Pros-
I simply adore all the WP exclusives and I love their WONDERFUL catalog! I look at it all the time! I used American Story 1 last year and I just bought American Story 2, Language Arts 3 and the Animal Habitats. What I have seen so far looks great! I LOVE the “Make Your Own History Book” and Activity Pack! In science, the “Make Your Own Animal Book” looks really good too as well as the Habitats Journal. I look forward to receiving the teachers guide, time line figures and the “Field Trip Pages”! I LOVE how they use the Charlotte Mason method! I love all the crafts too! I LOVE how their exclusive student worktext in the Language Arts 3 coordinates with the themed program by using readers and ideas for your child to write about. I plan on using them again for next year!

Cons-

With American Story 1 last year, I noticed “The Birchbark House” main plot is how a young Indian girl learns to listen to and communicate with spirits. I really didn’t think that was appropriate for a 6 year old. With that type of stuff, I believe it should be read by older children. Something else that was disappointing was the little attention given to the Pilgrims and their arrival in America. In fact, our rich Judeo-Christian heritage was left out. I also found that a lot of the books went over my six year olds head. Bible seemed to be just thrown in here and there, rather than Bible being another subject, I would LOVE if they intertwined the Bible more with the books they use. Like giving more scripture references and topics to discus on character and moral values. Some of the books used are secular/evolutionary/old earth and I understand like My Father’s World, they use mostly secular books and they do warn us about the material before we read it (which is a plus). I understand that Christians should not live a bubble but should be taught about different world views, I would just like it to be more from a Biblical world view. They do use Answers In Genesis for older grades. They also use “The Mystery Of History” and that is definitely a major PLUS!! I look forward to using that! I understand that many of their books are secular, but I would like Bible to be apart of all of it rather than just a small part of it. I think the WP exclusives are WONDERFUL and I would love if they thought about using their own Bible studies to correlate with some of the secular books they use. Like putting in a discussion time and more Bible verses. I find that the more Winter Promise uses their own exclusive stuff, the more I like it! A lot of the secular books they use are great too, I would just like to see more of God in it. Something someone wrote about WP on a secular discussion board upset me. One of the ladies said their curriculum was great because although they were a Christian company, it was easy to take Bible out completely because they only used one book and God was left out in everything else. I also read on a blog that it was good to use them because since none of the books were Christian, people who use charter could easily use the curriculum. That troubled me to read that, because I am sure they don’t want to be viewed as a non-Christian company just so the government will help pay for peoples school supplies. Don’t get me wrong, they do use Christian books too.

I really do LOVE the curriculum and that is why I wanted to take the time and write this. I love all the website links and their Timelines in History is wonderful! I can’t wait to use “Children Around The World” next year.

Thank you for your time.

-Corrinne
.-= Corrinne ´s last blog ..Spending The Day At The Museum =-.