Combining SCM with My Father's World 4 year cycle?

Tagged: , ,

Viewing 5 posts - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • May 4, 2016 at 3:53 pm
    Rebecca
    Participant

    Hi,

    We are finishing up our 5th year homeschooling (I have a 4th grader, 1st, & K’er) using My Father’s World ECC.  We like it but I still feel like something missing and its not quite as CM as I’d like.  For example, the books that go along with history, science, and science aren’t living books in my opinion (compared to what I’ve previewd in the SCM bookstore).   I’m very torn between using only MFW or SCM next year.  I did this last year too, but had a new baby coming at the beginning of the school year and knew I needed something prepped and open and go, so i went with MFW.  I do like things about both programs, thus I feel very torn.  I love how everything is planned for me with MFW so I don’t need to worry about missing things and honestly I feel nervous about fully jumping into CM.  I’m afraid I’m doing something wrong and haven’t understood her philosophy well enough, or what if I can’t get my kids to listen and narrate and then they’ll miss stuff.

     

    So one of my thoughts was, could I combine some of the living books SCM has for their history/geography cycles and combine it with MFW’s 4 year history cycle?  Has anyone done this?  Honestly they all look wonderful to me.  I previewed Visits to Africa and loved it!  Plus the story format of the history looks wonderful as well.  One drawback with SCM for me was the 6 year cycle, I really prefer the 4 year cycle of MFW.  I’d love to hear anyone’s input on this.  I’m stressing out 🙂

    May 6, 2016 at 4:41 pm
    Grace
    Participant

    I have felt the same way. I personally don’t have time to plan so I went with my father’s world and add any cm things in as I want. But I like having most of the planning done for me and I like the missions focus of mfw. I also realized I was wasting precious time going back and forth between the two and that my kids will do well if I am leading them spiritually, loving them, present etc. Which is more important than the style of education.  I think any style can probably be easily tweaked with homeschooling.  If you have time to plan and enjoy it I’d go for it. Or you could do only SCM. I think it’d be easy to add in books from SCM history or use their free planning guide and use the MFW materials and add anything else you want.

    May 6, 2016 at 7:02 pm
    Aimee
    Participant

    Funny you posted this! I also keep going back and forth about what curriculum to use. I did MFW for 6 years and after my second time through ECC I sold it. I wasn’t pleased with all of the books.  They were mostly informational and needed more living literature. My boys’ eyes were glazing over!  But like you, I knew there were some really nice things about the program too. I didn’t use MFW for ancient history because I couldn’t stand the thought of reading Streams of Civilization again but just this week I had the idea of tweaking RTR! I actually had this idea because our money is tight right now and I’m trying to think of ways to use books I already have. Anyway, I found that there are chapters of Famous Men… listed in the recommended reading in the back of the RTR guide! There are also some of the SCM books listed. It looks easy to add living books and I would probably take out some books I don’t prefer.

    I also own the Truthquest Rome guide. So, I went through that and marked all the topics that MFW covers so I can quickly find the books that Truthquest recommends for each topic. Not sure how I’m going to use this info yet, but it looks doable. I could just plan my own using the SCM planning resources that I own, but we’ll see. Hope you find what works for you!

     

    May 6, 2016 at 8:28 pm
    Rebecca
    Participant

    Aimee, I agree with you. I felt like with ECC it was only informational books and I honestly don’t know how much we learned b/c my kids eyes glazed over.

    Then looking at Creation to the Greeks for next year the description doesn’t excite me at all.  Celebrating all the feasts doesn’t sound fun at all to me and I’ve read reviews that say they felt like they were in Egypt forever.

    So I think If i’m changing their history mostly out and I’m having doubts about their science too, I think why do the program at all??  B/c That is the core of what you are buying from them.

    I hate these decisions.  I feel like my children’s futures are on the line, LOL. 🙂

    May 6, 2016 at 9:09 pm
    Aimee
    Participant

    No one’s future is on the line. My oldest 2 sons did MFW from 4th and 5th grade to graduation and they are well educated and know history well.  I just think it could have been more interesting at times. They tell me which books were great and which weren’t so it’s hard to do it all again with my younger ones when I don’t want tho use some of the books.

    Sounds like you’ve answered your own question if CTG doesn’t appeal to you.  Have you looked at Beautiful Feet History? It’s planned for you and even has some activity suggestions.

    You really can’t ruin your kids with this choice. We all keep trying things until we find what works. Blessings!

Viewing 5 posts - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)
  • The topic ‘Combining SCM with My Father's World 4 year cycle?’ is closed to new replies.