Enki or Live Ed or Christopherus?

[spiritofthings]

Okay,

I'm ready to buy a curriculum for Kindy and would kinda prefer, for continuity sake, if I could buy the next grade up the following year etc.

Do you prefer Enki or Live Ed or Christopherus? Live Ed doesn't have any movement right? Has anyone tried all of these?

Thanks so much.

[lobster]

I haven't looked at Live Ed, but I do have the Enki curriculum and borrowed the Christopherus from a friend to take a look at. In my opinion, Enki is far superior in terms of quality, resources, materials, etc. Of course you are paying more, but you get so much more for it.

My son is LOVING Enki. Every day I'm thankful that we chose this path. http://ourenkijourney.wordpress.com

[kittywitty]

Christopherus!!!!

I haven't tried Live Ed but I found Enki to be soooo difficult to implement and soooo expensive. I loved Christopherus, though.

However, I would buy the Christopherus Kindy book (cheap new or used!) and the movement book from Enki if you can. Or just go to your library/amazon for Earthways and books on fingerplays and kids games and circle activities. Everything (just about) I found in Enki can be found elsewhere cheaper. Not that it's not great-it's all compiled, but if $700 or whatever is too much for you, the library will do.

[lobster]

Originally Posted by kittywitty

I haven't tried Live Ed but I found Enki to be soooo difficult to implement and soooo expensive. I loved Christopherus, though.

Quite honestly, I don't understand when people say Enki is so difficult to implement. You establish your family rhythm, and you work in 3 45-min days per week of "school work", and everything you need is right at your fingertips. Ideally you use the same story/songs/circle for several weeks in a row, so it's not like you have to sit down and plan extensively every week. You don't have to go searching around for materials - everything is there. There are suggestions on how to structure your lesson blocks, and CDs and DVDs of all the songs/verses/fingerplays so that you *know* you are doing them "right".

Enki kindergarten is not $700, it is $500 - and that is including the Foundations Guides that will carry you right through each year, which are some of the most comprehensive, in-depth guides I've seen yet (much more so than Christopherus!) After purchasing the kindergarten curriculum you are entitled to telephone conferences, discussion groups, consultations, etc. and you receive a discount off your next year's curriculum.

[chrissy]

Well, I"m not kittywitty, but I agree with her that Enki is tough to implement.

I had a combination package- Kindy and First grade. I loved SO much about Enki, the stories were beautiful and my kids really liked them.

But, for me it was hard. Once they started offering the sample schedules that helped a ton, but I really really needed a syllabus, like Oak Meadow or Christopherus had (for their first grade).

No, it wasn't rocket science or anything, just it required more time than I had to put together our days/weeks/months.

That's my 2c anyway.

[kittywitty]

Chrissy hit it on the head. There's just sooooo much in the Enki package that it's totally overwhelming.

[harmat]

I have been cautious to recommend Enki to friends of mine, since i know how much time it takes up to get to know all the materials, and to wrap your head around the philosophy. There is a lot in the package - although I have Grade 1, don't know about Kindy. On the other hand, you can (and are encouraged to) pick and choose exactly what will nourish your family and your child. So you don't end up receiving a syllabus where you have to replace half the stories, because you don't like them. (Not saying you would with Live Ed, but it has happened to me with a different curriculum.)
You can also chat to them before purchasing to see if it is a good fit for you.

I would download all the samples from each of the websites and go from there.

[beachroses]

I agree Enki is not at all hard with a rhythm and I WAY prefer to buy my materials so that they are all together not a book here and a book there and still only have a partial view of the subject. I wish I had found Enki before I bought all the other stuff I bought I would have spent far less because it's all there.

The items are quality I did not care for Christopherus fairytales,they seemed to lack beautiful language which for me is vital for my own imagery. I'm not knocking Christopherus in total though there are things I like about it better then Enki.

For instance I loved Christoherus day by day guide. I can understand why Enki doesn't have a syllabus so you can choose the stories,songs according what will speak to your child. They give you many choices for music,stories etc.. lots of ways to one goal. They are set up in a way that is easy to find (list with stories labeled according to what the story would be good for t,math story for number two etc.. all fairytales have alliterative sentences to match the stories for each letter you could use it for. Many have songs that go with stories ) which if I was only homeschooling one or two children would be fantastic prefered but with 5 children, I would have liked a cheat sheet follow this kind of thing. But there are things in Enki that make it easier then christopherus like an image for every story and fantastic thorough directions.

Enki's guide books and DVD made waldorf ( I know it's not pure waldorf but it's obvious it draws mostly from it) come together and click for me. Seriously if you want know how to paint,how to create mood,how to use movement in many creative ways very very close to what it would be like in a waldorf school then Enki was MUCH better,for me, night and day.

I think the only thing Christopherus has over Enki is ease of use as far as daily guide goes. I wish Enki would create it for people like me or someone else would and post it lOL!
As far as feeling overwhelmed by it I've been finding I just try to add one new movement a day rather then jumping in and trying to do it all at once. then I slowly rotate an older seasonal song for a new in season song. I start a couple of weeks ahead watching the teacher and children perform it on the dvd,playing the mp3 over and over again on my ipod (my kids hear me sing it so they start to learn it before we add the movements) My kids were bored with circle before now they can't wait to see what we will be doing as the activities are GREATLY varied.
I love the beautiful literature Enki chose for memorization. I feel like my kids are getting a bit of classical ed but in a fun soul nurturing way. It's nurturing me! LOL!
The last draw back to enki is no upper grades..... I hate that they will probably come out with them when it's too late for us. Ugh!

Long story short Christopherus very nice curriculum at a decent price. I've been homeschooling for close to 15 years now so I've had a look at a LOT of curriculums as a curriculum junkie LOL! It's a decent program. I'm not crazy about all of the add on books though just the syllabus. I also have I think it's little garden's curriculum much cheaper and close to Christopherus. I would prefer christopherus's but there is a huge price difference. Enki to me is world's apart if you dont' try to jump in but add it slowly as they suggest.

[numericmama]

I would like to add that there is a philosophical difference between Enki and Waldorf. I mostly use Enki and have for almost 3 years, but I love the idea of Waldorf. So much so that I am on several Waldorf e-mail lists am a lifetime member of Earthschooling and have two ALGF curriculums, but the stories tend to be moralistic. It is a theme that runs through the background of the curriculum. Even the additional nature books suggested to me have a moralistic thread coming through them. For me that just doesn't work. What I see is with Enki I am using my stories to mirror where the child is at, but when I work with the Waldorf, it seems like I am trying to change where my child is at.

This can seem like a small detail, but as I have become more familiar with the two curriculums, it feels quite large to me.

Also, when you get up into the grades, there is a difference in math. My friend is using Live Ed, but is supplimenting with another main stream program to get where my Enki brings me. Enki says it includes Waldorf, Montesorri and conventional and I think that the math program combines all three.

[spiritofthings]

wow, thank you everyone for your responses

[paniscus]

I don't know how much I have to add to what has already been said but we also use Enki Kindy and love it. We are definitely using the take it slow approach so it doesn't seem overwhelming to me at all. We are just adding things here and there and tweaking things as we go along. We haven't gotten into the grades so maybe that is where the difficulty in planning comes in. But I feel once we have a good strong base - which is really what Kindy is about - then (hopefully) it won't be so overwhelming to add the rest.

I also agree with the poster that talked about the philosophical differences. For me, Enki fits with my beliefs better than true Waldorf. I am also on other Waldorf groups and I get a lot out of them. But Enki fits my belief system without any tweaking of stories/verses from me.

[onyxravnos]

i've not used live ed (although i've met the live ed people and they are awesome.) but i've read/looked through all the kindy and 1st grade enki AND christopherus materials and i love enkis feel but i need a more day to day that i can just lightly supplement with. so i vote christopherus.

although little garden flower is also cheap and wonderful