LOTW - Questions for those using it

COAH Curriculum
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So we are thinking of using LOTW with our 4 year old. For those of you using it, I would love some feedback. I am so used to having a book in hand… not a download. Feel free to answer 1 or all questions. Thanks in advance.

  1. Did you go with the download or the cd?
  2. Did you print it all out? If so where?
  3. If you didn’t print it all out, what did you print out and when?
  4. Did you do all of it? Piece it together with other things?
  5. Any add’l. feedback?
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  1. DL
  2. Not yet. What I have printed, I printed using my b&w laser (with a few choice pages in color).
  3. I printed out the schedule and the pages I wanted for the first few letters. I figure I will print once a month or so. I do not print out everything. Some of them are unnecessary, for example there are full page jumping tiles that have the numbers (0-10) and a picture taken from each letter (a-apple, ect). I am not going to print out 0-10 tiles for every letter. It would be a waste for us. I also do not print off all the different pre-writing sheets since many of them are duplicates with the only difference being the item that corresponds to a specific letter. If you watch the video that erica did to review LOTW, she also mentions this.
  4. We just started. We are also doing sonlight p3/4 (pieced together used) since it is just a selection of nice books for that age range.
  5. My daughter loves ‘doing school’ You won’t regret buying it! :wink:
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  1. CD (it was a gift a friend ordered for me) but either works
  2. Printed most at home on my laser printer (in toner saver mode)- I have 26 folders for each letter and a few “review folders”
  3. I did not print lacing cards or large floor numbers to save paper
  4. I am doing most of it. We put tracing pages in sheet protectors and use them with play dough to form letters or dry erase markers. I also add in a craft (from Pinterest) that coordinates with the letter each day. We read 2-3 books based on letter (from LOTW list and elsewhere) and a Bible story each day. And we do a Bible craft each day (usually repeat same Bible story for a few days and get some crafts from ABCJesuslovesme.com or Google search coloring page for that story). We also have a few workbooks from dollar tree/gifts but will use those mostly when traveling or for review.
  5. Don’t pressure yourself or your child, preschool/kindergarten is all about having fun! Also- we do “work boxes” with an entire day’s supplies/activities in each box. We have ten drawers, so I have everything prepped for two weeks at a time.
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We are using LOTW with our 3 year old. Per my friend’s advice I didn’t print everything, I printed and prepared what I needed for the first week. This was good advice as there were some things that my daughter loved and some she had little interest in. While her older sisters would color all day if we let them, she didn’t want to color hardly at all, but she loves the counting, sorting and letter matching activities. I am using the 100 days tracker and printed one of each of the Monday through Friday pages of the daily learning notebook and put them in page protectors to re-use with dry erase markers. She isn’t that into them so I was glad I didn’t print the entire book. There is a lot of great stuff in the LOTW curriculum that appeals to kids of all abilities and skill levels, but you don’t have to use it all, use what works best for your child which you can gauge as you go along. By the end of the year, I’m hoping she will have gained skills and interest to do all of it, but I don’t want to force her or make her dislike it.

Also on the flash card pages, shapes, letters, memory verses etc., I used the print multiple pages on one page feature, I selected the pages I wanted and printed them with the orientation and number that best fit. This saved tons of ink, paper and laminating sleeves! I also laminated the letter discs and cut them out, I didn’t attach them to wooden circles and it seems to work fine and store easier.

My daughters all love the songs, especially days of the week and “the letter says ____”

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~ I did the download
~ I printed all of the activities(at home) for letters A-C to get an idea of what my son liked and disliked. Then I just started printing the activities he liked 3 letters at a time. I laminate certain things, such as the lacing letters and the tracing sheets, and the rest I use as consumable items. The laminated items and the letter disk activities I store in folders by letter and and put several folders in a binder. We use the saved activities for review or for fun.
~ I’d say that we do about 2/3 of the activities for each letter, plus I added a pre-school math workbook and bible activities. I also found a worksheet generator online to create worksheets where he can trace his name and we work on that one day a week.
~ My little guy(he’s 4) has really enjoyed this curriculum. By far his favorite things are the lacing cards, the pre-writing and cutting practice and the letter collages. He doesn’t care much for dot to dots and coloring just yet. He loves the colorful pictures and is always super excited to learn a new letter!

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