Help me decide on 9th curriculum!!

[mamato4girls]

I posted a similar post for my younger girls in the k-8 forum...

 

HELP me make up my mind!!

I am drowning in catalogs, and websites. 1 part of me 'enjoys' it, the other, just wants to make a decision NOW. So please help me with my decision. Tell me your favorite literature based curriculum.

 

My 9th dd likes textbooks, but also likes to read. For Science we are doing Apologia Biology, Math either TT or more likely Chalkdust, Abeka Health...

 

I am torn between (my favorite) SL, MFW, or another similar curriculum. Or doing a textbook curriculum.

 

So tell me your favorite's for this age/grade, thanks :001_smile:

[Linda in NM]

I've tried many, and I always seem to gravitate back to TOG--it's the "mom accountability" factor (which TOG provides, and I need). You could use it with all of your kids, too, which might be a nice feature for you...

[Debbie in IL]

We decided on MFW Ancients for dd 14 next year - it arrived yesterday and I'm so pleased! We are already looking forward to starting. If I can answer any questions about it, just let me know and I'll give it my best shot.

[mamato4girls]

We decided on MFW Ancients for dd 14 next year - it arrived yesterday and I'm so pleased! We are already looking forward to starting. If I can answer any questions about it, just let me know and I'll give it my best shot.

That is top on my list, dd wants to do world history (through any curr. she just wants world), but I said no that, that will be in 10th gr. Does your dd like the looks of MFW? Does it have questions/answers/review to go along with the books?

We did SL 100 history this year, and I loved the review and questions- which I have heard Winter Promise doesn't have, what about MFW?

[Susan C.]

My 9th dd likes textbooks, but also likes to read. For Science we are doing Apologia Biology, Math either TT or more likely Chalkdust, Abeka Health...

 

I am torn between (my favorite) SL, MFW, or another similar curriculum. Or doing a textbook curriculum.

 

So tell me your favorite's for this age/grade, thanks :001_smile:

 

Just finished 9th grade with dd. We did Apologia Physical Science (doing Biology in 10th), BJU Writing & Grammar 9, six books for literature, BJU World Geography, BJU Algebra 1, keyboarding, and Phys. Ed. That was quite a step up from 8th grade for her. First time with a textbook (Geography) and first year of Algebra. She is a good student, but not a speed demon, so her day was filled. Except for her slow speed, it was a good year :)

[Julieofsardis]

We decided on MFW Ancients for dd 14 next year - it arrived yesterday and I'm so pleased! We are already looking forward to starting. If I can answer any questions about it, just let me know and I'll give it my best shot.

 

I would love to know more about the writing component and also if there is literary analysis included. I looked at this a our convention this year, but didn't really get to that part.

[Debbie in IL]

Vicki, both dd and I are impressed with the look of the program. We have done SL for 3 years - Cores 3+4, 5 and 6+7 - so the one thing about MFW that seems a bit different is that there are fewer books! After talking to David Hazell (from MFW) at our convention earlier this year, though, I understand that the high school years, for us, will be years of digging deeper into few books. Dd and I are both looking forward to that!

 

There are questions / answers provided for all 3 subjects (Bible, History and Lit). However, many of the questions are thought questions / writing prompts, and they do not have answers provided. (I wouldn't want them to, though!)

 

Hope this helps - let me know if you need more info.

[rwalizer]

We are using a history curriculum called Trisms. In a nutshell, the students are given the questions that they have to find the answers to by doing their own research. I sounds too time consuming, but it isn't. They incorporate IEW into the lessons, but you could use any writing curriculum with it. The literature is provided in excerpts in the student guide. If you want, you could have you students read the whole book. Since we just finished ancient history, there were a lot of Egyptian poems and, well, the excerpts worked fine for us. The student are suppose to read a historical fiction book every other unit (I think-I altered the reading schedule a bit) and write a book report on each one. So, you get your history and lit./comp. in one curriculum. We will continue with Trisms for 9th grade. Each year's curriculum uses the same format. For science in 9th we are using Apologia Biology. We will be in the second half of Video Text algebra and plan to use Rosetta Stone spanish. I also bought a health textbook from Amazon and plan to do little each week from it. Our family does a lot of biking and my ds races, so he can easily get a P.E. credit.

[Debbie in IL]

Julie, there is some literary analysis included with MFW ancients. There is a wire-bound book titled "Literature and Composition Supplement for Ancient History and Literature". The table of contents indicates that it is broken down into 6 parts - A Guide to Critical Writing, Grammar and Style; A Student's Companion to The Epic of Gilgamesh; A Student's Companion to Greek and Roman Mythology; A Student's Companion to Odyssey; Answer Keys; and Vocabulary Quizzes. It looks like the Student Companions include Vocab, Recall and Critical Thinking Questions, and "Bonus Thoughts" (related to culture, geography, etc.)

 

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have more questions.