Little Saints Preschool

[jlpumkin]

posted on the Catholic thread but just incase I can catch some users here - Can anyone share with me how this is set up? I'm imagining a religious/Catholic FIAR... am I far off? Also it says it teaches letters/sounds - is that through experience or in a seat work sort of way? Anyone with experience with this curriculum I'd greatly appreciate it =)

[annettemarie]

I did use this for a bit about 5 years ago. I didn't really like it but I don't remember why. Sorry I can't be of more help!

Have you looked at Catholic Mosaic?

[jlpumkin]

I have not looked at Catholic Mosaic - but I will now =) I hadn't really planned on "doing school" with little man but he's begging for it. Thought I'd at least take a look at some Catholic ones. Thanks Annettemarie!

Any other experiences with either of these?

[Zuzu822]

I love Catholic Mosaic. The books are great for all ages, imo. Some are maybe a bit much for preschoolers-- texty-- but my boys do like them even if I abridge here and there.

I looked at Little Saints a bit. The booklist sounds great, but I heard the parent prep is very intense so I've shied away.

I recently bought the Catholic Children's Treasure Box series to try out and I also like the book Guiding Your Catholic Preschooler.

Baby sleeping on me, so hard to type more now!

[jlpumkin]

Good to know about the parent prep. I just don't have a lot of prep in me. right now I am able to pacify him with letter of the week. Which isn't bad, but being an active little boy I think something character/religious based would be of greater benefit than too schooly.

[Zuzu822]

It's not Catholic, but have you looked at Five in a Row?

Also, Elizabeth Foss's preschool series is great: http://ebeth.typepad.com/reallearnin...wonderful.html

[frugalmama]

I've heard Little Saints takes a lot of prep - we chose to go with Catholic Heritage Curricula's Pre-K & Kindergarten program. The pre-k with CHC is mostly just reading good books, learning about the family, and the church year. There is a religion text but it's very very low-key.

We mostly are going to end up skipping formal pre-k and going straight to kindergarten at 4 to keep DD interested.

[jlpumkin]

I have wondered about CHC and going straight to K. We started out with quite a bit of CHC and some of it I just love... though in the long run I don't think it's a total curriculum for all of us. But I did consider using the K as a PreK for my youngest maybe for the year next year and just using some ideas from PreK to keep him content this year. We LOVE the Devotional Stories for Little Folks. I think the curriculum is gentle enough to be used in this way. Have you found this working well? I guess too, it's preK and so we can just work to his satisfation and let the other stuff fall by the way.

[jlpumkin]

I have heard of FIAR, and to be honest I probably haven't looked into it enough. But from the start I just don't feel the enthusiasm about it as others do. I had a book called story stretchers that I attempted to use with the littles when my oldest was PreK age. Sort of the same idea - one story but only 3 different activities. It just never excited us. I guess I just assume FIAR would be the same. Which is sort of why I was checking on Little Saints and trying to clarify.

I do know of some folks that preK using only lap books - which sounds great when you think of cost effectiveness BUT you gotta feel the love for lapbooking and I just don't.

[annettemarie]

Originally Posted by Zuzu822

Also, Elizabeth Foss's preschool series is great: http://ebeth.typepad.com/reallearnin...wonderful.html

I love Elizabeth Foss's stuff. I personally think her Serendipity stuff is more Kindy than preK, but I'm Waldorf-leaning. I would highly recommend her "Real Learning" for any homeschooler, but especially for a Catholic mama.

Thinking about it, Catholic Mosaic is probably more for early elementary as well.

Originally Posted by frugalmama

I've heard Little Saints takes a lot of prep - we chose to go with Catholic Heritage Curricula's Pre-K & Kindergarten program. The pre-k with CHC is mostly just reading good books, learning about the family, and the church year. There is a religion text but it's very very low-key.

We mostly are going to end up skipping formal pre-k and going straight to kindergarten at 4 to keep DD interested.

Yeah, maybe the prep is what I'm remembering.

Originally Posted by jlpumkin

I have heard of FIAR, and to be honest I probably haven't looked into it enough. But from the start I just don't feel the enthusiasm about it as others do. I had a book called story stretchers that I attempted to use with the littles when my oldest was PreK age. Sort of the same idea - one story but only 3 different activities. It just never excited us. I guess I just assume FIAR would be the same. Which is sort of why I was checking on Little Saints and trying to clarify.

I always actually thought that FIAR was more expensive Story Stretchers.

I don't know that there really is a good Catholic-based preschool. I used to be a preschool teacher, and there's a lot of good secular stuff out there from Redleaf Press and Gryphon House that I would probably use and just add Catholic themes if I was inclined to do a more academic preschool.

[Zuzu822]

We're trying out Winterpromise as well and you might like checking that out. I'm Ready to Learn and Journeys of Imagination are the preschool programs. It's Protestant and Charlotte Mason-ish. It starts very gently and slowly, and I'm not 100% in love with it. I'm using some of the theme-y story books and activities (farm right now), but not so much the academic activities. The pre-reading and early math just isn't up my alley. I'm not sure why; it's Montessori-ish, which I do love, but I have so many of my own activities set up, I don't want to do theirs.

And to Serendipity. I think we're going to start Along the Alphabet Path in January and ditch the rest of IRTL.

Also the Sonlight 3/4 and 4/5 cores have great books to build a reading list.

[Zuzu822]

Originally Posted by annettemarie

I always actually thought that FIAR was more expensive Story Stretchers.

This is good to know. Peak with Books struck me as similar as well. I guess I'm just in love with all the books these programs use and love the idea of all these wonderful ideas to expand the experience. I am a librarian, though, so maybe that's why.

[frugalmama]

Originally Posted by jlpumkin

I have wondered about CHC and going straight to K. We started out with quite a bit of CHC and some of it I just love... though in the long run I don't think it's a total curriculum for all of us. But I did consider using the K as a PreK for my youngest maybe for the year next year and just using some ideas from PreK to keep him content this year. We LOVE the Devotional Stories for Little Folks. I think the curriculum is gentle enough to be used in this way. Have you found this working well? I guess too, it's preK and so we can just work to his satisfation and let the other stuff fall by the way.

I think it will work well for some children to just use K as pre-K, with the exception perhaps of handwriting. It really depends on the child in question though. DD was ready this year except for handwriting, so we elected to delay a year and just do lots of fields trips and reading.

I do admit that from 1st onwards it does require some supplementation, but since I buy the lesson plans at least a year in advance it allows me to come up with things that work, like our multi-year unit I'm planning for 1st-3rd using The Magic School Bus books & items in conjunction with CHC's science.

[frugalmama]

Originally Posted by Zuzu822

And to Serendipity. I think we're going to start Along the Alphabet Path in January and ditch the rest of IRTL.

Along the Alphabet Path is GREAT! We're going to work some of it in with CHC's K plans.

[jlpumkin]

Loved all of the suggestions. I think though that in the end, I'm going with a subscription to Enchanted Learning. When he's in a big push to do lots of "school" there should be plenty of stuff to keep us occupied.

[Momma Aimee]

Originally Posted by frugalmama

Along the Alphabet Path is GREAT! We're going to work some of it in with CHC's K plans.

i need to check this out