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Curriculum>Adventures in Learning Curriculum
MyAngels 07:59 AM 09-17-2010
Does anybody use the Adventures in Learning Curriculum? I'm just looking for some feedback and reviews. Thanks!
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kitkat 08:38 AM 09-17-2010
I just started it this month. So far I think I like it. I have DD who's 2, so it's way too hard for her to understand and do most of the activities. I try to make them as age appropriate for her as possible. Dcg is 2.5 and it's way above her head. Dcg is 4.5 and it is very age appropriate for her. We don't do all the activities because of the 2 little ones. The website says it's appropriate for 2.5-5. I think the 2.5 depends on how advanced the child is. I think 2.5 dcg will be more ready for it when she's 3.

Overall I like it. I think it's worth the money. I had tried a much cheaper curriculum and hated it. I had also looked into Mother Goose. I couldn't decide if I wanted to try MG or AIL. I picked AIL only because they were located closer to me. I'll stick with AIL this year, but I might try MG next year (I like to switch things up).
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Unregistered 05:42 PM 09-17-2010
I bought Adventures in Learning, Funshine and Mother Goose Time in September. They are all similarly priced and all come packaged ready to use, but after the first week - my kids just kept asking for Mother Goose Time - I think it was the music, art and cute story projects. I think it is organized the best and the quality of the printing and various included manipulatives is much higher. I just put in my order for October and I will definitely use it all year. But it is definitely a personal choice and you want something your children can connect with - I first thought about purchasing them after finding the Mother Goose Time facebook page. It has tons of comments and photos posted by other people using it. You can always look at websites but to get the honest testimonials by hundreds of people is what I love about facebook. Maybe try taste testing all the different curricula and choose one with your kids! What's great is you can order just for one month from all of these places before you commit.
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Preschool/daycare teacher 06:26 PM 09-19-2010
You might try Funsteps, also. They have specific lesson plans for 2-3 yr olds (Twosteps), and specific lesson plans for ~3-5 yr olds (funsteps). The lesson plans and themes all coordinate, so both age groups are doing the same things at the same time. The crafts are the same most of the time, except they've simplified the 2-3 yr old's crafts for their developmental level. Only problem is you have to order two steps seperate from funsteps, as if they're two different curriculums. But since Funsteps is hand's on activities, you could probably adjust it for your younger ones. You can see a 3 day sample on their website www.funsteps.com I'm sure your younger ones would get just as much out of the 3-5 yr old one (Funsteps) as they do AIL, if you didn't want to spend out the money for both. I purchased both, but the parents reimburse me, plus I had enough kids in each age group so the parents cost doesn't come out as too much (approx $2 a week, so I just charge them monthly, or an all upfront cost at the beginning of the year). I also have seperate classes (2-3 yr olds on T/Th, 4-5 yr olds on MWF). Since Funsteps curriculum have 3 day weeks, it works out perfectly for me.
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momof123kcp6T2 10:13 AM 03-30-2011
Don't try it. If you have any problems with the program you will have a terrible time getting a response. They handle all calls through an answering service and it is near impossible to get them to call back. The program isn't bad but the headaches are not worth it. There are other ones I've tried and none have the poor customer service that I have encountered with this company.
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Unregistered 05:15 PM 03-30-2011
I used AIL for a few months. Cute program but I found the themes are very repetitive. Customer service is very poor. One month my shipment was missing the monthly program book with all the instructions/songs/games. They promised to send it overnight mail to me right away, halfway through the month I still didn't receive it. After many many emails they sent me a PDF of it. Way too late to use and I really didn't want to go to the extra expense of printing a 52 page book. Save you money!
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heyhun77 06:41 PM 03-30-2011
I used AIL last year and though it was well put together it wasn't what I wanted as I do mostly play based learning and it's a lot of sit at the table work.

I agree that their customer service is not good AT ALL. After a few months of trying it and not really liking it (plus several times of missing items that we were shorted and our package not arriving until a couple days before it was supposed to be used) I requested a refund of the rest of the pre-paid year. It took several calls/emails before I got a response from anyone and then it took several MONTHS to get the refund that they agreed in writing would be made. The only way I even got them to return my calls was to tell them I was going to forward the matter to my attorney.

I'm not sure if they are just in way over their heads or what but I won't go back to them.
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Tags:activities, adventures in learning, curriculum, mother goose time, themes
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