Mother Goose Time Input Please

[AnythingsPossible]

Hello all! I am thinking of ordering Mothergoose Time preschool program for my group and am hoping there are some who can share some insight with me. The reason I am looking into it is because I have been going back to college and as the year progresses I am finding it harder and harder to manage all the things I need to do for school, family and daycare. I am doing a preschool program this year to prepare a little girl for Kindergarten who can't get to preschool during the day. We have done pretty good so far, but over the past couple of months we have done nearly as much as I would like due to lack of prep time.
My concerns with MGT are the fact that the theme lasts the entire month. Do the kids get bored and uninterested by the end of the month? I am not a fan of craft by instruction, and I know there are lots of craft activities, or atleast there was many years ago.
I am trying to find away to provide them with instruction without so much prep and research on my part. Something's gotta give, and I don't want it to be at the expense of the little one preparing for school!
Thanks in advance for any and all opinions!

[Michael]

Pushing this back up.

[slpender]

I have been using mother goose for the past 3 months, I ordered it for the same reasons you are things got crazt here around the holidays and I just didn't have the prep time. I am not happy with it and will not be renewing. They are to cookie cutter for me. I found myself putting together alot of the crafts for the kids.

I just purchase confessionsofahomeschooler.com letter os the week for $10.00 you have to print out each letter and activies but for $10.00 for everything it is a deal and she included lesson plans.

[countrymom]

I did like it, but it all depends on the kids. because I have a mix of kids its hard to do some of the stuff. I just go with the flow now. Mine are younger so we can't do letters or anything. We are learning how to talk and share and not pick our nose.

[itlw8]

It did not work for me because I do not like product craft we do process art

now the month long theme I do like I always pick a theme I can expand on such as winter. we then can do winter birds, ice, hybernation etc We just keep expanding as they are interested in the subject.

[melilley]

I just go with the flow now. Mine are younger so we can't do letters or anything. We are learning how to talk and share and not pick our nose.

Haha I had to laugh! ::

[AnythingsPossible]

Thanks everyone. The main reason I was looking in to MGT again was just the ease of it, but after reading some of the posts, I remember why I stopped in the first place!
I remembered a website PreschoolPalace.org and she has whole themes put together and daily plans. I just HATE printing and all the prep work. Somedays it just seems like just one more thing that needs to be done. I am going to try it out for the remainder of January and February and see if it alleviates some of the stress, maybe the prep won't be to involved!

[Unregistered]

I like it...

I do feel it is over priced for what you get but when I add in my time it ends up being worth it. I adjust the curriculum based on the kids interest and time... I feel like I can cover everything well with the supplies they provide for the month for 2-4 yr olds... Ill continue the year with it.

[JulesMom]

Process-based Art

I guess I'm in the minority here but I LOVE Mother Goose Time. I used to do all the planning and prep myself because I taught Kindergarten for 6 years. So when I opened my home daycare, I knew I could it all. But I decided to give MGT a try when I found myself so exhausted, I could hardly enjoy being with the children. MGT art is actually very process based if you use it as they suggest in the lesson plan book. Just set the materials in front of the children and watch them invent and create as they desire. All the projects turn out very uniquely when I do it this way. AND I save a ton of money by using the art supplies provided in MGT. More than the art, I love how everything goes together - the math games, the storybooks, the science and cooking and especially the music program.

[daycarediva]

I guess I'm in the minority here but I LOVE Mother Goose Time. I used to do all the planning and prep myself because I taught Kindergarten for 6 years. So when I opened my home daycare, I knew I could it all. But I decided to give MGT a try when I found myself so exhausted, I could hardly enjoy being with the children. MGT art is actually very process based if you use it as they suggest in the lesson plan book. Just set the materials in front of the children and watch them invent and create as they desire. All the projects turn out very uniquely when I do it this way. AND I save a ton of money by using the art supplies provided in MGT. More than the art, I love how everything goes together - the math games, the storybooks, the science and cooking and especially the music program.

This! I love mgt. I just give the kids the art/craft supplies and let them go with it. The crafts aren't daily. We also have free art daily.

[Country Kids]

This! I love mgt. I just give the kids the art/craft supplies and let them go with it. The crafts aren't daily. We also have free art daily.

I adapted MGT to other things also and fit it to our style.

[Patches]

Sorry to hijack the post, but I've been looking into Funshine Express. Anybody ever try that?

[daycaremom88]

I currently have used MGT for about 6 months now and I LOVE it! The first month or so was really hard because I had to really spend a lot of time figuring out how to schedule everything to fit in a day that I wanted to. I also have a mixed age group 13mo old, 18 mo old, 21mo old, 2 yr old, three 3 year olds, and a 5 year old. What I do is every Saturday or Sunday open up and read everything for a weeks worth and write down in my teacher planner what I need to do each day that might take a little extra prep. Also I'm a laminating addict so I laminate almost all of the monthly stuff like name tags, calendar and numbers for each day etc. Now we use almost every piece they send. When it comes to numbers and letters I let the younger ones do puzzles or have free play and come be curious as they want.

As far as having one theme a month the kids don't get bored because there is a daily theme. Like week one of our Going On Safari Monthly Theme was Safari Animals Day 1 was Zebra, Day 2 Giraffe, Day 3 Rhino, Day 4 Lion Day 5 Elephant so they get to learn different things each day that all relate to the main theme for the month.

I have 8 kiddos participating and so I have parents pay $12/month each and it covers the cost of what they send each month. No parents opted to not participate by me asking them to pay they actually were very excited and love the monthly newsletter that they get with it.

I did funshine for a while but I really felt like it wasn't that great and I had to really plan my own days even though they claimed it was already planned for me.

[butterfly]

I'm using MGT this year too and I enjoy it. The lessons we are using are actually from 3 years ago. I ordered it for one year and laminated it all so I could reuse it. I kinda made my own curriculum for the last two years, but wanted to go back to MGT this year since I had it and it doesn't require much planning.

I had all 1 and 2 year olds this fall when I started with it again. My kids LOVE it!! I adapt it to our needs, but I still do all the letter activities. We just don't worry about the crafts. I just wasn't willing to put the time into crafts with 1 and 2 year olds. It's amazing what my little one and two year olds know now!! Their parents are impressed too. I do take the time to go to the library every couple of weeks and check out books that pertain to our theme. I also add songs that fit our theme.

We do our learning right before lunch. So everyone is seated at the table and the littlest ones are in their high chairs. Everyone participates. Some days they seem less interested, but they still hear and learn.

I like the variety of MGT. You can use it to introduce spanish and ASL... Mainly, I like it because it inspires me to do more and then I expand on the curriculum.

Whatever curriculum you decide to use, I'd strongly recommend sharing your learning topics with the parents. I've always done learning activities with the kids, but this is the first year that I've actually did a good job communicating it with the parents. Now the parents are more appreciative of me and they actually take the time to talk to their children about what they learned each day and the learning continues at home.