Why We Chose My Father's World

We have been slowly incorporating Charlotte Mason's educational philosophies into our homeschool since last year and we have already introduced our children to living books in our history studies and so far they love it. I have three reluctant readers and one avid reader. The only way that I could ever prompt my reluctant readers to read more was by discovering what they enjoyed the most and running with it. My oldest ds enjoys books about youth of his own age and history. My reluctant twins enjoy action, suspense and drama and my youngest son, the avid reader, loves to read anything that he can get his hands on. They had grown so accustomed to twaddle but living books opened their eyes to more of what they loved but on a better level.

Well, months ago, I had been in the midst of deciding whether to continue with our history curriculum, Blessed Heritage, for another year. I would have loved to continue our study of American History and complete the remainder of the century but my sons wanted a change. I didn't find anything wrong with that especially knowing they would study American History later in junior high and again in high school. Plus, I had been researching curriculum that would save time in our days by teaching multiple grade levels at once. Blessed Heritage is a wonderful resource. You can read more about it here. Please note that I don't believe in curriculum bashing because I don't believe in bad curriculum, just bad "fits". If something doesn't fit my family, I won't give it a horribly negative review simply because it didn't work for us. I will, however, share our experiences but not without sharing and stressing the positives. The positives could possibly bless someone who is searching for a particular curriculum. The only negative that I have found with Blessed Heritage was the lack of more hands-on projects but other than that, it was great. I loved the literature lists!

When I began to look for a new history program, I didn't have to look far because I had already heard so much about My Father's World on forums and had peeked at it a few times along with Winter Promise and Tapestry of Grace. All are excellent programs with slight differences yet again, all are wonderful. But we chose MFW. Why? My Father's World is composed of everything that we wanted in a program for our children. A rich literature Bible-based program that would give our family the needed flexibility and would be easily adaptable for multiple grade levels. Oh, it must have plenty of hands-on activities for my gang and not breaking the bank wasn't a bad qualifier either. MFW met those requirements for us. It is a Bible-based unit study program that combined Charlotte Mason's philosophy with the Classical approach. The unit study approach is wonderful if you are teaching multiple grades or ages since the levels begin at Kindergarten and end at high school. Multiple grades can be taught the same topics together. Also, MFW now provides high school Ancient History and Literature. World History and Literature will be available in 2009 followed by two years of U.S. History/Government and Literature. Bible is included within the high school levels so credits can be awarded in Bible, Literature and History/Government. But My Father's World is not simply a history curriculum. It combines the subjects of Bible, Science, History/Geography, Music, and Art. Although MFW doesn't include Math, Language Arts or Writing, suggestions are made and are available for purchase on the website. We are currently satisfied with Rod and Staff's English,which incorporates writing, and their Math program. MFW's History is taught chronologically in a four year cycle after one year of Geography has been completed. The cycle is then repeated again until a child reaches the high school level so you only purchase each package once.

I love the teacher's manual! It's laid out with clear and understandable daily plans so I will know what to teach each day. With five children, I love the open and close method. This is a major plus if you don't like to create lesson plans nor have the time to do so. :) Each level is available in a basic or deluxe package with all required books included. The teacher's manual has extensive library book lists to go along with each topic that we cover. We will check out library books weekly and add them to our book basket for further study when needed. The book lists are very extensive but we know that we won't have to use every book. The lists are optional and are provided to add even more depth to the lessons. Again, multiple grade levels are addressed in the teacher's manual so older students can learn the same topics as the younger but with activities and literature suited for their level. A science program is also recommended for the 7th/8th grades and higher for a more in-depth science study in the higher grades. Another aspect that I love about MFW is that the lessons get more spiritually and academically in depth with each year which makes perfect sense to me as a child develops. I know I must sound like an infomercial and I keep repeating the word "in-depth" :)) but these are some of the aspects that has drawn us to MFW and hopefully, it can help someone. We can't wait to start ECC in the new school year.

If you would like to know more about MFW and view samples, you can visit the website and check out their wonderful forum or blogroll. These ladies are great! They share such wonderful ideas, pics and are able to answer any question.

Just to add, I do not want to sound biased or one sided here. Winter Promise, a great program, is very similar to MFW and includes daily lesson plans. However, it is a little more costly than MFW. Winter Promise also has a helpful yahoo group and a blogroll here. Tapestry of Grace is also costly but a very thorough program and well worth it. However, Tapestry is a little different from MFW and WP. Tapestry is planned by the week instead of daily and each level addresses k-12 so you need not worry about purchasing a high school level. Each year is purchased only once then repeated three times by the time a child reaches 12th grade. Tapestry is also divided into years and years are then divided into units, and units are then divided into 9 weeks. Tapestry is full of hands-on activities and the literature (though not included) selections are awesome. It covers the same subject areas as MFW except the science but it does include writing. TOG has a helpful forum and a blogroll too. Blogrolls are really great! You can read how others are using a particular curriculum.

So if you are a planner, Tapestry would be a great option but if you prefer someone to create the plans for you, then MFW or WP may be for you. You can't go wrong with any of these programs.
Although MFW is a quality Christian literature based curriculum, you NOW know that I chose MFW basically because I'm cheap, I love to save time, and I hate to plan. :))
You just have to find what works for your family. ;)