Winter Promise All American 1

 Art, Bible, Elementary, Hands On, High School, History & Geography, Living books, Middle School, Unit study resources  2 Responses »
Mar 122012
 

A Bit of Background: For the 2011 school year my family decided to make a change in our curriculum. If you’ve read my blog before you’ll know we’re Five In A Row fans, and after 4 years of their curriculum with my eldest it was time to move forward to give him something a bit meatier for his grade level.

After some prayerful research and web surfing I discovered there’s a lot of curriculum out there that a homeschooling mama can choose from. In fact there’s so much that at times I felt truly overloaded with choices. In the end I wrote down my needs on one side of a sheet of paper and my wants on the other side. From there I was able to quickly weed out curriculum that would be of no use to me and finally settle on ones that would work. From that very short list I settled on Winter Promise All American 1.

I chose to use All American 1 because it covers your needs from grades 1-7. This does not mean that you can use this particular core for seven years, rather it means that if you have students ranging from first through seventh grades it’s a good fit for you. If you have students older than that and wish to keep them all together, you can also purchase a high school add on pack.

How We Use It:

This was our very first year using an “out of the box” curriculum. {Out of the box simply means everything you need to use is included and you’re off and running.} We basically used it exactly as it’s laid out. I ordered the core {All American 1; AA-1}, as well as the accompanying Character Supplement, Art Study, and I even picked out a science pack to round everything out.

All but the science is scheduled right in your main core. All I have to do is open to the week and day I’m on and we’re off and running. I will confess, that at times we didn’t use it exactly as it was laid out. Some weeks were incredibly light and we wanted more so we did two weeks in one. This isn’t too hard if you have a couple of back to back light weeks. Winter Promise cores are only mapped out for a four day school week.

Our core also came with Student Planning Pages that I chose not to use. I had high hopes of using them for my 4/5 grader to learn to be a more independent learner. However because his younger brother was also doing the core, it limited how much I could permit him to do on his own.

This core also came with plenty of web links to enhance the study. We did not check most of these out. We did visit a few and they were so-so. Eventually we found we were fully satisfied with the vast amount of crafts and notebooking that we were doing.

I also chose to use some of the read-alouds as audio books because our family adores having a book playing in the car. During one of our long journeys this year I purchased Fever {our current read aloud} as an audio and plugged it in the car and were able to enjoy the story while we traveled.

What I Loved:

I loved, loved, loved, the fact that this particular core decided to use Homeschool In The Woods Time (HSITW) Traveler Packs {worthy of a review all their own!}. My family happens to be HUGE HSITW fans and these packs are nothing short of fantastic. The fact that Winter Promise chose to use them in this particular core was one of the deciding factors in our purchase!

I loved the fast array of historical fiction we read this year. Many of the books I was none the wise for and wouldn’t have chosen had I not used this curriculum. We learned so much from the good quality literature that we read and my children still refer to these characters {some fictional some real} as life-long friends.

I can not stress how amazing it was to have our school year laid out for us, all 36 weeks, 180 days worth. I suffer from chronic migraines and there are times in my life where planning out our school is nothing short of a miracle. We also had to abruptly move in September and helped a family member move.. twice! It was such a relief to know that despite all of that we were not going to be held up because I hadn’t had time to finish planning the final bits of our school week. Instead, we grabbed some of our books and hit the road!

Customer Service! Living overseas I have an overseas mailing address and a US address. When the company accidentally mailed something to the wrong address, they quickly refunded my shipping so that I could then pay to have it forwarded to the right place. Anytime I contacted them they were quick to answer my questions in full. I was grateful for that.

 

The Timeline. Oh. My. I’ve never met a timeline I’m so in love with, and we’ve tried a lot! Over the years I’m pretty sure we’ve used no less than four timelines, but this one is the best! It’s a notebook timeline separated by years. You then glue timeline figures to the separating pages and place all notebooking, lapbooking, maps, etc. behind these pages. My children equally love these huge notebooks. They are a beautiful portfolio of the work they’ve done all year! Even if you use nothing else from this company, I assure you their timeline is worth purchasing all on it’s own!

What I Don’t Love:

I didn’t love the price of shipping for overseas users. Check out my tips at the end of this post for help in reducing the cost of shipping!

I was disappointed to see a few typos in the Core. Only a couple, but they did throw me for a loop for a minute.

I found the Character study to be a bit weak for my family. The prints of the artwork were small and dark compared to the large copies we found online.

To be totally honest and fair with my review I must admit my children loved the art portion and requested it frequently! I would also like to have seen the prints turned into coloring sheets for the children. I never asked my children to try their hands at drawing the pictures we studied. I knew my eight-year-old would have been quickly overwhelmed and frustrated with his attempts. Had the art prints been coloring pictures it would have allowed him to try it and critique his art in a positive way.

Their resale policy. I was unaware when I purchased from them that they had a strict request that you don’t resell their exclusive material.

I was also disappointed to see that if I had not included the Bible Character Supplement there would have been no “Christian” reference to their curriculum. I admit to being disappointed because it’s considered a Christian curriculum and I would have loved to see that better integrated.

Geography. In the AA-1 core there was geography worked into it. We ended up only doing a few weeks before leaving it alone and only doing the geography that applied to our stories {mapping the Lewis & Clark trail, Mapping the Erie canal, finding the places specific battles took place, etc.}

Tips I’d Like To Share:

I want to offer up a few tips for anyone trying to decide about Winter Promise.

  • Try ringing them directly to place your order. While I ordered online, I did ring them later that week to confirm that my order had taken place and to find out exactly when it would be shipped out. If you have your order shipped to an overseas address you must ring them anyway.
  • Only order Winter Promise Exclusives from them. That means the Core Manual, Bible, Art, Timeline, etc. Order all the books you’ll need from other sources. This is exactly what I did. I chose to order all my books {read alouds, readers, and go alongs} from Book Depository. They offer free shipping to most of the world and I knew exactly when they’d show up at my front door! No waiting on a middle man to get them to me. This is huge for overseas purchasers! The biggest complaint for people who purchased an entire core from this company that lived overseas was that books trickled in over months.
  • Use the samples on their websites, & really investigate their website! All American 1 is not listed as a core on their Themed Humanities page, but it is available if you look at the American Story {1 or 2} as a better option if you are working with a wider range of children.
  • If you don’t want to do all the crafts included, don’t! There were many I skipped mainly because we all ready had done lots and I knew my involvement would be heavily needed. For crafts that my children could do on their own I supplied them with what they needed and let them lose. For crafts that needed my involvement we only picked a few to do each week.
  • Purchase your Time Traveler Packs from The Old Schoohouse Magazine.* This will greatly reduce your costs because you won’t pay shipping for them! They are shipped directly from the Pak family and arrive in amazingly quick time. You can’t go wrong there! We also purchased the Homeschool In The Woods Mapping CD to use with the geography written in the core {the same geography we chose to drop because it seemed very watery instead of rich and purposeful.} *If you live overseas you will not be able to get the free shipping mentioned above. Instead email HSITW! When I did that they offered to put them in a priority mail envelope and post them to me, up to six, for the current price of that envelope {at the time of this review I believe the envelopes cost $14 USD}

Bottom Line:

We absolutely loved our year with Winter Promise’s All-American 1! My children learned and created so much this year. They have a timeline notebook bursting with the proof of their labors and will continue to fill that over the rest of their homeschooling “careers”. I am grateful for the freedom it gave me as I dealt with life this year. Despite my initial concerns when making the switch I’m incredibly glad that I did!

Notes: The cores do not come bound as you see in the above pictures. I chose to bind my own copy! Each core comes pre-hole punched and ready to slip into a three ring binder.

*You might also be interested in Jimmie’s review of Winter Promise American Story 1 here.

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Winter Promise American Story 1 Curriculum Review

 Charlotte Mason  6 Responses »
Feb 032010
 

Winter Promise (WP) is a provider of complete curriculum packages (excepting math and often science, depending on the program). Their philosophy is primarily Charlotte Mason with an emphasis on living books, narration, timelines, and historical fiction read alouds. One main difference from other similar curriculum providers is the addition of hands-on projects, paper crafts and notebooking pages.

totem pole craft beside mapAmerican Story 1 (AS1) is the first part of WP’s two year American history plan. It is designed for grades 1-3 and covers life in America from Pre-Columbian times to Westward Expansion. The package is expensive ($379) because of the quantity of books included. The plus side is that most of these books are ones you will want to keep as you build your home library.

sprite with maskWe used this curriculum for my daughter’s third grade, and it overlapped into fourth grade. I never regretted my purchase of AS1. It was a perfect fit for my crafty, history loving daughter.  Two time periods that especially stand out in my memory are the American Revolution and the Lewis and Clark Expedition. There is also a wonderful emphasis on Native American peoples that cycles throughout the entire year.

You will like WP AS1 if

  • You want a literature based history curriculum.
  • You want to move through all of American history in 2 years.
  • You want hands-on activities and papercrafts integrated into the program and already planned out for you.
  • You enjoy using a timeline.
  • You don’t need tests, comprehension questions, or vocabulary lists.
  • You like a well organized, open and go schedule.
  • You enjoy the support of an online forum where you can interact with other curriculum users.

The guidebook is your schedule that lays out the reading assignments in a weekly format. It offers a plethora of choices, usually including several hands-on activities and a website or two. The expectation is that the mom will selectively choose which ones to try. No one is expected to do it all. We did a lot of it, but never all of it.

plains indians travoisI love how the activities are already planned out, often in the form of reproducible paper crafts. All I have to do is photocopy and my daughter is ready to cut and create. Other projects require more preparation or supplies, but none are terribly complicated. Directions are found either in a book that is part of the package or in the guidebook. slave trade 3D map2The crafts are woven into the program in a very skillful way, matching the activities with the curriculum content. My daughter made dioramas, a model travois, salt dough pendants, an earthen Hogan model, and 3D paper maps. She always looked forward to the papercrafts and projects, and I felt that they added a lot of enjoyment and excitement to the program. Best of all, I didn’t have to hunt down ideas as I had done with other curricula.

Generally each week has one to two notebooking pages assigned, always recapping something you’re studying in the lessons.

The books are wonderful. There is a delightful combination of picture books, non-fiction books, coloring books, and biographies to teach history. The read alouds are relevant historical fiction which generally match the time period you’re studying. We loved every one of the books. There was not even one dud in our estimation.

WP guidebooks do not include specific notes for the books. There are no comprehension questions, no vocabulary lists, and no tests. The guidebook is basically a schedule with suggested activities.

Navaho Notebook page (Winter Promise)I found the notebooking pages very disappointing. Although the topics chosen each week were good and the frequency seemed just right, the pages themselves are too text heavy. Generally the pages include a black and white graphic and text. There is nothing to do, write, or draw. We sometimes used these pages by reading them and highlighting key parts. Or we cut out the graphic and wrote our own text. Basically, the WP AS1 pages are not true notebooking pages, so we often resorted to creating our own. If you like the notebooking option, you may want to look for pages from another resource to complement AS1.

notebook timelineAS1 is designed to go along with a timeline, and the suggested figures are listed in the guidebook. You can use your own timeline or buy the WP notebook timeline cardstock pages. I love the format of WP’s timeline because you can put notebooking pages among the history timeline in the correct places. The pages are heavy duty cardstock, already hole punched and ready for a notebook (not included). They are actually quite pretty with fancy script headings and a list of some key events on each page. A faint map background gives the page a bit of visual interest but doesn’t distract from the timeline figures. You can use your own timeline figures, buy a package from WP, or use the Homeschool in the Woods packs.

The WP owners and guidebook writers are Christians, but AS1 is not overtly Christian. A secular homeschooler could easily use WP by simply omitting the Bible portion of two titles. I found the Bible portion too shallow, and we chose to substitute with something meatier.

If you’re interested in WP but the high price is a barrier, consider buying used.  Homeschool Classifieds and Vegsource often list WP packages (often complete or nearly complete) at reduced prices. Be patient, plan ahead, and check the ads daily.

If you’ve used WP American Story 1, please share your own pros and cons here. Or if you’re searching for information, please feel free to ask any questions that you still have.

Story of the World Audio CD’s

 Classical, History, Living books  No Responses »
Nov 022009
 

I’ve told you before how much I love the Story of the World history curriculum – the reading texts and the activity books.  I’ve recently had the pleasure of adding the audio CD’s to my Volume 4 set, and now I love Story of the World even more!

With a toddler in our household, read-aloud time has become a little harder to come by.  We used to sit together and read from this book or that for what seemed like hours a day and soaked up every minute it.  Once my little guy entered the scene (and especially now that he’s bigger), we don’t have the luxury of hour upon hour of reading aloud.  And this coming from a family that thrives on having two or three (or more) good books going at once!

With the Story of the World audio CD’s, at least part of my problem has been solved!

  • The kids can listen to the reading lesson without my direct involvement.
  • They can re”read” stories they’ve particularly enjoyed without my direct involvement.
  • They can even sit and listen to several stories at a time without my direct involvement!

And believe it or not, they really enjoy listening more than once.  Maybe it’s because of Jim Weiss, the brilliant narrator of this series – as well as many, many others.  Or maybe it’s because the stories are very intriguing.  Either way, it doesn’t matter to me because every time they hear a story, history is being embedded in their minds.  And afterward, we can go ahead with the lessons from the Activity Guide if we choose.

We’ve already been through volumes 1-3 from Story of the World, but I’m considering purchasing the audio CD’s for those volumes just to have on hand for casual listening and review.  They are a tad pricey, but there are several CD’s in each package.  In the volume 4 set, for instance, there are 11 CD’s with 12 hours of listening.  They come packaged in a box small enough to easily fit on a shelf.  There’s also a disc guide that tells you exactly which chapters/stories you’ll find on each CD and the length of time for each story.

And in case you’re wondering, I’ve enjoyed listening to the CD’s as much as my children.  I’ve always said that Story of the World has given me the understanding of world history that I was never taught in high school or college.  The CD’s allow me the opportunity to sit back and enjoy learning right alongside my children!

-Written by Cindy, eclectically Charlotte Mason mom of 3.  You can find Cindy blogging at Our Journey Westward and Shining Dawn Books.