WinterPromise?

[rowan25]

I just got the new WinterPromise catalog and I'm being seduced! My dd is 5; she reads on approximately 2nd grade level, but is very much a 5 year old.

 

Opinions on WinterPromise pro/con appreciated. Also specifically their Science.

 

Thanks!

[Tree House Academy]

If I could have done two programs for Science next year, I would have gone with WP's Shoot Sprout Buzz and Bite for my 5 year old boy. It looked like so much fun!

[Lovedtodeath]

It is fun! We love SS BB and if the other programs are set up the same way, then they are easy to use and engaging for the children. (We didn't like SL. :o)

[SnowWhite]

WinterPromise Pros:

 

Simple, easy to use

Includes different learning styles (hands on, auditory, visual)

Beautiful materials

Wide variety of themes

Interchangeable sequence makes it flexible

Integrated readers and creative narration make the LA fun and interesting

LA is gentle but solid, traditional workbook style

Fun!

 

Cons:

Cost, obviously. But you mostly don't have to use your library (Hideaways now does suggest one book series, "You Wouldn't Want To" history books each week to add from your library).

The resale policy scares some folks off. (I don't mind... I want WP to thrive, so I will pay for my instructor guides).

Occasionally somebody will have a book missing or wait a long time on their order or have some communication issue. It's a small/young company growing pains issue.

Occasionally I hear of someone who thinks the scheduling is "jerky". It doesn't strike me that way but I'm not very picky. For example, they put Farm Animals in with the Arctic section of Animals and Their Worlds because there are fewer animals in that part of the world and the Farm Animals wouldn't have fit in the other habitats either. We just skipped the Farm Animals, but that really bothers some people.

Or on Shark Week, you might have a shark reading on Monday, a Shark craft on Wednesday and a shark notebooking page on Friday. In between would be other ocean creatures. This is just fine with me, but drives some folks nuts from what I understand.

 

Bible is a separate, devotional style study in the early years. For people who want it "woven into" their study, this presents a con. For us it was a "pro". The science is young earth creationist if you look at the Answers in Genesis texts they use, but there are also secular books used that have "millions of years" language... this doesn't concern me.

 

We've done Animals and Their Worlds and also World Around Me science. We've liked both, though I ditched some of the notebooking in WAM. (just catering to my science-y but not so big on handwriting ds). I'm happy to answer any other specific questions that may arise.

[Mandy in TN]

Opinions on WinterPromise pro/con appreciated. Also specifically their Science.

 

We are using WP AW this year with our K'er. He is a very mathy little guy, but he like AW even better than math. From my perspective that is quite a selling feature. ;)

Mandy

[Suzanne115]

We are finishing up Animal Worlds and really enjoyed it. We have covered it over two years because I like to add things to it.

 

 

Suzanne

[Guest Alte Veste Academy]

WinterPromise Pros:

 

Simple, easy to use

Includes different learning styles (hands on, auditory, visual)

Beautiful materials

Wide variety of themes

Interchangeable sequence makes it flexible

Integrated readers and creative narration make the LA fun and interesting

LA is gentle but solid, traditional workbook style

Fun!

 

Cons:

Cost, obviously. But you mostly don't have to use your library (Hideaways now does suggest one book series, "You Wouldn't Want To" history books each week to add from your library).

The resale policy scares some folks off. (I don't mind... I want WP to thrive, so I will pay for my instructor guides).

Occasionally somebody will have a book missing or wait a long time on their order or have some communication issue. It's a small/young company growing pains issue.

Occasionally I hear of someone who thinks the scheduling is "jerky". It doesn't strike me that way but I'm not very picky. For example, they put Farm Animals in with the Arctic section of Animals and Their Worlds because there are fewer animals in that part of the world and the Farm Animals wouldn't have fit in the other habitats either. We just skipped the Farm Animals, but that really bothers some people.

Or on Shark Week, you might have a shark reading on Monday, a Shark craft on Wednesday and a shark notebooking page on Friday. In between would be other ocean creatures. This is just fine with me, but drives some folks nuts from what I understand.

 

 

 

I highlighted everything that I feel personally.

 

Snow White, your last highlighted con above almost made me spit tea all over my keyboard. :lol: Yes, it makes me nuts BUT what do I have in front of my but my brand new WP catalog? It's open to AS2, which I will probably (95%?) be purchasing for our 2nd grade. Yes, it drives me crazy when things don't line up. Yes, I just wrote about my psychosis in another WP thread but man, I just really like the books. Once upon a time, I added up all the books for AS1 on Amazon and it actually came out cheaper to buy from WP AND you get the IG included in that lower price. So, even allowing for the fact that I'm going to rip that schedule to shreds and start building it again to satisfy my own needs for alignment, I still think it's worth it. Plus, I like to see a little family company grow. :001_smile:

 

Another pro I find is that the books are very age-appropriate. Some of the programs out there make me feel like we're all trying to create little Frasier Cranes and I think, man, just let little kids be little kids, you know?

 

For another con, I will add that I wish the ratio of realistic arts & crafts and hands-on stuff to paper crafts was a little higher.

 

The separate Bible is a pro for me also.

 

ETA: Possibly my favorite thing besides the age-appropriate materials is the good selection of readers for different reading levels that align with history. Now that they have the AA and the AC programs, you can be doing AS1 but buy readers for 5th grade if you have an advanced reader. That's pretty great.

 

Also, I don't know how in the world I always seem to forget this, but I actually did buy AW and reorganized it to work with our world tour this year. Because I reworked it, I don't use the IG, which may be why it always slips my mind. The books are fabulous and the kids are enjoying all their selections.

Edited March 27, 2009 by Alte Veste Academy

[SnowWhite]

Some of the programs out there make me feel like we're all trying to create little Frasier Cranes and I think, man, just let little kids be little kids, you know?

 

 

Your turn to make me ROFL and it's a good thing I wasn't drinking a beverage, or dh's prized flat screen monitor would have suffered.

 

I agree. We did Amer Story 1 with a second grader this year and it was JUST SO RIGHT for us. Frasier Crane he's not. :lol: (Even though we did two supplemental science books along with our WinterPromise World Around Me).

[siloam]

I adore WP science, and if things wern't so nuts around here I would be using it in a heartbeat.

 

Pros:

 

Simple, easy to use

Includes different learning styles (hands on, auditory, visual)

Beautiful materials

Wide variety of themes

Interchangeable sequence makes it flexible

Integrated readers and creative narration make the LA fun and interesting

 

Fun!

 

Agreed!

 

Cons:

 

Cost

The resale policy scares some folks off.

Occasionally somebody will have a book missing or wait a long time on their order or have some communication issue. It's a small/young company growing pains issue.

Occasionally I hear of someone who thinks the scheduling is "jerky".

 

The resale policy drives me nuts, while at the same time I get it. Because they include such a large amout of links that go dead every year, if they allow the resale of IG's then everyone is going to expect them to keep it updated, and eat the cost of doing so. They have neither the manpower or the money to that (the second I assume the first is obvious).

 

I do wish they would get over some of their growing pains, but I will say that they seem to have the best of desires. I have seen them drop ship books from Amazon to people at their own cost. They really do try. They have also had continued problems with dropped e-mail. They have switched e-mail providers to help solve it only to figure out the new one is no better. As someone who has had her dh send her an e-mail from work and had it taken over a week to receive it (and some I never did get), I understand. I find free e-mail providers to be more reliable than my ISP.

 

The schedule didn't bother me at all, but I have done a fair amount of scheduling myself and know how hard it can be to fit resources together.

 

Heather

 

 

 

[Lovedtodeath]

The schedule didn't bother me at all, but I have done a fair amount of scheduling myself and know how hard it can be to fit resources together.

Thatwhole idea really bothers me. I am scheduling SOTW 1 right now. So, if I have Guerber's books as read alouds and you are doing a read aloud on Greeks for 4 weeks, but during one of those 4 there is a SOTW chapter about oh, I don't know, China (I am not looking at it), in the middle (with a reader and a picture book, but you still read from Guerber that week)... is this what people are complaining about when they say "jerky"?

[Donna T.]

We used and enjoyed Animal Worlds though I didn't use it exactly as it should have been used. My son was more motivated with it than I was (mostly because of other commitments I had, my time was being spread quite thin), so he was able to complete most of it in a very independent manner. He was a third grader and a strong reader. He loved the Independent Study Guides. I wish I had done a better job teaching it but regardless, he loved it and we give it a hearty endorsement. Easy to use. So easy that he was really able to do much of it on his own.

 

I've just started using The World Around Me with my first grader and my 5 year old nephew and 3 year old niece. We're only going to use it one or two days a week. So far, I really like it. The books are great, the schedule is easy to follow, the lessons are short. They loved starting out with the Scavanger Hunt. It seems like a nice balance of activities, notebooking, and discussion opportunities. The books are not baby. They are full of good info.

 

Well, you can probably tell that I'm into easy!

[siloam]

Thatwhole idea really bothers me. I am scheduling SOTW 1 right now. So, if I have Guerber's books as read alouds and you are doing a read aloud on Greeks for 4 weeks, but during one of those 4 there is a SOTW chapter about oh, I don't know, China (I am not looking at it), in the middle (with a reader and a picture book, but you still read from Guerber that week)... is this what people are complaining about when they say "jerky"?

 

Yes that is part of it.

 

This week we are reading about Victoria England, finishing up our read aloud on the Trail of Tears (A topic a few weeks ago) and still building our Civil War soldiers (the topic about 4 weeks ago :D ). Did I mention that the topic in between the Plains Indian Wars and Victoria England was Africa? And I do TOG where I have total control. ;) Doesn't bug me one bit.

 

Actually I do see a logic behind it. While some of the Civil War and Plains Indians Wars happen at the same time, the Plains Indian Wars continued after then end of the Civil War. Then it was Victoria England that grew England to one of it's largest high points in terms of colonization, which included large parts of Africa, so it was a good time to stop and look at Africa. Yet this happened towards the end of Queen Victoria's reign, so you might have people disagree and say Victoria England should be covered earlier. In addition if you were to read a biography on Queen Victoria that week you would find it would include a lot of review on wars and other events covered before this time in history because she ruled for so long, which might make things feel disjointed. This order places studying her towards the end of her reign when it was at its high point. I could see people thinking that Africa was just stuck in there. In fact I though that until we did the study and I saw the correlation. It is a deeper study to understand Africa in studying the Victorian Era. You really don't need to understand the Victorian Era to understand Africa.

 

But Unit studies tend to be this way (and WP IS a unit study). There will be several events happening at once, so they pull each event out and look at it separately. The main purpose of doing that is so that you can build projects and crafts around it. The problem I had with SL, which does have a better flow (but still has its moments of: Why this here, now?), was you would have 10 projects to go with the topic of one week, then the material talked about such mundane stuff, or was so obscure that I couldn't figure out how to tie a craft or project to it.

 

I will admit though that my preferred way to study is strictly chronological. It just doesn't work well with hands on kids, so I have learned not to sweat it.

 

Heather

 

Edited March 28, 2009 by siloam

[z2_mom]

Has anyone done the Hideaways with winter promise? I am debating between this one and the animals one for my 1 grader next year.

 

Lynda

[rowan25]

 

We've done Animals and Their Worlds and also World Around Me science. We've liked both, though I ditched some of the notebooking in WAM. (just catering to my science-y but not so big on handwriting ds). I'm happy to answer any other specific questions that may arise.

 

Animals and Their Worlds is the one that I'm currently considering. It's really pricey for us. What were the best/worst parts of this particular one, if you can remember? Is there a great deal of handwriting? My dd isn't big on writing too much! LOL

 

Also, how much religion is truly woven throughout the program/curriculum? Is it fairly easy to secularize? Thank you so much for your time!!

[rowan25]

 

For another con, I will add that I wish the ratio of realistic arts & crafts and hands-on stuff to paper crafts was a little higher.

 

 

Can you explain what you mean by this? Too much of one, not enough of the other? Or too many high maintenance type crafts and not enough easier ones? Thanks!

[rowan25]

We used and enjoyed Animal Worlds though I didn't use it exactly as it should have been used. My son was more motivated with it than I was (mostly because of other commitments I had, my time was being spread quite thin), so he was able to complete most of it in a very independent manner. He was a third grader and a strong reader. He loved the Independent Study Guides. I wish I had done a better job teaching it but regardless, he loved it and we give it a hearty endorsement. Easy to use. So easy that he was really able to do much of it on his own.

 

I've just started using The World Around Me with my first grader and my 5 year old nephew and 3 year old niece. We're only going to use it one or two days a week. So far, I really like it. The books are great, the schedule is easy to follow, the lessons are short. They loved starting out with the Scavanger Hunt. It seems like a nice balance of activities, notebooking, and discussion opportunities. The books are not baby. They are full of good info.

 

Well, you can probably tell that I'm into easy!

 

I'm definitely into easy as well!!!!! LOL

 

Would you say that Animals and Their Worlds would be appropriate for a 5 year old? She is an advanced reader, if it makes a difference.

[Guest Alte Veste Academy]

Can you explain what you mean by this? Too much of one, not enough of the other? Or too many high maintenance type crafts and not enough easier ones? Thanks!

 

For us, there are too many paper, throw-away crafts. I would like to see much more of an emphasis on handicrafts in AS1, for example. I would rather the kids spend 6 weeks working on a simple quilt when studying the pioneers than doing a few paper projects each week. I would prefer that they really spend some time learning true art forms like quilling, embroidery, etc. when studying the colonial period rather than doing a few paper crafts per week.

 

So far, my kids seem to enjoy projects more than paper crafts. Of course, that could be a product of my enthusiasm for the former. Whatever the case may be, this is one big place I'm beefing up the program for us. WP is supposed to be a Charlotte Mason curriculum and I think it relies a lot more on paper crafts than she probably did.

[rowan25]

For us, there are too many paper, throw-away crafts. I would like to see much more of an emphasis on handicrafts in AS1, for example. I would rather the kids spend 6 weeks working on a simple quilt when studying the pioneers than doing a few paper projects each week. I would prefer that they really spend some time learning true art forms like quilling, embroidery, etc. when studying the colonial period rather than doing a few paper crafts per week.

 

So far, my kids seem to enjoy projects more than paper crafts. Of course, that could be a product of my enthusiasm for the former. Whatever the case may be, this is one big place I'm beefing up the program for us. WP is supposed to be a Charlotte Mason curriculum and I think it relies a lot more on paper crafts than she probably did.

 

 

I see what you are saying and you are probably right about Charlotte Mason! :) But the paper craft aspect would probably work ok for us at this point. With my toddler still being a terror, it would be hard to teach/deal with a very involved art form. At the same time, my daughter's 5. It can be hard to get her sit still long enough to do a paper craft!! :lol:

 

But you know, I agree with you. Those are old crafts that are dying out. Maybe they could build an add-on kit for some of their themes? That might be something worth looking into.

[Guest Alte Veste Academy]

I see what you are saying and you are probably right about Charlotte Mason! :) But the paper craft aspect would probably work ok for us at this point. With my toddler still being a terror, it would be hard to teach/deal with a very involved art form. At the same time, my daughter's 5. It can be hard to get her sit still long enough to do a paper craft!! :lol:

 

But you know, I agree with you. Those are old crafts that are dying out. Maybe they could build an add-on kit for some of their themes? That might be something worth looking into.

 

In fairness to WP, they did offer an add-on craft kit (it's now a book due to the new toy regulations) that has more substantial crafts, albeit not long term like I'm striving for. I would guess that most people are pretty satisfied with the craft selection. As someone who heartily enjoys quilting and embroidery, I'm very much looking forward to helping my kids find their own long-term love of the handicrafts. DS6 is already very fond of carpentry and I sure hope it stays that way. I see lots of fun projects in our future. The kids have really been after me to teach them to quilt so I purchased a couple of books about the history of quilts and we're going to make a quilt square for each era of history we study. At the end of two years, we'll piece together an American history quilt. I'm beyond excited about that project.

 

I'm rambling...up too late again. At any rate, I would say that these kinds of long-term projects would be easy enough to add on your own.

[rowan25]

For those new questions I added in the thread. :001_smile:

[siloam]

Can you explain what you mean by this? Too much of one, not enough of the other? Or too many high maintenance type crafts and not enough easier ones? Thanks!

 

AS 1 is KNOWN for being heavy on paper crafts. While I didn't use AS 1 I have been told that it does make a move to more activities, crafts with stuff around the house and cooking.

 

If you don't want paper crafts, you can focus on the More Than Moccasins craft book, which is making things from stuff around the house type of crafts.

 

For those looking at AW, most of the crafts are just that, make an animal craft. There is a backyard habitat book that will have more practical activities.

 

I have also used MOH 1 and 2, and while I don't know if QAW schedules those crafts, they are more activity based, so if you didn't like the WP options (assuming they don't schedule them), then you could just look at what MOH had for that day.

 

Heather

 

[siloam]

I'm definitely into easy as well!!!!! LOL

 

Would you say that Animals and Their Worlds would be appropriate for a 5 year old? She is an advanced reader, if it makes a difference.

 

For a 5yo who is reading at a 2nd grade level and interested in Animals I think it would be fine. My 3rd dd was 4/5 and while the RA's were a bit much for her (she wasn't reading and is very hands on), she loved the crafts and did listen to the rest, especially towards the end when she was a sold 5 years old.

 

Heather

[siloam]

Animals and Their Worlds is the one that I'm currently considering. It's really pricey for us. What were the best/worst parts of this particular one, if you can remember? Is there a great deal of handwriting? My dd isn't big on writing too much! LOL

 

Also, how much religion is truly woven throughout the program/curriculum? Is it fairly easy to secularize? Thank you so much for your time!!

 

With the narrations it would be best if she did them orally and you wrote down her answers.

 

When I used it there wasn't a lot of religion, you didn't have to do the devotional at all. I would suspect that it still can easily be done without the religious texts that have been added since I used the program, simply because they were added, and didn't replace any texts.

 

Like Jen said earlier there is a section in the Arctic Animals where they have a bunch of farm animals. If you use the Pre-K package they used to have some of the work in order of the phonics program, which clashed with the order of the "animal of the week". I don't know if that is still true. Like Lion would be when the letter L was covered and not when lions was the weekly animal.

 

We adored how the encyclopedia had one animal a day, and each day I would read about that animal and then we would look it up on Google images.

 

I had older kids, so I found the reading portions a little small at times, so instead of reading 2 pages out of book x and 2 pages out of book y I would read 4 pages from book x and then the next day 4 pages out of book y. I still used the schedule for the week, just went across the columns instead of down.

 

Heather

 

[~Jenn~]

I LOVE the idea of WP. I love it so much that I ordered the whole AS1 with native American focus kit and kaboodle for this past year. Sadly, we hardly ever used it. Don't get me wrong..it's a great program and the materials are absolutely gorgeous. It's very obvious how much thought and work went into choosing the books and resources for the program. The problem came when I realized doing an in depth study of early American history this year just wasn't a good fit for us.:glare:

[SnowWhite]

Has anyone done the Hideaways with winter promise? I am debating between this one and the animals one for my 1 grader next year.

 

Lynda

 

I haven't, but I plan to use the first quarter of the history portion (the SOTW 1 part) with Andrew when he is a first grader, because his older brother will be doing Quest for the Ancient World that year. I'm not terribly enthused about teaching K-1st grade children about world history. Maybe that's the public school teacher in me coming out, or maybe it's a product of my Amish school heritage (first grade was about Learning To Read and Do Math when I was in Amish school).

 

We did Animals and Their Worlds in first grade and adored it, but our favorite parts were in the 2nd and up package: Animal Behaviors set and Animal Habitats craft book.

 

Animals and Their Worlds is the one that I'm currently considering. It's really pricey for us. What were the best/worst parts of this particular one, if you can remember? Is there a great deal of handwriting? My dd isn't big on writing too much! LOL

 

Also, how much religion is truly woven throughout the program/curriculum? Is it fairly easy to secularize? Thank you so much for your time!!

 

You can do AW without doing ANY handwriting if you wish. I plan to use AW for my young (turning 5 in late Sept) K student this year. My reasoning is to take advantage of the Alphabet Art resource, which we totally skipped with an advanced first grader who was 6.5. The only parts of the program with writing were: The Everything Kids' Animal Puzzle Book (now discontinued), Draw Write Now (part of the 2nd and up package, it's copywork), and the Make Your Own Animal Notebook... which I plan to have my K ds *draw* his response: Like this, In what habitat does the elephant live? Draw an African savannah. What does an elephant eat? Draw grass. What is an elephant's enemy? Draw a poacher. This little ds is very imaginative and not very perfectionistic with his drawing, so hopefully this will be perfect for him. If not, I can always write his answers for him or let him "cut and paste" a multiple choice answer box for that page each week.

 

It's very easy to secularize. Just leave out the devotional book and don't buy the Answers In Genesis text Animal Kingdom (it's part of the 2nd and up set).

 

Best Parts of AW: Pictures in the DK ency (not so much into all the detailed text), Eric Carle's Animals, Animals, several of the read-aloud stories (Ereth's Birthday, Mr. Popper's Penguins, Lost in the Woods), Make Your Own Animal Notebook, Animal Behaviors set and Animal Habitats craft book (from the 2nd and up set). I think my 5yo is going to LOVE Alphabet Art, but I can't swear to it because we haven't yet done it. I do like the looks of it though. You pretty much have to have the One Small Square books too, as they're the basis for the unit themes. They did have some incredible activities included, such as using Crisco for insulation between a ziploc bag around your hand and another ziploc, submerged in icy water to simulate a polar bear's blubber insulation layer.

 

I'm definitely into easy as well!!!!! LOL

 

Would you say that Animals and Their Worlds would be appropriate for a 5 year old? She is an advanced reader, if it makes a difference.

 

Yes, I plan to use it with an immature, nonreading 5yo this year.

Edited March 29, 2009 by SnowWhite

[calandalsmom]

How much time would you say AW took you with a younger child (5ish)?

 

My dd wont be 5 til October but Id like to start AW with her in the fall. I have soem components already so do not need to order the whole thing.

 

I DO want to buy the extra resources to make up the science for 3-6th graders though! Im afraid its lightweight but I like concept of using a book like OSS for both the younger and the older kids.

[siloam]

How much time would you say AW took you with a younger child (5ish)?

 

My dd wont be 5 til October but Id like to start AW with her in the fall. I have soem components already so do not need to order the whole thing.

 

I DO want to buy the extra resources to make up the science for 3-6th graders though! Im afraid its lightweight but I like concept of using a book like OSS for both the younger and the older kids.

 

We did it with the read aloud no Bible and no notebooking in 30 mins - 1 hour a day that is with the Behavioral Series. Just depended on the day and how into things we were. I also would carry things over to the next day at times. The first month was torture for me (the girls loved it) because they had to do every craft! :001_huh: It was talking use 2 days to get through one WP day, and while I liked the program I didn't want to spend 2 years doing it. ;)

 

In the end they did get their fill of crafts and we worked out a routine where I got them started on their craft, then I read. In between readings I would help anyone who needed it, then go back to reading. There are days we didn't do AW at all because, well life happens. We hs year around and it took just about a year to finish.

 

Heather

 

[Honey Bee]

We did it with the read aloud no Bible and no notebooking in 30 mins - 1 hour a day that is with the Behavioral Series. Just depended on the day and how into things we were. I also would carry things over to the next day at times. The first month was torture for me (the girls loved it) because they had to do every craft! :001_huh: It was talking use 2 days to get through one WP day, and while I liked the program I didn't want to spend 2 years doing it. ;)

 

In the end they did get their fill of crafts and we worked out a routine where I got them started on their craft, then I read. In between readings I would help anyone who needed it, then go back to reading. There are days we didn't do AW at all because, well life happens. We hs year around and it took just about a year to finish.

 

Heather

 

 

We are doing AW next year with a preK, K'er, and 1st grader. This is excellent advise as I have been a little nervous for time requirements (I also have a very bossy 2 year old running around and will have a newborn). I also like the advice about reading across the columns instead of down--probably much more efficient! Thanks for your advice Heather!

 

:001_smile: