what is the general consensus on winterpromise?

[welovetoread]

I am looking at several wp programs and have been for years. So Wp users, what is the general consensus? Love it, hate it? worth it? quality program?

 

Give me every detail about it :)

Thanks

[Mandy in TN]

We used and loved Animals and Their Worlds for K. We loved the hands on activities in At the Zoo! and Ed Emberley's Animals. They were developmentally appropriate and gave the little guy something to show Dad.. Animal study was right up the little man's alley. He very much liked the One Small Square series and the DK Animal Encyclopedia. The Big Book of 5 Minute Devotions was sweet. The length is short and good for a little person's short attention span. It contains little animal factoids and relates them to a character trait and a little Bible verse. We didn't do the suggested adventure reading (read alouds). I rearranged weeks and added things because I always do. I am sure my posts from the things we did are still over on the WP boards. It was a very good year for my little guy. :)

 

My middle ds used and loved Sea and Sky for 9th grade. This was hands-down ds's smoothest year at home. The schedule (changing direction second semester), the book selections, the topics covered- everything combined to make this year wonderful. I didn't have a single nag-fest to demand that he complete his work. We loved the 2nd semester OLG additional history text! The great outline and the OLG made it easy to beef up the history and science for high school. Although I did end up creating our own guide so that everything would be on one sheet to hand to ds, I did the least amount of tweaking that I have ever done and DS has earned 2.5 credits- nag free! He earned a credit in Modern History. We used all of the history titles except The Story of the Wright Brothers which we replaced with The Wright Brothers; How They Invented the Airplane by Freedman. We just viewed the early history as review. First semester we added Power Basic World History 3 and some 20th century photo type books. Second semester we used the OLG additional history text that added a focus on aviation history to ds's study of modern history. He earned a 1/2 credit in oceanography. We added 5 chapters from Apologia's Marine Biology. He earned a 1/2 credit in astronomy. We added Universe, The Story of Astronomy, George's Secret Key to the Universe, and a bunch of videos and whatnot. Used with the schedule in S&S, I also gave him a 1/2 credit in religious studies for Our Place in Space. I wouldn't have a problem giving him the literature half of his LA credit from the OLG S&S lit suggestion, but honestly we didn't end up using many of them. So, it would be no problem for a high schooler to squeeze 3 full credits out of S&S with the OLG. Some things in S&S that we didn't use: Tools of Navigation didn't fit into a 1/2 credit of oceanography; however, we didn't even miss it. Also, since ds needed a 1/2 credit in astronomy second semester, the quarter on weather ended up on the cutting room floor except for two titles (The Weather Book and Air) that we decided helped with the flow of the course. The pirate book was replaced with Pirateology. Dragons of the Deep was too young earth for us and was replaced with Nat Geo's Sea Monsters: Prehistoric Creatures of the Deep. These few things are the only alterations that I can remember.

 

We attempted and hated Quest for the Middle Ages. However, our problems with this program may not apply to others. The first problem is the I loathe Mystery of History. It is dry as toast. I don't like the tone it takes with the reader. Come hither little ignorant child and let me lead you to my truth. I am also not that religious. It was killing me. The other problem was that I was trying to keep my 1st grader and 10th grader on the same page and it just wasn't working. I thought it would provide family moments, but it didn't. It was a pain and nothing was a good fit for either child.

 

We are now using CATW. It is alright, but I miss having a spine. I guess Children Around the World is a spine, but I just don't feel like it is cohesive enough. The notebooking is nice. The little man doesn't complain about it, so I guess it is fine. I just haven't done as much with it as I could. I lack the motivation to put together the weekly get-togethers/ cultural meals.

 

HTH-

Mandy

[shanvan]

We used and loved Animals and Their Worlds for K. We loved the hands on activities in At the Zoo! and Ed Emberley's Animals. They were developmentally appropriate and gave the little guy something to show Dad.. Animal study was right up the little man's alley. He very much liked the One Small Square series and the DK Animal Encyclopedia. The Big Book of 5 Minute Devotions was sweet. The length is short and good for a little person's short attention span. It contains little animal factoids and relates them to a character trait and a little Bible verse. We didn't do the suggested adventure reading (read alouds). I rearranged weeks and added things because I always do. I am sure my posts from the things we did are still over on the WP boards. It was a very good year for my little guy. :)

 

 

We attempted and hated Quest for the Middle Ages. However, our problems with this program may not apply to others. The first problem is the I loathe Mystery of History. It is dry as toast. I don't like the tone it takes with the reader. Come hither little ignorant child and let me lead you to my truth. I am also not that religious. It was killing me.

 

HTH-

Mandy

 

Well, I am a committed (not to be confused w/ should-be-committed) Christian and I still feel the same way you do about Mystery of History. I've read lots of complaints about Quest for the Middle Ages, but I have never actually used WP, so can't comment further.

[Annie Laurie]

I have used or attempted I'm Ready to Learn, Animal Worlds, American Story 1, and Children Around the World.

 

IRTL I ended up selling after a 1 month trial. There's nothing wrong with it, I just learned that it's not my style to have things so fussy and scheduled for preschool. I end up feeling weighed down by programs like that, and felt like I could accomplish my preschool goals without so much fuss.

 

AW is very cute. I tried that program 3 different times because I really wanted to use it and never could get it off the ground. Once again, I think it was just a bad fit for my kids and I, but there was nothing wrong w the program. I am still tempted to try it again when my toddler is older.

 

AS 1 we really enjoyed. That would be my personal fav of the ones we tried. The books were engaging and the crafts were easy but fun.

 

CATW felt weird to me, disjointed or something, but my kids might have been too young too.

[SnowWhite]

We are doing AW for the third time (two diff kids, one on two diff levels). Love that program.

 

We also did AS1/AS2, which I loved.

 

We tried IRTL, HIH, and S&S with less success, mostly for the same reason as Annie Laurie wrt preschool, and then because I was combining and tweaking too much.

 

I am going a more mom-scheduled route, but I always go back to WP title picks because their visually attractive materials and adventurous lit readers (not so emotionally heavy as many of SL's titles) appeal to us.

[Jilly]

I have used many WP themes. My favorites have been AW, AS1, AS2, and the new theme American History for high school. I especially loved the American Story themes, and my kids remember AS1 as their favorite homeschool year.

 

I have also used HIH and Sea and Sky. Both of these themes were less succesful for us. HIH we dropped after only a few weeks. It just didn't work, and it seemed very disjointed to me.

[unity]

I've tried WP a couple of times, and I wouldn't buy it again. AW I tried twice and couldn't get it off the ground. QMA felt like a train wreck in our house and I ditched that one halfway through the year for another program. Such, such a lovely website and catalog, and the schedule looks like Sonlight, but to me it feels like something is just not there on the usability front.

[speedmom4]

I used WP for American Story 1 and 2. The organization of the program was very poor. I was also frustrated that they advertised that there were websites and videos scheduled in the instructor guide to enhance the history study but many times the websites no longer existed or the video didn't have anything to do with what we were studying. I will say they have wonderful history and read aloud books.

 

God Bless,

Elise in NC

[Chrysalis Academy]

We're using WP's Equine Science. My 5th grader loves it. It took almost two months and lots of emails to get all the materials but once we got them, it's been great. That is all I have to add.

[IceFairy]

The first curriculum I ever purchased was IRTL. I was new and inexperienced...but even I knew that it wasn't going to work after 3 weeks. It was all over the place and I knew that if I could not follow it, there was no way my kids could.

[welovetoread]

Thank you all so very much for your opinions. It is because of all of hte shipping hassles that I am skeptical of ordering. We did Sonlight one year and it was pretty good. I did add alot to the LA program, but I really like the looks of WP. I'm just nervous about the user friendly aspect and the shipping.