Well, I am very pressed for time right now. Here is a post on MFW’s message board by Julie in MN that explains a lot about ECC. She said it better than I could. more about ECC Sorry to be so brief I just saw the time. The way this board bumps messages I might not find this thread again easily tomorrow, so I at least wanted to answer a tiny bit. -crystal

If SOTW vol. 2 and Apologia Astronomy were the only things in RTR, I would agree with Kathy (KIN) about the age/stage thing. But when you start to add in the art history, all of the different music composers, the longer memory work, a book like Trial and Triumph, and then a bunch of books from book basket idea, and Streams of Civilization and Augustus Caesar’s World…. Well I just prefer a different route of educating my kids and holding off on it. That’s part of homeschooling isn’t it? I guess I already thought the way MFW does about shifting the stages of learning so it makes sense to me to wait. I'm using MFW as written instead of just pieces of it. I guess if I were only doing parts of it, I might think differently. That's the fun of homeschooling. --crystal

That whole book, Apologia Astronomy, is covered. Or at least we did the whole book :) It is just done in 18 weeks instead of 34 weeks.

Katherine, I'm a little confused on your question. The MFW program you are talking about sounds like Rome to the Reformation. That is more designed when the child is ready for a longer school day (such as 3-4 hours to cover 10 subjects). It is a multi level program for being able to be used by families with several children grades 2-8 who are in that time frame with their history study. I have to say I don't really think MFW's RTR is the right fit right now because of the AGE of your oldest child. It's not really about the "grade level" of reading and writing, but the age of the child who is the oldest in the family. You might consider holding off a bit in the chronological cycle and consider using either Adventures in MFW or MFW's ECC program. I know that's not exactly what you want to hear, but I do want to be honest about it. MFW offers good stuff. I've loved it for 5 years. But that program, Rome to the Reformation is designed for a little bit older (i.e. logic stage). Even if your child is advanced in academics, they are still only the physical age that they are. If you are interested in MFW's program, I suggest you at least look at ECC or even at ADV. The Biblical integration is great! MFW does the chronological history cycle a little differently than other things out there. K, 1st, and Adventures -- make a mini cycle that is age appropriate. Then the 5 year cycle ECC, CTG, RTR, EX1850, 1850-MOD cover cultures and 4 years of chronological history at a more advanced level. Then they have a separate high school program for the rhetoric stage. So how about taking a big jump in history from ancients, and start in about the year 1000 AD with the Adventures program? It might seem a little light for your high achieving 6 year old, but there really is no rush at this age in all of this.:) -crystal

Lisa, I think ECC is a great year that has a lot of fun stuff covered. It helped us to learn how to picture ourselves in other parts of the world when we would read stories about other places. It was great to learn not just about the history of the world, but also to learn about those places and people now. You could always do ECC after CTG and before RTR if you wanted. He'd still be able to do the full cycle before high school if I understand his grade level right (4th in the fall?)

My 12 y.o dd likes SOTW 4 as part of what she is doing in MFW's 1850-MOD year. (a side note -- we liked MFW 's year 4 and enjoyed many activities and were we also using the younger sib supplement for that year. Maybe that made a difference. But honestly, we've like MFW each year :D back to SOTW 4.... SOTW vol 4 is not all about battle details as much as it is about the events that took place. The Activity Book and student pages with SOTW 4 is where you learn about outlining and how to write from an outline. Some of the activities in the book are small games, others are a quick and easy large motor activity to help understand the lesson. My kids like it. My 3rd grader doesn't really listen to SOTW (she is too young to really grasp it and is using the MFW younger sibling supplement), but she can participate in the fun stuff and paper crafts in the activity book and just be gently exposed to names, places, etc. We're liking SOTW 4 with our girls.

Lisa, Just wanted to make sure you know about this information since you live in South Carolina. David Hazell of MFW is giving a conference this coming weekend. Here's a quick link to the information in case it is in your part of SC info on that conference I don't get over here on this forum as much anymore, but am curious why you are skipping ECC.

another mfw user experience here. I seem to remember doing more notebooking in RTR. We decided to do most of that writing from an outline even if it doesn't say to do it that way. I wanted to do it like that so I did. The opportunities for history and science writing were there. Also, in year 5, you will do a lot of outlining in the history b/c you will be using the SOTW Activity Book that year. -crystal, who has to remember to do my sig line over here. ;) MFW since 2003 (currently in MFW's 1850-MOD) mom of 3 dd,

I vote that Block print most resembles the printing in HWT. Starfall manuscript is a slanted style. -crystal

Nice new software.... it'll take time to learn the ropes. Looking forward to it -crystal

I guess my answer should have been homeschooling since oldest was born. But in terms of teaching academics....Been officially homeschooling since 1999 or 2000 and still alive to talk about it ;)