CM or My Father's World? I need to decide

I have spent months bouncing back and forth b/n Ambleside Online, SCM, and MFW!!!!!!  I’m anxious to read responses to your question.   I ended up planning out 1st grade for next fall as an SCM/AO combo, minus the history in both (instead going through Genesis slowly until I can decide on a history plan).   I’m looking seriously at Adventures for my ds when he is in 2nd grade.   What I really want longterm is to cover everything on the MFW history schedule in the order they cover it, but like you I question if I will feel the need to modify or add too much (as I LOVE the literature, composer/artist study, nature study, handicrafts,  and much more that SCM or AO recommends).  I think if I purchased Adventures I would only do their history, so don’t think its worth spending b/n $100-$150 for a TM and student sheets to modify all the other subjects.  But, I think we would enjoy a more structured American history program complete with applications, hands on projects, recipes, and fun worksheets to go along with the history study without me having to plan it out.  If I come across a TM used for a great discount, I would probably buy it and just use the parts I like.  

Funny, I just got a catalog from MFW and sat up last night looking through it.  I’m really drawn to having something laid out for me.  It looks wonderful, but my feelings afterwards were that I’d rather take the time to plan and just try not to stress over it:)  They use many of the books I would use, some I’m not sure I want to use (older) plus I like the freedom to add books and not be a slave to a schedule.  When I bought Sonlight’s schedules, it was stressful to keep all those darn boxes checked:)

I second “Planning Your CM Education” sold here.  I use it for my scheduling and live by their downloadable schedule sheets.  I pick my books mainly from SCM and AO, and get wonderful advice from ladies here with older kids to help round things out.  It really does seem to work best for my family if I  plan our own schedule. I just take some time over the summer to plan, and then don’t really do much except some minor tweaking throughout the year. I’d probably go with something like MFW if organization and follow-through was an issue. Or the SCM module guides would be very helpful, too, if you want something planned out (but much cheaper:) HTH some! Gina

We will be finishing up MFW Adventures this year and my ds has done ok with it.  I did not find the program to be light for US, but I know others have.  That being said we will not return to MFW next year.  I’ve debated about moving on to ECC, but for some reason can’t make myself go that route.  I’ve decided to use something that we already have on hand and then change later if I find something I like better.

I bought MFW 1st grade and used it for the last several months of 1st grade.  A friend let me borrow the Adventures Set and we used some of those books in 2nd grade.  I decided not to follow the teachers guide because we had already been learning many of the adventures topics the year before.  For 2nd Grade, I really did my own planning for History, Science, Geography and Bible.  As I began planning for 3rd a month or so ago, I was really leaning towards ECC with only having to get math and language items after that.  I too went back and forth on this until I really decided to sit down and write things out.  I found it would be much cheaper to do SCM History and Science. Many of the resources are optional or can be found or substituted at a library.  You only buy what you want!!!  Another thing that changed my thinking was when I looked up each of the books for ECC on Amazon (Look Inside Feature) and found very few of them to be living books.  Part of our goal when purchasing resources is to spend our money for living books, so the thought of spending $275. on a “boxed Cirriculum” with little to no living books was a great deterrent.  One thing that I found to be the case when we were doing MFW 1st grade for several months is that the activities and reviews became very repetitive.  My Daughter got tired of doing the same thing all the time.  I’m afraid that it would still be that way unless I use something that offers alot more flexability.  We have decided to use the SCM History Module 1 and Outdoor Secrets Companion this year.  Hopefully, they will be a good fit!!!

NJcountrygal, I totally agree with you about the cost.  I was just writing out how much it would cost to use ECC and then just doing my own planning.  I found that even getting a used version of ECC would still use up most of my budget and that’s not including getting our math and latin programs.

Oh… also forgot to mention that I purchased the Genesis thru Deuteronomy & Ancient Egypt last weekend while at the Teach Them Diligently Convention in Spartanburg, SC!

Sue, just wanted you to know that I did dowload a sample of a couple of the samples from the module guide.  For several months while comparing AO, MFW, and SCM history cycles I have only viewed the “details” under history topics off the free curriculum guides and I thought it was just a booklist with little guidance of what to do when.  Also, I thought the Bible was a stand alone subject.  But yesterday after I spent time looking over the samples from the guides and looking over the link to the suggested activities for the history modules it looks WONDERFUL.  What I liked about MFW concepts was that the history is supposed to mesh with biblical history, there are hands on applications, it isn’t heavy on mythology, and it doesn’t just use literature written from  just one era.  But like others, I had reservations about much money on a full curriculum that I already knew I would tweak.   I see from looking at the SCM Ancient Egypt/Gen-Deut. guide why 3 years are spent on ancients (mainly to go though Bible history at the same pace), and I love that the first lessons consist of just the 1st part of Genesis up to the tower of Babel.  My dh is relieved that I’m finally at rest with a long term history plan for our dc, as he’s heard all my agonizing as to why I do and don’t want to use “x” text  or “x’ plan.    And I keep going back and forth with him on how much I’m planning to spend on history….from free (with AO) with reservations about their selections and cycle….to expensive with MFW with reservations as stated in all the prior posts.  Last week I highly considered SOTW with activity guides for a 4 year history cycle, but after researching SOTW closely had several reservations of that too.  I’m glad to have finally looked more into SCM.