Would someone make up my mind, please

[Excelsior! Academy]

Do I want Omnibus I or iv or mfw ahl or a tailored wtm approach for dd next year?

[Excelsior! Academy]

No one? :tongue_smilie:

[daveswife]

I'm wrestling with this very same issue! My daughter wants to do ancients for the tenth grade, but there are so many solid programs from which to choose. I cannot decide between Omnibus (I or IV), TOG, or MFW. My gut says that MFW will be the easiest to implement, but I'm feeling that it may be a little light for my dd (she's easily cruising through Sonlight Core 200 this year). TOG appears to have the most interesting assortment of history resources, but do I want to have to decide which to use? Sigh....

 

Carrie

[angela in ohio]

Considering that your signature says that you do self-designed history studies now, I would say that you want a tailored WTM approach. Or maybe that's because that's what we do. ;) We do use Omnibus for one of our resources, though, too.

[Melissa in CA]

I have used TOG, Omnibus, and MFW.

 

I think you'll be most happy with the curriculum that meets your personal teaching style. Both Omnibus and TOG are pretty teacher intensive. You must be involved in both curricula as they are not student independent programs...hope that makes sense...with TOG being the more teacher intensive of the two due to gathering materials, printing materials, choosing aspects of the curriculum you want to use, the studying of the teachers notes in preparation of discussion, and then said discussion. Omnibus, I found, was much less teacher prep, but one must be there for the student almost daily for discussion...or so was our experience with it.

 

MFW, on the other hand, is made and written with the independence of the student in mind. You pretty much hand your student her MFW schedule and let her go at it while, of course, being there to help if help is needed. You then come together one day a week and look through/grade her work, and discuss anything you'd like to discuss. In AHL that is usually the OT Challenge questions as MFW recommends you, the parent, work through them as well. I personally am not doing this, but I do look through my ds's answers and am finding that he is doing a great job of understanding the text, etc. Also, with MFW, your student is given assigned books to study, but is also given freedom to pick other books of interest to round out her reading enjoyment. This would work somewhat like SL, except that you or she would get to pick your extra reading books. My ds really likes that aspect of MFW.

 

All three of these are excellent curriculum choices! I think I would pick the one that makes the most sense to you at this stage in your parenting/teaching life. ;)

[Momma4Boys]

I have used TOG, Omnibus, and MFW.

 

with TOG being the more teacher intensive of the two due to gathering materials, printing materials, choosing aspects of the curriculum you want to use, the studying of the teachers notes in preparation of discussion, and then said discussion. Omnibus, I found, was much less teacher prep, but one must be there for the student almost daily for discussion...or so was our experience with it.

 

So you will see from my signature that I currently use TOG and I am OVERWHELMED as a teacher - so with that said I am looking again :001_huh: at all my curr choices trying to get my act together before my oldest reaches high school.

 

SO - my questions is - do you feel MFW is challenging enough at the high school level?

[Brindee]

My dd absolutely loved MFW AHL! It is fairly challenging, and keeps the students busy. It's easy to add more to it than they have specifically in the lesson plans, and they have lists of resources you could use. We liked how thorough it was! DD loved having a schedule laid out, complete with boxes to check off when the assignment is done! The material is written to the student so they can understand it well and work independently. My dd learned a lot! We changed things up very little, and tweaked the schedule a bit, but it was easy to implement, which is not saying it was easy academically! KWIM? It helped make a great year for dd last year!

[Melissa in CA]

So you will see from my signature that I currently use TOG and I am OVERWHELMED as a teacher - so with that said I am looking again :001_huh: at all my curr choices trying to get my act together before my oldest reaches high school.

 

SO - my questions is - do you feel MFW is challenging enough at the high school level?

 

It's challenging enough for my ds, yes. Will you find it enough for your high school student? I have no idea. I will say that the one thing one might want to add to MFW is a supplemental grammar book. Grammar practice is the one thing I find lacking, but I'm one of those parent/teachers that think grammar each year is a good thing. ;) I also find it a tad light in the history dept but I think that is do to the large amount of bible history so it often feels like bible and not history.

 

Other than those areas, which really haven't been a problem, we have enjoyed AHL and I do not at all regret using it with ds. :)

[BlsdMama]

So you will see from my signature that I currently use TOG and I am OVERWHELMED as a teacher - so with that said I am looking again :001_huh: at all my curr choices trying to get my act together before my oldest reaches high school.

 

SO - my questions is - do you feel MFW is challenging enough at the high school level?

 

I was worried it would be light. It's true that it it's lighter than what we would have planned for her but it was easy for me to forget that being overwhelmed was WHY we were looking for new curriculum, lol!

 

We've been thrilled. At this stage she has studied, and loves, everything about history. We CAN go a little lighter!

 

Plus, we have found that MFW is allowing her time to do Algebra, Geometry, finish up Biology, Latin, Logic, prepare for the PSAT, work on essay skills, and READ!

 

I'm not saying we should teach for them to feel all warm and fuzzy, but the girl was going to burn herself out! She doesn't feel MFW is light, she feels it is sufficient and allows her 2yo focus on harder subjects as well as things that are important to her , music and writing!

Edited March 2, 2012 by BlsdMama

[TGHEALTHYMOM]

My head is still spinning, and thanks for all of the info. I just heard about TOG last month! I liked Omnibus 1, and was debating over TOG 2 or Omnibus 2 with no outside groups for us and I was looking at MFW too!

My main problem deciding is that I want time for my younger children, and I will have a newborn in early June. I also have ordered many books for TOG 2 a few for Omnibus 2 to compare, but couldn't resist a deal on TOG 2 recently on here to see it, and today I found Omnibus 2 & 3 on here and ordered them. I also bought MOH2 for a supplement. Now I know I missed MFW sale and am planning on attending a convention next month so I will stop by their booth to look at the TG and Student book. I need my 2 oldest to become more independent and they are in some areas. Neither has really enjoyed history much with SL this year so I am selling what I cannot return and have ordered a DVD series from The Great Courses to catch up on basics of Rome, the Early Church, and early Medieval period. I also bought some movies suggested as supplements in TOG2 that we will spread out and use as a reward for reading and writing.

 

Feel free to chastise me or give me any encouragement, I would rather have too much and be able to try out something than wish for years that I had tried and feel we missed out. I am re vamping everything right now, switching to Singapore Math for 2nd grade -6th grade. Trying Lial Pre- Algebra to supplement TT 7. Sticking with Latin, IEW, and hope to figure out what I really can tackle and enjoy in the Fall. I liked the idea of TOG being for all levels but as I look at it, it looks teacher intensive, and I am thinking if I do the Omnibus2 and MOH2, it may be easier on all of us. Why do I feel guilty?

 

I also have a struggling learner that I ordered Earobics and Reader Rabbit Wii, and PC games for, but I need to spend more time with her and dd6 because they love Alphabet Island, and my pregnancy has been so rough, I have been doing some lessons in my bed, I am getting over a 3 week battle after finally diagnosing myself with a kidney infection.

 

I have peace in the storm.

 

Thanks for prayers! I hope you can decide what is best!!

[3byzaz]

The MFW sale is going on through the 12th or 15th I think. I ordered on the 29th, but they extended the sale.

 

I will say and I know it's not the consensus - MFW has definitely been light for my son. Now, having said that, it will probably not be light for my other two. It's light for him because he is a very strong reader and writer. But, i really don't feel that there has been much in the way of English. It's just not what we are used to. But, for others, it might be totally fine. I am still happy with it because of the Bible reading and the independent part. It all depends on your child and what you are looking for. I will agree that it gives him sufficient time to work on other areas! That is a very good thing!!