Tabrett Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 I'm almost positive I'm going to purchase MFW K for my ds who will be 4.5 come this fall. He knows his letter sounds and has good fine motor skills (loves to draw and can trace and cut well). I keep giving him little tests to see when he acquires the ability to blend sounds. He was able to blend 2 letter sound last week!:D At the moment we are using LHTH, Singapore EB 1a and About 3 series. I'm pretty sure he will be ready this fall for MFW K. It seems everybody raves about MFW K But..... Does anyone not like MFW K? Why? What did you not like about it? I tried SL K LA with my older dd and she was bored (way too easy and no "hand on", we really, really need "hand on"!) We ended up ditching it and doing my own thing. I prefer to follow a pre-made curriculum than do it on my own! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free Indeed Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 Love the lessons, but hate the way the manual is set up. I wish it were set up the same way as the other manuals, but the program itself is great. Love the Bible lessons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon C Posted May 11, 2009 Share Posted May 11, 2009 We didn't like it. It was a bit too preschoolish for my kids and gathering all the needed library books drove me batty. They were 4 and 5 when I attempted it. They had both done some pretty advanced preschool at a church school so that is why it seemed a bit too simple for us. It would probably be great for someone whose child had never been in any other preschool program. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovetobehome Posted May 12, 2009 Share Posted May 12, 2009 We liked it! My son was advanced I guess, academically, he was already reading when we began, but the gentle lessons were so wonderful, it was one of my favorite years! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sara in WA Posted May 12, 2009 Share Posted May 12, 2009 It is a lovely program and one I will suggest to other friends who are starting out homeschooling a K child. My dd 5 loved it. Yet, we jumped ship after just a few weeks. Why? I bought it to use for my dd 5 who is my 3rd youngest. I found it difficult to have something completely different for her when I am also trying to teach 2 older girls, who are only a bit older - dd 7 and dd8. After a couple frantic weeks of going from the older girls to my 5yo to my 3yo ds, I decided to go back to my original plan for K (which I got from WTM) - teach her to read (we love OPGTR), teach her to print (Zaner-Bloser) play math games and practice violin. I'm finding the classical model through the WTM and Classical Conversations fits our family better as we can do it in a one-room school house style. Now, I haven't sold MFW K, so we might go back! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hmschooling Posted May 12, 2009 Share Posted May 12, 2009 It was okay for us, but not great. We bailed after a couple months. My dd was only 4.5 but it was too pre-K for her. She knew her letters and some phonics already along with some other stuff. It was also time consuming (not just trying to find books at the library, but the lessons themselves were too long). It is a great program though...not a good fit for us. I wanted to make MFW work for us since it was they only program I could find with the CM/Classical/Christian flavor...until I found HOD. I'm using the book after LHTH for my K'er now. I love this one MUCH better! It's quick and easy and so effective! The phonics and handwriting aren't dependent on each other and it focuses on biblical character, does a gentle overview of history, and ties everything together. No trips to the library unless you want to and it's so open and go-- very easy-to-follow manual. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovedtodeath Posted May 12, 2009 Share Posted May 12, 2009 I did not like the library trips or the suggestion to look up information in a children's encyclopedia, with no such encyclopedia provided or even suggested. I loved all of the extras. Cuisenare rods, dinosaur book, butterfly net, and especially music. I was very disappointed when I received it from MFW that it is not a complete program and requires library trips, etc. (It was my first homeschool purchase, I was even surprised that they wouldn't have the craft supplies ready for you. lol.) It was too much like preschool for us when we used it. I thought that she was way beyond that and moved on to other things. Three letter words for an entire year is not enough phonics, she already knew counting and calendar, etc. That said... I love the scriptures tied in with science lessons and the integrated math. I think we would have ended up just fine and probably better off if I had just stuck it out and finished it. The phonics can be used as spelling after you feel the need to move on to more phonograms and supplement with another phonics curriculum. The math is more than adequate in MFW K and 1st from what I can tell. I will probably use it for DS, doing the portion of math that is not integrated and the phonics lessons without the writing for PreK and the rest for K along with another phonics program. I am really drooling over WP IRL (which looks just like what DD did when she attended preschool). I am sorry this is so badly worded. I hope it helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tricia Posted May 12, 2009 Share Posted May 12, 2009 We loved it too. Especially the science. I did it with 4 of my kids at once but only because 2 of the older ones hadn't really had much for science so they joined in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest sarathan Posted May 12, 2009 Share Posted May 12, 2009 I'm almost positive I'm going to purchase MFW K for my ds who will be 4.5 come this fall. He knows his letter sounds and has good fine motor skills (loves to draw and can trace and cut well). I keep giving him little tests to see when he acquires the ability to blend sounds. He was able to blend 2 letter sound last week!:D At the moment we are using LHTH, Singapore EB 1a and About 3 series. I'm pretty sure he will be ready this fall for MFW K. It seems everybody raves about MFW K But..... Does anyone not like MFW K? Why? What did you not like about it? I tried SL K LA with my older dd and she was bored (way too easy and no "hand on", we really, really need "hand on"!) We ended up ditching it and doing my own thing. I prefer to follow a pre-made curriculum than do it on my own! We just finished with MFW K last month with my ds (5). It was....just okay. The lessons were good but too repetitive. It's basically the same thing every week, it's just the letter that changes. That might be fine for some kids, but my ds was completely bored with it. I've heard people say that it moves too slow and I can see how that might be the case for some families. Now, with that being said, MFW K gave him a *great* start in reading! It works! The science activities were fun, no complaints there! There weren't near enough read-alouds for us so we supplemented with SL P4/5. Also, (I'm probably weird for feeling this way) but I am COMPLETELY burnt out on going to the library, lol. We had to go every week with MFW and I was just so done with it. Don't get me wrong, we like the library just fine, but *having* to go every week was just a bit much for me. :) I am buying all of our books for this next year (God willing) just to avoid the stinkin' library for awhile. :tongue_smilie: Edited to add: Oh, and the Bible was great too! When I said the lessons were too repetitive, I was talking about the phonics. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evergreen Academy Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 MFW K was passed down to us and I tried to use it with two of my little guys a few years ago. I liked the concept but I just felt I needed something more - more in terms of things included for them to do (I love the "Get Ready, Get Set, Go for the Code" series and we went back to that for phonics), and more in terms of books included - I have often said I would have loved MFW K if it came in a package with at least a basic core of books used for the year. I think I could have made it work if I'd just been schooling one, but I was a bit overwhelmed with schooling an 8th grader, a second grader, the two K boys and the adjustment of a newly adopted toddler - that would have been a good year for a package! If you have time to pull it together, I think it has fabulous ideas. Just didn't work for us. Blessings, Aimee mom to 6 great kids ages 5-18 (schooling k, 2, 2, and 5) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lovedtodeath Posted May 13, 2009 Share Posted May 13, 2009 Now, with that being said, MFW K gave him a *great* start in reading! It works! We started out with the Accelerated Achievement curriculum for phonics. They teach it in the same way, but there is also more that you can add as you are ready (the disk is for K-12, not just K). When I got MFW K, I think that was the biggest disapointment. For a $3 demo disk (hstreasures.com) I had already been doing their phonics and more. But, yes, it does work, wonderfully! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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