Your experience please...

[claussenpc]

We have used Sonlight from the beginning. My ds thrives on the reading. He will be in 8/9 grade this fall. He is young.

My strengths and academic training is in the sciences.

 

We started Ancients this past fall,but I had to go to work full time and we are still hanging out in Egypt. At the Cinci convention, I brought my ds to the MFW booth and showed him their Ancients program. His comments?

 

 

 

Where are all the books?

 

I have to answer questions for everybook? That kills a great book.

 

I finally decided that we would stay with the SL track. If it isn't broke-why fix it route. I purchased Teaching the Classics from IEW and we were back on our eclectic route..

 

I am second guessing now. Oh to have the Lit and LA integrated and planned. The snippet below from MFW board appeals to me:

 

 

 

"..think one of the aspects that stretched her the most were the writing assignments. It was not only the writing itself that was challenging, but also how it helped her to grow in her biblical world view. After reading 4 of the literature pieces, an argumentative paper is written comparing/analyzing an aspect of the literature with a biblical world view. The argumentative form is what is general asked for on college entrance exams and is one of the primary of most college papers."

 

 

 

 

I would have to pull together our LA. SL has writing assignments. but they do not lead a student through the process. I do not feel that I can adequately choose 4 pices of lit and an argument to apply.

 

How do you approach these things if you are doing aSL like approach.

If I purchase Bible, Lit ( Lightning or Lit Lessons from Lord of the Rings) and History, it adds $$$ up to more than MFW each year.

 

I do not want to kill his love for learning.

 

I have not been a text book lover so purchasing everything seperately seems so disjointed, but this is what public school students do. They have separate history, lit/eng...

 

Please give me another perspective...

[Mommyfaithe]

Well...if it ain't broke......

 

I would stick with Sonlight if it is working well for him. If you want some questions...use the ones in the WTM and see what he comes up with....they Are very open ended.

 

Faithe

[claussenpc]

If you are a MFW user, can you pick and choose or does it all need to be done?

[Sumiller]

First, I might suggest listening to SWB's audio lectures 'What is literary analysis?' and 'A Plan for Teaching Writing: Focus on the High School Years.' I found these to be very helpful. They gave me the confidence that I could do this without killing the love for reading. I've used her advice more with my younger son because he really doesn't like reading and writing. :001_smile:

 

 

If after this you find you need more help, there are some good writing programs out there. I've used IEW with my ds and it definitely gave us a good foundation.

[Kim in SouthGa]

I believe that MFW uses SMARR literature. You can download their critical guide to grammar and writing for free here: http://smarrpublishers.com/smarrbooks.html If you want the whole thing laid out, you can buy the complete program for about $100 plus books. The guide linked above could be used with any lit, I believe, you would just have to come up with your own topics.

We used SMARR this year (not with MFW), and I agree, it was very challenging and beneficial. However, if your son has not done much lit analysis, you might want to do the IEW program first. I wish that I would have done that first with my son. He made it through the class, but it was tough. While I really liked SMARR, I did have to find other resources to help my son since he had not done any lit analysis previously. And I would have preferred not to make him write about every book. That said, we will do it again next year because it is offered as a class through our homeschool group and I just don't have time to read and discuss books with him right now. And he loves the teacher!;) (she is just so much more cool and hip than me, ya' know).

[Julie in MN]

 

Where are all the books?

 

I have to answer questions for everybook? That kills a great book.

 

Well, if he likes Sonlight then that's certainly a strong point. But I'll just answer his questions:

 

1. Well, 39 of the books are in the Bible. Required literature is in the program. Optional literature ideas are listed in the manual, which works well for us since my son is in a book club and he does his optional literature with them (i.e. literature that is not essential to the understanding of history).

 

2. No, there are only questions on essential books. No questions on optional books. Almost no questions on Bubastes or the Iliad. Major questions on 3 pieces of literature: Gilgamesh, Bulfinch, and the Odysssey (the Smarr studies). I thought there were far more questions to answer when we used Sonlight for one year.

 

If you are a MFW user, can you pick and choose or does it all need to be done?

As we've discussed things on the yahoo group this year, I've realized that many are picking/choosing here & there for our particular high schoolers (maybe combine two essays, skip or switch out a book, etc.).

 

I believe that MFW uses SMARR literature.

Yes, they use an adapted Smarr guide for writing and 3 Smarr literature studies in the 9th grade program. They don't use Smarr in the other years.

 

Julie

Edited June 2, 2011 by Julie in MN

[Melissa in CA]

I think Julie answered your questions, but I just wanted to add to what she said in regards to the optional literature.

 

MFW encourages the student to read Literature not included in the actual program. So, your ds could add in as many books as he can handle. The student schedule lists an open space for inserting a Lit book (reader) of choice. Some weeks that space is filled with an MFW book, but there are several weeks when it is not. And even when it is, MFW encourages the voracious reader to continue reading other Lit as he desires.

 

What we are going to do...please keep in mind we have not actually completed a MFW year yet, I am still in the planning stages...but, what I have decided to do is add in Stobaugh's The SAT & College Prep Course for the Christian Student book that MFW sells. There is a plan in it for students beginning it in the 9th grade. Lays out what the student should do each day, etc. Also, in the back, is a nice long list of classic Literature to pick and choose from. They list books appropriate for 9th/10th and then a separate list for 11th. No list for 12th as the student should be ready for the SAT by then. Anyhow it's a simple SAT plan, and I will tweak it a bit by not requiring the devotional portion due to all the Bible reading, OT Challenge stuff included in AHL. This will add in some great literature [classics] in to my ds's school year. His first books will be Perelandra by CS Lewis (this is actually a MFW recommendation) and the next will be And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie followed by The Curate's Awakening by George MacDonald. Books that have almost nothing to do with Ancient Literature. ;) The SAT book has a wonderful list of books to pick and choose from, along with a synopsis of what each book is about, so one could easily choose/add some great additional SAT quality lit to MFW. ;)

[claussenpc]

Ladies, thank you so much for your time and responses.

 

Julie - I would love the name of the MFW yahoo group. You could e-mail or PM me.

 

 

Thanks!