Best preschool in a box curriculum??

[Crazy8]

I've done my own curriculum in the past but have been pretty much curriculum free for the last few years as my kids have been really young.

I have one who I thought would leave in Sept. for preschool but they said they are going to keep him here one more year. I'd like to try to get another child his age and start doing more of a preschool curriculum with them. I just don't have the time and energy to put into coming up with my own stuff the way I did years ago so would like to maybe try one of the programs out there.

Can anyone tell me about the ones they've tried? What you liked/didn't like? Which ones are cheaper than others? Best value for the money? Etc. Basically anything you can tell me about your personal experience with them would be great. I can google and research but nothing beats personal experience.

Thanks!

[SilverSabre25]

If you don't mind a lot of printing and *initial* prep work (as in, do it once, pretty much, and then reuse it), try Letter of the Week

some things would need reprinted every time you use it, others can be laminated and reused.

[Crazy8]

If you don't mind a lot of printing and *initial* prep work (as in, do it once, pretty much, and then reuse it), try Letter of the Week

some things would need reprinted every time you use it, others can be laminated and reused.

is that just letters though? That's a small investment, I will try it but also I was thinking more along the lines of the themed programs where they send you all the craft materials each month?

[originalkat]

I reccommend Mother Goose Time because it has lots of great ideas and is very professional looking. Most of the projects are cute and easy to implement. I do have a few caveats...

1) I do tweak it (including the art projects) to make it more developmentally appropriate.
2) I use this because I need a parent pleasing curriculum, and I do not have the time to prepare it myself. I do not have the time to print stuff off, look on pinterest, and put together a wonderful curriculum. I have done this in the past and will go back to it just as soon as I have some more time to devote to it.
3) It is a bit expensive and at the end of the month I see how much was wasted because I truly do not have the time to do it all. They provide a lot of stuff.

If you want to see some of the projects we do with the curriculum you can check out my facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/GreenGateEarlyLearning

[aDCProvider]

is that just letters though? That's a small investment, I will try it but also I was thinking more along the lines of the themed programs where they send you all the craft materials each month?

I use funshine express buttercups. It's about $500/year but totally worth it. Everything comes with the kit, flash cards, manipulatives, books, and all the crafts for the theme. They send a 2 month shipment. I'm not very creative so this is really easy for me. It can be used right out of the box. I'm very much a procrastinator and always forget to prep my activities until the night before, with this it takes 20 minutes to read though and set up the weeks curriculum.

[rosieteddy]

I have been using Carols Affordable Curriculum. It is so easy everything you need except glue crayons and markers.I use the jumping kangerroo one .I do have to cut out the younger kids things.The one year I bought for younger kids and Jumping Kangerroo the younger kids noticed.Though they cover the same stff,older kids might make a paper bag puppet while younger just coler.It caused enough trouble that I always just order enough of the older program. It is not perfect but does cover all the material.Not to expensive and a parent letter with recipesand a calender are incluced each month.

[daycare]

i have been doing my own for years and just needed a break. I have been using MGT. I am not a huge fan of it, but it's all ready to go. I liked looking at your FB page to see how you guys used yours. Cool to see how people use it differently.

The people at MGT are very nice and I even have a rep that calls me to make sure I don't have any questions or need any help setting up. They have been very helpful to me and gave cool ideas to start using it.

I also like the learning box.

[TwinKristi]

Great post, I'm thinking of doing the same thing. I have a 2.5yr old myself and have two more 2yr olds and a 2 turning 2 later this year plus a 3.5yr old who may or may not be going to preschool this summer after 2 other failed attempts. These programs all seems so expensive! I would have to figure out how much I need to charge to recoup the costs.

[daycare]

Great post, I'm thinking of doing the same thing. I have a 2.5yr old myself and have two more 2yr olds and a 2 turning 2 later this year plus a 3.5yr old who may or may not be going to preschool this summer after 2 other failed attempts. These programs all seems so expensive! I would have to figure out how much I need to charge to recoup the costs.

it breaks down to be about 1$ a day, so about 20$ a month. I only buy for 6 kids, copy what I need to or reproduce the extra number of crafts I need.

I spent 124$ for 6 kids and got a dancing CD, which the kids LOVE. I have 12 kids and it covers all 12 of them. so then it's only 10$ a month.

[TwinKristi]

it breaks down to be about 1$ a day, so about 20$ a month. I only buy for 6 kids, copy what I need to or reproduce the extra number of crafts I need.

I spent 124$ for 6 kids and got a dancing CD, which the kids LOVE. I have 12 kids and it covers all 12 of them. so then it's only 10$ a month.

Hmmm did you have a discount code or something? When I looked the other day it was more than $124 for 6 kids. I guess I need to look at the site again. I wasn't sure if it was duplicatable or not. Good idea.

[aDCProvider]

Hmmm did you have a discount code or something? When I looked the other day it was more than $124 for 6 kids. I guess I need to look at the site again. I wasn't sure if it was duplicatable or not. Good idea.

I just went on the site and input my info into the quick price check(12 months, 4 kids) and it came out to $703.68.

You must have had a coupon code when you ordered to get it for 6 kids for $124.

[TwinKristi]

I just went on the site and input my info into the quick price check(12 months, 4 kids) and it came out to $703.68.

You must have had a coupon code when you ordered to get it for 6 kids for $124.

Ok whew! I'm not crazy!! LOL I was thinking it was something like that for 4 kids when I looked!

[daycare]

I only ordered the curriculum and the dancing beats CD NO COUPON

4 kids= 70.74 a month plus 13.99 shipping
then add about $5 for each additional kid.

6 kids= 79.24 plus 15.61 shipping.

this is only for 1 month

the dancing beats CD was 19.99 and comes with a book that includes sheet music, movements and words. this was my frist order of this dvd/cd

[countrymom]

I wish shipping wasn't expensive. I can get use the ups depot to have it delivered so shipping would be cheaper. I was thinking of getting back into doing a cirriculum to change it up a bit.

[Blackcat31]

Funshine Express is $72.00 for 6 kids (plus $11.50 for S/H) but you get the Teacher pack included FREE which is a ton of stuff, including a dance CD.

http://www.funshineexpress.com/curriculum-kits/fireflies/pricing

Personally, when comparing the two curriculum's (I used both for a year ~ a long time ago) and ultimately went with Funshine.

I used it for about 4 years before converting to my own.