MFW ECC, Finding a lot of varying reviews...?

[acsnmama]

I'm considering doing MFW ECC, not this fall, but next fall. What is your experience?

 

I do have a lot of hesitation using their missionary stories, how important are they to the curriculum?

 

What did you like most about it?

 

What did you dislike about ECC?

 

I'm having a hard time getting a good feel for the program just through the MFW website.

 

Any input would be great! I've read some very good reviews, however, I also just read some here on the WTM boards of people NOT liking ECC.

[Mommy22alyns]

What concerns you about the missionary biographies? I also heard varying reviews, but I went with it this year and I love it. The girls are really enjoying it too. We also did Adventures last year. I like how MFW schedules activities and crafts, things that don't need a whole lot of odd materials. I'm happy with the book basket idea and love the books that are used. It's very easy to manage; we just go to the library once a week when we're already out for choir. I don't feel like it's too light.

 

Common complaints I've heard are that is is too light, it's too repetitive (that doesn't bother me because you're on a journey around the world - it's more like a pattern for each country), the book basket is too hard to manage.

 

There's nothing I really dislike. My only concern is that Sylvia is meant to repeat ECC as a 7th grader and I don't know if that will be sufficient for her at that age.

[acsnmama]

The missionary stories include some hard topics, I know someone started a thread recently about it. My son will be 8 when we would do ECC. From what I read, the TG has warnings about area's you may want to summarize? I think he will be ok to handle most of the stories, but he is very sensitive boy, yet at the same time, loves stories of adventure and is very spiritual. I guess my main concern is talking about prostitutes and or the graphic details (which make the story come alive) about the one missionary being attacked by a lion. I think the lion story would be ok for him, however, I know I would need to pre-read the stories to know whether or not I think he's ready for some topics.

 

I was reading here that many feel it's not worth the money, that they could simply create a program of coloring countries, cooking and arts and crafts.

 

I guess I'm wondering, what makes it different? What makes ECC fun and exciting?

 

I know I definitely appreciate schedules being written for me, but I have a tough time with the idea of the expense for something I really could create on my own!

 

I would expect it to be somewhat repetitive to some degree, because you are likely going to follow a pattern!

 

I've found people who love it or hate it, and a couple of people who is it's just "ok" and I don't feel the like the samples of the program on the MFW website are as detailed as I'd like.

[Mommy22alyns]

About the missionary bios, the only one we really had trouble with was Gladys Aylward. There were so many warnings on that one and although the story is great, I would skip it for even a slightly sensitive kid. You could always just watch the Torchlighter video. The prostitutes in Amy Carmichael, I easily changed it on the fly to "temple servants." Not quite ready to address that one with my girls!

 

If you can pull something like this together yourself, then you may not want to get it. I'm nowhere near that talented, so I did appreciate having someone else pull it together for me. I also bought Expedition Earth, but I found the pace of that one very frenetic, so I only used a few of the flag/country sheets.

 

To be totally honest, I can see how a talented mom could arrange something very similar on their own. Other years, maybe not so much. But ECC, yeah.

[acsnmama]

I'm not that great at homeschool planning. I have the ability, but I get so overwhelmed and anxious that I can it! We're doing HOD, and so many have said they can do it on their own, and I thought that before I bought it. I now see, that I really couldn't. Sure I don't use every little tip in the book, but goodness, just to be able to look it up and say, "today we're reading this page" is so much easier!!

[Mom2OandE]

Well I got everything for less than $100 used. I'm excited to have everything set up for me. I am modifying a few things to better suit our needs and schedule. Originally I was going to create our own but this was a good deal so I went with it.

[Momof2littles]

I'm not that great at homeschool planning. I have the ability, but I get so overwhelmed and anxious that I can it! We're doing HOD, and so many have said they can do it on their own, and I thought that before I bought it. I now see, that I really couldn't. Sure I don't use every little tip in the book, but goodness, just to be able to look it up and say, "today we're reading this page" is so much easier!!

 

 

I can't answer your question, but im curious as to why you're considering switching from hod.

[acsnmama]

I can't answer your question, but im curious as to why you're considering switching from hod.

 

 

I'm not planning on switching. Just thinking about doing ECC for 3rd grade, and continuing on with HOD from there on out!

[AngelBee]

I use HOD and we are using MFW ECC for the inbetween year. :)

[cbollin]

"There's nothing I really dislike. My only concern is that Sylvia is meant to repeat ECC as a 7th grader and I don't know if that will be sufficient for her at that age."

 

My oldest did ECC, first edition, in 7th grade with the jr. high supplements. It was plenty when done as written with the language arts, math, science, and the ECC readings, and biweekly reports and big report. My oldest liked helping younger sister with crafts and food and fun in ECC. She said it was a nice break from all of that writing I made her do. Then,in 10th grade, you know what? my oldest thanked me for "making her do ECC again" because it really helped with the world history in high school.

 

back to original poster's stuff

Missionary stories: well, they don't get into a lot of details on the children that Amy Carmichael helped. It really is more about God's hand in Amy's life and Amy doing what God asked, rather than the plight of those around her. You can change the word to servant or slave if you need to. It really isn't that big of a deal.

 

The read alouds are optional as they are put of deluxe. I was glad I did them.

 

What makes ECC fun that I'm looking forward to my third and final time doing it? It wasn't just cooking and crafts. It was slowing down to really study the book of Matthew all year. We enjoyed taking time to pray. That's not something that our family is good at. I'm not the best Christian homeschooler out there.

It was fun to do countries and geography and biomes... it was fun to make stuff. I didn't have to plan it. When the pattern of studying countries got to be too much on me..... changed it up... we played train and bus and plane and border crossing. We found foods from the area and ate breakfast in the style. We got some new videos. some new decorations.

 

let me show you some pics from my 2nd time doing ECC with fun and scaled back stuff... well it's probably boring on the screen....

http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=164&start=25#p39584

Brazil terrarium with carnival costumes

http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=161&start=50#p65898

 

I'm sorry if I can't really make it sound fun or less boring. I liked it. Also... when I did ECC the first time, I didn't even know MFW existed. Bought it at convention and enjoyed it.

[Michelle W.]

All of these reviews of ECC have been so helpful for me! I'm considering doing it this fall but also feel like I wish I could "see" more of the curriculum from the website. Thanks for giving your thoughts, its really helped me!

 

Michelle

[Monarch Room]

All of these reviews of ECC have been so helpful for me! I'm considering doing it this fall but also feel like I wish I could "see" more of the curriculum from the website. Thanks for giving your thoughts, its really helped me!

 

Michelle

 

I'm sure there are other blogs, but this one looks like it gives you a pretty good idea what a year in ECC would be like :)

 

http://discovertheirgifts.blogspot.com/search/label/MFW%20ECC

[acsnmama]

It looks like fun!

[Michelle W.]

Silly question, but what is HOD? I'm not familiar with that one.

[Monarch Room]

Silly question, but what is HOD? I'm not familiar with that one.

 

 

Heart of Dakota :)

[Michelle W.]

I'm sure there are other blogs, but this one looks like it gives you a pretty good idea what a year in ECC would be like :)

 

http://discovertheir...h/label/MFW ECC

 

 

 

Thank you SO much for this link. I'd not found this blog yet and it really does give an awesome glimpse of the fun stuff you get to do in ECC. Awesome! Thanks so much.

[Michelle W.]

So how does Heart of Dakota compare with MFW? If anyone has experience with those two?

[Samiam]

We ditched ECC about 2/3 if the way through. Not because it is repetitive , it is, but then again, it's a pattern, a way of learning about countries and cultures so I expected that.

 

I didn't like a lot of the crafts and activities in the included books, so I found better ones online.

 

I didn't like the science at all, so used something else.

 

The coloring page with the costumed child from each country, ehhh, my boys hated coloring that.

 

My library didn't have many of the book basket books so I just had to choose others.

 

ECC didn't cover some of the countries I wanted to cover. It did cover some I didn't think were necessary.

 

I went with Galloping the Globe. It's the same concept as ECC, without the cost and without the unnecessary parts. I much preferred GTG.

[joyfulhomeschooler]

We ditched ECC about 2/3 if the way through. Not because it is repetitive , it is, but then again, it's a pattern, a way of learning about countries and cultures so I expected that.

 

I didn't like a lot of the crafts and activities in the included books, so I found better ones online.

 

I didn't like the science at all, so used something else.

 

The coloring page with the costumed child from each country, ehhh, my boys hated coloring that.

 

My library didn't have many of the book basket books so I just had to choose others.

 

ECC didn't cover some of the countries I wanted to cover. It did cover some I didn't think were necessary.

 

I went with Galloping the Globe. It's the same concept as ECC, without the cost and without the unnecessary parts. I much preferred GTG.

This is what we did to fix the same dislikes we had with it.

Used crafts or projectss that I found on pinterest instead of the scheduled ones.

We actually loved the science, but this could be because our library had most of the book basket books.

My kids didn't like the repetitive nature of the coloring pages and became bored with them so we started adding drawings of things we remembered about each country to them. Just around the outside of the child. It is so fun to look back on them now.

We chose to add Italy as our optional country and had so much fun with it.

I bogged about some of our time with ECC on my blog listed in my siggy line You will have to go back to last school year to find them though as we are now using HOD and loving it!

[joyfulhomeschooler]

Forgot to add that my favorite blog for ECC was Mama Jenn's blog. She has some great printables for ECC found here. http://mamajenn.com/MamaJenn/MFW_ECC.html

[DianeW88]

We ditched ECC about 2/3 if the way through. Not because it is repetitive , it is, but then again, it's a pattern, a way of learning about countries and cultures so I expected that.

 

I didn't like a lot of the crafts and activities in the included books, so I found better ones online.

 

I didn't like the science at all, so used something else.

 

The coloring page with the costumed child from each country, ehhh, my boys hated coloring that.

 

My library didn't have many of the book basket books so I just had to choose others.

 

ECC didn't cover some of the countries I wanted to cover. It did cover some I didn't think were necessary.

 

I went with Galloping the Globe. It's the same concept as ECC, without the cost and without the unnecessary parts. I much preferred GTG.

 

This was my experience as well. I found it to be way too light for my kids, and the science was abysmal. I had to supplement so much in every subject that eventually I just dropped it and did my own stuff for the rest of the year. ECC was a complete waste of money for me.