 2012 :seeya: We're also in the "apple week"! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xixstar Posted September 27, 2012 Share Posted September 27, 2012 We are! My kids love the Little Boy Blue poem as well, they learned it in one week and we are learning others now too. We're on the tractor week and went apple picking as well. :) It's a lot of fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeaganS Posted September 27, 2012 Share Posted September 27, 2012 We are! We are supposed to be finishing up the Tractor week, but dd broke her arm last week and and I couldn't get the books from the library in time, so it didn't happen. However, I am planning on getting this next week's done! It is the Little Red Hen one. We're not doing the letters or poems, but we are doing the books, craft, and field trips. I wanted something I could add to reading and math to make our day more "preschooly" and this was a good solution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mellifera33 Posted September 27, 2012 Share Posted September 27, 2012 We're using WFA this this year--adding the suggested programs for phonics and math for my 5 y/o (ETC and Right Start--it was actually coincidental--I had decided on ETC and RS before deciding on WFA) and the 2 y/o is tagging along and participating in the art projects. We are enjoying it--DS5 likes the harvest/farm theme and it keeps his interest well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corduroy Posted September 28, 2012 Share Posted September 28, 2012 We are, but since my little guy is (IMO) too young for anything formal, we're using it mostly as a reading list and for occasional activity ideas. I originally worked out a pretty optimistic schedule for what we would be doing, but as it turns out, we basically read the books and then use the weekly themes to find more books about similar topics. Like others, we mixed the weeks up a bit. We currently have a couple of beans sprouting in a bag taped to the window, and are reading about leaves and tractors. Some fun farm-related books we've discovered through this: Tremendous Tractors (Amazing Machines) by Tony Mitton (I couldn't find the original recommendation for the second tractor book. This one has been a big hit with one out of one preschoolers surveyed.) On the Farm by David Elliott (farm-themed poetry) A Handful of Dirt by Raymond Bial Farming by Gail Gibbons (I did a week to start just about farming, to give my urban child a sense of what we were going to read about in the coming weeks) One Bean by Anne Rockwell From Seed to Plant by Gail Gibbons Jack's Garden by Henry Cole (love!) Overall, I'm really enjoying the very gentle structure following WFA even as loosely as we do is giving to our weeks! I think it's just right for very little kids. I would definitely consider doing it again next year and adding phonics/math. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amy Jo Posted September 28, 2012 Share Posted September 28, 2012 I'm hoping to use it next year - it looks like a great program. I've reserved some of the books at the library, and if I like them I'm going to add them to my bargain-buy list. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mohop Posted September 28, 2012 Share Posted September 28, 2012 I had downloaded the curriculum guides but wrote if off for this year, because we are overseas and don't have easy access to the books. But upon looking at it again, I think I'm going to try to do as much as I can of it, even if it is mostly just the activities and not the primary reading texts. What an awesome, free resource they have provided us with. The activities look awesome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corduroy Posted September 28, 2012 Share Posted September 28, 2012 we are overseas and don't have easy access to the books. I don't know if this helps, but what I did was write down the theme for each week listed in the guide and then look for books based on that theme. There were a couple of recommended books I had already read and didn't care for, and a few others I couldn't find. If you reduce it to the general theme for each week, it's really easy to find replacement books (or additional books). I don't think the books themselves matter so very much - although the listed books are generally very high-quality, which is probably something to strive to match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay3fer Posted September 28, 2012 Share Posted September 28, 2012 What an awesome free curriculum! I'd love to find a way to squeeeeeeze this in for my K & 2nd to share together... (she likes babyish stuff sometimes, and misses a lot of the picture books of our early hs years) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4kidlets4me Posted September 28, 2012 Share Posted September 28, 2012 We are. I added in OPGTR and the ETC books. I'm not too worried about math he gets plenty of math in daily life. I was looking for a gentle kindergarten year and this is definitely it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longnightmoon Posted September 28, 2012 Share Posted September 28, 2012 We are doing it for the second time along with RS A, HWOT and Phonics Pathways. I was trying to do FIAR with my oldest but it was a bit much for her. Someone posted a thread about WFA over the weekend and it got me thinking it might be a better fit for my dd. We started it again this past week and had such a blast this week making the salt dough veggies. My dd LOVED Tops and Bottoms and has asked to read it every day this week. Btw - we have a great cooperative game that goes really well with the fall segment. It's called Harvest Time (sorry, I can't get the link to work) and it's at Amazon. Both my dd's can play and I even enjoy it, which is always a nice bonus. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjlcc Posted September 29, 2012 Share Posted September 29, 2012 We are enjoying WFA too. My older boys are "playing" too, as they helped with the salt dough veggies last week. This week, DD and I struggled with our apple prints, so we compromised by finger painting apple shapes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjlcc Posted September 29, 2012 Share Posted September 29, 2012 We are, but since my little guy is (IMO) too young for anything formal, we're using it mostly as a reading list and for occasional activity ideas. I originally worked out a pretty optimistic schedule for what we would be doing, but as it turns out, we basically read the books and then use the weekly themes to find more books about similar topics. Like others, we mixed the weeks up a bit. We currently have a couple of beans sprouting in a bag taped to the window, and are reading about leaves and tractors. Some fun farm-related books we've discovered through this: Tremendous Tractors (Amazing Machines) by Tony Mitton (I couldn't find the original recommendation for the second tractor book. This one has been a big hit with one out of one preschoolers surveyed.) On the Farm by David Elliott (farm-themed poetry) A Handful of Dirt by Raymond Bial Farming by Gail Gibbons (I did a week to start just about farming, to give my urban child a sense of what we were going to read about in the coming weeks) One Bean by Anne Rockwell From Seed to Plant by Gail Gibbons Jack's Garden by Henry Cole (love!) Overall, I'm really enjoying the very gentle structure following WFA even as loosely as we do is giving to our weeks! I think it's just right for very little kids. I would definitely consider doing it again next year and adding phonics/math. Thanks for the recommended book titles. We've read the last two on your list, but I'm definitely going to check out the others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birchbark Posted September 30, 2012 Author Share Posted September 30, 2012 Maybe we should start a social group. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xixstar Posted October 1, 2012 Share Posted October 1, 2012 Maybe we should start a social group. :) There is a pre-k social group where I posted about us starting WFA; not that there has been any action in there. http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/group.php?groupid=35 It's not WeeFolk specific but I think it'd be a great place to chat along about it as well since I think a lot of people then have overlapping questions about other items going with WFA and different PreK plans as well. Hope it's not considered out of line suggesting it, I'm still new here. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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