Anybody leave/quit using MFW?

Stopped after 1 year (ECC)  Thought it was thin academically, especially on science, did not like Writing Strands, and felt very confined by the endless lesson plans marching along whether we wanted to or not. 

We used it for 2 years (K, 1st, CtG, and RtR).

We left for previously mentioned reasons, what we felt was very sparse biblical teaching (although great outreach/evangelism/mission teaching), and a few disappointing customer service issues.

We also felt it was very expensive, for very little. And really, the Teacher’s Manual ($100) was just the author’s notes to go along with a whole bunch of other companies’ curriculum.

We do NOT miss it at all.

I base things off SCM’s all-in-one Scope & Sequence. We use many different things, here is a link to specifics:

http://6arrows.blogspot.com/p/learning.html

I am not really unhappy with the teacher’s guide, but I do not feel that my children are learning as much as they could with ECC. We have had to leave out some of the resources that they suggest because of different reasons, and thus I feel that I have bare bones learning going on. I have been pulling in as many library books in as possible, but there is only so much out there on different countries for children to read.

I do not like the science at all. I have had to pull out some old Abeka text books to try and explain some of the concepts in the ECC science to my children (like classification and forests) The book Properties of Ecosystems is way over their heads. The Living Science Encyclopedia is just a jumbled up mess of information on each page.

I chose this for this year so that I could stop worrying about planning for a time and figure things out for the future myself. However, I have had to do so much changing and tweaking that I may as well have planned this year too. ;(

I don’t know if I will continue with Creation to the Greeks next year or not. I have a feeling that I will not….but I have no idea what I will do. 

Where can I find scope and sequence? I have seen it referred to more than once. It sounds like a valuable resource.

I just wanted to pop in here, and, like Amanda, apologize for my ‘bad mouthing’ of MFW. We did walk away from the curriculum for a few months, but I found myself floundering through our planning. These books from that list, those books from this list…I quickly did miss my Teacher’s Manual (just the ‘author’s notes’…was I having a bad day or what?).

I think you really do need to get to the place in your homeschooling journey where the curriculum becomes your tool…instead of ‘chains.’ We don’t use MFW like anyone else that I know of…but the last few months, when we’ve had freedom from planning…have been the best couple of months of homeschooling we’ve ever had in our 3 yr HSing journey.

Heather – I’ve heard many people compare MFW and HOD…they must be very similar. I agree with you…History and Science are my biggies…everything else just flows.

Amanda – I’m curious (after a few months to think about it)…are you going to try CtG next year?

And, Debbie – did you leave MFW? Funny, after we’ve been back with it for a while, my DD, 13, said, “I missed MFW!” I guess it was me who wanted to ditch, and not really the kids…makes me wonder about all the worrying I do with school…are they learning? are they having fun? do they like it? (and if I just have ‘grass is greener’ syndrome…or just wanna try to the newest curriculum…or so and so’s Mom loves this!…)

sigh…I really hope this is it for us. (Oh, and SCM’s and AO’s booklists, of course!)

Kathi

We are doing Adventures this year for American History and State Study (only using the history portion).  The girls are loving it, and it is right for us at this season.  We needed something to fill in a gap before we start something else this fall.  We aren’t going to continue with MFW after Adventures, but I have to admit, it’s a lovely program as well.