Frequently Asked Questions

Buttercups® is designed for infants and toddlers who are ages 0-36 months. Activities for this age group are meant to be incorporated into children’s natural play and daily routines. Because each child develops at their own pace, all Buttercups activities are written for three age ranges. The first part of each activity is written to be most appropriate for 12-24 month old children, suggestions for older and younger children follow. Review the three options and choose the one that is most appropriate for each child at their level of development and repeat favorites often. Each two-month kit provides you with numerous play-based activities related to each learning domain and suggestions to make the most of daily routines.

Fireflies® offers a blend of child-initiated and teacher-directed activities adaptable for children ages 3–5 years. Each monthly kit provides many suggestions for center-based activities to accommodate exploration and offer opportunities for children to make choices on their own. Many activities in Fireflies include adaptations or alternatives for younger children and those with special needs. Activities are designed to create enthusiasm and build school readiness skills!

FunShine Digital® is our online curriculum, adaptable for ages 0-5 years. Choose between lesson plans for ages 0-3 or ages 3-5. Use our searchable database to find appropriate activities and create multiage lessons. Search thousands of activities by age range, domain, topic, and more to customize your lesson plans!

See how the curriculum programs compare here.

Yes! FunShine Express is on a four-year rotation basis. New themes and activities are added throughout each rotation. The themes and activities are rewritten and reworked to include any new art materials and to keep the activities fresh and up to date with current early childhood standards.

Yes! Themes are aligned between the two programs. Buttercups is adjusted to be appropriate for younger children; topics and concepts are more concrete and less broad than those in Fireflies.

View activity schedule and theme summaries

Fireflies is flexible. We suggest that you look through the activity suggestions given for each day in the Curriculum Guide. Next, decide which of the ideas would work best for the children in your group (judging from their interests, ages, developmental level and skills, etc.). Many factors affect the length of time our program takes. It depends on which activities you choose to implement. If your environment is organized in centers, many of the activities can be introduced and then be available to the children all day (some even several days!). If your environment is not organized in centers, it will work best to implement the activities with small groups of children. Introduce activities that you believe are appropriate for the children in your care. Monitor the children’s interest levels and offer new materials or a new activity when their interest begins to fade.

Buttercups is also designed to be very flexible. Repetition is important for children in this age group, and their day is very much dictated by their sleeping and eating patterns. For these reasons, Buttercups incorporates ideas to use during daily routines, such as diaper changes and meal times, plus many activity ideas to use with one or two children at a time. How long our program takes to implement each day is greatly determined by your daily schedule and each child’s daily routine.

Items the children may cut in the Fireflies program are related to the art projects. The art materials are not pre-cut. We believe practice with scissors is important for children! Cutting is a fine motor skill that requires time and practice to develop. When designing the program, we are careful to ensure the cutting that the children will be doing is simple, without difficult corners or curves. This also allows the children to be creative. Each child’s project should look different!

The Buttercups program does not include cutting.

We take a developmentally appropriate approach to including holidays, which means:

• We acknowledge that holidays are part of a child's reality, whether at home or in their communities.
• Discussing and celebrating holidays is a good way to incorporate multicultural education and teach cultural sensitivity.
• We provide guidance and support within the curriculum to help you talk with families about holiday activities.
• If it is the policy of your center to skip holidays and celebrations, our curriculum is designed to be flexible; many activities associated with holidays and celebrations include alternative ideas or can be easily adapted. If you're using FunShine Digital, you can simply remove those activities from your calendar.

Fireflies includes materials to complete 15 projects each month. The lesson plan includes an art project for each day, and on the days for which we do not provide the materials, the project will include a list of needed materials, instructions, and a sample picture.

Buttercups includes materials to complete 12 projects per two months. The lesson plan also includes a few additional suggested art projects where art supplies are not included.

We strive to find materials that are unique, fun for children, and safe. We make sure the craft materials and paper we supply meet the children's safety guidelines for lead and other compounds as set forth by the CPSIA Act of 2008. We ask you to supply basic items, such as paint, glue, scissors, crayons, markers, old newspapers, etc. A “Materials List” is included in each kit to let you know what you need to gather to complete every activity that month.