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can someone compare scm with guide to mfw?
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I am so torn between the 2. I want a guide that spells it out for me and incorporates hymns, poetry, science, picture study, composers, nature, and history. I don’t love all of the book choices in MFW but like the book basket option especially. I think SCM seems light and don’t love that it doesn’t seem to schedule all of this stuff for me. Can someone who has done MFW 5 yr rotation and done a book basket tell me more? Anyone done SCM for more than a year who could pipe in? Thanks!
I’m in my third year of using SCM with the guides (2.5 really as I started part way in). I love the framework it gives along with the flexibility. I would not want to just go with someone’s suggestions for fine arts in particular. I like to choose based upon what might resonate with my family, what we might have the opportunity to see or hear locally, what dd is learning to play on the piano, etc.
For science, I’ve come to the conclusion that living books and gentle nature study are more than enough in elementary years. This year we’ve read through books on marine animals and we’ve learned so much! We’ve watched varieties of birds in the backyard, fish, otters and nutria (introduced pests, but adorable nonetheless) in our creek, discovered beautiful flowers on walks and so much more.
The SCM handbooks are for three subjects only- Bible, History & Geography. They are great, we make substitutions if need be, but it’s a wonderful framework. The curriculum guide online for other subjects, is just that, a good guide. I’ve found that I like being able to pick and choose and plug things into our framework. For this purpose, I rely on my master booklist (a compilation of AO, Honey for a Child’s Heart, Higher Up and Further In) and books like Jan Bloom’s Who Shall We Then Read and Christine Miller’s All Through the Ages. These books give me more than enough to pull from for substitutions or extras where needed.
HTH –
Christie
As someone who used MFW for many years, I just wanted to mention that you can do the book basket on your own almost as easily as with a MFW guide in hand. It is like Christie said, as long as you have a few good book guides, you’ll be fine. We still do the book basket (my kids LOVE it), we just don’t use the MFW guide anymore. You just want to stock your basket weekly with good books for the kids.
I can comment only on the first year of MFW (Exploring Countries and Cultures). As far as pre-packaged curriculum goes I think MFW is one of the best. It’s affordable, and I like the study’s focus on missions and the Hazel’s personal dedication to bible transcription. For this year in our family, this curriculum has been very much a lifesaver in that we’ve had a lot of changes and it really kept me on track, for THIS particular year. I wouldn’t try to talk someone out of using it but we won’t be using it again. Some of the reasons are:
Time – It really monopolized the day. Good stuff, no huge issues with their choices, but really no time to do many other things. Artist/picture study, composer study, Shakespeare, living books for science, Latin (or any extra language), handcrafts, etc. would have to be added at least at the ECC level and after we fulfilled their requirements for each day there wasn’t much time left.
Book Basket – I found it easier to punch in my topic (in this case the country we were learning about) into my library’s data base and choose from those books, rather than following a guide and stressing out over finding MFW suggested books. We ended up finding incredible books from the library with no help from the MFW guide. A few books that they recommended we found at the library and we really ended up enjoying them, but any good literature guide could do that for you.
Choice of Books – I just prefer to choose my own books! I can’t get around this and when you try to modify their system (or anyone’s), in my way of thinking, why have it? You’re right back where you started – doing your own planning!
Ancient History – I just LOVE the way SCM has broken up ancient history into 3 years! I’ve finally gotten it through my head that I don’t have to rush through history at the breakneck of 4 years from Creation to present. That was so daunting! There is so much to cover in ancient history, especailly if you want to do a good job of covering biblical history too.
In all, MFW is a good curriculum. After the end of this year we will have learned a TON about world geography and I don’t regret our choice for this year. However, for us, we will be going back to a more flexible plan that follows the CM/living books model a bit closer and leaves me, the teacher, a lot more room to make my own choices for my kids. The thing I liked most about MFW is that it was all planned out. I will invest some time this summer planning like I’ve never planned before so that I’m not scratching my head Sunday night wondering what we’re going to do the next week. A bit (or a lot!) of focused planning in the summer would aleviate that, and in the end I will have a plan that incorporates books that I have chosen, not someone else.
Hope that helps!
-Michelle
I have used MFW for 5 years now. We have used all 5 years of the cycle plus AHL ( the first year high school. ) Obviously, we like it and it has been a good fit for us. Marie does schedule Bible, history, science, art, and music. She includes a nature walk each week too. She leaves space for you to fill in math and LA. We follow the guide pretty closely. We have added weeks here and there, when we had an interest in something or when I thought we needed more time on a certain time period. But I liked the guide pushing us along or we may have been stuck in some time period for way too long. We did not do the projects in God and The History of Art book except we did do the drawing lessons at the beginning of the book. We did read all the historical info and I would look at the book and the schedule at the beginning of the year and then choose three or four artists that would be covered that year. We would use those artists for picture study. We followed the guide for the music/composer. I liked having it spelled out for me and then rabbit trail when I wanted. We loved the book basket and the choices that were given in the back of the guide. The Hazel’s have gone over each book in the guide and gave comments where needed. For example if the book should only be read by older children or certain chapters contain something that may be offensive. I liked having the warning before reading the books.
Also, just so you know, our family is in a co-op with a few other families that also use MFW. This does help to keep us using MFW. It is nice to be able to discuss things with the other moms. We also enjoyed having feasts with those families where our children would do a presentation.
All that being said, what the other posters have said is also very true. If you want to choose for yourself and not be onstricted by someone else’s schedule choices, then this site is absolutely a wonderful place to start. You can do book basket without the guides no problem. You can choose your own history and sciecne books. There are years that I flirted with doing that and then after I would start I would notice how alike my choices were to MFW and then I would wonder why I am doing this when someone else has done it for me?
If you have any questions about MFW, feel free to PM me.
Blessings,
Suzq
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