Originally Posted by lollipop101:
I have been doing child care for over 10 years and I have used Funshine Express in the past and have enjoyed it. The past few years I have made up my own curriculum but it was very time consuming so now I am looking into FunShine Express to use as a curriculum for my in home child care starting in September. I am a little uncertain if I should order Fireflies or Buttercups because of the ages of the children in my daycare. The ages they will be this fall are:
2 years
2 1/2 years
3 years
twins that are 4 1/2 years
I also have 3 infant/toddlers that will be 15 months old, 10 months old, and 5 months old but I don't think I will include them in the curriculum.
Also, the twins that are 4 1/2 only come two days a week and they also go to preschool, the 3 year old comes two days a week, the 2 1/2 year old 3 days a week, and the 2 year old 5 days a week. Most of the children are part time so would Fireflies or Buttercups be better for me? If I ordered buttercups for the 2 & 2 1/2 year old and Fireflies for the 3 & 4 1/2 year olds the price for the year would be around $750 which is a lot. If I got Fireflies for all of the children it would be around $526 for the year. Buttercups for all of them would be $350.
Buttercups would obviously be the cheapest route but I feel like it is geared for young infants/toddlers and not so much 3 & 4 1/2 year olds. In the same way, I feel Fireflies may be geared for older 3-5 year olds and the 2 & 2 1/2 year olds may not benefit. What would u suggest me to do?
If you have used different curriculum that you think would be better for me to use please let me know! Any advice is greatly appreciated 
My practice has always been to order the curriculum for the older crowd and adapt it for my smaller ones. I'm too cheap to order multiple versions of something. I haven't ordered curriculum in several years as I've accumulated and created much of what I need now to be reused over and over for several years. I am constantly adding to it though or creating new themes, etc to keep it fresh. I was never a fan of funshine, but liked Mother Goose Time. Everyone seems to have differing opinions on which curriculum is better.
