Answers to the Questions You Have about Animals

What Consumables are Needed for Extra Students?
If you intend to school two students in Pre-K or K, purchase an extra of these:
"Make-Your-Own" Animal Book | AW-151 | $15
Burrows, Beehives and Beds | AW-801 | $ 29
Animal Alphabet Dot-to-Dot | AW-805 | $ 4
Animal Alphabet Coloring Book | AW-806 | $ 5

If you intend to school two students in Animals 1st to 4th, purchase an extra of these:
"Make-Your-Own" Animal Book | AW-151 | $15
Habitats, Hollows & Homes Journal | AW-701 | $ 39

Which Language Arts Programs Coordinate with "Animals"?
The language arts programs that coordinate with Hideaways include:
Pre-K/K “Basic Phonics” Language Arts
Advanced K Language Arts
Accelerated Reading Language Arts
First Grade Language Arts
Second Grade Language Arts
Third Grade Language Arts
Fourth Grade Language Arts

My student knows so much about animals already -- can he or she really learn from this?
From a comprehensive look at habitats to studying animal classification and behavioral patterns, this program
is chock full of information, especially in the older student’s package. Even if your student is an “animal buff,”
they’ll systematically learn information about the animal kingdom that will put a lot of things together for them
and introduce them to entirely new concepts about animals and the “worlds” they inhabit. Many is the time that
a parent calls us with concerns that their child already eats up information about animals and loves Discovery
Channel, then later lets us know that their student has learned so much from this program and has loved it
every step of the way.

What is the difference between "Habitats, Hollows & Homes," and "Burrows, Beehives & Beds"?
These two resources are both ecological journaling, and so they are used in the same way, but each has been
developed for a different age group. They share some activities, so that you can complete them as a family.
Other activities are virtually the same, but the goals or questions are simpler for younger students. Still others
are entirely different, with older students completing much more difficult experiments or observations, and
younger students focusing on easier tasks. "Burrows, Beehives and Beds" does offer some phonics
reinforcement activities that combine animal or habitat observation with phonics skills that reinforce what they
know. These activities are not for non-readers only, but are also meant to reinforce what young readers are
learning in a new and fresh way.

I’m torn between which package to get for my first grader -- younger or older?
We have provided quite a few learning tools in the younger package to reinforce the phonics and alphabetical
order use that is key to the further development of a new reader. Even if a student knows their alphabet and
sounds, this program can be useful in developing faster sight recognition, sound recognition and skill with the
alphabet. We really want to stress that these activities are helpful even for children who know
their alphabet and are starting to read. However, some parents choose to use the older package with a
first grader who is already well-developed in these areas. There may be a couple of resources in the older
package that are a little advanced for a first grader, but you’ll be able to use the older program, especially if
you’ve got an “animal expert” on your hands!

I've got both a younger and older student; how can I combine them?
We offer an Animals Combined Set that includes both guides, one set of the shared resources, one set of young learner resources, and one set of 1st to 4th grade resources. Both guides schedule some basic resources, but then each guide separately schedules resources just for that age group. The guide for older students schedules Habitats, Hollows & Homes, plus The World of Animals (with various assignments, projects and activities in that), and Glow in the Dark Fish. The World of Animals has a variety of assignments with each lesson, so it is quite a varied schedule. The guide for younger students schedules Burrows, Beehives, and Beds, Alphabet Art (another resource with a variety of assignments), At the Zoo! Craft Fun, Ed Emberley's Drawing Book, Animal Alphabet Dot-to-Dot, Animal Alphabet Coloring Book, and the Big Book of Five-Minute Devotions. Parents need to add the appropriate consumables according to how many extra students beyond just one student will be using them. Take a look at the consumables listed at the top of this FAQ page. We only include one of each of these in the Combined Set. You'll definitely need at least one more of AW-151, since that is used for everyone, and we include only one in the Combined Set. If you intend to school more students than the one older and one younger student, add other consumables from whichever age group is appropriate.

I'm wondering how to use both guides if I purchase the Animals Combined Set. Is it difficult to do?
We've made the guides very simple to use together. You can lay the two guides across from each other in a
binder, and that way you can see your week at a glance. It will help you to know that quite a few of the
assignments are shared, as your family will work through them together. The guides differ more in their
student assignments and possible project and activity choices. You can highlight in the Younger Learner's
Guide the assignments each week that differ from the main guide to make your guide super-easy to use. We've
come up with a sample spread so you can see how to lay out the two pages, and how to highlight your second
guide. This sample should help you to see that the guides are easy to follow and use as a family, and keep you as
a parent on top of what each student's independent assignments are. It should also help you to see that it really
is easy to set up and use. Click here to see this sample.

Has anyone ever used Animals and Their Worlds with another older program?
Some of our families have very successfully integrated our “Animals and Their Worlds” program together with
theme programs for older students when they have a variety of age groups. Here’s how it works. The younger
students use “Animals” for their main themed program. Meanwhile, the older students use an older themed
program, but utilize “Animals” as their science program. For help with scheduling, parents purchase the
"Animal Habitats" science program guide only to plan out the work for older students. An additional bonus is
that older students can help parents by reading aloud through some of the animal books to younger siblings!
This makes the most of your family’s time investment, and provides wonderful character and skill development
for your older student.

How do the Younger Language Arts especially coordinate with this program?
We have several language arts programs that coordinate with our Animals and Their Worlds. “Pre-K/K Basic
Phonics” introduces the same letter of the alphabet in the same week as does the younger program. “Advanced
K” has readers with animal characters in it and highlights animals in other resources as well. Our first through
fourth grade language arts programs each have reading lists of books about animals right at their respective
grade levels to enable students to experience comfortable reading growth. You can link to any of these program
in the section above these questions.

I’ve already got a few of the items in the package. Can I still get the package price and leave them out?
We love to offer our package prices to our parents to help them purchase a great program with a great discount.
We do, however, have to sell all the items in the package in order to honor the discount. Usually the discount
outweighs the value of the resources you might already have. If not, you can choose items individually to build
your program, but remember -- the purchase of a themed program package ensures you also get discounted
shipping, another discount you’ll want to take into account as you look at your total purchase.

Which of the resources in Animals and Their Worlds are WinterPromise Exclusives?
These resources are WP Exclusives:
Animals and Their Worlds Guide
"Make-Your-Own" Animal Book
Habitats, Hollows & Homes Journal
Burrows, Beehives & Beds Journal

Which of the resources in Animals are used for more than four weeks, other than WP Exclusives?
All of them, except the adventure reading books.