LAmom Posted May 13, 2013 Share Posted May 13, 2013 It's that time of year again where I have the great debate about what to use for history! TOG, MFW, Bilbioplan, just MOH, just SOTW, etc... So, regarding MFW, I am always so attracted to it (have used ECC, Adv, and 1st in past) but never really loved it--don't know if it was me or why exactly. My question is how much time do you spend using it? I take my mornings to just get English, Math, Phonics, Spelling done. Then after lunch we quickly do some history, etc. It seems like MFW has a lot more involved--using English from Roots Up, adding in Bible, Art, Music, Science (more than once a month, lol). I am looking to use RTR. I want it to work but am worried that I won't have time to utilize the best I can since I spend most of my time with the basics. Do I have to do a lot of reading aloud? Any input on time, scheduling would be great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom2TheTeam Posted May 13, 2013 Share Posted May 13, 2013 I've used K and 1st. Using Adv this year. bumping for you. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homemama2 Posted May 13, 2013 Share Posted May 13, 2013 I'm wondering the same thing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berley Posted May 13, 2013 Share Posted May 13, 2013 We used CtG this year, finished early, and have started RtR just because we could and the kids love it. We are finishing up 5th and 2nd grades and just started a kindergartener in March. My hubby has started doing the Bible portions in the evenings. That takes about 10-20 minutes (depending on how long the Bible reading is) about 4 nights a week. Many nights he will add in a few verses from one of his favorite books of the Bible that are applicable to something we are experiencing as a family, and we will discuss that, as well. We really enjoy doing that as a family, and it involves Dad in our homeschool a little. We found that switching between all subjects every. single. day. is TOO MUCH, not because of the amount of time the subject takes, but because I have one child that wastes time EVERY time we have to change our line of thought or get out different books. Anything that isn't too much to do two lessons in a day, we're consolidating and doing double lessons 2 days a week. We have started doing history 2 days and science on the alternating 2 days and it's working much better. (We participate in a co-op on Fridays.) I don't really time what we do, as it's different every day, and we don't do all of the projects because I have a two year old that tries very hard to keep our days disrupted as much as possible. :) I would say we spend an average of 30-45 minutes a day on two days worth of work (alternating history and science and completing two days of each at a time), including the read-alouds. Sometimes we will go off on a tangent and it's longer than that, but I either save it for last, or am very aware of the time we are spending on it and other things that we have to do that day. Many times, they will be so involved in a story that they want to read another chapter or two, so we do. If we have extra time, we will read extra or work ahead a little to save time on a day that we have to make an unexpected trip to the doctor (or whatever). This past year, I didn't use MFW's science because my kids had interests in other things, so we studies those things. This next year, they are more excited about what MFW has to offer, so we are doing their science. It really isn't all that much. You can pick and choose what activities you do, and it's fun. We don't do their art or music because we get plenty of that in other places. English from the Roots Up is included in our 30-45 minutes on our history days. We could certainly shorten it to less than the 30-45 minutes, but that seems to be a good fit for us right now. Activities that will take a while are saved until the end of the school day and for one child, used as bribery for getting other work completed timely. :) I'll be glad to answer any other questions if I can. Hope that helps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LAmom Posted May 14, 2013 Author Share Posted May 14, 2013 Any other MFW users? How much time do you spend on the lessons not including the basics (math, phonics, etc)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cbollin Posted May 14, 2013 Share Posted May 14, 2013 Any other MFW users? How much time do you spend on the lessons not including the basics (math, phonics, etc)? I don't really know. at that age.... and stage of learning...... I know I got it most all done in morning. mixed it up from "mfw stuff" vs "3 r's"... didn't sweat the clock. When bigger projects weren't done, we did them in down time in afternoon... I often reserved read alouds for evening or weekends. I used mfw recommendations for language arts and math and those were not taking all day. in spite of using mfw for 10 years... I really am not a clock watcher on it. start somewhere from 730 or 8.. .work for a while... take a break for a litlte bit.. work through a bit more.. next thing... I'm not a tiger mom who made them do excessive amounts of writing. i taught the material. we played. enjoyed books... and somehow we weren't doing school all day at those ages. I couldn't do school all day. I get mentally maxed out. I have 2 children with special learning needs.. if you don't mind me asking... for context purposes if using MFW stuff will work..... what kinds of things are you using for language arts and math? I know back in the day when I posted on the mfw board, that was something I would ask to those who were using mfw and getting bogged down.... where is lang. arts and math getting your bogged down? do you have to do advanced assignments in mfw grid or not... could you do mfw stuff first and enjoy that. very often you are getting a lot of language arts learning in the unit study and may not need to do a full hour more. I hope you get a few more answers from those who are skilled at clock watching. back in the day when I had kiddos with the ages you have... I had to stop school to take younger to special ed pre school and pick her up, and stuff like that.... I'd watch the clock to get to places on time. stop mid sentence.. let kids finish songs, dancing, crafts, etc while I made lunch and decompressed... and somehow... my oldest (my non special learner still managed to end up having strong ACT scores in 11th grade..) sorry if I sound unhelpful or clueless... but I don't know how much time we spent on mfw stuff. I got it done. It wasn't blog worthy or pretty or "wow.. you're the bestest homeschooler evah" picture worthy. I know those users are out there. they may not be on this forum with the time boxes. I agree with bookerdawg that I just don't really know how much time.... in spite of my cluelessness......which might not make you happy as you read my ramblings.... MFW has suggested "time boxes" ala charlotte mason.. Let me just summarized that info... this is for elementary age.... add time for jr. high. (and high school is different too) bible 10-20 minutes. (for us... well, ok, we're not that long on our lessons. oops. oh well.. ) history stuff - 45 minutes ish.... and that's to do everything, reading, notebooking, etc. both teacher time and independent together. I was not reading for 45 minutes. book basket roughly 15 mintues science in mfw 20 minutes for elementary including demos/experiments/notebooking art/music 15 minutes... 15 minutes in rosetta stone. so let's just say.... mfw stuff (not counting spelling, english, reading, math) about 2 hours and that's a combo of teaching time and independent time. I typically was able to get that done in the weirdness of my day to leave the house for special needs teaching. and even when she was able to be home full time, yeah... sounds about right... I took a flexible approach on it.... I did stick with them to work efficiently. anything that could be done in afternoon such as music/art, book basket etc.... done in free time was done in free time.... or the music was in the van wtih us... hopefully that gives you some insight into how it worked for me. mileage will vary. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LAmom Posted May 15, 2013 Author Share Posted May 15, 2013 I use Rod and Staff English and Math Mammoth. I also spend a lot of time with my current 3rd grader helping with math, helping with spelling (not a natural speller like older daughter), helping with reading because he still is not very good at it, etc. Then I do some work with my K student (only about 10 min!). My older dd takes a long time to do math...so sloooowww. It bores her, she hates it but gets it done...eventually. Mornings are about 10 until 12. We get the basics done in that time. Everything with MFW would have to be after lunch. We could do another 2 hours but that's about it. I am working to adjust morning start time to earlier but this is what works right now... Thanks Crystal for you insights. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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