MFW for highschool?

[kchris]

I would love to hear from anyone who has used MFW for highschool. I'm considering it for 11th and 12th grade with my ds. I'd appreciate hearing all pros and cons. Thanks so much!

Edited March 22, 2012 by kchris

[HollyDay]

so would I!! I'm considering it as well. I spoke to some folks IRL today who have used all 4 years of MFW high school. They all sang its praises and said how much they liked it. One said her dd hated history until they made the change to MFW. But, none went into detail about how it worked or how much time was involved. I'm really interested in more nuts and bolts of the program. I did speak to the folks at MFW today about "piecing" the program together rather than buying the whole kit because I already own many of the books. Other than that, I look forward to following this thread.......

[rmiz]

Hi,

My daughter is on week 26 of the Ancients program. Last week I received the box for World Hist.

 

WHat I like about it:

THe weekly grid is very well organized and it has the small box for my disorganized child to check the box when she completes each task. There is a blank spot for the weekly math, science, language, and other activities or subjects. THe books selected are excellent! (We, I read most of it out loud, just finished the Iliad and she is currently working on her essay about the Greek concept of seeking self glory, which is coming along well. ) I like that my girl is getting a thorough study of the OT and she is having to think about what she read.

 

WHat has been difficult:

Early on it feels like the student is struggling just to keep her head above water. It just feels like it's coming at you 100 mph. HOwever, it forced my daughter to learn to "keep up".

 

I am sure you will get more details.

Overall I am very pleased with choosing MFW for high school. It is worth the money.

 

rmiz

[cbollin]

My oldest used AHL last year. WHL currently.

I went ahead and bought US1 and US2 recently. been studying it.

 

I'm a fan... feeling tired at the keyboard right now and really need to ice my ankle

 

what kinds of things would anyone like to know?

 

I've been really happy and even the few "cons" I have, aren't major things at all. My daughter would prefer more than Notgrass, but she does her work and reads a bit more. I think she's going to like BJU.

 

The writing is good. and like Rmiz said -- they have to learn to keep up but it's doable.

 

enjoying Bible times together. discussions. we don't always 100% agree in each book, but so ?

 

I need to get some aleve. I think I was wearing my old pair of shoes tonight while teaching high impact aerobics. I have a weak tendon on one my feet. does limit me as an instructor at times. :)

 

-crystal

[chirowife]

How much time a day does a fairly motivated student spend?

Can you skip some of the bible or is it an integral part of the program?

What credits do you assign it for a transcript? History and Lit or History and English, or?

[cbollin]

How much time a day does a fairly motivated student spend?

Can you skip some of the bible or is it an integral part of the program?

What credits do you assign it for a transcript? History and Lit or History and English, or?

 

Credits:

1 in Bible (elective)

1 in History

1 in English. (I just call them English I, English II, English III and English IV the way my umbrella school for 9th, 10th, 11th, 12)

 

MFW shows the break down in their samples. look on page 8 and 9 of the AHL sample for a bit more on which assignments go where

 

http://www.mfwbooks.com/inc/pdf/ahlsample.pdf

 

My oldest doesn't necessarily break down the time each day and school/life/etc get blended. She tends to spend about 6 hours in school work each day for about 6 subjects (Bible, English, History with MFW stuff, and then science, math, getting writing done... elective)

 

How integrated in Bible? Some things can be skipped slightly or tweaked, but overall it seems to be an important part of what's going on. I know in AHL on some forums "they" (random persons) prefer to not use purpose driven life. That's easy to leave out.

Leaving out reading the entire Old Testament? now, that's harder on the program in AHL.

 

My oldest was feeling a bit of end of year burn out last year and we did not do the Daniel study in depth. We read the book of Daniel. did discussion, but finally said "eh.. don't want to do the study". another part of Bible that can be hit/miss - service projects throughout the year (either weekly or other)

 

I think in AHL it's important to read the entire OT while studying ancients. Makes the program feel right.

 

-crystal

[Lori in MS]

How much time a day does a fairly motivated student spend?

Can you skip some of the bible or is it an integral part of the program?

What credits do you assign it for a transcript? History and Lit or History and English, or?

 

It takes my son 6-8 hours per day. He is weak on writing though so writing takes him a long time. This includes all the subjects though, not just history, english, and Bible.

 

Transcript for my son

 

Ancient History

Ancient Literature and Composition (or English I)

Old Testament

[mazakaal]

It takes my son 6-8 hours per day. He is weak on writing though so writing takes him a long time. This includes all the subjects though, not just history, english, and Bible.

 

You had me scared for a minute. At first I thought that you meant 6-8 hours for history, English and Bible. :lol:

[HollyDay]

You had me scared for a minute. At first I thought that you meant 6-8 hours for history, English and Bible. :lol:

 

me too

[Melissa in CA]

We are fans of MFW as well. My ds has enjoyed AHL this year and I have WHL here for next year. I think the only cons I see are these:

 

Not a lot of grammar instruction. If you have a student who is not strong in the grammar dept, I personally would suggest getting a daily supplement like Easy Grammar Ultimate, or the like, to keep those concepts fresh.

 

If you have to report hours for "home-made" curriculum (as opposed to a school-created/published curriculum like BJU) to an umbrella school....such as 1 credit is 160 hours...you may find MFW is very light in the history dept. I have to really juggle that and am finding it somewhat hard to come up with the appropriate hours worked in history each quarter. AHL is very bible heavy compared to history so I oftentimes have to use his bible work as history credit. Does that make sense? For many of you listing hours is not going to be an issue, but for me that has been a con with MFW's integrated history and bible. The english credit has been relatively easy to report though.

 

Aside from those cons we love MFW and our current plan is to continue using it through high school. My ds is currently doing the Daniel study with no complaints. We have yet to drop anything from the MFW schedule. School takes about 6-8 hours a day (for all subjects)...but that is because my ds gets sidetracked CONSTANTLY!

[Lori in MS]

You had me scared for a minute. At first I thought that you meant 6-8 hours for history, English and Bible. :lol:

 

History, English, and Bible about 3 hours, more if he has to write a paper.

[kchris]

Thank you all so much! I've learned a bunch from your replies. :)

[TechWife]

My daughter would prefer more than Notgrass, but she does her work and reads a bit more.

 

I spent a lot of time at the MFW booth today, looking at Ancient History and Literature. I have two concerns, the first being about the Notgrass book. We tried to use the Notgrass Am. History this year and found it to be dry and boring. We did not supplement with anything, just read the book & answered the questions in the quiz and exam book. Is the Notgrass World History good? How much is it used? Do you have to do all of the questions? Would it be at all possible to swap it out for another World History book?

 

My second concern is about the book The New Answers Book. This is not a book we would use. Does it mess up a lot of writing or literature assignments if we just drop it?

 

Thank you so much for being willing to answer questions - this program looks really good to me other than these two things. I heard David Hazel speak yesterday & found him to be really enjoyable.

Edited March 24, 2012 by TechWife

[SonshineLearner]

Our co-op used it this year, actually just finishing it up. They seem to be please with it, since they're purchasing the World one for next year. We've added Biology and next year they'll do Chemistry. (Where oh where is that parent who wants to join who loved Chemistry??)

I know that it went fast at first and then lightened a bit.

I'll be interested to hear how the next few years go. I had thought of having our co-op move towards TOG for the Jr High/Highschool, but it seems cost prohibitive. :( SO, I'm glad that it's easy and cost reasonable to use MFW :)

[cbollin]

I spent a lot of time at the MFW booth today, looking at Ancient History and Literature. I have two concerns, the first being about the Notgrass book.

My second concern is about the book The New Answers Book. This is not a book we would use. Does it mess up a lot of writing or literature assignments if we just drop it?

.

 

1. notgrass - world history book. we find it 'conversational". not super in depth. MFW supplements it with other things. Notgrass book is used in part in AHL and rest in WHL. read the chapters.. in whl we're doing the quizzes/review questions. My daughter is glad it is not the only thing in the mfw program. and we are glad that mfw doesn't use the notgrass amer. history. :) can you sub it out? you might want to just add some other readings if the notgrass plus other books that MFW adds doesn't do it for you :)

 

2. New Answers - I do not remember any writing assignments with that book. options - toss it if you want to. or use it as a time to discuss why you disagree with the information and opinions and then toss it. It can be good for a few chapters of why we don't believe this. Or completely left out and it will be ok.

 

in other words, it was read and discuss and think on it... agree or disagree with positions presented. no "real" assignments of note that I remember. I know parts of the book we didn't like. some parts were nice.

 

 

-crystal

[cbollin]

(Where oh where is that parent who wants to join who loved Chemistry??):)

 

he's sitting across the room from me...

:001_smile:

-crystal

[SonshineLearner]

he's sitting across the room from me...

:001_smile:

-crystal

 

UGHHHHH.... are you sure you can't commute?? :) Dang!! My step-daughter is in the beginning stages of becoming a Chemist... but funny thing.. she thinks she needs to concentrate on her school instead of helping at our co-op.

(Darn!! We'd love to have you!! You should move to Salem, OR:))

[Julie in MN]

I have two concerns, the first being about the Notgrass book. We tried to use the Notgrass Am. History this year and found it to be dry and boring. We did not supplement with anything, just read the book & answered the questions in the quiz and exam book. Is the Notgrass World History good? How much is it used? Do you have to do all of the questions? Would it be at all possible to swap it out for another World History book?

 

My second concern is about the book The New Answers Book. This is not a book we would use. Does it mess up a lot of writing or literature assignments if we just drop it?

 

Probably just repeating Crystal's post. But two opinions are better than one, eh :tongue_smilie:

 

1. Notgrass isn't really used all that much in AHL. No unit quizzes. Only about 2/3 of the first half is used. Basically, creation through the Greeks. Of that 2/3, probably 1/4 to 1/3 is faith lessons, and I think with all the Bible already in AHL, you could easily skip those (not Biblical history, but other faith topics). We skipped some and listened to some TTC lectures. The other portion is history and it definitely is a "textbook run-thru" rather than anything in depth. I did feel it pulled together things a bit, from the other resources such as the timeline, mapping, Pyramids book, mythology, Greek alphabet exercises, etc. I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to switch if you have a good sub.

 

And I absolutely would not skip the Notgrass purple book of original documents. Well, I LOVE that book, myself. Although you don't really use a lot of it in AHL.

 

2. New Answers I am also not remembering anything crucial you'd miss. The biggest thing it added for *my son* was apologetics about how his faith *can* fit with science, there are a lot of things that can be looked at in different ways and he should not fear that he has to choose between academic science & his faith. I'm sure you could insure that sort of learning takes place in your home, in your own way. I found 9th grade ideal for revisiting that topic on a new level.

 

 

HTH,

Julie

[grace4me]

"AHL is very bible heavy compared to history so I oftentimes have to use his bible work as history credit. Does that make sense?"

 

I had to smile on this one, because it does make sense! My DD is finishing up AHL this year and the OT reading/study of the Bible was her favorite part (and one of the main reasons we chose MFW). In our home, we consider the Bible to be a history book- real stuff that really happened. IMO, the Bible is the better half of the spines for AHL. So, yes, AHL is very bible heavy not "compared" to history, but because it is history. We are only teasing out what we are calling "history" and what we are calling "bible" for transcript purposes. Does that make sense?

 

Then you throw in the Answers book so you can tease apart historical science from observational science and you can really have some great discussions with your kids!