What do you love/hate about MFW ECC?

[kristinatucker]

I need all the help I can get in deciding to use this or not! ANy info is appreciated!

 

Thanks

Kristina

[Sue G in PA]

That's the funny thing...people seem to either love it or hate it! We attempted to do ECC last year and got through about 1/3 of the year before giving most of it up. I wanted to love it. I wanted to like it. First here is what I DID like about it! I liked the "concept" of ECC...learning about not just the location of each country, but the culture as well. I liked that there was a missions focus. I liked the activities that MFW came up with...esp. the cooking part to end each unit. My kids enjoyed that part as well as coloring in the maps and flags and completing the passport into each country. I also liked how the science was linked to each country...via a habitat study.

 

What I didn't like was all the worksheets and neither did my kids. My older child (7th gr.) had a ton of the worksheets to do and she grew to hate them. We didn't enjoy the missionary biographies as much as I had hoped. While I liked how science was linked I didn't think it was "hands on" enough for my kids. I think, for us, a full year of Geography was a bit too much. We continued with ECC and just did the map work, some culture study and activities and some of the science. Perhaps we just didn't give it a chance or I didn't engage the kids enough, but ECC just didn't appeal to us. I had just really wanted to b/c all I heard on the MFW board was how ECC was everyone's favorite year. It made me feel like such a failure or a non-spiritual homeschool parent b/c the missions focus, which had originally appealed to me, didn't really captivate my kids attention. Oh well...I still love MFW!

[JessaMae]

This is our first year homeschooling and we are using MFW ECC (and MFW 1st.) My older dds are in 3rd and 4th grades. We really, really like ECC.

 

First, what I don't care for in ECC? The science. I like how it is generally related, but I find it rather boring. There have been a few experiments that we have enjoyed, but mostly I just read to the girls and they answer questions and/or draw pictures. I'm not sure that a lot of it will stick in their heads. However they are young and I am sure they have a lot of time to come back to these concepts. And it's not that they AREN'T learning, but the lessons just aren't as engaging as I would like.

 

We don't do a ton of the worksheets (being that my kids are younger) but they don't mind too much when we do. We might do 3 of the geography worksheets per week. They love the geography game and ask for it. At first I thought it was kind of boring, but we've added in things - for instance, after they find the country, they spell it's name, and name the capital. (they get a point for each that they can do correctly) My girls even learned the official languages of some of the countries in SA (due to one of the worksheets) and were able to rattle that off also.

 

We also really enjoy the missionary biographies. I think the only one we didn't get into (and didn't finish) was Cam Townsend. Other than that, the girls look forward to hearing these stories - even turning off the TV if I offer to read to them. This totally surprised me. They aren't the kinds of stories I think my girls would read on their own, but they really seem to enjoy me reading the stories to them. While reading, I usually let them color pictures from the country, draw pictures of animals from that country, or do some other related art project or puzzle.

 

I don't really do the art or music with the girls - just don't always get to it. Or the cooking. We do them sometimes, but not all the time. I probably should do them more b/c the girls have definitely enjoyed the projects we have done.

 

I feel like we are all learning a ton and I love that my girls know where places are when they are mentioned in a book or something. For instance, during one of the missionary stories, Quito was mentioned. One of my girls, said "Oh! Quito! Quito, Ecuador! I know where that is!" All because we had learned the capitals of the countries also. I just get so excited over all they are learning!

 

We are definitely moving on to CtG next year and looking forward to it!

[kristinatucker]

Thats exactly my reasoning for being drawn to ECC. We did Christian light social studies this year and it was very much about geography and learning about cultures but it wasent indepth enough and I wanted more maps to work on, worksheets, projects etc. I am finding such a variance of those who love/hate it its making it hard to decide. I wish they had more detailed pictures of what the curriculum has to offer as well as samples!

[kristinatucker]

Would you say that if I incorporated my apoligia science that I already bought for next year that it would be too much science? I have a soon to be 2nd and 5th grader and they love love the apologia science we had this year. It sounds like from you all say and what I have read that science is a little weak.

[Rebecca77]

I used ECC w/ a 4th grader my first year trying to homeschool. We really loved it, and I plan on doing it again the year after next. The science was light and we ended up adding Apologia with no trouble at all. You can easily skip the Geography workbook if your not into worksheets. I think for a christian wanting a geography/culture focus ECC is the way to go.

[JessaMae]

Yes I would say you could totally add Apologia in or even do Apologia in it's place. You don't HAVE to do everything in the TM - it is all laid out quite nicely. I didn't worry about it this year, as like I said, my girls are young and it's our first year. But I definitely considered adding Apologia or something else in. I probably would if they were middle school age. Honestly there are places where the science lines up really well and places where it's just science - it doesn't fit in with the geography or anything. If your kids already like Apologia, I would prob. stick with it.

 

It really is a great program, imho! I hope you give it a try! :)

[mama2cntrykids]

Great thread! We're doing ECC next year and looking forward to it.

[bethben]

I found it redundant--basically take these core books and do the same thing for different countries. I would up doing two weeks into one toward the end just to get it over with. I didn't feel like the sped up pace caused us to miss anything. It started out just fine, but a whole year of basically the same formula was too much for me. Ds didn't seem to mind.

Beth

[fenni]

Science: We did not like the Usborne book or Properties of Ecosystems. Well, my boys didn't mind the Usborne book. I just found it boring! PoE was awful. We found it very frustrating with a 1st and 3rd grader! We finally decided to just use science books from the book basket list and now we are loving the science!

 

My oldest is a 3rd grade boy. I had a gut feeling that we should not do this program this year and I should have listened to it. I was reassured at the MFW forum that it would be fine and that I could just eliminate the advanced things and do this and do that, but really I have spent the year cutting things out and cutting things out until there isn't much left! I think it is a wonderful program, but I don't see the sense in buying a program that I have to adjust so much. But on the other hand, my son has enjoyed learning about the different countries and cultures. He is an eager learner, good thinker, curious boy but seat work is not his thing. I was spending way too much time dragging him through everything. We are basically now reading books: Bible, Hero Tales, Window on the World, and the book basket list, and discussing the map and globe. Dumping the atlas books, the science books, and the Trip Around the World books was so freeing!! I can see how you would need those if you didn't have a good library system to use with the book basket list, or if you had an older student. We were just not getting anything out of them. While there are aspects of ECC that we like, I wouldn't repeat this year again (using ECC w/ the oldest child being 3rd grade.)

[cbollin]

I need all the help I can get in deciding to use this or not! ANy info is appreciated!

 

Thanks

Kristina

 

(side note to Sue: You’re not a failure. You had a stressful year with lots going on. No matter what school was like with any school (home, ps, etc) you are not a failure. if you want, take a look on this link....

 

http://www.ficm.org/whoiam.htm

 

((hugs))

****

back to the original topic.

 

I’ve done ECC twice. Liked it both times but 1850MOD is my favorite year in MFW so far. I don't know why. I've done MFW for a long time and I just know it is what God put in my path to use. It may not be what HE has in mind for you.

 

Dislikes: there were times in the middle of the school year, that I didn’t want to do school. So, I spiced up the day in ECC by decorating the house in party theme of the country. Or we’d eat breakfast from that country for a few days. Expect some times in ECC with some repetition. That’s part of doing a year long unit study based in geography and cultures.

That’s part school in my opinion. Some stuff will get repetitive that way and the fun part of homeschooling is to find some decorations and an excuse for using them and eating something new. or a field trip. Other things that helped a bit when routine of it seemed to grate on me: getting ethnic music from the library. We liked the Wee Sing and did the hand motions and all of that, but sometimes we wanted more music. Well, at least that’s my personal approach to how I do it.

 

So, actually, that’s a like in ECC – we liked that it gave us interest in music and crafts around the world and gave us the freedom to add in other things to feed that interest for a day or two. Just remember when teaching, some things are common dislikes, but might have simple solutions that don’t always involve shopping for new curriculum. It’s like when you can’t afford new furniture – you might rearrange the pieces or get a slip cover. So, expect that kind of thing in ECC as you are studying similar geography/culture topics in 15 countries that you might have to do something like that. Don’t be nervous about asking on MFW’s board for sprucing up tips when you feel like you might be the one person who doesn’t like it. Or call their office and ask for teaching tips too.

 

Science: I’m the weirdo. Last year my 4th grader really liked the science. I had heard all these negatives about the science in ECC, but my kid liked it. What’s wrong with my family that we liked it? sigh.

This was still with 1st edition of the program and not prop. Of ecosystems. We did get POE at the end of the year – first couple of chapters were intro stuff that was harder and a bit more boring. POE is a multilevel textbook, so it helps to know how to teach from multi level texts to deal with this book. So if you get the science in ECC – ask your friends who are succeeding in things AIG and Apologia – how do you teach from this when it says it is for grades 1-6 or 1-8 and you only have the lower end of the age range?

 

 

Dislikes on science in ECC: I kinda wish the manual just came out and said it “when your child finds a topic of interest – mountains, volcanoes, oceans†go grab more library books to let them read more on it, or to grab dvd’s, or to help them find an extra project to do. I think they just assume that parents who are homeschooling naturally do that stuff, but some families need that encouragement.

and in general -- you aren't going to have fizz bang blow up the kitchen stuff to do. It's not that kind of topic.

 

but we are still growing our terrarium...

 

 

So anyway, my kid liked making the science notebook in ECC. I’ve seen the skills help her this year to really notice trees and flowers and animals and just observe more.

I liked that we still had time to grab fizz bang science stuff, or to grab an extra library book if a topic interested her.

 

But at the same time, I definitely understand the negatives on POE book with youngest kids if you aren’t used to multilevel text teaching.

 

I guess it paid for me in the science in ECC when we moved to a new state. We moved significantly south and it’s different here than it was in south central Indiana. From all of those pictures in the Illustrated World Atlas book and Usborne book – we really noticed the new things in our new place. Maybe that’s one of those hidden benefits in ECC, you just don’t know until you see it later. All of those nature walks are so different now. What is this kind of grass? Sure enough that different grasses lesson in POE was in front of our eyes. What is zoysia grass anyway? it's weird stuff!

 

Again, I’m the weirdo – my kids benefited from the World Geography book pages. They learned to cross reference and look up things. It was a way to see if they could decode basic info and learned something. I’m the weirdo and liked that book. No one else does. I like the research and reference skills that are part of it. I remember as a kid I wanted to be a reference librarian.....

 

There are times I feel guilty for succeeding in MFW.

 

Other likes: I like the read alouds. I’m not scared if my child hears about that stuff. Other people say it’s too heavy too soon.

On MFW board there is an archived thread about handling those. Here – maybe it would help to review that thread. Those were some things that some people really disliked and others saw it as a mild bump in the road.

http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2042

 

 

Dislike at jr high level: when I did ECC with jr. high, there weren’t yet giving an example of country summary sheet. So, I had to figure that out on my own. Called their office, explained my struggle and wow… in 2nd edition, lo and behold, there is more information on how to do those things. Wow. They really listened to my issues on that. Found a lot of things that I had issues with show up as solutions in 2nd edition manuals. Not bragging on that – but just saying they were very responsive to helping on the phone and really listened to put those helps in the manual.

 

I think overall, I like that ECC (both times) helped me have more structure when I was too unschooly, helped me to be more unschooly when the routines and structure got to be too much.

 

We really liked hearing the faith stories. We liked the biographies. We really liked Kingdom Tales. My middle gal likes The Complete book of animals. (I had read one negative review out there on amazon about that book, and after getting the book realized the negative review wasn’t accurate. Well written review, but not accurate about the book. LOL)

 

A hidden like: MFW worked with the publisher of Illustrated World Atlas and Living World --- was able to have new editions printed that removed evolutionary declarations in them.

 

Another dislike: it was hard sometimes knowing which crafts to keep. Modeling beeswax was not an easy find for us. That’s been the one item in all of my years of using MFW that was hard to find. Ordered some online, and then found out I could have just used candle beeswax… oh well. We liked the order.

 

 

Another Like: even when we were grumbly and not at all a poster family for Christian homeschooling, we still did our Window on the World praying together. I’ve really seen years down the road fruit from that in my kids. Ok, we aren’t these poster families for conventions by any means, but I’ve seen my oldest have an interest in current events and run back and find window on the world to look up stuff.

 

If you go with MFW and ECC, may the Lord give you peace and enjoy it as much as we have both times.

 

sorry about the length on this. But I've used it twice and liked it. guess I had too much to say.

 

-crystal

[Momma H]

I was just quickly going to say that a topic like geography (or states or presidents-anything that is different but the same) is hard to teach in an interesting and engaging way.

Think about it.

You have the same basic things to teach about each one. How hard it must be to teach pertinent information without making people feel like they are plugged into a formula. It you try and teach the information in many different formats (i.e. using all kinds of different book, web, songs, whatever just not the same as what you did last week for the last country) it is going to feel really chaotic and I don't think you would feel like you were learning ALL the information about all the countries. This would also be terribly expensive.:tongue_smilie:

Either way, some people are not going to like it. IMO MFW does a very nice job of giving us engaging activities, and heat to pray for the countries to spice up the possible montony of necessarily reduntant information. They had a big job to do that!

Stacey

[Sue G in PA]

What would I do without you on this board and on the MFW board, Crystal? :) Thanks for the encouragement (sorry to hijack here!). I'm so glad so many people liked ECC. MFW is such a wonderful program (we love K and 1st...did I mention that?) and we plan to go back to it in CtG in 2 years. Good luck whatever you decide, OP.

[fenni]

It isn't necessarily that people don't know how to teach from a multi-level book. Some people, like me, just don't want to. I don't want to be bothered with it when there are better options out there for us. To each their own.