WinterPromise??

OK – I feel like I read this ages ago and totally forgot that I wanted to reply to it.

We have not done WP Animals and Their Worlds – we did one of their early learning kits, which has somewhat changed since we bought it, but one thing has not changed and that’s their prices for their teacher’s guides.  All their teacher’s guides are, is loose leaf paper, printed out with a schedule – don’t get me wrong they have lots of great ideas, activities and book suggestions, BUT for $60 or $70 or $85!!!! they really should be sending leather bound gold imprinted ones.  The teacher’s guide we got was no better than the ones we’ve used from SCM, it’s just excessively more expensive and while I understand that a great deal of time went into planning and putting those things together, I don’t think that makes it worth $85 – except for the fact that people are willing to pay it (or buy all the rest of the books from them for full retail price so they get the guide for free).  I also have a bad taste in my mouth with their “resale” policy.  THEY don’t allow you to resell their guidebooks, though I’m not sure that it’s legally binding, it is surely in tune with their excessive price.  I’ve obviously been spoiled by SCM’s GENEROUS policy of pricing, making e-books available, allowing generous printing rights for within your own family, and even reselling materials. 

So, while I’m using the WP program again this year for my preschooler, and it will be fun, I really do not think the value is there.  I paid somewhere around $140 for books that I could have easily found used for probably $25 and just created my own schedule, and the fact that I can’t resell it, makes it a pretty hefty investment – good thing I’ve got 4 kids to use it with!

I hope that’s helpful to you.

Rebekah

I used AW with my kids a few years back and plan to use it again next year with the next set of my children 😉 It has changed a lot since we used it. My kids enjoyed the books and I liked having everything planned out.

Currently we are using HIH.

The guide books are expensive but no different from Sonlight, My Fathers World etc. To me they are worth the $$$ but that’s just my humble opinion.

The only complaint is they do take a while to ship. Thankfully I recv. my HIH in time to start on the 7th of Sept. With LA I’m still waiting for a few items. Again, thankfully they are items that we can do with out for now (Like a dictionary and word book)

I have also used Children Around the World and American Story 1.

I did WP animals and thier worlds a few years ago when my kids were 2nd grade, pre-K and a baby.  I loved the books but found the TM to be over priced and disjointed.  It would have us making a raccoon craft and studying about African animals on the same day…. I ended up rearranging everything so, for me, it was not worth the price!  Also by th end of the year I vowed to never to another paper plate/ paper bag project again!  That said I think the kids enjoyed the year, I just didn’t.  If I were to do it again I’d just keep the list of books for reference and check them out from the library.