Ordering curriculum's

[momof2cuties]

I found this website to order curriculum's they are expensive but you can buy the version to print yourself much cheaper. I see it had a sale on ages 2-6 I think. Just wondering if anyone has purchased from this company?? (link posted below) My dck are only part-time but I thought it would be good to use with my own children as well.

https://www.abchomepreschool.com/pro...category_id=16

[kidlove]

Never used that company before, you should give it a try. That is a "sweet" deal! The curriculum I use is quite a bit more expensive. I didnt notice, but is there a money back offer?

I also ask for 5$/week preschool tuition during the school year, that is also something to think about if you dont already do it, really helps cut down cost.

[treeholm]

Should we be worried about an educational provider who doesn't know that the plural of curriculum is curricula and not curriculums? I wouldn't expect a layperson to know that, but an educational supplier? That is very strange... I'm sorry, but that really makes me question their pedagogy.... but then, I have spent 30+ years developing curricula, so I could be very jaded....

[KingstonMom]

Yeah I wouldnt be willing to give my credit card to this website. Just seems crappy and sketchy. And no educational reasoning for why they think a 2 year old needs an 'educational curriculm'.

[Inspired by Reggio]

Thanks for the giggle Treeholm.

I am cheap and would not 'pay' for something I could easily develop for free .... the Internet is full of free ideas on activities and early learning for children .... and 'boxed curriculum's' for this age group is currently being shown by research done on the preschoolers who've 'lived it' to actually do more harm than good.

Here is Ontario they have just scrapped their entire 'boxed kindergarten curriculum' where every classroom across Ontario for decades has been doing penguins at the same time and so forth in favor of returning to the inquisitive play-based child led curriculum of 25 plus years ago before we got all focused on 'test scores for reading, writing and math and crap' .... the early years are suppose to be about developing 'learning skills' .... aka learning HOW to learn and work both as an individual as well as within a group .... it is not about mastering ABC, 123 and so forth ... they have 20 years of formal education to master 'academics' and the fact that we have pushed children into a 'academic curriculum' has resulted in children getting 'turned off' of learning in the early years and doing WORSE in school instead of better.

I do not do preplanned themes or anything like that ... my children learn through their play as we discuss topics of interest to them ... I set my environment up to stimulate them and add things to it to reinforce phonic letter sounds and literacy so forth and we go out into the community and get exposed to new things there as well and than I come back and add or arrange things into the program based on what they show interest in learning more about based on observations of what they are talking about and asking about ~ costs me very little 'money' in the curriculum but rather focusing my cost on creative art supplies and other 'hands on' learning and all my kids head off to JK 'ready' to thrive with the ability to recognize their own name, print their name because we add our name to art projects, label our belongings and so forth and typcially know most of the letters of the alphabet because they come up in discussions of other friends letters or the interests in Zebras or what not, they count and know their shapes not because we did 'themes' on them but because these concepts come up naturally in our play everyday ~ we count how many grapes we have and how many each of us would get to be 'fair' or we sing songs with numbers in them, they notice concepts out and about and I take advantage of teachable moments to reinforce them.

Save yourself some money ~ preschool curriculum should not cost you $$$ for standardized worksheets or coloring pages around a 'theme' and so forth!

[treeholm]

Hear, hear Reggio! I did my student teaching in Kindergarten in the mid-80s, and emergent/child-led learning was far more prevalent that it has been in recent years. I'm delighted they are moving away from a standardized kindergarten curriculum and back to a more child-led one. As hard as that is to implement in a classroom of 25 4-year olds, I look forward to doing it with my two 3.5 year olds... the babies will just play along, I'm sure LOL

[shopgirl]

i have 5 kids (3 - 6yr olds!) here today so i haven`t had time to read the comments but i have used this website before with no problems. i catn remember right now how good it was, i`ll come back later tonight when i can think. but there is one i use all the time, it is so good, and so playbased.. its called adaycare.com.. one of my favorites but you have to pay as well.

[Momof4]

I don't pay for curricula (haha treeholm). I make up my own themes and put them on my calendar, go online to the library and put books on hold to pick up every Monday for my theme of the week, google crafts and songs and games, and all that is for free. It takes my time but all my group is 4 and under and they don't need school aged teaching, just the basics. I'm planting seeds in their minds that they can use later when they learn about things more in depth at an older age at school.

[treeholm]

I also don't think children who are under 4 need formal programming. Play is their learning, and if we respond to their questions and curiosity, I personally think that's ideal. There are many years ahead of having to learn something that is predetermined by someone else's agenda, sigh....

[Momof4]

I agree, however I do still love my themes because it makes me feel like a teacher. We are X for x-ray this week and I have the skeletons on the wall and even my 1 year old boy who is advanced in his language understands he has bones in his body now. Ahem, we also did Y for yummy things so we ate everyone's favourite treats this week, but it's only one week and we are celebrating 2 little ones going off to JK soon. I can't believe next week is Z for zoo and we've been from A-Z since Jan. 1st.

I also teach wherever we go and whatever we do, stopping to look at gardens and insects and police cars and garbage trucks and fire hydrants, you name it.