My Farher's World

[mamamoose]

I posted a week or so ago and didn't get any response. I just wonder if possibly I didn't ask the right questions. So, specifically, what are your pros and cons for MFW?

[SilverMoon]

.

Edited September 5, 2023 by SilverMoon

[SilverMoon]

.

Edited September 5, 2023 by SilverMoon

[Insertcreativenamehere]

I've tried it twice and quit twice. The major reason is that I'm just not an all-in-one kinda girl. I like scheduling science and history on certain days of the week, not almost every day as scheduled by MFW. I don't like using someone else's schedule. My kids hated some of the books, but liked others. I now use MFW and Sonlight both as booklists and use their suggestions as they fit with SOTW and our own science.

 

Sent from my MotoG3 using Tapatalk

[mamamoose]

I also just realized I typed the title wrong--gotta love the phone keyboard! 

 

I haven't had success following someone else's schedule either, so maybe I should just forego it. I really can't decide what to do with dd10. We did MOH Volume 1 this year and will finish it this summer. I used Illuminations but really didn't love their book list, so maybe I should just piecemeal it together myself.

[sassenach]

I loved MFW for K-2nd grade, but we never made it through ECC and we've never gone back.

[Momto6inIN]

If I was going to just be starting with a K'er and if I was going to use an all in one, I'd probably go with MFW. I just really love looking at the website! :)

But when it comes right down to it, I have more fun piecing together my own stuff.

[MyLittleBears]

I think it really just depends on personality and the "seasons of life". We tried it with ECC first. We went thorough about 14 weeks of it with my boys giving me a silent groan whenever I pulled out the books. So we ditched it an did middle ages history with books from the library. They loved it. Looking back it was probably that particular year. Too much geography, we didn't like the YWAM books, ecology was really dry,etc. It felt too structured. I secretly really wanted to start with ancients but was convinced the only way to do it was the way they recommended which is to start with year 1. We tried it again three years later, starting it where we pleased, and it went really well. We did exploration to 1850s followed by 1850 to present. My kids learned *A LOT*. It served us well but my kids were older and they all fit into the age brackets for the family cycle. It fulfilled my need for accountability and structure that I seemed to need at the time. We are restarting our history cycle this coming school year but this time I feel like I need less structure and a bit more freedom to add or subtract as necessary. So use it as your tool and not your master is the take home message.

 

ETA: I couldn't stand the science portion. It was very loosely related to the unity study. We did a lot of supplementing. If we were to go back to it I would do a completely different science.

Edited April 17, 2016 by MyLittleBears

[Guest]

We enjoyed Adventures when my oldest was in 2nd grade, but when we tried ECC the following year it flopped. We ended up ditching it before the school year was half over. We have since looked at different levels of MFW, but it never seemed to be right for us for one reason or another.  

[hands-on-mama]

We have used MFW K, MFW 1st and MFW Adventures and we haven't made it all the way through any of them. We liked them okay, but it just wasn't as good of a fit as I wanted.

 

[cbollin]

I feel old on this thread.  I realized it's been 13 years since I used mfw the first time.  My oldest started in 2nd grade with ecc (before adventures was written), and she's doing very well in college.  used it whole way through. Middle gal is just finishing 11th grade.  youngest has autism.

 

it was too much for my youngest to handle from about her 2nd grade time until currently.  I'd have to trim a lot to make it work and she really just wants a chapter to read, fill in a blank and go be the developmental delayed person she is with autism.   I still have hopes to use parts of ECC in this child's geography credit.  (She is special needs).

 

some books will be hit or miss. 

 

I liked that I didn't have to do much shopping or planning.  Other people will find that as a turn off. For me, it was an answer to prayer.   It really was enough to do and my oldest was college ready. When we were in younger years, I enjoyed the idea of book basket. For others, that idea of getting books and letting them not finish all of them, or get them back to library is a hassle.  For me, in the younger years, it was a fun thing to do once a week to go to library by myself while hubby watched the kids.  or we'd all go together.   It was a smaller town with the best library.  Moved to larger city, and going to library here just was blah...   

 

overall, I was glad with the decision in 2003 and glad with it now.  No, I didn't like every.single.book in the program.  That's ok.  Yes, I like teaching from a textbook without it being a read aloud.  Yes, we enjoyed many of the read alouds over the years.   Crafts were usually simple enough I could do it.  i'd scale back as needed.

 

If you really feel trapped by lesson plans written by others with no ability to give yourself permission to do it otherwise, then mfw and similar programs probably aren't what you want.   For me the lesson plans made it easy for us to get it done. 

 

I don't know how to reduce my experience over a decade of liking it into a short answer.    School got done.  we had fun with science  (other people hate it). Then they grow up and take the lesson planner by themselves .. 

[My4arrows]

Mfw was one I wanted to love. We enjoyed K and adventures, but when we tried creation to Greeks, it was painful for us. I found the same for at least two other fiends of mine. Some of the choice of books were not the best IMO. While attempting to have the entire family group in the cycle, there were too many levels of books. For example, stream of civilization is meant for a higher level, but included in the base which you'd begin with 4/5th graders. You as the parent are to read it and the summarize it. That wasn't working for us. My kids wants something more along the lines of SOTW or MOH (we ended u parading it for MOH which mine enjoy). I also found for myself that I don't work with a boxed curriculum. I didn't like getting "behind" with certain portions of mfw and then rushing through to complete it all. We've enjoyed piecing together our curriculum, covering the same materials, putting in our interests and moving at our pace.

[dessertbloom]

We're just finishing up MFW K and planning to do Adventures in July. (Long story as to why we're skipping First.)  I really like MFW K, but we're not using the phonics or math. I really recommend joining one or two of the MFW facebook groups to get a better idea of what the program is like. There are lots of happy mamas on those FB page, and you can see more what projects are done, etc. :) 

[Loowit]

I have really liked MFW, but like anything else, it works for some people and not for others.  I do not use all of their recommendations for language arts and math.  I have found other things that work better for my children for those subjects.  I like that each week is already planned out and all I need to do is plug in my own things.  I have learned not to get to set in stone that we must do everything listed.  I leave out some things or add in some things when I like..  We just started our second time through the 5 year cycle last fall and will be doing ancients this coming fall.  My oldest is now using their high school stuff and I really like it as well.

[mamiof5]

We've done Adventures, ECC and now working on Creation to the Greeks. I make copies of the weekly calendar page so I can check what has been done. We don't do all the crafts, just the ones that really get our attention. I don't follow their math and LA recommendations. We just tweak it and works for us

[stacyh270]

Our first HS year, we used ECC with my two K'ers and 5th grader.  I loved parts of it and over time really disliked parts of it.  We did love the read alouds but by the end I was tweaking so much that I found it not worthwhile to pay for the scheduling, which is really what it is.  Everything else can be purchased on your own .  Also, during that time period, we started exploring the Catholic faith (we just converted) which was prompted in some ways by some of the MFW's materials.   We realized quickly that some of MFW's materials didn't jive with our new Catholic Christian worldview.  Also, the science books selected are definitely from a YE perspective.

 

But, OTOH, I am definitely thankful that we tried it and we took many positive things away from it.  I have fond memories of that school year (for the most part) :)