Am I crazy? Considering Sonlight over MFW for next year?

[Samiam]

Yes, I am a bit crazy....4 weeks into this school year, and I am already researching next year.:D

 

We are in our second year using MFW, now doing ECC. Love it!

 

But next year, I want the Ancients. DS8 and DS5 (who will both be a year older at that point) have never had that history. I also want Ancients for DS13, but at a high school level.

 

3 months ago, I'm all set to use MFW all the way through.

'

Then I read that MFW CTG uses MOH Vol1 for that time period, and it is waaay over my younger children's head. I would have to read and paraphrase. Also, the only problem I have with MFW is the book basket...getting to the library is just a pain for us, and I truly do think that you need the book basket to make it fully fleshed out.

 

Got the Sonlight catalog, been looking at their site, and thinking, really thinking that Core B might be the answer for us (we would only use it for the history/reader portion). DS8 is finally able to sit still and actually listen to read-alouds (he's my busy one and was not really able to do this at a younger age). DS5 is good too.

 

I see now that Sonlight offers a CD-rom of activity ideas.

 

Am I crazy to be considering Sonlight, if we really love MFW so far? Tell me something that I am missing, or not considering, when it comes to Sonlight?

 

I think that I will have DS13 still do MFW AHL, as not seeing that Sonlight offers what I want for high school level.

[mama25angels]

You really should look at the MFW website, I don't think CTG uses MOH vol.1. I believe it uses the Usborne Ancient world Encyclopedia and several other books as spines. If you really love MFW and want to continue using it, I would recommend buying CTG and just using the Sonlight readers as your book basket books.

[Rikki06]

I can't help but I, too, have already thought about next year and am looking at MFW or Sonlight so I'll be checking back...

[Samiam]

You know, you are right, they don't use MOH, they actually use Streams of Civilization....which is actually worse in terms of being over a 9 and 6 year old's thought process (I was thinking MOH because that is another curriculum that I researched when contemplating CTG, and perhaps thinking of replacing Streams of Civ with MOH).

 

But that is a great idea, to use the Sonlight readers.....hmmm, food for thought, for sure!!

thxs!

[mothergooseof4]

CtG does not use MOH. Take a look at the MFW site.

 

Personally, if MFW is working I wouldn't switch. I have used SL and MFW....MFW works better here. You coul always add the SL readers as your book basket.

[mothergooseof4]

You know, you are right, they don't use MOH, they actually use Streams of Civilization....which is actually worse in terms of being over a 9 and 6 year old's thought process (I was thinking MOH because that is another curriculum that I researched when contemplating CTG, and perhaps thinking of replacing Streams of Civ with MOH).

 

But that is a great idea, to use the Sonlight readers.....hmmm, food for thought, for sure!!

thxs!

 

Streams of Civ is scheduled for the advanced learner. I find that for my younger two, it really doesn't add much. I read it myself and summarize it for my kids most days, but don't feel bad if we are in a hurry and skip it. I would probably have a 7th or 8th grader read it themselves.

[MerryAtHope]

(we would only use it for the history/reader portion). DS8 is finally able to sit still and actually listen to read-alouds (he's my busy one and was not really able to do this at a younger age). DS5 is good too.

 

Are you saying you wouldn't do SL's lit read-alouds if you went with SL? I wasn't sure--but if so I'd encourage you that the read-alouds are really great!

 

We have used SL from Pre-K up to F, plus core 100 (now) and part of 6 (now--dd is combining with MOH 1).

 

SL has worked out very well here. I haven't used MFW, though I've looked at it a few times. I too have always appreciated having the books right there for me. Hope you can figure out which program to go with! (But give yourself some time to enjoy this year first--at this young age, so much can change in 6 months that you might decide now only to realize next spring that you need something different!).

 

Merry :-)

[hsmomma]

If going to the library is a problem maybe you could go through the book basket list and buy some of the books. I dont think the spine is that important for the younger ones anyway. My kiddos under 10 seem to get more from the stories/living books than the spines.

[Samiam]

Are you saying you wouldn't do SL's lit read-alouds if you went with SL? I wasn't sure--but if so I'd encourage you that the read-alouds are really great!

 

 

Sorry, I wasn't clear. No we would do the read-alouds, as that is the heart of Sonlight, if I understand right? We would do the read-alouds and have the readers that go with that core for the different levels of my DS8 and DS5 (but not sure the Readers IG). I would get the Activities CD to go with the Core.

 

So it primarily would be the history for us, but none of their other subjects.

[ktgrok]

um, why not use SOTW with the AG for that age? It would be a blast!

[Samiam]

Not a fan of SOTW at all. Have tried it three different times in our HSing journey. I know, I know, it has a huge fan base which is why I continued to try it. But not for me. I know that both MFW and Sonlight use it at one point or another in their different years, and perhaps I could stomach it as part of a grouping. But I really have no interest in SOTW at this point as the primary spine.

[MelissaMinNC]

Before deciding against MFW, I think I would call their office and express my concerns. I feel sure they could offer suggestions to help you use/tweak the program with younger kids.

 

Also, I'd probably check the ideas board at mfw website, and see what other people have tried over the years. I know it's worked for a lot of families over a lot of years - there must be some way. I'd just be so reluctant to make a switch if it's working for you and everybody's enjoying it - especially just because of 1 or 2 books.

 

:)

[Donna A.]

Skip the Streams book for your younger guys.

 

Buy the SL books that you want to use in lieu of Book Basket.

 

Problem fixed. :D

[Omma]

Also, I really agree with Merry. :iagree:

If you don't need to buy anything for another 9 months, wait and watch and see how your little ones progress in everything. I wish I had not bought quite so much stuff in advance, particular at the ages that your dc are right now, as so much can change!!

 

But it sure is fun to collect opinions and to dream!!!

 

Brenda

[cbollin]

Skip the Streams book for your younger guys.

 

Buy the SL books that you want to use in lieu of Book Basket.

 

Problem fixed. :D

 

:iagree:

 

but then again, I'm biased because I've only used MFW. so. here are some ideas to help with CTG if you decide to use it next year.

 

on Streams and CTG... the whole book is not used. Just tiny portions for background info. We don't read every page—just the relevant information. It's used to help with a notebooking page or two, or map thing. Some sections were a little longer, but you can condense, or use it as a "teacher reference" and then just teach the info.

 

The younger children will learn lots with Ancient World, and making the crafts and costumes, and pyramids book ,and doing the feasts as a family, and learning plenty of old testament. That really is plenty, and if they learn a tiny thing from Streams (or if you do too), that's gravy, not spine. (how's that for mixed metaphor)

 

I don't know what you program you should use, but I hope that food for thought helps should you decide to use CTG next year.

 

-crystal

[FriedClams]

Skip the Streams book for your younger guys.

 

Buy the SL books that you want to use in lieu of Book Basket.

 

Problem fixed. :D

 

I would do this.

 

We did ECC and so got so bored we dropped MFW. We are back with MFW after a year of SOTW and a year of MOH. Both were fine, but I feel like we missed so much rich bible history those two years. I hate that I ever left MFW. Id skip Streams and do all the rest plus read SL books for fun.

[MamaMamaMama!!]

Yep if it aint broke dont fix it. SL and MFW and pretty different IMO. SL has a lot of time spent reading and not alot of time on projects. Where MFW's lessons are short and sweet. Love that part! SL is also WAY over priced even though you do get a TON of books. Its just a lot of money for the non-core subjects.. Where as with MFW for the price of the Sonlight Core (just history and read alouds) you get History AND Science AND Literature And Language ARts And Music and Art with My Fathers World. That is priceless to me. With multiple students I need to have more bang for my buck. I found myself spended over $1000 when I just had two in SL trying to get All subjects including Readers and LA, Math, Handwriting, Spelling ect. Where as with MFW I can spend around $650 for 3 kids this year for Math, Spelling,Writing, LA, Reading, Handwriting, History, Science, Music, Art AND REad Alouds. Of course it is a bit more work to go to the library but even with Sonlight we went every week for the kids own free reading. Its not much more work to pre-order all our Book Basket Books. And with MFW we get some great Writing practice with the notebooking. Not to mention World View. MFW's world view is much different than Sonlights.

[LindaOz]

Not to mention World View. MFW's world view is much different than Sonlights.

 

What are the main differences between SL and MFW in terms of world view? Just interested......

[lamolina]

Also interested in the difference between the world views presented in SL and MFW!! :bigear:

[Cosmos]

Sorry, I wasn't clear. No we would do the read-alouds, as that is the heart of Sonlight, if I understand right? We would do the read-alouds and have the readers that go with that core for the different levels of my DS8 and DS5 (but not sure the Readers IG). I would get the Activities CD to go with the Core.

 

So it primarily would be the history for us, but none of their other subjects.

 

Did somebody mention this already? I only skimmed the thread. At that level core, the Sonlight readers are not connected to the history studies. They are just a set of easy readers at your child's reading level, scheduled through the year for you. To go with Core B, you can choose a readers package at grade 1, grade 2, or grade 3 reading level.

 

They are good books, but not aligned to the history in any way. Just wanted to make sure you understood that.

[Alyeska]

Also interested in the difference between the world views presented in SL and MFW!! :bigear:

 

I've used both SL and MFW.

 

The main difference I have seen is that MFW intertwines Biblical history in their world history in CtG and RtR. SL does not. The Bible is an 'add-on'.

 

Also MFW is most certainly young earth. From what I have read on the website, written by John Holzman, SL takes the stance that they don't know when the earth was created. IMO neither of these views affected my use of either curriculum. Both add in young earth books. And both use Usborne.

 

The deciding factor for me when it came time for ancients. I really really really wanted biblical integration. The Bible IS history and I wanted everything intertwined. MFW does that beautifully!

 

We are switching back to SL next year to finish out our world history study after completing CtG and RtR. To get on track for SL highschool I needed to switch because I started the MFW cycle a year 'late'. MFW highschool uses BJU texts and I want more literature and less texts.

 

Anyway, about CtG and RtR using Streams. That book was just right for my then 6th (now 7th) grader. So I agree about skipping it with youngers. Remember that if you continue with MFW, you will cycle back around to CtG in a few years anyway and can use Streams then.

 

What I did with MFW was take the book basket list and I went through it marking the books I wanted to add in. This was easy because they are listed pretty much in order from picture books up through highschool. And many of them have ages or grades listed so i could get a general idea of whether they were age appropriate. Then I ordered all the extra books and plugged them into my own excel schedule. That did take me a bit of time, but now I have a schedule to use all year. We have been using RtR for about 6 weeks or so now and are really enjoying it more so than CtG because I added in so many extra great books compared to the few I added in last year. I have MFW with SL flavor. :) and it works great for us.

[Donna A.]

MFW highschool uses BJU texts and I want more literature and less texts.

 

Just to clarify for anyone reading.... MFW only uses BJU United States History as the spine in years 3 and 4 (one text spread over two years), along with many other resources to "round out" a literature-rich education in History, Government, and Economics.

 

In years 1 and 2, MFW uses Notgrass as the history spine, along with a full reading and study of the Bible cover to cover.

[Alyeska]

Just to clarify for anyone reading.... MFW only uses BJU United States History as the spine in years 3 and 4 (one text spread over two years), along with many other resources to "round out" a literature-rich education in History, Government, and Economics.

 

In years 1 and 2, MFW uses Notgrass as the history spine, along with a full reading and study of the Bible cover to cover.

 

Thank you for correcting my error. :)

[Julie in MN]

I haven't seen this mentioned yet -- the "spine" of CTG is the Bible. You go thru large chunks of the whole Old Testament (you use your own actual Bible, not a summary about the Bible) alongside other history books (Usborne, Children's Homer, Ancient Egypt activity book, etc.).

 

So, as others have mentioned, MOH is not used, and neither is SOTW this year. Streams is an add-on to correlate history with the Bible on occasion. But the spine is the Old Testament.

 

We were very blessed that year to read the OT history portions in the evening as a family, and then to do the correlating reading & activities the next day. We also tried out all of the Biblical feasts in one way or another (started out observing & gradually did our own), which were a great experience.

 

CTG was a special year at our house,

Julie

[cbollin]

Also interested in the difference between the world views presented in SL and MFW!! :bigear:

 

I don't know much about SL. someone else some of it...

 

young earth was mentioned. On MFW's website they say this

What view of creation science is presented in "Creation to the Greeks"?

As a company we hold to a literal 6-day creation and this belief is reflected in our programs. We also understand this is a topic of debate in the Christian community. Our goal is to hold to our beliefs without excluding anyone from using our curriculum. This is a decision that each family and ultimately each person needs to make. The Bible is handled much in the same way. Scriptures and other books are provided, but interpretation is left up to each family.

 

and this is MFW's explanation on worldview/biblical integration

http://www.mfwbooks.com/setcnt/BIBLE

 

then if you look on their message board under Curriculum archive

http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewforum.php?f=8

the archive topics are listed alphabetically, and several "worldview" threads are there. some from just plain ole users like me.. and sometimes from staffers (in red letter user names).

 

that should give a good feel on those kinds of things about mfw. doesn't compare to what sl does.

 

-crystal

[C&R]

Also interested in the difference between the world views presented in SL and MFW!! :bigear:

 

I use both SL & MFW. I tend to use an MFW program as my main program & then bring in SL read-alouds and readers for their great literature. I have used 2 1/2 programs of MFW & 4 SL programs. We also have used quite a bit of SL Bible, science DVDs & experiments & books, and Justin's mathcaluladder.

 

I would summarize them as the following:

 

I think of MFW as having a Biblical world view. They use the Bible as their history spine for CTG & the early part of RTR. They bring in a lot of the OT customs, culture, etc. They spend an entire year in ADV focusing on the names of Jesus. The Bible, in a sense, is the spine of MFW. As someone already mentioned they do hold a young earth view, but their curriculum could easily be used by someone who does not since this view is not tied into the curriculum directly. In fact they actually leave the date of creation 'open' in the curriculum. The time-line, for example, has 2000 BC - ?. Prior to 2000 BC are listed events without dates. However, the book used for high school that was published for MFW goes from 5000 BC - present.

 

I think of SL as being a Christian curriculum with a Christian world view. I wish I could explain that better. Perhaps it is the very heavy emphasis on missions and missionaries that makes me think of it that way. The Great Commission to go into the world and preach the gospel is what I think of as the back bone of SL. It was started as a company to help keep missionaries in the field and it shows. The books chosen from the earliest level of ages 3 & 4 begin to introduce other cultures and missionaries. Interestingly, they do not take a stand on young earth but their time-line goes from 5000 BC - present and all of their time-line figures use Amy Pak's time-line figures which place the dates in accordance to a 7,000 year old Earth and a 5,000 BC date for creation.

 

I hope this is helpful. I Love both curriculums, and with my DH encouragement keep trying to use both since they bring different elements I want into our home school.

[jamajo]

I read so many great postings in this thread, I can't remember OP question:lol:

 

As soon as I finished making my purchases for this year I was already looking at resources for the next year so I understand that. We are using Explorers to 1850 this year, and I feel rushed trying to get all subjects done that I haven't used the book basket suggestions. But after reading these posts I guess that would really enhance our experience. I'm just not sure how to work it in. My kids like picking their own reading for the evenings and they whine when I require add'l books for them to read .... but I'll try:001_smile:

[Katiebug_1976]

Skip the Streams book for your younger guys.

 

Buy the SL books that you want to use in lieu of Book Basket.

 

Problem fixed. :D

 

:iagree: We use MFW & if I feel something is over my younger dc's head(s) then I excuse them from that assignment/reading or just have my older dc read it independently. We also go through the Sonlight catalog and use some of their readers & read alouds. It is working out well for us. In the beginning, I really struggled between Sonlight & MFW, but in the end we chose MFW mainly because I would have had to teach too many Sonlight cores at the same time. Combining my kids was just a lot easier w/ MFW.