MFW or TOG or stay with Biblioplan?

[Sweet Home Alabama]

I hear such wonderful posts about each of these history curriculua. I ended up doing Biblioplan for ancients this year, but I'm not sure I want to stay with them for the long term.

 

I'll have one in 7th this year, and she has two brothers in 2nd and 5th. If we switched after this coming year to either one of these for history, which one of these would you choose to include grammar, logic, and rhetoric (high school) history?

 

Why?

 

I know there are differences between these two, but the the one I'm most concerned with is the amount of required teacher prep. MFW seems more open and go, but fans of TOG don't mind putting in the work to prepare for lessons.

 

I LOVE open and go!

[coffeefreak]

I'll give you a bump. I voted for MFW. I love making lesson plans, but I just don't have time anymore. I NEED open and go.

 

Blessings!

Dorinda

[campmom]

I voted for MFW because it looks great and it is open and go. I LOVE planning BUT I can spend all of my time planning and none of it teaching ( ask me how I know :glare:) So this time around I am going to go with something that someone else has planned and spend my time teaching. I can always add a little if I want to. MFW looks like a great choice to me, I'm starting with it young and like it so far :001_smile:.

[Ali in OR]

I voted Biblioplan because it was best for ME for our second cycle (we used it first cycle too). That doesn't necessarily mean it is best for you. I have not really looked at MFW much--just enough to know it wasn't a great fit for me. I did carefully consider switching over to TOG for our second cycle. The points against it (for me):

 

-covered more than I was looking for

-expensive

-I was looking for some specific books that I love that weren't in their plan

-lots more work for the teacher

-after all of that expense, it really wasn't a good match level-wise for my 5th grader. Upper grammar reading was too easy; dialectic activities a bit advanced. Would have required too much tweaking for how much $$ was spent. I thought it would match up better for rhetoric level.

 

So of course you can get input from other people, but you'll have to figure out what is important to you and really dive into each program to see what will be a good fit for your family.

[angela&4boys]

I'll give you a bump. I voted for MFW. I love making lesson plans, but I just don't have time anymore. I NEED open and go.

 

Blessings!

Dorinda

 

What she said. ;)

[Sweet Home Alabama]

I appreciate all of the responses, ladies! Anyone else?

[Guest aquiverfull]

I voted MFW. I haven't used Biblioplan. I used MFW ECC and wasn't crazy about it, and I have bought TOG YR1 unit 1. If you want open and go, I'd say MFW would be the best choice for you. If you go with TOG can you afford all the books that go along with it? If not, do you have a good library?

 

Do you like having to make choices? With TOG redesign although there is a weekly overview, you'll still have to decide when to do the readings... will you spread them out through the week, read on the first two days, etc? Then you'll have to decide if you want to do the mapping, literature worksheets, any activities.. and when will you schedule them into the week? If you enjoy scheduling things for yourself than TOG might be a good fit for you.

 

I thought I would love TOG, but it turns out that I have a hard time making those decisions. I couldn't afford all the books up front and my library is very limited. I'll have to have books delivered to the branch I frequent. And I'll have to guess how far in advance to do that, since it all depends on a number of factors for how long that can take. Not being able to see those books up front, is making it very hard for me to know how to schedule it.

 

MFW is already scheduled out for you. You can buy the whole package which is cheaper than the whole shebang from TOG, especially if you will be buying several levels. MFW also has the book basket so you can add library books but those books aren't dependent on the curriculum working.

 

For me, I thought I loved to plan. In reality, I have lots of children and very little time. I'm finding that I can work better with something already planned and tweak to my liking then having to figure out how to do it on my own.

 

They are all great programs. I'm sure you won't go wrong with any of them. You just need to consider what would best fit your family. Sometimes it takes trying them to see what will or won't work. Good luck in your decision.