MFW Questions

[kbpaulie]

OK, I have 7 & 4 year old boys. (We've tried Sonlight, k12, SOTW. I think the only thing I've stuck with the entire time is Singapore Math.) I am contemplating My Fathers World Adventures for the fall, but am still on the fence. I like the bible integration. But I do have to confess we frequently don't get to our history or science. So wondering if we'll get to it in MFW. But... my bigger questions are....

 

* What do you think of their sciecne (did you use it and thoughts?)

* Below is a comment from a friend. Can you share your agree/ disagree thoughts further.

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I liked the layout - American history poriton and the Bible, but when it came to the states portion, it went too quickly - just coloring a sheet for several states a week. So I abandoned ship. The curriculum ended up being "busy work" for us.

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Thanks-

Unsettled!

[kbpaulie]

:001_smile: Anyone? Thanks!

[fenni]

We liked ADV for the most part. They do cover a lot of material in a little time and I came to despise the state sheets, but my son didn't seem to mind. I really hated reading the list of facts on the back of those sheets. I prefer to read a book instead and we utilized the book basket list heavily. We did drop the science, but many people like how well it is connected to the names of Jesus. I think it is enough for this age, but when time was tight it was the first thing to go.

[Sue G in PA]

Not having done Adv. I can only comment that we found a lot of "buswork" in ECC as well. I did love the K and 1st program, however! I did contemplate Adv. but decided to go with Heart of Dakota for a variety of reasons. MFW's bible felt more "academic" while HOD's Bible section felt more "heart oriented" if that makes sense. I also prefered the layout of the guide in HOD than MFW. I suppose I am more visual and the boxes in the HOD manual really appeal to me. :) That's not to say that MFW is not a great program...in fact my oldest dd is using the high school program from MFW.

[TammyB]

My children absolutely adored the state study. I really put my heart into it and found lots of awesome information books about each state to use for the book basket. (They had lots of gorgeous photos.) There are also a couple of books I recommend to purchase for the book basket.

[Guest]

We are doing Adventures this year, and I think it is going to be our best year yet! I think my kids are going to love the states study. I don't plan on reading all the information on the back of the sheets. I will just read things I find interesting. I got two books to go along with our state study, so that I am not hunting for every book at the library. These books have a section for each state, with nice pictures. I also found state coloring pages (my kids love to color) free online. That said, I am only committed to this year with MFW. I LOVE the looks of Heart of Dakota too, so next year I will be deciding between HOD Preparing or MFW ECC.

 

ETA: I think you will find MFW easier to do than the other curriculum's you have tried. The first week takes a little more time, but after that, the schedule is very balanced. The best part is that Fridays are a light day! So, you can use Fridays to do anything you didn't get done M-T.

Edited August 5, 2010 by Guest

[kbpaulie]

Can I have more MFW thoughts, including thoughts on their science?

 

Thanks much!

[aawtagg]

We did Adventure's last year with a 2nd grader and my K'er tagged along. It was our first year with MFW and our best year homeshooling so far! My girls loved the science in Adventure's, especially all the experiments. I helped them with writng their notebook pages, because they were not up to doing that much on their own. They really enjoyed the state study too, eventhough I was getting bored with them. I was worried about the state study too, but they thrived on the repetition. I think it depends on your dc. All in all a great year for us.

[cbollin]

Can I have more MFW thoughts, including thoughts on their science?

 

Thanks much!

 

I've enjoyed the science in MFW. Basically it fits our goals. My dh has a phd in chemistry and this is what we like to do in science in elementary years:

The principal objectives of elementary-level science should be to teach students to be curious about the world around them, to train them to observe, and to provide an introduction to the scientific method.

 

 

MFW's science does that in the right stages of learning. In ADV, the science is hands on, with some reading. The science topics relate to the Bible study (names of Jesus and even birds of the Bible.) So the topics in that program cover a variety of science topics from water (as in Jesus is the living water), bread/yeast (as in Jesus is the bread of life). sun/moon/stars (light of the world). and so on.

 

One of the books used in ADV for science is an internet linked Usborne book, so you can do more reading and more experiments if you want.

 

nature walks are encouraged. simple lab reports are encouraged in ADV.

 

It's fun stuff. you can add more reading if you want. One week you get to even make bread with your child.

 

That's good for that age. and we've liked the science in other years too.

 

The state sheets and ADV: we didn't always read the entire back side of the sheet to my 2nd grader when we did the state sheets in the upper years. So, we would find a few facts and fun things on the sheet. Sometimes, I would decorate their sheet for them and just use it as decoration. Because the states are done in chronological order, there are a few times where you feel like it goes a little fast.

 

Then again, you get to sample some yummy foods in those state studies too. So, you can flex a bit. If you have children who are interested in sports, you can turn the state study into a little bit about the state and then learn more about sports team in that state.

 

I like mfw. :D

 

-crystal

[Donna T.]

Can I have more MFW thoughts, including thoughts on their science?

 

Thanks much!

 

For us, it was just o.k. I skipped alot of it. We did enjoy the bird book and how that went along with the state study. We had already covered most of the content from the other books in K or 1st grade. I'm sure we would have enjoyed it more if that were not the case. I also think it depends on the child. My oldest son had had alot of science prior to 2nd grade. Dropping some of the science in ADV worked out best for him because it gave him time to pursue his own interests and he ended up placing 3rd place in a statewide science fair that year. If I had used ADV with my younger son, we probably would have done all of the science, just because he hasn't had as much in the past. I think it would have been a good fit for him for 2nd grade.

 

So, overall, I liked it. But it may be too simple if you have a child who is really into science. There are extra books listed in the Teacher's Manual, so you can easily find other books to supplement.

[Donna A.]

LOVED Adventures here! Did it with my older two and youngest dd (then age 3) tagged along and had fun with us when she was interested. Now I'm doing ADV again with the youngest as a 2nd grader... mostly just the Bible and science part of it, because 11yo is doing EX1850 so the 7yo is doing the "Adventures supplement" part of EX1850 for history. Though she's also doing the music from ADV.

 

I love how the science ties in with the names of Jesus study (Living Water, Bread of Life, etc.) However, some of the science lessons seem really short and simple, so I can see why some folks like to add more science to it. For us it was fine... some weeks you do quite a bit of hands-on stuff, and there's always more that you can add from Book Basket in the way of living books. But if I wanted to add even more science, I think the Apologia Flying Creatures book would make a great go-along to Adventures.

 

We were good with the state coloring sheets, too. My two oldest don't really get into "coloring", but instead are more artistic and treated their state sheets the same way with outlining, highlighting, shading, using colored pencils instead of crayons, etc. We also did a lot of books from Book Basket for our state "studies", as we didn't have the state sheets then that you have. ADV was hot off the press when we did it the first time, so we had a coloring book from Dover instead of the individual state sheets. I did get the state sheets for my youngest to use this time, but we're mostly ignoring the info on the back side because we prefer books with lots of colorful pages.

 

Like someone else said, we really get into our state studies. We have lots of pictures and memorabilia that we've collected over the years from traveling, so I pull those out and include some in their ADV notebooks. We use printouts from the internet, books from the library, cook meals specific to each state, learn a bit about presidents and other famous people from each state, and so on. You can order travel brochures from each place, pull up the state's official website, take an online "tour" of the state's capital city.... you can do a lot! (Many of these ideas are suggested right in the TM, btw. ;) )

 

If you *just* do the state coloring sheets and don't do any hands-on to support your studies, then yeah, it's going to get boring and repetitive. The same is true with the country studies in ECC. Have fun with it! I guarantee your kids will come out knowing a good bit about their country. :001_smile: