New to Homeschooling, thinking about Mystery of History, Diana Waring, HOD and MFW?

[Samantha75]

Ive been thinking about homeschooling forever, and read all about it all the time. This year im finally going to pull dd out of school, she hates school and for medical reasons she will in 9th grade and 14 in November, she loves math and writing and i think she learns best by reading and hands-on as long as its fun!

Can you tell me the pro's and con's for each of these at least for your family?

I like the idea of history covered by time periods instead of regions but its not the end of the world if its not.

These are the programs i narrowed it down too and that still 4!

So many Decsions!

I want it to be FUN but very eduactional too dd wants to go to college, she also plans on taking the CLEP exams to hopefully get some college credits.

It has to be pretty independent, I work in an office from 11-3 Monday-Friday and also work at home, I am single mom but ive seen posts on here of people who are too so i know i can do it :).

Id like if my dd can just open something up and know what to do each day but then i like all the different opitions to do each day in Diana Warings Curriculum.

I want them to include English/Language Arts with it and all of them do.

Also needs to be affordable! I probably only can spend about 500$ max this fall, Unless i dont have her start 9th grade until February (which i might have to do with some of these choices)

Which one sounds like it will fit with us the best?

My dd will also be doing MUS,And French and other electives

 

Thanks for reading this and hopefully offering your opinion :)

[OnTheBrink]

Mystery of History doesn't include language arts, and, IMO, it's light for 9th grade. There are some writing assignments, and literature suggestions, but it's not a history/literature program. You can certainly beef it up, but if you're wanting more of an "open and go" program, this might not be enough, especially if you're wanting her to clep out of western civ for college. ETA: I just went to look at MOH, and discovered their Illuminations part, which they didn't have when I used MOH. So, I stand corrected! Sorry! Now that I've seen that, I think I'll revisit MOH for highschool! My dd used it several years ago for the history only and really enjoyed it.

I feel the same way about Diana Waring's program, which I considered using for 9th grade. I'm not saying either of these programs can't be fleshed out for high school, but I am a single mom who works, too, and after trying to schedule DW's materials, I found it lacking and it worried me. Her program doesn't include language arts, either. There are some writing assignments, but no real literature assignments. I had this program in my hands for about a month, excited about it, but ultimately rejected it. She does have a yahoo group, so you might find some support in beefing this up a bit, but, personally, I don't have time to tweak. I need it to be ok as is, kwim?

 

I've never used HOD, but I've heard good things about it from people who have; I've looked at it and considered it, but with all the books you'd need for it, I decided against it. If a budget is an issue, make sure you know exactly what books you'll need to buy vs what you can get from the library.

 

MFW--I like this very much and was THIS CLOSE to purchasing it, BUT, I went a different direction with language arts, so I wasn't going to use that component, and I wasn't going to use the Bible component, so that left me with paying big bucks to use 1/3 of a program. Not very practical for me!

 

You might want to check out AmblesideOnline.org. The curriculum is free, and many of the books are printable online (or you can just read them online if you prefer). AO uses many books, but they also have the "budget" list.

 

Hope this has helped some. I'm sure others will chime in with their experiences. :)

Edited June 13, 2011 by OnTheBrink
Corrected myself!

[Samantha75]

Actually with all the literature in Diana Waring's deluxe book back if i used it i would just add easy grammar plus and some other writing curriculum.

Thanks for sharing though :)

[OnTheBrink]

What do you mean by "deluxe book"? Maybe we're talking about two different things. I was referring to her Ancient Civilizations and the Bible. I'm unaware of any deluxe book. If there was more to that curriculum, I'd love to know! I borrowed the TM, student book and cd's from someone. Was there a part I was missing?

[Samantha75]

Im sorry typed that wrong deluxe book pack, with a bunch of suggested literature , heres the link http://www.rainbowresource.com/prodlist.php?sid=1307984463-341614&subject=14&category=3387&pg=2&pg=1

with all those books cant you count that as literature too?

 

Thats what i meant :)

[Mom22ns]

I can't give you any useful information on any of the choices you are making, but Diana Waring was at our homeschool convention this year. I sat through at least 5 sessions by her and loved every minute of it! If her curriculum is as engaging as she is, then it must be wonderful.

 

That said, I looked and she didn't have anything that fits well for what we want to do in high school history, so I didn't buy.

[OnTheBrink]

Im sorry typed that wrong deluxe book pack, with a bunch of suggested literature , heres the link http://www.rainbowresource.com/prodlist.php?sid=1307984463-341614&subject=14&category=3387&pg=2&pg=1

with all those books cant you count that as literature too?

 

Thats what i meant :)

 

OOOOHHHH! I didn't realize there were literature packs. I was going to use her materials and had made my own list of supplemental books. I had only seen the curriculum on the AiG site, which doesn't list out the additional books. I created my own list from the "digging deeper" sections of the book. The deluxe book pack certainly has enough to count as literature!

[Samantha75]

Good to know :) i was suggestied Beautiful Feet on homeschoolreviews.com forum and thats what i'll be using this year,

It looks like just what we need at the cost it needs to be at :)

[Brindee]

My dd used MFW AHL for 9th grade this year and both she and I loved it! They have already done the legwork and put it together beautifully! The assignments mesh so well with each other, so it made sense, and she learned so much! It works very well for independent learning. The lesson plans are written to the student. There are boxes to check off, which dd liked. We tweaked it some to fit us, as usual, but dd did a large percentage of it on her own.

 

That's the one I suggest since it's already done for you. You meet and discuss things with your child once a week (at least--I checked in more often). It's NOT easy, there's a lot of reading, and I considered it fairly rigorous. You can get audio books for your child to listen to if they don't want to do that much reading....

 

I know every child is different, but this is an overall great program that I feel I can recommend highly! Certain books can be subbed in if you wish. The writing instruction is VERY clear. We were so pleased!

[grace4me]

When I pulled my dd's out of ps, 3rd,4th,6th, we did SL. I needed an all-in-one to ease into homeschooling. Moving forward into HS, we are using MFW for a number of reasons: integrated Bible, a better fit for writing instruction, analysis of literary works..... I would encourage you to take a look at AHL. Take a look at what your goals are, your time available, your dc's needs/learning style, your teaching style. You can do it!

 

I too looked at DW. Picked up a used copy of her Ancients TG to look at. I know it wouldn't work for us. Lots of hands on, too many choices (I'm a list girl), too busy for me and my dd's are looking for their "own" stuff at this stage (14,13,11), so combining is getting tricky around this outfit!

 

Mary in Wyoming