I am on a Yahoo board that buys and sells My Father's World curricula. So awesome! It has been such a gift to us since our finances are really tight with the close of our adoption and our two trips to Africa in a matter of weeks.
I was poking around on there to buy the Hillside version of Primary Language Lessons, or at least the teacher's guide, and Spelling by Sound and Structure and a few other odds and ends (I am still using MFW suggestions for language arts, math, music, and drawing.)
In doing so, I was astounded at the terrific deals on curriculum packages. I must have been living under a rock, but nonetheless, it was ridiculously fun to see how I could stretch my home school curriculum budget.
Our Viola is such a good little reader, especially for 5 years old. It's really wonderful to witness how much she loves books and loves to read everything she can get her hands on. Having taught MFWK before, I know that she is going to *want* (not need) more than it provides, but I love it so much and it establishes such a strong framework for the following MFW years, that we wouldn't miss it for anything. While MFWK will give her the phonics foundation she will always need, and the beautiful literature and Bible, I will also make sure she has as many books as she wants to read and at her level. I figure she can also read to Josiah and take him under her wing a little.
In the spirit of wanting her to have a little more umph to next year, I'm going to fold her into Mae's lessons even more, at her level, of course. She loves to listen to stories so I believe that listening to history read aloud will be a perfect way to blend the girls together while meeting them each where they are at.
To the good deal part ... I found a used MFW Adventures package for $100, WITH all of the read-alouds and the patriotic CD. I already own the read-alouds (and the CD but I would love to have one in the car), so I found a MFW mama who needed the read-alouds and I sold her my set for $20. Thus, I got the Adv basic package for $80. Seriously. Good day here, I tell ya. Since I am using so many of MFW suggestions, I thought about buying the TG alone so that I don't have to reinvent the wheel when it comes to scheduling spelling, music, art, activities, and the like ... plus, while I think the state study may become tedious, I think it is paramount for my kids to learn about their immediate "world" around them now before jumping into ECC.
Since I really want a more literature-rich and CM curriculum, but we are a MFW family at heart, I figured out how to blend the best of both worlds. I have all but maybe five books to complete the Ambleside year 2 literature, poetry, hymn study, nature study, and church history. We are going to study Adventures in My Father's World over two years ... second grade will be through week 16 which covers up through the 13 colonies, The Revolutionary War, Daniel Boone ... and a week for a Thanksgiving unit study and a week for a Christmas unit study ... and third grade will take us from the 13 colonies through inventions and flight, along with the rest of the United States studies, with AO year 3 for literature, poetry, hymns, nature, and church history, again.
This allows us to spend two weeks per scheduled week of Adv, so we can really dig into the people, events, and church history of the time. I am hoping that we can begin collecting the YWAM Heroes of History biographies, too, for free reading as well.
Instead of the US history spine from Adv and from AO2 I am using A Living History of Our World with the student journal. The MFW spine will be good commentary as needed. (I did find a used, in like new condition, copy of the 1951 edition of Hillyer's A Child's History of the World and I plan to follow AO's schedule once per week with this book, as it is a treasure. Not to be missed.)
So, after a couple of months of thinking long and hard about MFW Adv and a purer CM education ... I can do both (thanks in part to my really good deal) and I remained a good steward of the curriculum money my husband sets aside.
I'm so ridiculously behind. We leave for Ethiopia in TWO weeks from today. TWO. Wow. Wow. Wow. Kevin is working zillions of hours to pull this off, which leaves me at home with the kids, homeschooling, end-of-year portfolio, and every detail to tidy up and pack up to get us on that plane ... oh and housework and cooking and mothering and sleeping ... wait, what's that? My great grandma used to say we can sleep when we're dead. That's how I feel.
Over the last three weeks we have gotten into a groove that will wind down the year. As we come to a close with MFW 1st Grade, I have mixed feelings on how the year finishes.
In news other than MFW we started the next book of Singapore 1 for math ... 1B and Mae is beginning multiplication this upcoming week. We have reviewed place value, addition, subtraction, and grouping by tens and ones. We pulled out our beans and bean sticks, which have been a huge help in conceptualizing grouping and how it eases addition and subtraction.
We started Rod & Staff Phonics (Bible Nurture series) but after a week we shelved it. Way too dry. Mae needs less phonics review and just more reading practice. With that I turned to Pathway Readers (just the readers), Reading Literature First Reader by Treadwell (she is in love with this book), and The Elson Reader Book 1 (along with the guide for me, which is fabulous!). I also got her a few Junie B Jones books ... I know, not exactly high-quality literature, but she giggles and relates and it makes reading a wee bit more accessible for her and it tempers the reading aloud she does from her readers, which are brimming with morals, culture, and classic sensibilities.
We also began Usborne's Science with Plants (admittedly, I do not enjoy the Usborne science books, but the girls do, so alas, we continue). We started by investigating and researching beans and seeds ... and now we are growing three little plants that have sprouted from our kidney and lima beans. We have yet to plant them, but we anticipate they will be strong enough to transplant this upcoming Friday.
Nature is always a must for us. We love the time outside now that the snow (we think, hope, pray) is gone until next winter. We live on a pretty lane with trees that are leafing out and with marshy areas full of mushrooms, brooks, moss, and critters.
We also began a Hymn study of my favorite hymn ... In the Garden by Charles A Miles. We will study this until the end of the year. We are listening to it often, learning the lyrics, researching Miles, and looking at sheet music.
We have been reading like mad. The girls want me to read aloud at every free moment ... breakfast, lunch, dinner, bedtime, while I'm folding clothes, you name it. I am trying to put more aside (the floors, laundry, dishes) to keep this fire going for them. This leads to long nights, but again, my great grandma was right. Mr Poppers Penguins was a huge hit, even with Jack. They still make-believe the story together. Next up was My Father's Dragon ... all three books ... and we flew through those. I think we all got a bit teary throughout the stories ... so tender and told with such childlike grace and delight. Awesome. We are on to The Trumpet of the Swan. I can't wait to see how my girls take to this sweet story.
For Art we are still working through ArtPac 1. Some lessons are just really fun and do teach valuable, age-appropriate "art" lessons ... more like lessons in coloring ... vivid vs light, feathering, shading, outlining ... the girls definitely need more drawing instruction, but for now, this is filling the niche and there is no lack of patience being taught. This summer we are going to dive into a few Emberley books, which I've been hoping to do for years with Mae. I can finally pull out these books I've been saving now that the girls are old enough and have the patience to really learn from them and truly enjoy them.
Back to MFW ... once we got to Easter and through the end of the phonics workbook, it seems like the lessons for the rest of the year fall flat. Bums me out a bit. We've also jumped from two Bible notebooks per week to four. That's a LOT, which is leaving us little time for some of our Charlotte Mason studies. Where the Old Testament was incredibly rich in MFW1 with stories that I would tell first (courtesy of the TG) and with the Bible reader and notebook blended with activities, the New Testament feels rushed and a little like busy work. Each day is exactly the same, which makes the end of the year feel even longer. Am I the only one who feels this way? Where is Jesus? So much led up to him in the OT studies, but now that he's here, there is no passion.
We've learned about Gabriel appearing to Mary, the birth of Jesus, Jesus in the temple, John baptizing Jesus, fishers of men, healing the man on the mat, Jesus calling Matthew, the 12 apostles, and the farmer and his seeds. It feels cursory to me, which is disappointing, but since we're in the homestretch of the year, and the first 2/3 of MFW1 was exceptional with regard to the Bible History, I am enriching with crafts and activities pertinent to our lessons and using Mae's Discoverer's Bible as well.
I can say without hesitation that MFW has helped me cultivate such a love of reading and writing in Mae, and those are not her strongest areas of learning. She is much more math and science minded, but the narration and dictation that has been building since our first Bible reader and notebook lesson is outstanding. I have not taught any formal spelling, but this child can spell, and she can spell well. Not because she is naturally inclined, because she isn't, but because MFW set the stage by implementing CM's philosophy of narration and dictation so early on and with great consistency. Well done.
With that we've scaled back with our afternoon lessons to Hymn study (2x per week), Come Look with Me (1x), Pagoo (1x), Art (1-2x), Nature (1x). This plus morning Bible, Math, Language Arts, and Reading fills our days, just differently than before we started the NT.
