MFW and/or Veritas Press?

[Mrs. Lilac]

We are using My Father's World Adventures this year for 1st grade. I like it in a lot of ways and so does my daughter. The problem is that it feels a little "light." For me, especially the Bible and history. She really likes to be challenged. We did Classical Conversations last year and I loved the Veritas Press history cards, so I've been poking around the Veritas Press site lately and I'm really loving their history and Bible.

 

SO- :) Wondering what your opinions are on MFW and Veritas Press. I could do either next year- or I could do MFW and try to somehow add the Veritas cards....but then I'm not sure about Bible.

 

Hope I'm making sense, everyone! Can't wait to hear your ideas. Thanks!

[FloridaLisa]

And I like many of VP's book selections. But the love stops there. I used VP for many years and rotated through at least one complete cycle of history (using the 5-yr cycle). I love how VP integrates Biblical/church history with secular history. But, the workbooks are pretty dry and are comprised principally of rote questions and answers. I liked my children to notebook or narrate (orally and then in writing) after our history reading. I found myself creating my own history curriculum by using the VP cards as a timeline and backbone and pulling in read-alouds, independent reads, hands-on activities.

 

There is now so much more on the market that will do that for you! So, my advice would be to use the VP history cards, but as a timeline alongside a more interesting history program.

 

HTH,

Lisa

[3babiesmommy]

We haven't gone through the MFW cycle yet (we will be starting with ECC next year), but I have looked at all of the manuals extensively. A couple of things I would say would be that first off, MFW K and 1st are very different from the rest. Once you start their 5 year cycle, I don't think you will find it light. The other thing is that I think it would be very easy to just add the VP history cards to MFW, just using them whenever they come up in the history readings. I am planning to do that myself, as I love the VP history cards and think they will add to the program. Hope this helps!!

[PeterPan]

Well I'm with Lisa that doing what the tm's specify is not the only or even best way to do VP's history. We've always used it our own way (except for brief forays into the guilt-tripping world of their worksheets), and we MUCH prefer it without the tm stuff. But you're going to want the memory songs, and there will be occasional stuff in the tm's you find useful, even if you don't do the worksheets. There are mapping, some crafts, etc. And remember the cards themselves schedule your readings. So you can do one card a week, read the spine readings, then spend the week fleshing it out with more books, hands-on, and have them do written narrations on Friday. When they get older you up it with more paragraphs, etc. It's very easy to flex and make your own. We have schedules uploaded at the VP_Elementary yahoo group, if you haven't been there yet.

 

Now with the new self-paced online classes for the VP history, I'd be very hard-pressed to decide between that and teaching it myself! I don't know what I'll do with my new little one when his time comes. I think those online classes look snazzy. You might find yourself coming to the place where you differentiate what you do WITH your dd (say a spine you read to her and discuss) vs. what she does to HERSELF. When my dd was young her self-instruction part was mainly a book basket. Later it transitioned to researching topics to write paragraphs. Now I'm realizing it could have been a bit different, with two parallel studies (her spine and my spine). I think I was trying too hard to teach, when she's more happy just self-pursuing. I thought I "needed" to teach, so I was very worried about it, lol. I think some kids you do teach, and some kids you throw things at. :)

 

So yes, the VP history stuff is a great starting place, no matter how you use it. Free yourself from MFW and see what strikes you and what might fit her. I particularly like reading survey-type spines. Your dd is probably old enough to fly with a book basket and do a lot of reading herself.

[Julie in MN]

We are using My Father's World Adventures this year for 1st grade. I like it in a lot of ways and so does my daughter. The problem is that it feels a little "light." For me, especially

 

Well, since you haven't had an answer on the MFW side, I thought I'd give it a try. I haven't used VP, although I had one of their card sets (& was clueless on what to do with it). From the answers you've received, it doesn't sound like VP on its own would give you any more, though.

 

First off, MFW purposely doesn't overwhelm a 1st grader with history. Adventures introduces a broad sweep through "nearby" history and through reading your own "real" Bible. It's much more than my kids got in public school, I'll tell you that. And if you want more, there are many ideas in book basket to expand the learning, as well as "idea boards" on the MFW website for things actual users have found. But the younger years purposely allow time for young kids to learn the way they absorb information best -- cooking, nature walks, singing, discussion, little science experiments...

 

My son has used MFW from 3rd through 8th and it has been anything but light. In our most recent week, just before Christmas break, we studied JFK, MLK, and the Vietnam war. Whew, my head was spinning and we didn't need "more history"! However, we did have time to listen to audios and videos and read extra books on anything that caught our interest.

 

Bible has also been very full over the years, including memory verses, Bible study, weekly prayer focus, hymn singing, biographies of hymn writers and missionaries, children's stories that bring Bible into our lives, and more. Bible has never been left out of or disconnected from our day.

 

I'm sure you could combine VP cards with MFW, and someone over on the MFW boards may be able to help you do that, but I haven't tried it and have still gotten lots of history/Bible by using MFW. Does that help?

 

Julie

[PeterPan]

BTW, just in case you haven't noticed, one big difference is that VP focuses on american and western civ events. MFW goes broader, including Japan and the other parts of the world that SOTW does. This may or may not be an issue to you.