My Father's World ECC

[hands-on-mama]

Hi all!

 

Could anyone give thoughts on ECC? I have always been intrigued by this program. We like HOD but I want to combine this upcoming year. My girls will be in 2nd and 4th.

[meganrussell]

👂

[bfw0729]

We are currently using ECC and I have three kids using it (two 4th graders and a third grader). My kids have learned A LOT about dozens of counties and I find the science very appropriate. We used Mystery of History and Building Foundations of Science Understanding last year. We haven't had as many experiments this year, but the kids have learned a lot about biomes, cell biology, animals, conservation, etc... I really love book basket. For every new country we head to the library and take out 30 + books related to the country of study and some surrounding countries and science for that two weeks. I can't find several of the books recommended by MFW and so I find very similar books. I get some from interlibrary loan as well. I try to get the books with an asterisk because those are the highly recommended books to get. 

 

This is our first year using MFW and I have been very pleased. I use it for Science and Geography only (but do work on the weekly bible verses). I don't read their read alouds or do their bible study (window of the world, hero tales, etc..). I have some conflict with the Religious portion of their curriculum, so I don't use it. 

[....]

My dh bought ECC back in January (?) when they were having the sale.  I was planning to do other stuff with the kids, but dh really liked it after looking at the MFW website.  I think he felt sorry for me planning and was trying to make my life easier (lol).  He bought the Deluxe Package (I think that's what it's called).

 

So, it did arrive in the mail and we looked through it.  I need to sit down with it a little more in the next few weeks.  Some of the books that looked really odd to me on the website were very different as I was flipping through them in person.  I really like the book selection.  The girls (going to be 4th grade and 7th grade) wouldn't put the books down.  They were reading all of them on the bed and we were telling them, "Hey!  These books have to last all year!"  Lol.    

 

I need to do some prep before we start.  We bought the fake currency package and we had to sit on the bed and cut up all the coins, bills, etc and put them into sandwich bags with the country labeled on the outside.  I need to figure out what to do with the student pages.  I'm thinking about making a 3-ring binder for each kid and punching holes in the student sheets for the binder (before we start).

 

I am using the 7th grade/8th grade supplement.  I bought the first Progeny Press study guide (she picked Island of the Blue Dolphins).

 

We are not using their language arts or math.  After 8-9 years of homeschooling, I'm not looking for new stuff in those departments. 

 

I need to make sure we do all the little extra things in the TM - like the Book Basket time and it seemed like there were things like nature walks scheduled...

 

Kids #3 and #4 are very school-at-home-oriented, so using MFW suits them.  My oldest two choose what they want to study each year.  I don't know what #5 is like, yet.