One more comparison please: MOH with MFW (history part only)

[praisefor3]

I really like MOH. Unfortunately, I haven't really gotten it "off the ground." I am considerng MFW for ds 6th grade. I am aware that MFW includes far more than just history, as opposed to MOH. However, I was wondering if you could compare just these two elements. What is the difference of the history with MFW versus MOH? So far I like what I could do with MFW but I don't really know much about the actual history portion. If you do, I would sooo much appreciate your input.

[Donna A.]

Well, since MOH includes Bible (she alternates between secular and biblical history from one lesson to the next), you have to compare the history AND Bible of MFW with MOH.

 

MFW is much more in-depth. There are both more reading and more hands-on options, and also a lot more actual scripture reading with MFW. The author of MOH will give you Bible verses and some brief passages to read here and there to support the lessons, but mostly it's just her commentary. IOW, she really gives "summaries" of what happened... not the actual reading of original sources, if that makes sense. (Although she does list some extra sources in the back of the book, but not nearly as much as MFW, and they aren't scheduled.)

 

Thus, I'd say that MOH is really a lot like a textbook format, whereas MFW uses some textbooks as reference material here and there, but it's not ever their main spine.

 

I personally like using MOH as one of our "Book Basket" options with MFW, or just getting the MOH CDs to listen to in the van.

 

Another thing is that MOH is done (almost). Last I read somewhere, she's still working on writing volume 4 but is going to stop there (and not do a volume 5), so it'll never really be "complete". She does include instructions for how to use MOH with a high school student, so in that sense you can use MOH as your spine all the way through... but you have to have additional resources in order to make that happen. And even then, you'd have to switch to something else to complete modern American history since there won't be a volume 5 MOH.

 

So if what you want is summaries of history, something very simple and straightforward, MOH is nice. I did like her timeline idea in volume 1 showing the lineage of Christ from Creation to His birth. But MFW does timelines, too, so that alone is not a determining factor for me.

[Donna A.]

Well, since MOH includes Bible (she alternates between secular and biblical history from one lesson to the next), you have to compare the history AND Bible of MFW with MOH.

 

Oh, one other thing about this. MOH alternates between secular and biblical history from one lesson to the next. So you might have a historical lesson from the Bible one week, and then a lesson about China or India the next week. MFW doesn't alternate like that. MFW teaches both side by side, *every day*. Occasionally you'll come across a gap in one or the other, but only where gaps appear in the history itself... not because they're alternating back and forth. Make sense? It's difficult to get history lined up *perfectly* no matter who you are, and it's inevitable that something has to be skipped somewhere along the way. But what I'm talking about here is the comparison of the layout of these two programs.