MFW or TOG which is better?

[sixtimemomma]

I keep seeing posts for both MFW and TOG, I am looking for a way to take the stress off of planning and the need for me to be available.

 

I have an upcoming 3rd, 1st and K next year....so I would like for my 12th, 11th and 8th to work on their own with as many subjects as they can and still learn! I am loosing my mind trying to plan social studies, history, etc. for 6 people.

 

I have mentioned before that I am worried they haven't retained much from SOS and Lifepacs so I want to use something else.

 

Can someone please tell me the major differences between MFW and TOG and which is easier to implement with multiple children?

[sixtimemomma]

Bump :bigear:

[prairiewindmomma]

Well, my best suggestion is to look at the samples offered by each and to see what would fit your family. Both offer opportunities to combine children, provide detailed schedules, and use "living books" rather than textbooks as the basis for study. IMO, MFW is less rigorous and requires less writing and analysis. It is less expensive.

 

TOG does require you to have regular conversations with your student (which is GOOD!), and provides the discussion questions and answers.

 

Personally, I think your olders could follow the WTM suggestions and be fairly self-sufficient as well. :)

[Donna A.]

MFW is quite rigorous in the high school years especially (definitely college-prep!), and those years are written directly to the student to work (mostly) independently. Step-by-step directions for everything is right there in either the lesson plan manual, the literature guide, or Writers INC (as the case may be). Weekly meetings are scheduled for mom or dad to meet with the student. At our house, out-loud discussion goes on all the time, so we seldom have a regular 1-on-1 "meeting" as is scheduled. Go do a search on the high school forum for MFW AHL or WHL to read more about this.

 

Your 8th grader could probably work fairly independently on whatever elementary MFW program he does, too. I would make sure to have those discussion times, though. Perhaps you could schedule one "meeting" with all three of your older students once or twice a week and have a "group session", so to speak.

 

MFW is low prep, but has strong content. A program doesn't have to take all your time and energy in order to be successful. ;)

 

What time period(s) are you considering for those three? High school includes English and Bible (1 full credit each for those two subjects and history), but you'd need to add Language Arts for your 8th grader at his own level. All three students will do math, science, and electives at their own level, of course. MFW recommends Saxon math and Apologia science, in part because the student can do them almost entirely on their own. (Also for content, but since part of the goal of MFW high school is to teach the student to manage his own time, follow a syllabus, learn how to meet deadlines, etc., Apologia and Saxon work well for these goals, too.)

[....]

If you go on the MFW message board, there are many threads about how it compares to other curricula.

 

There was one big thread recently that had a ton of links to other threads in it. I could try to go on their site later and find the link.

[Guest]

Well, I wouldn't ask which is better but rather which works/ will work best for you and your family. Perhaps there are not that many people on here that have used both in order to help with a comparison. I checked out a few programs on my own and then decided on TOG for us. We have used SL and switched to TOG so I have no experience with MFW.

 

There are many MFW users that are happy with it on here as well as many TOG users that are happy with TOG. I think your best bet is to spend some time downloading samples and comparing and then perhaps asking specific questions on either MFW or TOG in order to clarify how each works. I don't think the TOG forums provide comparisons to other curricula but I could be wrong. You could peruse the TOG forums too, if that is helpful.