Meet a Reviewer: Amanda Hopkins

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Hey, everybody!  We got the chance to have Amanda interact with us here at WinterPromise.  Amanda is one of our bloggers and has done a review for us in the past and is currently experiencing the “Thanksgiving 1621” program.  We love having her on our team.  It was very enjoyable to hear what she had to say about life, homeschooling and her thoughts on a dream planner even!  Amanda is an enthusiastic homeschooler and blogs about her and her family at hopkinshomeschool.com.  Her thoughts should inspire you, too!

WP:  Tell us about you and your family Amanda.
Amanda:  I am a stay at home mom to my three beautiful children. I live in east central Minnesota with my husband of 8 years. Our oldest two are boys, they are 13 and 5 years old. Our youngest is a little princess who is 2.5 years old. We love playing outside in the many different weather conditions we have here.

WP:  What inspired you to homeschool your kids and when did you start?
Amanda:  Our oldest son was in public school until the middle of his 6thgrade year. Our middle son went to public preschool for two months. When our middle son didn’t like preschool we thought we would be able to do preschool at home no problem. Than when our oldest started to have some issues at school and we were busy “helping” the school a little too much we decided to pull him out.

We have been homeschooling for almost a full year now. We now have a 7thgrader, Kindergartener and tot schooler. We plan on continuing this journey with our kids for as long as the Lord allows us to (I hope until they graduate).

WP:  What are the different companies that you have tried? Have you ever tried to go it alone?
Amanda:  When we first started I used Easy Peasy All-in-one Homeschool. Over the summer I did a lot of piecing things together and I am in love with Pinterest for those in a rush moments of needing something quick.

WP:  Amanda, when did you first experience WinterPromise and what were your first impressions?
Amanda:  The first time I ever heard about WinterPromise, honestly, was when I did a Google search for a Charlotte Mason style curriculum. I came to the website and was in love with everything I saw. When I was invited to help promote the opening of Spirited~Autumn~Hope, I jumped for joy! I love how everything is planned out and I just need to grab and go. This makes it much easier to spend more time doing the fun stuff with my family.

WP:  What has been your favorite program with us and why?
Amanda:  My Kindergarten son would say that his favorite program was Simple Machines, and that would be because he got to do a lot of that with Daddy. I personally really enjoy the new Thanksgiving in 1621. Like I already said, I love that everything is done for me, but I also love that it covers Thanksgiving from both the Pilgrim’s and the Indian’s point of views. There was a lot of work put into this program and it shows!

WP:  From your perspective, Amanda, what makes WinterPromise different from any other curriculum?
Amanda:  A lot of the curriculum options that I have looked at are really just the facts that are needed for the kids to learn and don’t have a lot of fun added into them. I don’t like the black and white get it done type of school. WinterPromise does not do that at all. There are lots of fun things added into the different weeks. Something as simple as drawing a picture of what we are learning about make it that much more fun for my kids.

Another thing I like about WinterPromise is the different themes. I like knowing that we are staying on one theme and I am able to find extra books or coloring pages to go with that theme. It is fun to see the house transform into the different themes that we are learning about.

WP:  Amanda, there has to be a funny story or two from homeschooling that you have. Tell us a good one!
Amanda:  Over the summer we watch my friend’s kids. We started school the last week of their summer vacation, but ended up taking it easy and not being too strict on everything. When they had to go back to school, they were crying that it wasn’t fair that my kids got to sleep in late and do school in their pajamas.

WP:  Do you have any opinions on a WinterPromise planner? What would be in your dream planner to help you stay organized?
Amanda:  My dream planner would include a weekly schedule that had a space for each child. It would have to have pretty colors and/or pictures in it. As fun as digital planners are, I am a pen and paper girl when it comes to planners.

WP:  Have you ever used any of our ebook options?  What was your experience with them?
Amanda:  Although I love the paper and pen for planners, I love the eBook options when it comes to curriculum. I am able to get the item so much quicker than waiting for it to come in the mail! I can print what I want to print and store the rest on my computer or tablet until I need it.

WP:  Amanda, how does your husband stay involved in the homeschooling, or does he let you handle most of it?
Amanda:  My husband is an over the road truck driver. He loves to have me ask his opinions on things, but he mostly plays the role of principal, while I am the teacher. When he is home the kids love to cuddle with him and listen to him read. When it comes to those “boy” things, like Simple Machines, he loves to get involved and will add in many life topics for the kids to learn about. The kids get to tell him about what they learned each day and he loves to quiz them on different items. Even though he isn’t “home” every day, he is still a part of school each and every day.

Thanks so much, Amanda! As we mentioned, you can follow Amanda and her family at hopkinshomeschool.com. We love hearing about how much our families enjoy learning together. It sounds like Amanda is a fun teacher!

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Winter Promise Wednesday and YOU!

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Hi friends!! I wanted to share a little bit more about Winter Promise Wednesdays in the hopes that some of YOU would like to participate!

As you know, I (Candace,) have just recently started working with Winter Promise mostly in the area of this blog and social media. Well, what I am running into is that a lot of people have not heard of Winter Promise! And, we want to help families learn more about these great resources! I, myself, am a first time Winter Promise user, having purchased Quest for the Ancient World for our upcoming school year. When I started reading through all of the lessons, schedules, book lists and project ideas, I was truly amazed. I wondered WHY I had not tried out this product before. Truly, I am so excited about this curriculum and would not be doing what I’m doing (for the blog and social media) if I didn’t love it.

I want to help spread the word! I want to show-off families that are using Winter Promise in their homes so that other families can see how wonderful it is.

One of the main beauties of homeschooling is how DIFFERENT each of our families are. And that is the case with Winter Promise as well…you see, lots of different types of learners and different types of homeschoolers can use this curriculum and have a great school year. Kaeryn even shared here on our blog about using Winter Promise with different types of learners.

Have you used Winter Promise before?

Do you have pictures of your family doing a project or working on something with your Winter Promise curriculum?

We would love to show-off your family here!

Please leave your email or a message so that I can contact you and we will be in contact!

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Winter Promise Wednesday: Through the Years

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We are starting a brand new series called Winter Promise Wednesdays!  We would LOVE to be able to show-off YOUR families using Winter Promise in your homeschool. Today we are blessed to have a guest post from Jennifer, who has a blog dedicated to their Winter Promise adventures!  Thank you so much for sharing your family with us, Jennifer! 

There’s something special about a homeschool company which fits so well with your family that you keep coming back.  For our family, Winter Promise is that company.  It all started when our oldest son was entering first grade.  We had a FABULOUS year, using WinterPromise’s Animals and Their Worlds theme program along with the first grade Language Arts, which today is called Stories to Short Chapters and features all WinterPromise written readers.



We were excited to dive right into American Story 1 for second grade.  It was so fun and exciting that it inspired our homeschool drama of the year, in which our boy played King Ferdinand to his cousins’ Columbus and Queen Isabella.  We also completed Language Arts 2 from WinterPromise, which today is called Readers to Real Books.  Our science program was World Around Me, which has proved to be a family favorite as well.

The following year was our first year for two full time students.  Middle son joined in the fun, working on Animals and Their Worlds with Language Arts Basic K, which is now titled Letters to Little Words.  Eldest son went on to American Story 2 and completed the new LA3 from Winterpromise, featuring Scout the Dog.  It was a full and exciting year, including the baking of gingerbread men from the resource Last Safe House.

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Our fourth year of WinterPromise studies was a lovely mishmash of Adventures in the Sea and Sky, with Younger Learner Guide and Hideaways in History!  It was one of my favorite years, but both programs were SO full that we ended up saving some of the resources for later.  By this time, we had added another little boy to our family, so it was a great joy to watch him scampering in and out of the Hideaway structures.

 

 WinterPromise has become part of our homeschooling culture.  The joy of side by side learning and sharing is one I would not trade for anything.

 

Every year, we are excited to find new field trips which bring our studies alive!  Anything from a local interactive Jamestown experience, to Georgia mounds built by Native Americans, to an Air Force Museum or Kentucky Down Under- we take great joy in following our studies into the real world.






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Excited to be sharing!

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Hello Winter Promise Friends!!

I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself and also invite YOU to be a part of something new and exciting at the Winter Promise blog!!

My name is Candace and I’m the brand new Community Coordinator for Winter Promise!! I know, what does that mean?? Well, Kaeryn and I have been talking about what we can do to share with the online world about our love for Winter Promise. This blog, along with several social media platforms, will help us to do that! We are working on several projects that we are excited to share with you in the coming weeks!

I am a homeschooling mom of 3 children, ages 11, 10 and 8yrs, from beautiful East Tennessee. If you’d like to read more about me or our homeschool, please hop over to my personal blog, His Mercy is New.

Now, on to the exciting blog news!

We want this blog to showcase what we love so much about Winter Promise! And we would LOVE to have YOU join us!

Here are some ways you could get involved:

  • Share about Winter Promise on your own personal blog!
  • Share about  how you use Winter Promise in your home here on OUR blog!
  • Share about Charlotte Mason ideals & methodology on our blog!

So, what do you think? Won’t it be awesome to read about how other families are using Winter Promise in their homes? I hope it will be a blessing and encouragement to each of us!!

If you are interested in one of these blogging opportunities, would you please take a few moments to fill out this form for us??

Winter Promise Bloggers Interest Form

Thank you!! Looking forward to hearing from  YOU!

 

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