Another 'On the fence' - Help me decide! SL vs MFW

[smcjoj3]

If you had asked me last month, I would have told you that I was going with MFW K & Adventures for my rising K'er & 2nd grader.

 

Then the Sonlight catalog came in the mail.....

I changed my mind and decided that I was going to use Core A with my kiddos (ages 5 & 7) with the K & 2nd grade readers. I guess that SL now included the LA with the readers? I would love to hear opinions on the SL Lang Arts.

 

The reason I changed my mind was: 1) I liked the idea of having all the books on hand, rather then the library. 2) I like the idea of the kids working on the same core vs 2 different things. 3) I am a little disorganized ADD...so I *thought* the way SL has their IG's all laid out would work better? (from what I had read & gathered)

 

Please feel free to dissolve my reasoning for choosing SL instead of MFW.

With the SL website acting crazy yesterday & so many things being on back order, it is giving me time to re-evaluate things.

 

*MFW is cheaper, always a plus for our family. Even if I include the Lit package with the K cirriculum, still less expensive than SL. would it be comparable if I got the lit package with MFW? Is the Lit package the 'book basket' or is that a totally different thing?

*Are the SL IG's a better fit for a new-ish HS'er who is a little scatter brained?

* in my head, the same core for 2 kids seems great. But will it be that much better? and I had read somewhere that core A wasn't particlarly as awesome as some of the other cores. true?

 

Anyhow, this is me thinking out loud. I would love some feedback on it. :)

[cbollin]

.if I got the lit package with MFW? Is the Lit package the 'book basket' or is that a totally different thing?)

 

The Lit Pack in the MFW Kindy program is different from "book basket" in other years.

In Kindy, part of the unit study is having a fun, literature based learning day one day a week with no phonics worksheets.. .just enjoy the book that is related to the unit, play outside or other nature walk/science exploration. some Math and enjoy it all.

You only need 1 book per unit for that. So those 26 books in the lit pack help with that so you dont' have to go to the library.

 

Other people buy a few books with asterisk on the titles in ADV and ECC and the rest if library is a poor option. I remember a post on mfw board recently where someone talked about cost of book basket in ecc

http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=12188&p=83422

 

 

not sure any of that helps... but the lit pack in Kindy is designed to help with what is called day 6 of each unit study.. see the sample for better info

http://www.mfwbooks.com/products/M50/20/0/0/1

the nice thing is? if it is not the exact book... you aren't in trouble.

 

-crystal

[smcjoj3]

thank you for help wth my book confusion. I kind of feel like MFW k is perfect for my 5yo. But my 7yo might not be ready for Adventures, which was also why Core A was a consideration.

Thanks again!

[boscopup]

I've used MFW K (previous version, not the updated version) and just started using Sonlight Core D. I'm not going to finish MFW K. We're switching over to Sonlight P4/5 for K (so I'll be doing 2 cores, but it should be easy enough, as neither one takes a lot of time).

 

I do like the book basket of MFW. It's basically a list of good books with descriptions. The lit pack is different. Those books are listed with activities for day 6 of each unit, but there is also an alternate book with activities, in case you can't find the first one. Then you go to the book basket to get more books on the topic, including nonfiction, fiction, easy readers, etc.

 

SL is used as-is, but all the books are there, and I am finding it enough for us.

 

I definitely prefer the SL grid style schedule, though supposedly they were finally changing the MFW K to that also. I haven't looked at that to see if I'd like it better. Another thing about MFW K is that I wasn't using their phonics, and that's kind of half the program, you know? It was fine, but I think SL will be a better fit for us, as I can easily add my own phonics, math, handwriting.

 

My school age kids aren't combineable at the moment, as one is a very advanced reader and somewhat logical thinker (though not "logic stage" yet), and the other still asks things like whether Blue's Clues is real. :tongue_smilie: Even if we studied the same time period, I'd have to use completely separate sets of books for each one. They're just that different.

[FiveOaksAcademy]

I've never used SL or Adventures. We have used MFW K and really loved it!! I plan to use it with my 2yo when he is about 3 1/2 and pace it out until he's 5 then do something else for K. I love it so much, but it just seems more preschool in what it provides as far as phonics and math skills. My last K student who used it had learned everything that it taught by playing with a lot of the preschool toys sold through MFW and through me just doing basic fun games with him.

[Ohmomjacquie]

We are doing mfw next year.wjen your youngest reaches 2nd grade they will have the same core. Price wise mfw is much more doable for us. Idk about the lit package for k. Adventuees comes with books and then id you get the deluxe package it comes with the read aloud books. La rechoice is your choice. They have a reading time scheduled each day where they read to you or alone. Book basket is booms on that week's topics. They explore them or you can read to them. For supplement to la in second grade you add pll which covers copy work, english , memorization and etc. Hth a bit!

[Mommy22alyns]

I've used both. Do your kids like hands on activities? SL doesn't offer those. Adventures has been great for both of my girls this year. I used SL P 4/5 for Sylvia's K year and Core 1 (B) for Rebecca's second grade year. I liked it for Sylvia, but not for Rebecca. Rebecca didn't like it either because of the lack of activities. I did buy some books for book basket, but there were also plenty of things at the library. The Adventures TM has a grid schedule too, so I'm not sure that there is much of a difference between that and SL's schedule.

 

SL LA? Don't make me go there. :glare: I can't stand it.

 

As far as combining kids goes, I'm not sure where your K'er is on learning to read. Sylvia as a first grader is beyond where MFW first is, and she's done extremely well in Adv. I think a bright K'er could sit in on some Adv. things. Even if you keep them separate for K and 1, they'll combine when your youngest hits 2nd grade.

[jessie410]

I am kind of in the same boat. Had really been thinking about MFW, but something keeps calling me back to SL. When their new changes came out, I couldn't resist any longer! They actually fixed most of the things I was concerned about!

 

Since I haven't used them yet, I can't tell you anything frome experience, but I can tell you why I'm now leaning toward SL over MFW

 

1. I LOVE the SL IG's. When you compare the online samples side by side with MFW, MFW seem to really lack. Which some may like, but I love all of the information that SL gives on the topics, the discussion questions, teaching tips, and even book prefaces that include info on material that parents may find questionable, and how to teach on that. I used to like the idea of a less hefty IG so I could do more of my own thing, but eventually realized I would rather have a bunch of info and material to pull from rather than looking elsewhere.

 

2. For my family, SL seems much more thorough. I really love all the resources included and don't feel like I would need to tweak. When I look at MFW, my head starts to spin with all of the things I would want to add it and adjust. I am not a library person, so I love that I can order one big box and have everything I need.

 

3. I like that SL introduces weightier subjects early on. While this may not be good for some families, I feel that this is good for mine. My children already have an idea of some of the injustices that go on in the world and there is also a chance we will be serving in Africa in the next couple years. Just from that they will be exposed to other religions (mainly voo doo in our area) and even human trafficking, since the place we will be serving is a children's home for rescused child slaves. I feel like SL's approach to introducing those topics will go well with how we are living our life.

 

I don't know if any of those reasons apply to your family, but I just wanted to share. I still really like MFW though so we will just have to see!

 

Thought of another reason: My children are only 16 months apart so I would be able to combine them in a core from day one. With MFW, I would have to wait until we hit ECC to combine.

Edited April 4, 2012 by jessie410

[SnMomof7]

I have only used SL though I've scoped on MFW several times.

 

I've decided to stick with SL largely for just the reason you've mentioned. I don't have to worry about rounding up books. If I don't have everything ready to go, chances are it won't get done. I need things open and go prep free. You sound a bit like me on that :). Core A is really nice, though I can't comment on the LA and likely, neither can anyone else right now because SL just did an LA revision. :)

[kolamum]

Just so you know.. SL has Core A on backorder right now. Rumour has it that's only until something like the 9th of the month but it's NOT guaranteed to be in stock by then. If you choose to go with it I'd ring them before placing an order to be certain of when they will have it in. Depending on when you need it for, you could get away with using the Core A samples though..

 

 

I'm not a scatterbrained person in most aspects, but for the past few years I've suffered debilitating migraines on a daily, or near daily, basis. They leave me fatigued, edgy, emotional, & make it very hard for me to focus and concentrate. Having a preplanned curriculum meant we could carry on with school! I might not have been looking at the same thing, but the MFW samples I looked at didn't fit what I needed at that time.