blackfive
- Reviewed on Saturday, October 17, 2009
- Grades Used: Kindergarten
- Dates used: presently
This review is for MFW Kindergarten curriculum. I am using this for a young 5 year old. I was looking for a curriculum that was Christian based and was slower moving for a child who did not already know how to write all the letters or know all the sounds. So far, it is a perfect fit.
Each day there is a reading lesson, and a science topic to explore that corresponds with the letter of the weekly unit. For example, we just finished the "A" Apple unit. We learned the sound of the letter and how to write the letter along with some really fun science activites (making applesauce, apple tree's, learned about Johnny Appleseed). The curriculum includes worksheets for the reading lesson (handwriting, math, phonics). There are only a few worksheets per week, which is what I like. I don't like to overload my kids with busywork.
If you have a child who is ready to read and knows all letters sounds and can write all letters well, this curriculum will probably be too slow moving. It is a perfect pace for an older 4 or a young 5. I think it would work well for a pre-k program for some kids.
My only negative deals with the math portion. It mostly deals with counting, but so far not adding or subtracting anything (we are only on the 4th unit though). In my opinion it is a little weak in this area. I plan to implement Math U See in January in addition to MFW K.
I also love this curriculum because I am able to combine my young 5 and my 3 year old for lessons.
I was a classroom kindergarten teacher before I had children and I give MFW K a thumbs up!
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Nancy
- Reviewed on Sunday, June 21, 2009
- Grades Used: High School
- Dates used: 2009-2010
This is more of a preview than a review copied from some HSR posts, but I thought I would include it here considering that there isn't much said yet about MFW High School. Hopefully this will help someone in deciding whether MFW HS would be a good fit for them or not...
Yes, I paid $15 for MFW to ship the pkg. to my door so I could see every book for myself, including the TM, knowing that I would have 30 days to check it out and decide if we would keep it...or not. BTW, it came on Friday, only 3 days after I ordered...go MFW! (and such cheap shipping costs too!)
Well, needless to say, MFW Ancients is staying put here for HS next year! Now I realize we haven't actually used it yet, but after spending a couple of hours browsing through the materials, I think it's going to be a wonderful fit for my DD. I feel much better about the mythology stuff now, after seeing how MFW handles it. They really go the extra mile to get your children to see for themselves the contrast between a biblical worldview and a humanistic worldview. I have no doubt that a child coming out of using this program will be able to stand firm in the Truth and be convinced of who the Lord is, while being able to give a strong biblical defense for their beliefs.
While I would never even consider using some of these resources on my own, MFW makes it truly doable, and even likeable, from what I can see so far. The KEY is in using their TM. We tend to be box-checkers over here, and MFW allows for that while still accomplishing a lot of depth and integration in the form of a Unit Study (for Bible, History, and Lit), and also allowing for that classical feel while treading cautiously and carefully in the light of a biblical worldview. I've seen a lot of MFW programs in the past, and with this particular program, I'm VERY impressed. It is clear that a lot of thought and prayer went into pulling it all together. While I usually turn out to be a tweaker with most programs like this, I think I plan to use this exactly as written, with the exception of possibly replacing the Purpose Driven book with John Piper's "Don't Waste Your Life", but that change is so minor and easy. I'm mostly looking forward to the fact that my DD will be able to use this program fairly independent of me, with the exception of meeting with me a couple of times/week simply for follow up purposes and to check her composition assignments. Most of all, she seems to be looking forward to the program, simply because she's a sponge and loves to read, read, read!
I'm particularly impressed with the Unwrapping the Pharaohs book, as I didn't realize that it was a pretty large Christian book that comes with a DVD. It's one of those "coffee table" type books. Also, the Tabernacle pamphlet is a wonderful little resource as well. I really think this will be a great program for my dd whose strong points are reading, thinking, writing, and craftiness. It will be a good balance to her textbook stuff for other subjects, as well as feed her hunger for the depth of the Word at this time.
As for my ds who is only entering 7th grade in the fall, well let's just say that he's got a lot of maturing to do in the next few years if I am to use this program with him. My dd tends to be more of a "social sue" (if you read Cathy Duffy, you know what that means). In contrast, my ds tends to be more of a "competant Carl" and leans more towards just learning the straightforward facts. As of right now, I'm not positive that MFW will be a good fit for him once he's in 9th, but ya never know what can happen in a few years of growth. He'll be doing A Beka's 7th grade world history next year, so they'll have a little bit in common with their studies. I'm now very excited about this new plan. I knew my dd needed something in addition to her textbook studies just because she loves books so much, but I wasn't sure how to go about doing it in a practical, meaningful way (as I don't have time to read aloud a lot and screen all the books), and I think MFW is going to help with that tremendously!
Thanks to all of you who participated in the recent MFW HS threads! It helped to give me the confidence I needed to try MFW for HS. Once we get through the year and can say we have officially used it, I plan to post an official review. I want my dd to be faced with the thought-provoking life issue of "Will I live for my pleasure, or will I live for God's glory?" stated in MFW's catalog! I think that was the pivotal statement that turned me on to this program. We'll see if MFW delivers what I hope it will beginning this fall! :) BTW, I still plan to continue with our textbook approach for my younger 3 children. My goal is still moving them all toward independence in their learning, and I have no problem continuing the textbook approach with them if I feel that it is accomplishing our goals and providing a way for them to learn effectively. The ONLY reason I agreed to MFW for HS is because of the fact that it allows for this goal to still be accomplished while allowing for more of a unit study/literature-rich approach for one particular child. If it was teacher-intensive on my part, then I'd say no way!
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Here's the TOC for the Lit and comp supplement:
1. A guide to Critical Writing, Grammar, and Style...3
2. A Studen'ts Companion to The Epic of Gilgamesh...69
3. A Student's Companion to Greek and Roman Mythology...81
4. A Student's Companion to Odyssey...................117
5. Answer Keys.............................................145
6. Vocabulary Quizzes.....................................179
That's pretty much it. I put the page numbers down so you can get an idea as to how many pages of learning there is in each section. The first section is all about how to write an argumentative/persuasive 5 paragraph essay. It assumes that this may be a new topic for your 9th grader, and walks them through each step of the process, lesson by lesson, while teaching sentence structure and grammar points along the way. There are 34 lessons of this, with an argumentative essay checklist at the end. While I wouldn't call it a comprehensive grammar program, it does a lot more than what using Notgrass all by itself would do. It teaches grammar within the context of the writing. For those who have had plenty of formal grammar instruction prior to this, it will be a great tool for them to actually see for themselves the point and purpose for all of that training in context.
At the end of each of the Lit sections is another argumentative essay, with suggested topics, or they can come up with their own...pertaining to the Lit selection that was just studied. The idea is for them to get better at this style of writing through practice, of which this program will provide plenty of opportunity. The Lit selections are broken down into managable lessons that combine vocabulary, recall questions, and a couple of critical thinking questions...all scheduled in the lesson plans. :)
This is info is just for the supplement book written by MFW (borrowed and adapted with permission from Smarr Publishing). I'm supposing that there may be some other basic writing assignments in the TM...something to do with writing original Psalms and a Proverbs project. I don't know those specifics yet, though. This, in addition to the vocab, recall, and critical thinking questions make up your English credit.
For your History credit writing component, it looks like there are 6 opportunities to write essays from the Exploring World History Book (Notgrass). Of course, there are plenty of other things scheduled for History as well, but that's just the writing part. Did I mentioned that it's all scheduled in my handy-dandy TM???...which is actually more of a student manual written to my student??? It even holds my hand in the grading process and how to score everything in order to assign a proper grade.
I'm not sure what the other years of MFW HS will hold concerning composition, but for the Ancients year, it looks to me like the emphasis is definitely argumentative essay writing with a splash of creativity.
OH, and the orginal documents that come with the Notgrass package are also included in your kit, however, I'm unclear at this point as to whether they are scheduled in MFW or not. Most of them are for the 2nd half of world history, so maybe they'll show up next year? Some of them are pretty cool. It's nice to have. HTH!!!
Nancy
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