I use Sonlight, mainly, but recently heard about a similiar (but some say better) program called Winterpromise. Has anyone had experience with it? I sent off for their catalog. Some points where others said it was better than sonlight: easier to combine different ages, more activites to go along and suggested movies/websites/etc to go along, lighter material books.

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A woman is like a teabag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water.-Eleanor Roosevelt

My oldest daughter will be 3 in a couple of months, so this will be my first year of homeschooling her. I want to start soon, but don't know which program to use, or if I even need one for Pre-K. I went to the Winterpromise website, and I can't believe how much this stuff costs! WOW!

I am really interested in the opinions of anyone who has used the material. Is it worth the price? I was hoping there would be some responses on this thread to read. Anyone have any experience with this material?? Anyone??!!

Thanks.

For your 3 year old I would recommend Brightly Beaming Resources, it's completely free and that is all you need for a 3 year old. Also, Five in a Row is a nice cheap one, you just buy the book and check out all the books you need at the library. You don't need math/science/handwriting stuff yet, just lots of reading and art!
We loved Sonlight's PreK, but sounds like it would be too pricey for you, you can buy in on ebay for cheaper!
I'm still hoping that someone has used WP, but I don't remember anyone that has on this board.

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A woman is like a teabag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water.-Eleanor Roosevelt

I haven't heard of it, Stacia. Do you think it's new or has it been around awhile?

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I don't believe in miracles; I depend on them

It's not new, it's pretty popular on the homeschooling sites. I'll let you know what I think about it after I get their catalog.
Here is a link to one of their programs i was looking at for next year. I was thinking I could do this next year for Jared's K and then combine Julia and Jared the next year on Sonlight's 1 program. Complicated, I know! Just trying to figure out an easy way to combine them next year without holding Julia back. She's only 18 months older but she's at least 2 grade levels above him so it makes it difficult!
Welcome to WinterPromise | Animals and Their Worlds

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A woman is like a teabag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water.-Eleanor Roosevelt

I got the WP catalog and I am LOVING it! I found the set used on another homeschooling forum so I think I'm going to buy it and use it this year and use the Sonlight core I already have next year instead. Animals and Their Worlds pre-k-2nd. They also have another awesome looking program called Children Around the World for 1st-5th. I'm going to use that in 2 years. So this year Animals and Their Worlds, next year Sonlight, the next year WP Children Around the World. That makes it easy for me to combine Julia and Jared so I'm excited to finally find a easy way.

Jenn, you should check out their website and order the catalog. It's based on Charlotte Mason so you might like it! I can't believe I hadn't heard about it before now!

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A woman is like a teabag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water.-Eleanor Roosevelt

Well I was initially in shock of the price of WinterPromise, it really isn't so bad, after looking around at many other sites. I knew I wanted to homeschool, being that my girls are so young, I had not taken the time to look into the cost of it. I guess I was thinking it would be maybe a couple hundred dollars a year! Hmmm...now reality has set in!! The most important thing is their education!

I am ordering a catalog also! I have joined the yahoo group for WinterPromise, the site was mentioned on the WinterPromise website.

I have just started Brightly Beaming with my girls, today was our first day, and they both LOVED "school"!! We all had a great time today!

I'm glad you had a great time!

You can homeschool for less, there is a great book "Homeschooling on a shoestring." Using free online programs (like letteroftheweek) and the library. Unfortunately for my dh I have turned my recovering shopping addiction into our homeschooling. Instead of Target clearance raids now I buy way too much homeschooling stuff! That is almost half the fun, searching, talking about, and trying new stuff. I know I know I traded one addiction for another but it's better than coffee right?

There are many more great curriculum's other than winterpromise out there. See if your library has Duffy's 100 Top Picks next time you go. Sonlight is another Great one. Konos is a popular unit study but I wouldn't use that until after 1st grade. I think the best I've seen for preschool and young primary grades are Sonlight, Winterpromise and on the less expensive side Five in a Row.

You just need to sit down and write out what is important to you. What do you want to teach? How do you want to teach? You don't even need a curriculum, I would love to unschool but my dh wants alot of structure so we compromise. We use a ton of stuff.
Make a budget for your expenses. I don't do a firm budget although I should, I don't like to limit myself but right now I allocate around 1,000 per child per year, so 3,000 give or take a year towards expenses/books/materials, etc. That is less than one month of private school is how I look at it. You need to factor in language arts, handwriting, math, science, history, art, music, physical ed (we have them in sports classes), books, and whatever other subjects you want to cover.
Research the costs of different programs and what you like. Order the rainbowresource catalog and the sonlight catalog, there is great stuff in there!

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A woman is like a teabag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water.-Eleanor Roosevelt

Thanks for all of the info. Stacia! I really appreciate it! I love to shop also, and I can see myself going overboard on "school" items! Last week I went to Walmart with the girls and purchased $150 in supplies-- just art supplies, and paper, pens, water paints, glue sticks, finger paints, 3 ring binders, etc.

I can't wait to get my WinterPromise catalog!!