We have been using MFW1 for about 6 weeks. I just switched my older boys to HOD. I am considering switching our 1st grader as well. He is reading very well. If I start him in Beyond he will finish the cycle in 7th grade. I just think Little Hearts might be too light for him. Any thoughts?

Yea, the more I look at it the more I like HOD. I think that just might work better for my older guys. I am already using LHTH with my preschoolers. Just wouldn't be the same if I didn't have to change out something. lol

I have always tried to combine my kids for history, science and bible. We muddle through at best. Our oldest is in 9th and happily doing her own thing. Then I have a 7th grade girl, 5th and 3rd and 1st grade boys. A few younger ones as well. We have been trying to do MFW ECC this year and it is just not working. My daughter would really love to do ECC on her own. My 1st is doing MFW! and doing really well. So I need something for our 3rd and 5th boys. I was thinking of using SOTW for history and Apologia for science. I need something quick and easy with these two. Then I was looking at HOD. Any ideas?

Is there any history curriculum that has a printed notebooking journal like Apologia has? That works so well for our family and I would love to find something like that for history. :) Something that I can use for multiple kids would be great.

We just picked up LLATL for 3rd, 5th and 7th graders. I am so excited to try it. Seems like it is going to be perfect. My question is when I am supposed to read the literature selection? For example, for one of the levels I am supposed to read Farmer Boy but I am not sure how much per day and how fast we should work through it.

Awesome! Any idea on how long you spend each day between the 3 grades?

Language arts is really my stumbling block. I have kids in grades 3, 5 and 7 that I am looking for help with. We are currently using AAS for spelling and HWT for handwriting. I am using PLL and ILL for grammar and Writing Strands. Most days it is a battle to get it all in. :( I tried using something fairly independent like Growing with Grammar but the retention was not great. I love AAS and HWT is fine. I am just really looking for something for grammar, writing and reading comprehension. Would various levels of LLATL work for us? Do you do it 5 days per week? Do I need the activity book too?

Ok, Crystal thank you so much. I have said it many times before but once again you ROCK! I have been reworking this on our whiteboard over and over too. I think if I go out of order and just keep it that way it will work best. So our cycle will be....... ECC-EX1850-1850toMod-CtoG-RtoR and repeat...several times. lol At this point we have someone entering school every 2 years. Based on using MFWK and MFW1 and then entering the family cycle. This works perfectly. Any levels they repeat are the ones they did in 2nd and 3rd and not 4th-6th. I am looking at it like doing geography, then US history, then world history. That is easier on my brain. I know it is out of order but I am ok with that. I feel really good about this. :) Thanks for your help :)

Thanks for your help. The tricky part is not having my kids repeat a year too soon. Next year we will have 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th.

We are doing MFW ECC with our 3rd and 5th and 7th grader. It is going very well. :) My concern is for next year. Our 7th grader(will be 8th) did a SL core of ancients last year. She really did not like all the greek stuff. She loves MFW but does not want to do CtoG next year. I am ok with that. I am thinking of going to Ex-1850 or 1850-Mod. Because we have a large family we will repeat years. I just don't want to totally mess things up. Any ideas what we should do?

I already have purchased it. We are day 26. I think it is a great program. I too am a huge fan of simplicity. I guess it's hard to let a good program go but if he is getting learning the same material through MFW ! it should be ok.

:)

We are about a week away from getting our year rolling. On paper everything looks great but in reality I am not sure I can do it all. Can you tell me what you think of our plans please :) 9th grade MFW AHL MUS Algebra 1 Apologia Biology Volunteer work---she volunters 8-10hrs per week at a bird rescue/rehab 7th grade MFW ECC MUS Zeta/Pre Algebra General Science All in one english series, AAS, Writing Strands 5th grade MFW ECC MUS Epsilon ILL, AAS, Writing Strands 3rd grade MFW ECC MUS Gamma PLL, AAS, PAL 1st grade MFW 1st PAL, AAS 2 and 4 yr olds LOTW by COAH---I know they don't need anything at this age. However them having something structured to do seems to make our days run a little better. My biggest question is should I drop PAL from 1st and 3rd? My 1st is reading very well. I am thinking the MFW phonics would be enough. I will also continue AAS with them. I am just trying to be realistic with how much I can get done in a day. I am the type that needs to check every box. I am tryign not to have too many boxes to check. lol Any suggestions would be great!

I didn't know there was more than one. lol Guess I have more work to do.

Thanks so much everyone. We have tried MFW many many times in 8 years. We always end up stopping for one reason(me) or another(me). I truly love the program. I am going to try using it just as it is and see how we do. :) So PLL and ILL it is. :)

This fall I will be homeschooling 5 and have 3 toddlers. I have everything planned out except language arts. We are using MFW and I know they suggest PLL and ILL. I am also using AAS for spelling. Do you think PLL and ILL will provide a firm foundation for grammar? We have used GWG and CLE in the past. I am just trying to find something that will get done. Any advice would be great :)

:)

Next year I am going to try something different and combine a few of our favorites. Any feedback would be great! This will be for our kids in 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th :) Bible MFW ECC History/Geography MFW ECC Science APOLOGIA Creation Series Math MUS Language Arts AAS(spelling, phonics) EIW (grammar, writing) Reading SL readers Our 7th grader will be doing her own general science and logic. Our 1st grader will be doing MFW 1st and gleaning what he can from ECC. Does this seem doable? Is it enough? I know MFW has science but our kids really love the Apologia series so I am going to just let the MFW science go. My dream would be the hands on activites of MFW and the wonderful literature of SL. :)

I love the hands on activites with MFW but I love so many of the books we have read with SL. If I could somehow smooth them together I would. lol

I am looking ahead for next year and would like to use a few computer based or online classes. I love the price of SOS but am wondering what come other options may be out there. I am mainly looking for science and language arts. Thanks for any help.

Just wondering if anyone has tried pairing the readers from Sonlight with MFW as the core? I am trying to figure out how to match them up. So far I have... SL core A readers with MFW ECC SL core B for younger and G for older readers with MFW CtoG SL core C for younger and H for older readers with MFW RtoR SL core D for younger and 100 for older with MFW EX1850 SL core E readers with MFW 1850toMOD Does this look right?

We are schooling year round with breaks worked in. Our summers are insanely hot so it makes sense to school during that time. We recently took time off for the birth of our daughter and to spend special time with my husband when he was layed off. We have been homeschooling for 7 years. In that time we have added 4 kids to our family and changed curriculum many, too many, times. Now we are at point where we are done having kids. We have also settled on certain curriculums for all areas except language arts. I think getting into a routine with both curriculum and our daily routine will help a ton! I just need to figure out what to do with the littles. I am going to try out some busy bags for them. I don't really use the older kids at all with the little ones. I am always trying to make sure they have ample time to complete their schoolwork. I think this is something I need to reconsider a bit. I want them to have the time they need. They do however spend a lot of time dwadling and wasting so I think there is some time available for them to lend a hand. Thank you for the link for largefamiliesonpurpose.com blog. I can't wait to dig in to that and get some ideas. I think I just really need to get more intentional with my time in all areas. I CAN do this. I just need to keep telling myself that until I truly believe it.

Not right now.

Just wanted to post a quick update. :) I decided to change things around a little bit and I am feeling so much better about it all. I am going to outsource the bulk of LA for for now. For the rest of this year we will use T4L and then next year SOS. I am also going to use T4L for a little extra science and then use SOS for next year as well. We tried SOS a few years ago with our olderst 2 girls. They didn't really care for it. However, I think our oldest 2 boys would really love some computer. I am also having each of the older girls spend an hour with me in the morning. I think this will help a lot. I am also splitting our 2 older boys for awhile. It's very hard to keep them on task when they are together. So I have 2 blocks of computer time (T4L) scheduled and they will rotate. Once I wrote everything out on paper it was easy to figure out what to tweak. Thank you for all of your suggestions. :) First let me say I am sorry if this ends up being long. I would love any ideas and opinions on making this all work. I have 8 amazing kids ages 5months, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 14. Grade wise they are K, 2nd, 4th, 6th and 8th. For the last 10 years my husband has worked from home. He would come in and help at lunchtime and would also help out when he was done with work at around 2-3pm. He was recently layed off and now his work weeks will be more like 50-60 hours out of the home. :( This will be a huge change for us. I know we can handle it (with God's help) I just need to figure out hiow. I feel like there is not nearly enough of me to go around. My 5 month old is very content but not a napper so she is with us most of the day. My 2 and 4 year old could care less about toys for the most part. They want to be hanging with the pack. :) I am thinking some form of tot school might work for them. I just need to keep it simple for myself. Here is what I am doing with the other kids. K-MUS Alpha, IEW PAL for phonics/reading, MFW K for bible and science 2nd-Mus Beta, IEW PAL with my Ker, MFW Adventures, Evan-Moor for grammar/writing 4th- MUS Delta, AAS, MFW Adventures, Evan-Moor for writing/grammar 6th MUS Epsilon/Zeta, Growing with Grammar, Sonlight core G, Apologia Zoology II 8th MUS Pre Algebra then on to Algebra, GWG, Sonlight core G, Apologia Physical science I am doing a review with my 6th and 8th grader in math. Making sure the concepts are solid before they move on to the next level. So that takes a good chunk of time each day. I am not happy with the grammar/writing for any of them. I was thinking of switching to Essentails in Writing as it is DVD based. The things I love that we are using.....MUS, AAS, MFW. I like PAL but it takes a good amount of time and I am not sure it is sticking. It is something I want to love. I think we get much more retention with AAS. Currently my husband takes the 3 little ones out and about in the moring while I work with the older kids. This is working great but he won't be home for much longer. I am in tears nearly every Sunday night trying to figure this all out before the next week starts. Any ideas?

I keep leaning towards R&S.