Stuck between Notgrass EWH, MFW AHL, or Biblioplan

[melissamomof5]

So different, I know. :)

 

I will have a 3 year old, 2nd grader, 5th grader, 7th grader, and 9th grader.

 

Here are my ideas for the 9th grader. Help me process!

 

#1 - Notgrass EWH - I like this for the get-it-done aspect. I also like their list of literature. This child doesn't mind textbooks and is a steam engine with her work. 

 

#2 - MFW AHL - I like this because it includes further instruction for writing and literature. However, I am not crazy about their literature choices though.

 

#3 - Biblioplan year 1 with the rest of the family, but reading the Companion independently. I like this for the aspect we are all on the same time page. However, I am a bit scared by the amount of book choices to make. 

 

If we go with #1 or #3 I will need to add in some extra writing instruction.

 

 

Edited February 7, 2017 by melissamomof3girls

[mama25angels]

What does your 9th grader think? Which program does the student like? MFW uses the Notgrass books in the AHL program so you'd still have those books. You could swap out some or all of the literature if you wanted.

[SebastianCat]

My 9th grader is using MFW AHL and for the most part, I've been pretty pleased.   There have been points in the year where I've felt it was too light for him, and we've added some depth.   He had done Sonlight prior to this year and was accustomed to a LOT more literature than what MFW has scheduled.  

 

I would probably narrow it down to 2 choices and allow your DD to choose between them.   I really didn't like Sonlight's progression through high school and wanted to switch to more of a textbook approach, so I had narrowed it down to Notgrass or MFW.   I think the literature choices would be easy to swap, if you preferred the lit choices with Notgrass but the writing instruction of MFW.

[melissamomof5]

What does your 9th grader think? Which program does the student like? MFW uses the Notgrass books in the AHL program so you'd still have those books. You could swap out some or all of the literature if you wanted.

 

Honestly, her answer would be, whatever will be as little work as possible and get done as quick as possible. 

 

She is a very smart girl, but would rather be drawing or reading books at her own leisure.

[FriedClams]

What's going to get done?

 

I had a similar dilemma and went with NG and add on lit. It's been fine, but I regret not using MFW. I'll be switching to it next year. It's not perfect, it's not the most rigorous, but I think it's solid. It gives some room for other things (like harder DE classes, online science, etc). It's easy to implement. And, if it all gets done, then it's solid and enough.

[melissamomof5]

What's going to get done?

 

I had a similar dilemma and went with NG and add on lit. It's been fine, but I regret not using MFW. I'll be switching to it next year. It's not perfect, it's not the most rigorous, but I think it's solid. It gives some room for other things (like harder DE classes, online science, etc). It's easy to implement. And, if it all gets done, then it's solid and enough.

 

Thank you :) I do have AHL on the way to me and I am going to let her look through it all. Maybe I will schedule some of the Notgrass lit selections for her throughout the year. We are definitely going to do audiobooks on a few of those that AHL schedules.

[LAmom]

Did you decide what to do?  I am in a similar situation.  Debating MFW AHL, just Notgrass, or Biblioplan (year 1 or 3??) for my 9th grader.  Then if I choose BP, I'd be set with the 7th, 5th, 3rd graders.  If not, I still may do BP with them or the younger kid Notgrass--doing a year of just American history.

 

So, just seeing if you decided.  I don't want to buy MFW and then really regret it.  I already know that I would change some stuff.

[Storygirl]

DD15 used MFW AHL last year. It was .... okay. There were some things I didn't like about it, and I'll share them. They may not be things that would bother you.

 

* We didn't like The New Answers book, so after the first chapter, we didn't use it. It is a large volume that defends the Young Earth Creationist point of view. One essay on that topic would have been okay, but this was a big book that was assigned over many days (weeks, maybe?). Too much emphasis on one topic, and DD found it to be dry and hard to read. If you feel that emphasizing this view of Creationism is important for your family, it may be a good fit for you, but it didn't work for us (Christian family but don't believe that Young Earth versus Old Earth Creationism is a salvation issue, so would prefer to spend time differently).

 

* Similarly, the Unwrapping the Pharaohs book re-aligns the history of Egypt to correspond with Biblical accounts. Whether you like that or not is for you to decide, but it's good to know that the book has a deliberate slant when you choose it for your student.

 

These book choices might really be appreciated by some, but you should think about whether your family is the right audience. Even though we are conservative Christians, we didn't like these books, but many do. They reflect the philosophy of MFW, so if these kind of books are not your cup of tea, the program as a whole might not be comfortable fit. If you remove these resources, keep in mind that they take up a chunk of the reading time, so you may want to replace them with something else.

 

* Part of the history time was to be spent making a timeline. Yep, we did that already in third and fourth grade. DD did not want to cut and paste and color little figures, and I couldn't blame her. For us it was busywork.

 

* The program gives three credits -- one each in Bible, English, and history. I liked that DD read the OT through and did some related studies. I did not like that many days the Bible reading doubled as either the history or English portion of the day's studies. In my opinion, the Bible study should have been the Bible credit, with other work assigned for history or English. Not because I don't think you can consider the Bible as a work of literature or a source for historical study. But because it made the history part of the program really light. We did supplement with some additional language arts resources that I felt would benefit DD.

 

* I just said this in the last paragraph, but for us the history portion seemed light. The Notgrass text really didn't teach DD anything new or go over historical material in more depth than she had experienced before. She had already studied ancients twice -- in elementary and in middle school. Everything in Notgrass was review for her. And because Bible is counted as history, MFW only has the student read the first part of the textbook. So the history material felt slim. For someone who has not studied ancients before, it might be perfectly fine.

 

I didn't love all of their lit selections. Their writing guide had some really good material in it, yet was not exactly what DD needed, so we modified and supplemented with some other things. I had to tweak the schedule, because it did not allow enough time for DD to write and revise her papers (writing is hard for her).

 

* On a related note, this is also a personal preference, but I wish the writing portion of the program had been spread more evenly across the weeks, instead of having weeks that were writing intensive and then weeks that were literature focused. I reworked the schedule to spread the writing out more.

 

It's very possible that the things that didn't work for us might be the things that you are looking for. I don't mean for this to come across as negative. There are people who love this program. We wanted to. Knowing why we didn't might help you decide if could be right for your family.

 

I haven't had experience with the other options mentioned, so I can't compare it to the other programs.

[cbollin]

 

So, just seeing if you decided.  I don't want to buy MFW and then really regret it.  I already know that I would change some stuff.

 

I'm not the person you were asking.  But wanted to share my experiences. Everyone is different.  What works for me does not work for everyone. I have the point of view of being 3 and 6 years down the road after using AHL (with oldest and then middle).   my youngest has enough disabilities that mfw high school is out of her reach even with supports.

Hopefully seeing Storygirl's experience will let you know if too many changes would mean that something else would have worked better.   I'm a person who used AHL twice with two entirely different learners and it was fine for us.  Sharing my experience only to see exactly what Storygirl is saying that the reasons it's poor fit for one can mean good fit for others.  Doesn't mean mfw will be right for you. Doesn't mean I'm arguing with storygirl. 

 

(oh, for context, my oldest is in third year of college in STEM majors and got scholarships and is on all kinds of honors things, professional clubs, social fun, internship, dean's list every term,  and all of that.  middle gal just finished grade 12 and is on path to defer any college decisions for several years while working.  both used mfw for a long long long, oh my goodness, long time and did all 4 years of their high school program with minimum additions and what I think were minor tweaks).

 

New Answers Book: we lean young earth. We don't think age of earth is do or die topic.  and we also did not like this resource that much. We glanced at the chapters. Really did not like the format or set up of the book.  some chapters had a tone that I didn't like.   With oldest, she didn't care.   With middle she found some stuff "oh, interesting" (which translates into I'm bored out of my mind can I brush the cat now?).  But in the end, I would skim the chapter and talk about the material over a meal or snack.   So, yeah, like storygirl, we tweaked and didn't really click with this book. 

 

oh, timeline: (again, this shows what storygirl is saying that what's not good for one could be good for others).  My oldest and middle gleaned information from the timeline pieces themselves.  This was when mfw was using the History in the Woods timeline figures.  So that helped to add tidbits of fun things.  We had done small timelines prior to high school, so a more detailed one was good.  My oldest despised the idea of making the thing and slopped it together and didn't color it either. I was just glad she got the things in the right order and in the right part of the world.   Middle gal loved every minute of it in both AHL and WHL.  She made these beautiful keepsake books (and I actually taught youngest from them.)   Middle gal benefited from this activity. Oldest rolled her eyes the whole way.   By the way, I don't know if the current mfw timeline AHL pieces have the caption tidbits on them or not.  But that was a nice little thing to add for my kids. (even if it was captions). Other people may think that's just weird that we liked those. that's ok.

 

notgrass: yep. light on history. But it's ancients so we didn't care.  Did I admit that on wtm?  and both of my kids like the encyclopedia stuff.   We liked having ancient and even world history "light" overall.  We weren't going for clep in western civ or anything.  Just enough to get regular high school social studies in grade 9 and 10. My youngest only used Notgrass for her "very regular high school world history" credit.  That was about all she could do with her disabilities. (read, answer the review question, quiz.  added map work and a little timeline project - not as detailed as the ahl one)  But yes, notgrass history credit on its own is Light.  and thankfully so in our case.   But yeah, if in depth ancient cycle in high school is important, I've heard of people adding spieglevogel (western civ.. sorry for name spelling) and they like that. even  pass clep.

 

LIt: middle gal needed audio supports due to her disabilities.  the stuff in ahl and whl was relatively easy to find.  We gave up on Iliad. oh well. life goes on. (gosh, you know.. once you graduate two children from homeschooling, the whole perspective just changes. )

 

writing: over time my adhd stem oldest learned to write and can fake it with the best of them at college in spite of having me as teacher and in spite of frustrations with the materials in mfw.

 

So, overall, looking back on two different children of mine, I think the mfw fan girl in me was most appreciative of the structure and planning, and the way my children were able to do more on their own with me taking a side role in it.  I am not skilled at planning for long term 36 week things.  ugh.  So, any of these programs where the planning is done would have been good fit for that need.  I liked that with mfw years, I felt like my kids grew just enough in skill each year that it all worked out without burn out.  Oldest is a triple stem major in college and carries 18 credit hours a semester.  She didn't do that much in high school but still stepped up.   She attends a Catholic college where they are required to take 2 "religious studies" courses as part of their Gen Ed requirements.  She found the first one easy to do  from all of the reading she did in ahl. (hasn't done the second one that's this summer). 

 

no such thing as good for everyone.  I know I didn't like all selections in all years of mfw (even though we used all 4 years of high school).  We used what was assigned.  sometimes in ways that weren't exactly what was "suggested".   I know I liked that we got school done. checked off and move on.  and had time for interests.

 

not sure any of that helps.  the reasons it worked ok for me may be the exact reason it will not work for you and hopefully with enough info and stories out there, you'll know if it's good fit or good time to say nope.. something else please. 

[melissamomof5]

Storygirl, thank you for your review. Even though it wasn't your favorite, I think your review helps me see why I think we will like it, but understand how it isn't the best fit for everybody. :) It's always good to hear both sides.

 

Cbollin, thank you for your input as well. :) Always helpful ;)

 

Did you decide what to do?  I am in a similar situation.  Debating MFW AHL, just Notgrass, or Biblioplan (year 1 or 3??) for my 9th grader.  Then if I choose BP, I'd be set with the 7th, 5th, 3rd graders.  If not, I still may do BP with them or the younger kid Notgrass--doing a year of just American history.

 

So, just seeing if you decided.  I don't want to buy MFW and then really regret it.  I already know that I would change some stuff.

 

Hi :) I have decided to do MFW AHL with her this fall. :)  I really think we will appreciate how Bible & History are together and the Bible is used for history. This is the most important thing to us, that our children know the Bible, understand why we believe what we believe, and be able to see the lies from the truth. I appreciate the guide and how it will be easy for us to follow and check things off and be sure we've got everything done. I am sure there will be parts we don't like as much, there always is. ;)

 

This particular child wants to pursue University for a Bachelor of Music in Piano. I want to be sure she is well prepared and I know she is capable of MFW AHL and its expectations. So with my first, I am going to use an all ready to go curriculum.

 

I couldn't wrap my brain around Biblioplan. I knew I would probably fail when it came down to all the choices. Plus, my oldest really is ready to do her work independently. My daughter also would have done well with Notgrass EWH alone. She would have appreciated the get 'er done style of textbook, workbook, etc. I would have added in more Bible and I didn't really want them "separate". Does that make sense? I wanted her Bible & History to completely and deeply connect.

 

I will be having her do Teaching Textbooks and Masterbooks Biology instead of MFW recommendations.

 

I hope I made some sense. I am one tired mama and have lost the skill of communicating my thoughts.