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Formal Introduction and MFW History cycle ?


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Hello! I have posted sporadically here and on the K-8 board, but realized I had never “formally†introduced us. I don’t feel really equipped to contribute much since I feel like I am in a whole new world with High School so I mainly get a LOT of good info and advice from everyone here. THANK YOU ALL! As you can see in my signature, I have one in HS and the next in line is only 7. I am really split between the two age ranges but I really enjoy both. I will definitely be more prepared when my youngers move up the ranks!!

 

 

In thinking through things for next year, I have decided on MFW for my 7yo and k’ers. I would like to use a MFW High School program for my upcoming 10th grader but am running into a cycle dilemma. We started out using TOG Year 2 this year for 9th mainly because my daughter is burned out with Ancients and, quite frankly, everything else up to US exploration. So I was hoping she would endure up to Colonial America and then it would be fun for the last 2 units. Well, TOG, while a wonderful program, has proved to be too much for the both of us this year, so we are finishing out the year with the MOH 3 book we already owned and some tweaking. She really wants to move into more current history but I just don’t know how to work it all out since we have already thrown off the 4-year cycle by beginning with the Middle Ages.

 

 

How can I make it all neatly work out with the MFW time line without duplicating?? Should I just make her do Ancients for 10th even though we will have basically switched 9th and 10th? Would this look bad on a transcript? Any suggestions would be wonderful! Thanks for reading my lengthy post!

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Welcome!

 

I am not at all familiar with MFW; however, my inclination would be to go with your daughter's interests. Start where she wants to begin for history and add in the appropriate literature. I suspect she'll be much more motivated if she isn't feeling as though she is repeating material she's only recently studied.

 

My daughter also started 9th grade being off the traditional WTM cycle due to beginning homeschooling in 7th grade. In 9th grade, she did the final year of our three year sweep through world history and covered the time period 1700-2000. The following year, she did AP US History and then followed that up with AP Comparative Government and Politics.

 

Regards,

Kareni

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Hi Michelle,

Welcome over here.

 

You can of course purchase year 3 of MFW high school. However, I might call the MFW office to see how challenging an 11th+ program would be for a 10th grader. I know the textbook they use in 11th-12th (BJU) is more heavy-duty, small print, all completed in 2 semesters (11th is 1/2 history and 1/2 gov; 12th is 1/2 history and 1/2 econ or geog). The textbook for 9th-10th is Notgrass and much larger type, more white space, just weighs less :)

 

The writing could be another issue, since the skills are built starting in 9th with the argumentative essay and progressing to other forms of writing in 10th using Writers Inc. So 11th might assume a level of knowledge that your dd may or may not have?

 

The third credit is Bible. Year 1 has them go through the entire Old Testament, year 2 has them go through the entire New Testament, and year 3 is a worldview study. All three also include other things, but those are the biggies. Consider whether your dd needs the Biblical foundation in order to get the most out of a worldview study, or whether she has that on board already. Did her previous study of ancients include the world of the Hebrews in depth, or just Egypt & Greece?

 

I think there is something to following their interests, as Kareni mentioned, but I also think there is something to directing them. For example, my youngest wanted to do modern history from about 4th to 6th grade, but by the time he did it in 7-8th grade, he was really ready for it, had a good foundation for the realities of modern thinking and controversy, and delved into it a lot, so I was glad I "made" him wait :)

 

Julie

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Julie & Kareni,

 

Thanks so much for your advice and info. My main concerns are, as you mentioned, writing level & keeping her interest. We have been using TOGs Writing Aids, but as with the rest of TOG, I have not been able to dedicate the time I would like to this particular area. I almost think it would be best for her to outsource writing anyway. My confidence is waning!!

 

Regarding the Bible portion, she already has a pretty solid worldview (but reading thru the OT/NT couldn’t hurt!) I talked to my dd last night and she really doesn’t seem to care either way. I think she understands that we have certain requirements so she’s willing to go with whatever I decide. I’m not 100% on MFW – I just really love the idea of having it planned out already!! It would be my preference but, as Kareni mentioned, I do want to considering my daughter's motivation factor. I think she would almost prefer a textbook & be more motivated with one. :sad: It's sad b/c history used to be her favorite subject. This is not at all how I envisioned her HS years... I'm may have to just rethink it all...

 

I noticed that some publishers do a World Geography for 9th and then a World History overview for 10th. Honestly geography wouldn't hurt her at all! I'm planning to use MFW ECC with my younger son, so it wouldn't be crazy for her to do geography also. I just don't know about doing it in 10th though? Would that not be appropriate for a 10th grader?? It just got me thinking today that since I messed up the cycle anyway, and my daughter likes "get-er-done" textbooks, maybe I should just consider something in that direction??? So confused!!:001_huh:

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Michelle,

Just so you know, MFW does use a textbook in all their years (Notgrass and then BJU). They just add things like mapping and timeline and learning the Greek alphabet.

 

And for those of us who use MFW high school for several years, there is an option for a geography 0.5 credit. I think it is mostly using the Welch mapping history books.

 

Julie

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Thanks! I am actually leaning in the geography direction - and feeling a peace about it. :001_smile: She really needs it! Does anyone know if it would be a stretch to include my 10th grader with my ds in MFW Exploring Countries & Cultures somehow? We already own the Trail Guide to World Geo that could be incorporated I suppose. Or can anyone recommend a packaged HS geography curriculum that would be interesting? (like BJU or AOP) I have no experience with any of them.

 

I could just do lit with another program. She is getting a lot from TOG Y2 lit already this year.

 

Thanks again to all!

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Thanks! I am actually leaning in the geography direction - and feeling a peace about it. :001_smile: She really needs it! Does anyone know if it would be a stretch to include my 10th grader with my ds in MFW Exploring Countries & Cultures somehow?

 

hmmm... MFW ECC is not high school level. Can it be used as part of building a semester or even a year of high school level social studies credit in geography and cultures? Maybe. There is the jr. high research and reader packages with ECC. I do know some people on forums who have used ECC with high schoolers in some fashion (they have to add to it though). I would want a way to do either entire Old or New Testament and not just the ECC Matthew study.

 

I'd make sure you have a plan in place with social studies and English requirements and all of that.

 

and if MFW is interesting to you, I'd recommend you call their office and ask to speak with one of their high school consultants about how best for your family to start in high school years.

 

 

-crystal

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Thanks! I am actually leaning in the geography direction - and feeling a peace about it. :001_smile: She really needs it! Does anyone know if it would be a stretch to include my 10th grader with my ds in MFW Exploring Countries & Cultures somehow? We already own the Trail Guide to World Geo that could be incorporated I suppose. Or can anyone recommend a packaged HS geography curriculum that would be interesting? (like BJU or AOP) I have no experience with any of them.

 

I could just do lit with another program. She is getting a lot from TOG Y2 lit already this year.

 

Thanks again to all!

 

In your situation, here's what I suggest. Keep a geography text like BJU's in the back of your mind while calling the MFW office and talking to them about writing/language arts skills needed to do year 3 of MFW high school. Then if you decide that your dd isn't there yet skills-wise, then perhaps, after talking to MFW staff and figuring out what areas need to be ramped up for year 3 readiness, work on those things in 10th grade. You can use BJU Geography in addition to letting her participate in ECC, and then plan on year 3 MFW for 11th grade.

 

I would have no qualms about including my high schooler in ECC if I had a high school level text for her to be doing at the same time. In fact, she would love it!

 

Oh, and the reason I'm recommending BJU's Geography for this is twofold: 1) It's a full-year geography course, whereas Abeka's, for example, is only a semester. Or I guess she could do just a semester of geography and leave the other semester free to work on those writing skills. If she's participating in ECC, it's not like she won't have anything else to do. But I personally prefer BJU's. And 2) Since MFW uses a BJU text in 11th/12th grades anyway, having her do BJU Geog in 10th will get her used to the "feel" of a textbook before jumping into that two-year intensive course.

 

I also recommend getting her started on a full reading of the Bible if she's never done that. There's no reason she couldn't begin that right now. Perhaps you could use the OT Challenge Guide that MFW uses in 9th along with her OT reading, and then her NT reading would be in addition to the Matthew study done in ECC. (Except your dd would read the *whole* NT, not just the readings scheduled in ECC.) That would all fit nicely with the BJU Geog study and a missions emphasis, while she works on getting those writing skills up to speed.

 

Keep in mind that 60 hours is considered a half credit and 120-180 (depending on the subject) is considered a full credit. So after doing the OT Bible study and the NT study along w/ECC, count up the hours she spent doing all that and you can either give her a half (or full) credit for OT Survey and a half credit for NT Survey, or give her one full credit for a "Bible Survey" course and put it under electives.

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Thank you so much! I have spent the past couple of days really getting my bearings with this high school planning...or re-planning I should say. The whole TOG thing really threw us off in more areas than just this one. I’ve had to rework her electives too. Such a mess! I did get to speak with someone at MFW who gave me, basically, 3 options. Of the 3, trying to fit Ancients in this year seems to be the best one in the long-run. Then we could just continue with World History in 10th to be on track. My daughter is basically up to the 1500s with history now, which is where our PS ends their 9th grade year (they call it World Hist I – Ancient Times to 1500). It is also only our 2nd quarter due to a couple of unexpected delays for sickness, etc… So even though it is really backwards, I am going have to try to do as much of the Ancients as I can fit into the remaining 3 quarters. The MFW rep did tell me what writing they do for 9th in order to prepare for 10th. I think I will just have to make sure she works toward the same thing for the remainder of our year. I don’t think it will be too much of a problem since she is strong in the language arts area.

 

I couldn’t afford to purchase the MFW Ancient study to use this year after our TOG expense. So I have, thankfully, checked out SWB’s History of the Ancient World from our local library, which seems totally doable for my dd. I think she will actually enjoy it due to the depth as compared with what she has been exposed to up to this point. We will do the remainder of the year TWTM style as best as I can & honestly it will probably be way more that she would ever get in PS!!

 

Donna, with your recommendation, I definitely plan to have her still read thru as much of the OT/NT as she can over the remainder of the year and thru the summer. (using the MFW resource you mentioned which will make my life much easier in the planning area!) I also plan to still incorporate her somehow in the ECC we are doing whether we use MFW World History or not. The BJU text is probably what I’ll have around for her to use and incorporate some of the maping etc…from ECC. From what I can tell, MFW World Hist seems more focused on timeline work and less on map work. But, I could be wrong about that. As I mentioned, she REALLY needs geography!!

 

Thank you all for taking the time to read and respond, I am really grateful for everyone’s input!! If you see any major flaws with this plan please feel free to stop me asap!!

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Thank you so much! I have spent the past couple of days really getting my bearings with this high school planning...or re-planning I should say. The whole TOG thing really threw us off in more areas than just this one. I’ve had to rework her electives too. Such a mess! I did get to speak with someone at MFW who gave me, basically, 3 options. Of the 3, trying to fit Ancients in this year seems to be the best one in the long-run. Then we could just continue with World History in 10th to be on track. My daughter is basically up to the 1500s with history now, which is where our PS ends their 9th grade year (they call it World Hist I – Ancient Times to 1500). It is also only our 2nd quarter due to a couple of unexpected delays for sickness, etc… So even though it is really backwards, I am going have to try to do as much of the Ancients as I can fit into the remaining 3 quarters. The MFW rep did tell me what writing they do for 9th in order to prepare for 10th. I think I will just have to make sure she works toward the same thing for the remainder of our year. I don’t think it will be too much of a problem since she is strong in the language arts area.

 

I couldn’t afford to purchase the MFW Ancient study to use this year after our TOG expense. So I have, thankfully, checked out SWB’s History of the Ancient World from our local library, which seems totally doable for my dd. I think she will actually enjoy it due to the depth as compared with what she has been exposed to up to this point. We will do the remainder of the year TWTM style as best as I can & honestly it will probably be way more that she would ever get in PS!!

 

Donna, with your recommendation, I definitely plan to have her still read thru as much of the OT/NT as she can over the remainder of the year and thru the summer. (using the MFW resource you mentioned which will make my life much easier in the planning area!) I also plan to still incorporate her somehow in the ECC we are doing whether we use MFW World History or not. The BJU text is probably what I’ll have around for her to use and incorporate some of the maping etc…from ECC. From what I can tell, MFW World Hist seems more focused on timeline work and less on map work. But, I could be wrong about that. As I mentioned, she REALLY needs geography!!

 

Thank you all for taking the time to read and respond, I am really grateful for everyone’s input!! If you see any major flaws with this plan please feel free to stop me asap!!

MFW does the New Testament during their 10th grade World History. So your dd would just need to do OT readings.

 

Sounds like you've found a great workable plan! Great job! :001_smile:

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