We are starting to research curriculum for next year. I am looking at these three for our core (history, bible, science). Do any of you have any experience with any of these curriculums? What did you like or not like about each one?
I have used Sonlight history (not yr 3 or 4 though) and liked it. It plans everything out for you so you know what to do everyday. There is a lot of reading/read alouds and no hands on activities. I adapted the schedule slightly so we didn't jump from one book to another to another to another during one day. I had us stick with one book a little longer and maybe do two or three days worth at once and then pick up that book again several days later. Hope that helps some.
We do MFW kindergarten. I like its simplicity, flexibility and biblical drive. We've (me included) have learned so much about animals/nature! The teacher's manual is very clear and easy to follow, but can easily be adjusted to fit your family. We're happy! Let me know if you have any specific questions.
We're using MFW Exploring Countries and Cultures this year. I do love the material, but I can't stand trying to follow someone else's schedule, I'm too much of a control freak! LOL BUT...if LOVE the content.
I am currently using MFW's ECC with my children. It's open and go and it's different from what we used last year. It's more reference books than story books. Its been easy for her because it's just geography and the science is stuff she already learned before. I haven't gone into each countries history or politics (save that for high school). I have added Read Science 4 Kids Level 1 and a few extra notebooking/narriation pages to it. It's been a fun year with it. I don't have a curriculum for my Ker now. Just math and reading program and she tags along with older siblings. It's been one heck of a year with her. I just ordered My Father's World K program minus the insect stuff since they don't ship here. Plus we have our own unique insects in my neck of the woods. If this program goes well with her I plan to use their 1st grade program. In the fall I will be using their RtR with my 11 and 7 year olds.
I briefly used Tapestry of Grace: It sucked my will to live. I know that sounds harsh, but the kids and I HATED it! It is my opinion that is very poorly edited. They throw so much in there, that it is impossible to do. Yes, you are supposed to pick and chose, but if you want to use the assessment tools that are included, it isn't clear which books you must read to complete the work. It took the joy out of learning and teaching. My DD is using MFW for her high school work. It is much lighter as far as work load, but it is very straight forward. MUCH less parent prep. She can do it by herself, and just has a weekly check with me. It also leaves plenty of room for her to read extra literature that corresponds with the time period. I think there is a sweet spot. Just enough challenge to keep it interesting, and promote a deeper interest in the material. Also you should know, if you view creation from a young earth creationist perspective, TOG is not for you. In an attempt to be all inclusive they include a lot of materials that teach from a millions and millions of years point of view. I don't have a problem with that, particularly with older kids who need to understand what the different views are on that, but they completely left out any young earth materials for the older students. At the time I purchased the curriculum the part of their website that covered this simply stated, "Coming soon." I ended up having a long phone conversation with the author, and he didn't seem to realize that there weren't any young earth materials left in after the final editing. I returned everything for a full refund, and within a couple days they completed that missing portion of the website. I'm not sure if they have made any revision to the curriculum since then. That was autumn 2009. If you decide to purchase the curriculum I would verify this first, if this is important to you.
Thank you for the responses. We have been using MFW ECC and Adventures last year. Last year was great but it seems like ECC is taking forever to complete each. I am hoping that Creation to Greeks won't take so long to complete each day. I can't be face to face with my kids for 4-6 hours a day for MFW and they still have to finish language arts, math, piano, typing, latin swimming, dance classes and chore training. Another 4-6 hours of school work. It is exhausting. And yes, we need to maintain all of those extra items so we can't get rid of them. There isn't really a lot of extras there other than, swimming, dance, piano and chore training. So hence my dilemma. I think we will probably still continue with MFW creation to greeks.
sr_hubbard - I have found that too with MFW-ECC. That's why I've started making my own schedule for each unit. I've cut out some stuff too. My oldest only does the "Trip Around The World" book for JUST the info pages. And we don't do the extra flag info pages (because they kinda do it already on the John 3:16 page). Also, my 4th Grader doesn't do the pages for World Geography AT ALL. My 6th Grader uses it, and I let her do it on her own. I TRY to pick one read aloud each unit...but have found that if it's heavy in the HERO Tales or the Biography's, I can't do them all. We're doing the missionary stories of the ones I really like (we did Nate Saint and I will do Gladys Alward when we get to China). Also, on the country reports I use the pages from History Scribe (I downloaded Geo Scribe). I also use their pages for the Geography A to Z stuff as well. I find it fits really nicely. Much better than the printouts that came with the MFW ECC stuff. I'm almost wishing I hadn't bought the student sheets!!! Extreme, I know. But I may only buy one set of the Creation to the Greeks set and decide on my own if I really want to use them at all. Like I said - I LOVE the content....but am not thrilled with their schedule.
