MFW with Classical Conversations and or SOTW?

[lgliser]

Hi!

Ok just my subject line seems like a lot but I am researching curriculums for my kids - next year I'll homeschool them and they'll be in first grade.

 

I loved TWTM and the idea of SOTW. I am also desperate to be in a group, whether it be a co-op or just a support group. In my area, the best option seems to be a Classical Conversations group. You can do SOTW and CC together right?

 

But can I throw some MFW in there as well? I like the idea of having something that makes including God's word through out our studies easy and MFW sounds like it would, so that's why I'm thinking about that rather than just piecing our curriculum together. Other than that I am not opposed to piecing things together.

 

I hope that all makes sense.... I'm so new that sometimes I'm not even sure exactly what to ask!

Thanks!

[campmom]

Hi,

You can do cc with any curriculum you decide to use, but you may decide that it is to much or maybe it won't be.

Also you can use SOTW with MFW but you need to look ahead because MFW uses SOTW in some of their years. I would probably do the MFW program and listen to the SOTW audio book ( we do a lot of audio learning) you could also do some of the activites that go along with SOTW but MFW already has a lot of activities to do .

Hope that helps some.

[lgliser]

So then if I did choose to do CC and MFW and not necessarily do SOTW, then MFW would include history (some of which is SOTW like you said)?

 

Is MFW considered a classical education?

[Heidi @ Mt Hope]

We do both CC and SOTW. I don't try to schedule our history topics to correspond week by week. My boys LOVE the history songs and also the timeline song. They have no problem memorizing the CC information without studying the topic in depth that very week. I schedule SOTW at our own pace, and we plug in the CC memory (review and discuss) when it comes up in our SOTW schedule.

 

My suggestion: schedule SOTW independently and make it your main history study. Review the CC history during a separate memory work time. If you want, you can use the timeline cards (the supplemental information on the back) that correspond with the person or event for a little bit of context. It only takes a couple minutes to read it during memory review time. When you come to a topic in SOTW that you've already memorized a song for, your kids will connect the two. Mine *always* break into song. :) I really haven't had any negative experience doing it this way. In fact, I've been thrilled to notice an increased interest and retention when we read more about those topics at a later time.

 

I don't have any experience with MFW, but I did write a lengthy post on my blog about CC and how it works for us if it might be helpful.

[thegirlwhopaintedtrees]

We do both CC and SOTW. I don't try to schedule our history topics to correspond week by week. My boys LOVE the history songs and also the timeline song. They have no problem memorizing the CC information without studying the topic in depth that very week. I schedule SOTW at our own pace, and we plug in the CC memory (review and discuss) when it comes up in our SOTW schedule.

 

My suggestion: schedule SOTW independently and make it your main history study. Review the CC history during a separate memory work time. If you want, you can use the timeline cards (the supplemental information on the back) that correspond with the person or event for a little bit of context. It only takes a couple minutes to read it during memory review time. When you come to a topic in SOTW that you've already memorized a song for, your kids will connect the two. Mine *always* break into song. :) I really haven't had any negative experience doing it this way. In fact, I've been thrilled to notice an increased interest and retention when we read more about those topics at a later time.

 

I don't have any experience with MFW, but I did write a lengthy post on my blog about CC and how it works for us if it might be helpful.

 

This is also how we do CC and SOTW together. Last year I tried to go in depth for each history sentence and went crazy. This year we're doing it as Mt. Hope described. We are really enjoying CC more this year as a result. MFW doesn't become "classical" in the sense of the 4 year cycle until 3rd grade when you can start Greeks to Romans (or whatever that first year of Ancient history is called).

[Donna A.]

MFW is a blend of Classical, Charlotte Mason, Unit Studies, and Biblical. It becomes more classical through the years as the student grows.

 

MFW does schedule SOTW volumes 2-4, but not volume 1. You could add it yourself, though, if you wanted to.

[Amy M]

Yes, :iagree:with all the prior posts. You could use MFW (which uses SOTW plus some extras), and use CC cards just for memory work, which isn't scheduled in MFW, or most history curricula.

[Donna A.]

I just remembered something. There's a mom at my dd's dance studio who was using MFW and CC together last year.... I'll have to ask her how it went.

[Donna A.]

Are you talking about using MFW first grade or Creation to Greeks? I'm 11 weeks in to using CtG with a first grader. Originally I had intended to supplement with SOTW. However, the book basket concept almost makes it unnecessary. So far, with the exception of Gilgamesh and Hammurabi, the children's books from various book lists (VP, TOG, Sonlight, the boards here, etc) are better than the synopsis in SOTW.

 

I agree, SOTW 1 isn't needed in CTG at ALL, but a lot of people want to use it anyway, so.... You could try and "schedule" SOTW where it lines up with CTG (I saw a schedule someone posted here on WTM at one point), or you could just use SOTW as a "Book Basket" type of book. IOW, read it freely and don't worry about trying to line it up. But if you do add SOTW1 to CTG, you definitely don't need the Activity Guide, too. Also, there's a lot of memory work in both MFW 1 and CTG, so unless your goal is to memorize names and dates of people and places for some sort of a history test, I wouldn't worry about adding anything just for that component.

 

Now, I have no idea how much CC costs, or how much is involved to use it, but if you're looking for pretty cards to use as a memorization tool, would the card sets from Veritas Press be any cheaper or more efficient to use?