Trying soooo hard to decide about MFW...please help...

[Mommy7]

I love the looks of MFW ECC. I am very interested in it. But, I have to be practical about my limitations in various areas.

 

I need to know how long it will take to teach the Geography, Science, Music, & Art part. Can anyone help with that? I know they say it takes 4 hours for the whole school day. But, that is calculated with English and Math in the total time. I would be doing my own English and Math. I would do Bible during devotions, so I really need to know how long the rest of the program would take to teach.

 

I want to do some of the projects, but probably not all. It would not be realistic for me to think I could make it to the library a lot either.

 

Could ECC be done in 1.5 hrs????

 

If not, I will need to forget it.

 

Thank you so much, anyone out there, for responding.

[Tabrett]

Quote from MFW web site:

 

"When teaching multiple children in kindergarten – 6th grade, our easy-to-use daily lesson plans are usually completed in four hours each day when following our recommendations for math and language arts."

 

There suggested math is Singapore and the suggested LA is dependent on the grade level, but includes PLL or ILL, A spelling curriculum (Spelling Power) and a writing curriculum (Writing Strands).

 

Would your Math and LA take longer to do than MFW's suggested Math and LA curriculum's? As long as you math and LA take about the same time as listed above, I would think you would be done with everything in 4 hours.

[bethben]

We started school at 8:30, had 1/2 hour break, and finished by noon. That was for everything including a different science program and Latin. Granted, I am only "really" teaching 1 child, so you should factor that in as well.

 

About the book basket books, it just adds to the program, but most people here will say that they are not necessary.

Beth

[sweetbaby]

We don't use the MFW suggestions for LA and Math but I use ECC with three children. We are finished in 4 hours. I think the length of a school day just depends on how many curriculum packages you are using, your choices for Math and LA or other addends, interruptions and basically life's happenings.:D HTH

[Mommy7]

Shurley English takes me 30 minutes to teach. I teach it on 3 levels. I am wanting to combine two of my dc so that I will be teaching 2 levels next year, soooo...that would take me 1 hr. to teach.

 

We have switched to TT, so math time has gone way down. I will need to allow 15 min. per child for that...so, that's 45 minutes. (Once they are accustomed to this new program, I may not need to allow this time. But, I was thinking they need accountability. I want to make sure they are viewing the TT solutions and learning from their mistakes!)

 

I am adding two K'ers next year. I am thinking of doing MFW K program and the Saxon K program. That will take about 1.5 hours, from what I understand.

 

Then there are the miscellaneous things...spelling and looking over any independent work...that would take about 45 minutes.

 

I have my children do the Abeka reading program through 3rd grade, so that will take a total of 30 minutes. I could have one of the children read to my oldest dd and that would save 15 minutes here.

 

I was hoping to accomplish the Science & Geography portion of ECC in an hour to an hour and a half. We will do the Bible portion as a family at night for devotions. On one of the message boards at MFW, someone said they save the projects (Art or other type) for Fridays, because that has been scheduled as a light day. I thought that could be a time saver too.

 

That would give me a total of 6.0 hours, which is exactly how long it takes me now. I've cut everything down as much as I can. I've put a lot of time into trying to figure out how to make it all work...5 grades is a lot to juggle, but God has been faithful to lead the way.

 

I was pondering last night about why we homeschool, anyway. Our purpose is for our children to have a heart for God. It would seem that MFW has the same goal with their curriculum. Is it a match? It would appear so, but I will continue to pray about it.

 

I welcome any other thoughts you all may have....do you think I am being realistic?

[TxMama]

Wow that makes my head dizzy!:tongue_smilie:I never homeschooled 5 grades but a couple of things immediately came to my mind while reading this post. And I'm responding without knowing your kids' ages.....

 

Shurley- Is there anyway you would be willing to trim this to just teaching 1 level?

 

TT- I usually spent about 15 min per week per child making sure that they were doing what they were suppossed to be doing. I usually did this when they did the test ( I kept the test disc so they did not have access to it) and it was real obvious who was not learning from their mistakes. Of course I was available if they needed me but this rarely happened.

 

Kr-s. You are going to teach the full MFW K + Saxon ( math/phonics?)? I think to save time you teach MFW K phonics/math and skip the rest of MFW K and let them tag along for the rest with ECC.

 

Independant work- I worked toward reviewing independant work once weekly with each child not daily.

 

Is the 6 hours a day what your Jr. High age or older children are doing or what YOU are doing?

[Emmy]

I've been looking over MFW - I have the Road to Reformation manual - and I can't possibly imagine getting done 'by noon' as they say but that's probably due somewhat to my math and LA choices which are very hands on for the teacher. My children are also young so there's no such thing as doing history in 30 minutes (including the notebooking page? that's just not even close to possible by the time I read to them, get them to the table, get out the crayons, help them each write their narration etc).

[cbollin]

This year I did ECC with 7th, 4th grader and had a Kindy kid tagging along in MFW K. I've used MFW's recommendations for language arts and math for a while and it's working out for me. Basically, the time box for math/language arts/English is about 1.5-2.0 hours for all of that. My 7th grade had about a 5-6 hour day with interruptions. She was doing the jr. high requirements including research and writing. It was a kick it up a notch for my jr high kid to not be lazy. But we managed through the year. I could have done better if I stayed off the computer more :lol:

 

Typically, my kindy kid did the K program in about three 15 minute spurts throughout the day, so it was never time consuming.

 

To get things done we juggled who was doing what when. And especially who needed my attention more at a particular moment. And then there were times that my oldest kid would read ahead in something. Or we'd use light and independent Friday as a catch up Friday.

 

Library: typically we'd check out books for 2-3-4 weeks at a time and renew online, so it wasn't that bad. I enjoyed getting out of the house to go get the books on the weekend.

 

Sounds like many of your goals match with MFW's.

 

-crystal

[Julie in MN]

I've been looking over MFW - I have the Road to Reformation manual - and I can't possibly imagine getting done 'by noon'

 

Agreeing that adding other math and language arts and misc. extras can add to that time frame.

 

But also, I've met some of the Hazell family and they do start at 8 a.m. -- kids all fed & dressed & floor clean. I also find it makes all the difference to have every book near at hand, so no time is spent hunting & gathering :willy_nilly:

 

I think different families are in different situations, and so the time frame does vary a bit. I'm sure a missionary family with 6 kids had to learn to be efficient! I'm very appreciative of having their model to work from.

[Mommy7]

Wendy B,

 

Thanks for the great ideas! I don't think I can combine the Shurley classes (unfortunately) because there is such a wide spread. I *am* teaching 2 of my children together, though. But, next year the other two will be in levels 5 & 6 or 7, I'm not sure which...I wanted to combine the two of them, but I would have to bump my ds up a level to do it. I found out that I got some bad advice about the starting point for my daughter (not anyone on this board :)) and so next year I'm going to get her more where she needs to be.

 

When I mentioned Saxon, I was referring to doing their math instead of MFW's math. So, with regard to MFW K, are you saying only teach the phonics, not the science stuff? I was under the impression that it all overlapped. No? Would MFW K math be enough?

 

The 6 hours is my teaching time. No, their school day is no where near as busy as mine is!!!!

 

That's great about TT...maybe I won't have to allow for that time. That would be super!

 

Any more thoughts? Thanks for being so helpful!:)

[razorbackmama]

When I mentioned Saxon, I was referring to doing their math instead of MFW's math. So, with regard to MFW K, are you saying only teach the phonics, not the science stuff? I was under the impression that it all overlapped. No? Would MFW K math be enough?

 

Yes, it would be enough.:)

 

That's great about TT...maybe I won't have to allow for that time. That would be super!

 

Since the whole point of TT is to have the child do it independently, could you do something else with another child while your olders do their TT? That way you could be around to make sure they are staying on track, but you don't actually have to carve out 45 minutes of your day.

 

I will be teaching 5 next year as well. 7th, 5th, and 4th with MFW ECC, a 1st grader with MFW, and a Ker with MFW. I plan to have the 1st and K kids do their phonics separately but then combine them for the K science.