Questions for MFW Highschool Users

[Guest]

I had been planning on using Notgrass for history in highschool; however I have seen a lot of reviews that preferred using MFW (that also uses Notgrass) instead.  My question is for those of you that have used MFW for highschool, what substitutions did you make (if any)?  Did you change out any bible books, literature, writing curriculum, etc.?  We use Analytical Grammar, so I am not sure we would need the Easy Grammar, and I am so used to IEW for writing that I don't know how good MFW writing instruction is.   I am not familiar with most of the bible books scheduled either.  I am trying to plan my almost 13 year old's high school years, so hearing how you used or changed MFW highschool would be of great help. 

 

Also, I had been planning on using Notgrass Exploring America for US history in highschool.  For those of you that has used MFW...how have you liked the BJU US text?

[dhudson]

My ds really likes BJU. He actually disliked Notgrass, he felt like the reading level was too simplistic and he appreciated the step up in BJU.

 

The only year they add Easy Grammar is year 3. The writing instruction has been fine especially since he had been through Writing Strands 7 and Rod and Staff 9/10.

 

We have absolutely loved the Bible instruction. We have felt that it has challenged him as well as laying a thorough foundation. This year he has been doing Worldview in year 3 and we have had fantastic conversations as well as feeling that it will prepare him to think critically and handle some of the challenges in college.

 

I also have really liked the integration between History, English and Bible. It has helped him make connections and see a bigger picture.

 

Overall, we have been very pleased and are looking forward to our twins entering the program in a year.

[dhudson]

double post - sorry!

[northcoast]

We have only used MFW AHL and like it so far.  Since my son had a good background with R&S grammar we are not doing any in MFW.  Grammar assignments are easy enough to drop.  Quite a few like the writing instruction.  For us I felt like it wasn't enough; we needed more hand holding with how to and with grading.  So this semester I outsourced writing.  I don't like how we are missing the writing topics in MFW but my son needed to get a more solid foundation with writing and I couldn't do it.  We are former IEW users but it's time for him to put his own ideas on paper and that is what we are struggling with.  We have used Bible as is and history.  We plan to use MFW next year.  What I like the most is how the Bible, History and Lit all tied together with a Biblical worldview.  I like that my son can do it on his own and then we get together to talk about what he has learned.  Let me know if you have more questions about Bible and history.

 

I see autism listed in the siggy.  Not knowing what the issues are exactly; just know there is quite a bit of reading.  I think MFW challenges one to think; especially about stuff read in the Bible.  It is designed to be independent.  My son has full days with his work but likes it overall.   Math and chemistry also keep him busy as he wishes to be pushed in that a bit.

[northcoast]

I'd agree with the dhudson on Notgrass and we haven't yet hit BJU history. 

[cbollin]

I had been planning on using Notgrass for history in highschool; however I have seen a lot of reviews that preferred using MFW (that also uses Notgrass) instead.  My question is for those of you that have used MFW for highschool, what substitutions did you make (if any)?  Did you change out any bible books, literature, writing curriculum, etc.?  We use Analytical Grammar, so I am not sure we would need the Easy Grammar, and I am so used to IEW for writing that I don't know how good MFW writing instruction is.   I am not familiar with most of the bible books scheduled either.  I am trying to plan my almost 13 year old's high school years, so hearing how you used or changed MFW highschool would be of great help. 

 

Also, I had been planning on using Notgrass Exploring America for US history in highschool.  For those of you that has used MFW...how have you liked the BJU US text?

 

 

My oldest has done AHL, WHL US1 and US2.  My middle gal is currently in AHL and she has some mild learning differences.  I doubt my youngest who has autism will have the ability to do MFW high school.   I'll take too long to answer....

 

I'd encourage you if possible to see their stuff in person.  Check their convention schedule page if convention or "exclusive event" is nearby.  Then, take your list of what people say and compare it to the real thing so it makes sense.

 

Writing:  you can use all of the writing techniques you have learned in IEW in order to do the writing assignments in any program, MFW or other.  so you can still do your dress ups, sentence openers, find a model, etc.     So if you see it in person...  look in AHL's literature/comp guide at the first 25 or so pages...   It's a different style of rubric from IEW.  If you have done The Elegant Essay, you'll see a lot of familiar things in that first section of the AHL composition.   In WHL, when MFW uses Writer's Inc... you'll see lots of prototypes of writing styles.  There is no reason you couldn't use the methods you learned in IEW in order to do the assignment.

 

Grammar:  the new edition of Notgrass does not have the "grammar point" in the chapters.  This is a good thing in my opinion as the Notgrass grammar was lacking in exercises and well uhmm. it was lacking.. It was read a grammar reminder daily.     I don't know how MFW will or will not add grammar in AHL and WHL because of that.  The other grammar in AHL came through Application over Identification while editing your essays and doing some specific exercises in the Lit/Comp guide.  So there is that aspect of grammar in the AHL lit/comp guide. If using Analytical Grammar only takes you a few minutes 5-10 a day, stick with it.  Like Dawn said, Easy Grammar book is 11th grade and there to keep skills sharp.

 

Oldest and I like the BJU text. 

My middle gal doesn't seem to mind the Notgrass text the same way my oldest did.  My oldest was a lot like Dawn has described her child..  somehow Notgrass felt like a let down after years of doing SOTW.... I'm very glad MFW added stuff to Notgrass.  both of my children like the additions.

 

From reading the online samples of the soon to be released new Notgrass... I appreciate that Notgrass has had some editing done on it.

 

 

on book subs and tweaks... this will be long... sorry. I'll try to be brief..  and come back...

 

Oldest - pretty much did MFW by the book. Middle gal gets tweaks for her learning style and differences.

 

AHL year: we helped each child with writing essays as needed.MIddle gal gets audio helps as needed.  I can link to another post where I have ideas on that. We do Bible together.  I don't always require everything to be written answers if we are discussing Bible. I had no problem having my children do cross references of verses with the Old Testament Challenge book... we just used Biblegateway and opened a new tab.  I never understand it when I hear how hard it is to pull up a verse in NT when you're told what verse to look for.   I don't get that issue in my house.

We skim read New Answers book together.  I have mixed feelings on it. I'm YE, but didn't click with the writing style of the book.

 

Also with Notgrass questions -- we do that out loud together because it's not that hard.  Maybe I'm short changing them by not requiring to write a full sentence, but oh well.  Middle gal:  I had a post the other day on another forum where I described how we tweaked Iliad for her right now.   However, I'll say that MFW gives ideas in the intro section on that. I blended some of those ideas.

 

The world map book (which MFW is moving from AHL and WHL to just WHL.. (ahl will have its own maps)...   that was a visually physically hard book on my oldest daughter's eyes.  Something about the style of black outlines was hard.  My middle daughter does not have this issue.  It makes total sense to her and she likes it.

timeline: not hard to do. I think my oldest needs glasses now that I type all of this... 

 

The biggest thing in AHL for my children was giving them the time they needed to step up at their pace.  I did not expect them to be fully independent within 1 -2 weeks.  Some children are.  Not mine. Yes, this means with my middle gal, I'm still doing some teaching in 9th grade.  That's ok. Middle gal benefits from audio books.  Oldest didn't need it.  Oldest didn't like the style of study in Daniel study in ahl...  so we skipped it and just discussed readings. I imagine middle gal will like that study,  it's much more her style.

 

They both enjoyed unwrapping pharaohs book, and usborn or dk style of  encyclopedia.

 

WHL: oldest got through Church History in Plain Language.  it was long chapters, not hard to read, but in retrospect, I wish I had been reading it with her to give it more discussion ability.   I'm not sure how I'm going to do this with middle gal.  I might sub a book or something.  For middle gal, I plan to have her watch Julius Caesar from Shakespeare in Bits and then read the play.

 

 

in year 3, US1, we didn't like the materials in the American Lit. supplement.  Those are based on Stobaugh. We used and tweaked it.  did not like it.   I felt a lot of freedom to change and adapt assignments as needed in English.  BJU was good.  I liked the gov't credit. It was not AP level or credit by exam level, but a solid high school gov't course.

 

US2, year 4..  I'll need to summarize that and come back.  :)

[cbollin]

US2, aka year 4:

oldest did that from about June through December.  We changed this up a bit.  Did "2nd semester" first, then did first semester. 

so our summer school began with Speech and Econ, and "get the geography stuff done", and for oldest, she "had" to do extra Brit Lit per our cover school's demand.  MFW did plenty of Brit LIt in WHL, but our cover school is scared that if they don't do Brit Lit in 12th then disaster happens. so we made them happy and did novels and poetry from LLATL brit lit. at least we read them.. answered questions.  moved on..  :)

 

so we did extra Brit LIt..   The geography -final map work, and prayer and current events..  we didn't really need mfw's plan for that. They weren't bad, but I dont' know.....  I think because at this point geography and world events are just such a part of our lives daily with news and praying, etc.....  that I wasn't worried about checking the boxes to give a "credit"....

 

Speech - we dropped Do Hard Things. Seemed like a tagged on book in the whole program. Designed to encourage high school age students to do service and expand horizons.  The authors of that book seem very politically motivated for actions.   This book wasn't motivating any of us, so we dropped it after a few days.   We were reading it out loud as a family.  It wasn't that we disagreed with concepts or general ideas in the book.. it just seemed like an ill fit overall.  I get the idea is to encourage the students to think about what motivates them to do stuff and be passionate about so that they are thinking on it for 2 weeks before writing a speech.

The other aspect of Speech credit portion of English 12 is to use Secrets of Great Communicators.   My oldest and middle and I watched the DVD. we did our workbook.  We wrote some speeches... practiced some.  My perception about this forum is that most people have had their students do speech/debate, etc....  We have not done this.  In retrospect, I wish I had done more with my oldest to help her with public speaking in general (how to interview for college scholarship day, or how to deal with ambigious question at a legal deposition...  you know... stuff that matters in life and that she did miserable at this week...  that deposition ugh.. and anyway.....)   She has a small communication disability called Cluttering and nothing in the speech DVD could help with that.

 

Overall, if a spring semester 12th grader is doing that course as "self guided independent study".... I think it's too late if that's their first exposure to public speaking.  I overall like the Secrets of Great Communicators.  don't get me wrong... I just am glad I did it summer after 11th grade instead of waiting a year.

 

Econ in a Box - I don't like the price.  As someone who has that business major degree, I really liked this course.  I am so glad we did this in summer where I had time and energy to teach and do the class with oldest and even included middle gal. (middle gal obviously needed it to be taught instead of just reading.)    I am glad that I did not just give the course to my child b/c it was a good course to take with them.  I liked it that much. 

 

Then, came "US2 first semester"...   this was semester of Spiritual Disciplines, with final part of US history and a reading list.  (edit to correct from US1 to US2. that was typo on my part and I didn't see it)

 

bible: Well, MFW has this idea that in first semester the student gets to cover life skills for Bible and then second semester do it on their own.   This is a good thing.   We decided the best thing for our child was to drop Bible as a school course after one semsester.  My oldest didn't not really click with the prayer book at all.  We got to have a long discussion on how to take a nugget from a chapter and toss the rest.. and then if we toss too much, then it's ok to drop a book.  It had a feel toward encouraing being very legalistic about you are a better christian if you pray for an hour.  I spoke with someone who worked at mfw about how he did this book with his youngest child who is a year older than my oldest...   Turns out that specific person did not do that book either.  But instead saw it as time to pray with his child/adult child....  ok  at least I know the program is tweakable right? 

We liked the extended analogy and MFW study guide for My Heart Christ's Home.  We liked the God owns my business.   We skipped Loving God because we read Colson's biography in "english/history" and didn't bother.

 

Overall, I don't know if it was senioritis, or what..  but this was our only year in MFW that we didn't like doing Bible.  The ingredients were ok to use.  I keep looking and thinking....  this should have worked.   If my middle gal does this course, we will spread it out over the year and treat it more like life skills instead of "school work".

 

US history part 2:  it was fine.   finish that up.   She zipped through it.  We tried to add some of the movie suggestions for history.   that was fun to do.   but then we ended up with netflix streaming and got lost in Doctor Who...  does that count toward Brit Lit?  I mean...  it is BBC and it's scripts and all of that?????  She ended up doing research and giving a lot of oral reports on a whole bunch of things....  LOL.

 

the first semester English:  it's a list of about 18 novels to read (pick and choose the number appropriate for you.)  Write a literary analysis sheet (aka 12th grade book report).   And do a research paper. 

 

so, we're done with our MFW stuff for oldest.  wow.  had to happen some day.    From Jan - May when she actually graduates... she's doing technical electives with Coursera in physics, calculus, and she's already completed a python course...

 

I overall think US2 in MFW has good ingredients.  I think we definitely hit senioritis.  I want my daughter to try to CLEP out of 2 courses (US history, and Lit Analysis)..  her college accepts both. so why not?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cbollin]

sorry to have such long answers.. I just re-read my US2 year and remembered something neat.   In the history section..... on some weeks, the lesson planner includes all or portions of signficant speeches in the 20th century.  Student gets to practice out loud reading of the speeches.  That was a really good thing.   We also searched on internet for recordings of those speeches to hear them.  that was fun to do.  and in one cases, it was a re enactment as there wasn't an audio recording of it.

 

I liked doing that.  MFW suggests that reading the speeches out loud is a gentle way to help prepare for the speech credit in second semester.  I sorta agree.  It helps to prepare for reading out loud of someone eles'e words and that has a good aspect in life.  but that was a nice little hidden gem in the US2 lesson planner.

[Guest]

My ds really likes BJU. He actually disliked Notgrass, he felt like the reading level was too simplistic and he appreciated the step up in BJU.

 

The only year they add Easy Grammar is year 3. The writing instruction has been fine especially since he had been through Writing Strands 7 and Rod and Staff 9/10.

 

We have absolutely loved the Bible instruction. We have felt that it has challenged him as well as laying a thorough foundation. This year he has been doing Worldview in year 3 and we have had fantastic conversations as well as feeling that it will prepare him to think critically and handle some of the challenges in college.

 

I also have really liked the integration between History, English and Bible. It has helped him make connections and see a bigger picture.

 

Overall, we have been very pleased and are looking forward to our twins entering the program in a year.

 

Thank you for sharing!  I had been under the impression that most kids liked Notgrass more than BJU, so it is good to hear that your ds enjoyed the BJU text.  It is also good to hear you enjoyed the bible instruction.  I am not familiar with many of the titles MFW selected, and I am pretty picky about what we use for christian studies.  I have enjoyed the christian world view in Apologia and MOH, and I have also liked many of the titles Sonlight has used in their bible.

 

[Guest]

We have only used MFW AHL and like it so far.  Since my son had a good background with R&S grammar we are not doing any in MFW.  Grammar assignments are easy enough to drop.  Quite a few like the writing instruction.  For us I felt like it wasn't enough; we needed more hand holding with how to and with grading.  So this semester I outsourced writing.  I don't like how we are missing the writing topics in MFW but my son needed to get a more solid foundation with writing and I couldn't do it.  We are former IEW users but it's time for him to put his own ideas on paper and that is what we are struggling with.  We have used Bible as is and history.  We plan to use MFW next year.  What I like the most is how the Bible, History and Lit all tied together with a Biblical worldview.  I like that my son can do it on his own and then we get together to talk about what he has learned.  Let me know if you have more questions about Bible and history.

 

I see autism listed in the siggy.  Not knowing what the issues are exactly; just know there is quite a bit of reading.  I think MFW challenges one to think; especially about stuff read in the Bible.  It is designed to be independent.  My son has full days with his work but likes it overall.   Math and chemistry also keep him busy as he wishes to be pushed in that a bit.

 

Thank you for sharing!  I am thinking of using something besides IEW for his eight grade year to help prepare him more for highschool writing.  My older dd has autism, but she is no where near the highschool level academically, and she probably never will be.  The one I am planning for is my current 12 year old that is 13 in a few months. 

 

[Guest]

Crystal,

 

Thank you so much for your detailed posts about how MFW worked for you guys.  You have definitely helped a lot!

[Julie in MN]

My question is for those of you that have used MFW for highschool, what substitutions did you make (if any)?  Did you change out any bible books, literature, writing curriculum, etc.? 

 

Also, I had been planning on using Notgrass Exploring America for US history in highschool.  For those of you that has used MFW...how have you liked the BJU US text?

 

My 12th grader has used MFW throughout high school, but as everyone has mentioned, it is a tool in our homeschool that we fit to our needs.  There have been times when I've changed things a lot, and there have been times when I need to just open the grid and make sure my son does what is on there.  Having homeschooled a high schooler without MFW, I so appreciate having that plan in place when needed.

 

Bible: Ds did all of AHL, WHL, and 1st semester US1, and responded well to everything.  We did some of them together, such as the Bible history portions, the Church History book, and the Thinking Like a Christian parent-led track (there are 2 options with that).  Sometimes I changed the writing-type ssignments to more of a "write what you learned today" type thing, instead of some things like the Old Testament Challenge questions (I preferred that he just focus on absorbing what he'd just read, rather than jump around to compare other verses, but that's based on a strong feeling about my own past).  In US1, we really dug into 1st semester but I started a little subbing in 2nd semesterf.  We are probably not going to do the Bible credit in US2, since we haven't started it yet LOL.  He did service projects in summers or on Sunday mornings, rather than on Fridays.

 

English: I like the reading choices, including the US1 American lit/founding documents types of studies in the Stobaugh supplement.  That said, my ds doesn't like to read at all, so I encouraged him by using audios, reading aloud sometimes, and subbing several pieces out for his book club readings - discussion with other boys helped motivate him (occasionally we'd even "study" a video of the MFW selection, if I had subbed it out but thought it was worth being familiar with -- we did the Progeny Press guide for Scarlett Letter using the 4-hour miniseries, and it went well for him, hope that doesn't shock anyone!).  Oh, I also did my own thing a bit in 9th with the Bulfinch Mythology study, so that my son would get what I wanted him to get out of it, but it was with the same goals and basic sequence.  He's done pretty much all of the essays, although I spent way more time on most of them, as I feel editing/improving writing is my main job in high school, and I love the opportunities he's had to form his thoughts and beliefs into words in the MFW assignments.  For grammar, discussion during the editing process works better for him than exercises with random sentences.  He did a college Communications course instead of English in US2, but I like that US2 has a lot more room for that kind of outside exploration.

 

"Social Studies":  I like BJU far more than Notgrass, but my son likes Notgrass far more than BJU and in fact I gave up on BJU with him after giving it all our effort for a few months.  I don't regret exposing him to it and working hard on it while we did.  But he was reading college textbooks by then in his dual enrollment, so I felt some of the BJU goals were being met in other ways.  I guess I have subbed a lot in US1 and US2 "social studies," since we switched texts and he also did a lot of his government credit through participating in outside events & watching Zeezok videos, but I've still used most of the MFW materials in smaller ways these 2 years.  He is hoping to do the entire Econ course as written, before the year is out.  We used all the materials in AHL and WHL, before our family situation got hard and dual enrollment started taking ds's greatest concentration.

 

Four years is a lot to discuss!

Julie

[ThisIsTheDay]

 

My dd used Notgrass American in 9th?10th? grade. She found the reading incredibly boring and couldn't muck her way through it. I, as a 40-something year old mom, loved the writing and thought it was fantastic!

 

But I later used MFW-AHL with my son for 9th grade. He loved it.  He's currently using MFW-WHL and loves that possibly even more.  He's never been a voracious reader but (incredibly) has loved virtually all of the MFW assigned reading and even read additional Shakespeare on his own, along with Tolkien's Sir Gawain and more.

 

We've adjusted to suit us.  I'm not a Ken Ham fan (the great kerfluffle history on this board, lol), so ds skimmed the Ham book for AHL. We also skipped Rick Warren's book.  We don't follow the "grammar" included in MFW/Notgrass (which most 4th grade WTM kids could do). We do minimal writing instruction, preferring IEW and Writing Strands.

 

I have to say that my son's middle school years were very lax, pretty unstructured.  He also has a late birthday and is younger than most in his grade level.  At the time I chose MFW for him, I feared I was setting us up for great failure.  But I also felt God was pulling me in that direction. 

 

My son truly was not, is not a big reader.  He did, however, read all of the Rick Riordan books, and he says that set him up perfectly for all of the mythology in AHL.  He already knew the characters.  He was disappointed when AHL ended, but he's been happy to discover that he loves WHL just as much. 

 

He does all of the work on his own, and instead of writing out anything for discussion, we just sit and discuss a few times a week.  I use the questions as guidelines, i.e., "Tell me about ____________________."  He also does all of the map work (I will usually assign more than MFW does) and timeline sheets. He enjoys the Kingfisher-type encyclopedias that both years have included.

 

Because you asked specifically about substitution/changes:

 

AHL:

Taking the Old Testament Challenge -- subbed a Greenleaf(?) book that Julie in MN used instead

What on Earth Am I Here For? -- I think that's a new book, don't remember that at all. Oh, that must have replaced Rick Warren.

Eric Liddell -- skipped

 

FWIW, my son adored The Iliad and Bullfinch's.  I know that I never would have chosen these books on my own for him.

 

WHL:

Skipped Heroes of the Faith, More Than a Carpenter, and I think we skipped Experiencing God. We skipped Practicing His Presence, and I'm pretty sure we'll sub Jane Austen with something that may appeal a bit more to him.  We're definitely not using any of the Writer's Inc stuff.

 

He really got into the beginning of Church History in Plain Language although it hasn't kept his attention all the way through. I was very leery of Pilgrim's Progress, but after the first chapter, he declared it the best book he ever read and enjoyed it all the way through.  ::Mom faints and falls off chair::

 

I have never been afraid of changing things out to suit *my* family and each of my kids. The fact that I can order it all together in a box with one instructor's guide is nice, but I don't feel that I have to be so structured.

 

It's been a fit better than any I could have imagined. Looking at what we've skipped, it almost seems funny to say that, but he has read other things instead, and I couldn't be happier with how he's stepped up to the challenge these past two years. We've been planning on community college for a few courses next year, and I think ds will continue doing MFW at home--it's worked so well for us.

 

 

 

[cbollin]

 

Because you asked specifically about substitution/changes:

 

AHL:

 

What on Earth Am I Here For? -- I think that's a new book, don't remember that at all. Oh, that must have replaced Rick Warren.

 

to help others on that...  uh, that is Rick Warren's book.  The original title was Purpose Driven LIfe, with a subtitle/secondary title of What on Earth am I Here For? (it's printed on the original cover)  The cover of book changed a while back and the secondary title font was enlarged and is now considered the primary title and the PDL is considered a series title or something like that. same book, cover changed and which title gets listed first was changed by the publisher to show it's more current.  you know how publishers get with cover changes and minor changes like that.  but it's same book .   

[ThisIsTheDay]

to help others on that...  uh, that is Rick Warren's book.  The original title was Purpose Driven LIfe, with a subtitle/secondary title of What on Earth am I Here For? (it's printed on the original cover)  The cover of book changed a while back and the secondary title font was enlarged and is now considered the primary title and the PDL is considered a series title or something like that. same book, cover changed and which title gets listed first was changed by the publisher to show it's more current.  you know how publishers get with cover changes and minor changes like that.  but it's same book .   

 

Hahaha! Thanks for the clarification!  Wasn't the publisher happy with how many books sold the first time around?

 

;)

 

[Guest vargasmm]

Do you feel the Parent Guide gives you enought background info on the books your student is reading and what discussion points to bring up if you are not reading every single book that your HS child is reading.  I am comparing MFW to Sonlight and Sonlight's seem to be more in depth.  I havn't used either but am leaning more towards MFW because the Lit. books seem more challenging.  Thanks for your help!

[ThisIsTheDay]

Do you feel the Parent Guide gives you enought background info on the books your student is reading and what discussion points to bring up if you are not reading every single book that your HS child is reading.  I am comparing MFW to Sonlight and Sonlight's seem to be more in depth.  I havn't used either but am leaning more towards MFW because the Lit. books seem more challenging.  Thanks for your help!

 

No, it did not.  It wasn't a problem for me though, because my kid loved to discuss what he was reading.  :svengo:   I also didn't assign every book per the curriculum, and he substituted a few based on what interested him at the time.  ("You want to continue reading Shakespeare?  OKAY then!")

 

I don't think of him as an avid reader. A book really has to grab his interest.  It surprised me how willing he was to discuss the books.

 

If it had been my other student, I probably would have used sparknotes.com or similar (free online!). She likely would have understood the books better, but she would have been much more reluctant to read them.  I would have had to work to draw discussion out of her.

 

Really, we loved MFW AHL and WHL.

 

[Guest vargasmm]

No, it did not.  It wasn't a problem for me though, because my kid loved to discuss what he was reading.  :svengo:   I also didn't assign every book per the curriculum, and he substituted a few based on what interested him at the time.  ("You want to continue reading Shakespeare?  OKAY then!")

 

I don't think of him as an avid reader. A book really has to grab his interest.  It surprised me how willing he was to discuss the books.

 

If it had been my other student, I probably would have used sparknotes.com or similar (free online!). She likely would have understood the books better, but she would have been much more reluctant to read them.  I would have had to work to draw discussion out of her.

 

Really, we loved MFW AHL and WHL.

 

Thanks so much for your feedback.  I have looked at the TMs and that was sort of what I had gathered but wanted to ask someone who actually had used the material.  Appreciate you!

[cbollin]

Do you feel the Parent Guide gives you enought background info on the books your student is reading and what discussion points to bring up if you are not reading every single book that your HS child is reading.  I am comparing MFW to Sonlight and Sonlight's seem to be more in depth.  I havn't used either but am leaning more towards MFW because the Lit. books seem more challenging.  Thanks for your help!

 

different experience depending on the year and book.

 

There aren't a lot of "parent guides" in the daily lesson plans, but some of the materials have Q&A, and all of that.

 

AHL:  there was plenty in the Lit/Comp guide on those books b/c the questions were there and answer key.   (that covered Bulfinch, Gilgamesh and Odyssey) I thought it was enough.

 

I thought Bible was fine because I prefer to teach from study Bible.  I felt like I didn't need a lot of discussion questions on Cat of Bubastes b/c my daughters liked it enough they just talked about the book.  Iliad - just looked at spark notes online.  Notgrass text had Questions in it.   Unwrap the Phar. -- I did that "tell me about the chapter style" as they flipped through pages after the day.

New Answers Book - I strongly modified how we did that book so it wasn't read on their own.

Eric Liddell - I hadn't read that so I elected to read out loud so it wasn't an issue.

 

WHL: felt lost in the Bible books as that was either read along with, or gloss over.   Church History in plain Language.  I ended up making my own notes. 

 

Where the literature books didn't have their own questions in various student materials, I just used online summaries and didn't worry on it.   It was free and easy to look up so I never felt like I was clueless.  but there was answer key for the questions that were asked.

 

 

US1: the amer. lit supplement book has stuff in the back to help.  

other books have some Q &A with them.  Progeny Press guide has answer key  and the Thinking like a Christian --- the parent guide is very detailed.

 

US2: that was a very different approach to literature.  I read summaries to see if what my child was writing made any sense.  I was more concerened with her writing than reading at that point.  It's such an individualized year I can't see really how they'd do a guide.

 

It's weird. I write that out and it looks like it's lacking in stuff... but I thought we were fine with what we had and just a quick free online stuff when needed --- except for the book Church History in Plain Language.  I think that book needs a small guide or parent willing to read ahead and discuss.

[Guest vargasmm]

different experience depending on the year and book.

 

There aren't a lot of "parent guides" in the daily lesson plans, but some of the materials have Q&A, and all of that.

 

AHL:  there was plenty in the Lit/Comp guide on those books b/c the questions were there and answer key.   (that covered Bulfinch, Gilgamesh and Odyssey) I thought it was enough.

 

I thought Bible was fine because I prefer to teach from study Bible.  I felt like I didn't need a lot of discussion questions on Cat of Bubastes b/c my daughters liked it enough they just talked about the book.  Iliad - just looked at spark notes online.  Notgrass text had Questions in it.   Unwrap the Phar. -- I did that "tell me about the chapter style" as they flipped through pages after the day.

New Answers Book - I strongly modified how we did that book so it wasn't read on their own.

Eric Liddell - I hadn't read that so I elected to read out loud so it wasn't an issue.

 

WHL: felt lost in the Bible books as that was either read along with, or gloss over.   Church History in plain Language.  I ended up making my own notes. 

 

Where the literature books didn't have their own questions in various student materials, I just used online summaries and didn't worry on it.   It was free and easy to look up so I never felt like I was clueless.  but there was answer key for the questions that were asked.

 

 

US1: the amer. lit supplement book has stuff in the back to help.  

other books have some Q &A with them.  Progeny Press guide has answer key  and the Thinking like a Christian --- the parent guide is very detailed.

 

US2: that was a very different approach to literature.  I read summaries to see if what my child was writing made any sense.  I was more concerened with her writing than reading at that point.  It's such an individualized year I can't see really how they'd do a guide.

 

It's weird. I write that out and it looks like it's lacking in stuff... but I thought we were fine with what we had and just a quick free online stuff when needed --- except for the book Church History in Plain Language.  I think that book needs a small guide or parent willing to read ahead and discuss.

Wow! This was so helpful.  I appreciate the overview on all of the levels from someone who is experienced using them.  Thanks!