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Thinking things over?
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I am only 2 weeks into my school year and I am furstrated already. We are using MFW Creation to the Greeks. We used Exploring Countries and Cultures last year and it went well. Before that we were using Ambleside which was just too much for us. This morning I picked my volume 6 of CM modern english version and I read about narration and how if they can’t say it back then they don’t know it. I haven’t read that book in quite a while, but next Tues is CM group meeting where I live so I read the assignment. The passage reminded me of everything I have loved and still love about CM.
What does this have to do with this board you ask…good question and I’ll get to it. ;0)Well many of the recommendations for LA and Math with MFW have been quite good for us, like Singapore math and Intermediate Leanguage Lessons by Emma Serl. Since they are so good we went with the other recommendations, like Spelling POwer and Writing Strands and the second grade spelling which is from Rod and Staff. I have twin boys, age 7, and they have started the spelling, one gets it and one doesn’t and neither of them like it, psst, neither do I. DD is 11 and we are just about to start Spelling Power and I am already dreading it. There is enough writing between WS (writing strands) and ILL. We even do some lessons orally. CM would just said that it is all busy work and just to focus oral narration for the boys and a few written narrations for the dd. My children are not liking the book basket aspect this year and dd isn’t much of a reader on her own.
We have had screaming and crying here, and not just me. I want to return to a more CM styled homeschool. I remember working things like habits and paying attention, now I am just a box checker. Hubby wouldn’t be please if I said I wanted to scrap MFW. Maybe I could tweak it a bunch. What do you think? Am I crazy? I saw 106 days of Creation and might do that for our science, instead of what we are doing. The experiments haven’t worked so far for what we are doing. I want to read more books, not just blurbs from books and do less busy work. I don’t expect a homeschool utopia but a little more enjoyment would be nice. I am such a waffler. :0/ All of this information is to give you a clearer picture of my insanity.
I’m learning, too, not to be a box checker. I used MFW starting with Exploring Countries and Cultures through Rome to the Reformation. We enjoyed it but the science seemed light the first two years. Experiments are not my thing but we tried to do most of them while using Creation to the Greeks. Definitely switch if you’re not liking the science. I wish I had done that. We didn’t use the recommendations for LA or Writing Strands. Neither really worked for my children. Find what works for your children and use it. Maybe just pick from MFW the things that you do like and change the other things. I didn’t use MFW this year because I felt I needed a little more freedom. Last year, I felt like I had to accomplish everything for the week that MFW recommended and it was tough. I wanted the freedom to just “hang out” in a certain place in history or move on if we wanted. We’ll see how this year goes. I could end of going back. But I’ve said all this to hope to encourage you. I think you can tweak MFW and make it work for you. But defnitely if something is not working, don’t use it! (I’m still working on that myself)!!
Blessings,
Susan
Susan, dear, I haven’t used MFW but I simply want to say that with any curriculum (including the suggestions here at SCM), make it your servant — not your master.
Christy,
You have a tailor-made opportunity here to see God at work in your family, so be excited! When I have gotten bogged down in a curriculum I have had to ask the painful question, “Am I in this spot because I prayed and know that God led me or did I go before the Lord and my husband?” For me, the case has been, 99% of the time, the latter.
Regardless of how you arrived at where you are, you know and trust that God allowed it and so now your task is to find out what God is doing and join Him in it. And that is so exciting!
As you pray and ask God to show you where each of your children are now and where He is taking them, you can mold their curriculum to meet those needs and interests. It may be that you do need to pitch some stuff in order to give big pushes in areas of giftedness and gentle nudges in areas of need. Therein is the lesson for us wives regarding going to our husbands who work so hard to provide for us and confessing that ‘Dear, I’ve wasted some of your hard-earned money.’
However, dealing with the right now is an opportunity to (Romans 1) be thankful and honor God by learning (you and the children) to pray and wait on the Lord. That may look something like this – which is a pretty exact scene in our own home in the past where I told the children:
“Children, I’m having a difficult time with this curriculum and I know you are too. But I know that if I go out and change everything we’ll all learn a bad lesson. That would be that when something is uncomfortable we rush out and change it. I’m going to pray with your Daddy and I want you to pray that God would show us just how to use the books we have and which ones we need to get rid of. God says to be thankful in all things and to delight ourselves in Him and He will give us the desires of our hearts. So, let’s persevere with cheerfulness and be praying and looking to see what God will do.”
So, then as you pray and seek God, He’ll bring about changes that will not overwhelm you, nor the bank account. It will also, as I said, be a golden opportunity to learn some great spriritual lessons. I dare say that God has never responded to my whining, nor that of the children. It is always such a delightful surprise when we see God bring about a change and we say, “But I wasn’t struggling with that anymore!” That’s just what He was waiting for. God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.
I will pray for you!
Blessings,
Cindy
I am feeling the need to perserver a little more here, but also to make it more CM. The comment about making curriculum our servant and not our master really hit home. If the Lord wants us to change He will let me know through obvious things I am thinking, as I felt He led us to MFW. I am still strongly praying about 106 days of creation.
I have enjoyed lurking here and will try to jion in more.
Hi, Christy. What you are describing is exactly what I experienced when I used Sonlight one year, and MFW another. My kids still have nightmares about Writing Strands. LOL
Anyway, I wanted to encourage you. If you need to, toss the guide. Decide about how long you want to take on books. Arrange the books the way YOU think you ought to do it. Don’t be afraid to use just what you need from a book. There CAN be a lot of writing in something like the Serl books, but we did a lot of it orally so they had “fresh hands” for other things (I had one I was trying to teach to do written narrations at that time) If the spelling doesn’t feel right, don’t do it. Take the best of the books (some of the books are very nice) and make what you have work for YOU.
Michelle D
Amen, Sonya!!!! I do have a problem with letting curriculum sometimes be the master. I am working so hard in that area. I am doing so much better (in some areas) this new school year. I’m still working on it in other areas. Someone told me recently that public schools do not finish their books by the end of the year. I was shocked!! And here I was feeling like I HAD to finish the book or I felt we didn’t complete the subject. I know, I know, that’s not true but I really felt that way. I’m going to do better this year. And I’m going to rely more on the Lord and NOT the curriculum!
Blessings,
Susan
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