Working MFW 1st and HOD LHFHG together

I've had numerous emails asking me how to make MFW and HOD work together, so I hope to try to answer that question here.

First of all, I need to mention that each program is complete on its own (i.e. implimented as scheduled) but I have chosen to combine different aspects for different reasons.

The first step to combining is to decide what you want for your children as far as what their day looks like. Before we added HOD, my kids were asking for things to do, and were always asking for more science, for example, "Can we study bugs?"

The second step is to assess which program is going to be used as your spine. You cannot use both programs in their entirety every day. Unless you're superwoman, of course. But I certainly am not, and I needed to decide which program was going to be the foundation, and then pull the deficit from the other program.

MFW 1st has a wonderful overview of the Bible, which is presented as the outline for history. You start a timeline, and work through from Creation to a quick survey of the NT. This leads up to the next year of Adventures (American History). I decided to use that as my core, and the HOD LHFHG compliments this nicely with the same theme for the year, with weekly units being broken down into an overview of history from Creation to recent history.

There is also daily devotions and memory work in both programs. MFW 1st does some Proverbs. HOD works through the book of Matthew. I chose to do the HOD Bible because I feel it's important to always be working on NT, and not to just be in the OT.

MFW 1st language arts move very quickly compared to the MFW K program. We struggled at the beginning and had to add in HOP and some Bob Books for practice. We weren't doing the MFW LA every day and it was driving me crazy flipping around from the current day to do the Bible, and then back to wherever we were to do LA. So we dropped MFW LA altogether. However, as happens with maturity over a few months at this young age, DD6 seems ready for the quicker pace in LA and we have picked it up again, and are still doing the HOP and Bob Books.

As far as I'm concerned, for a family who does well with formal teaching, worksheets etc, MFWK and 1st math does not work. The "conceptual math" based on games and daily life didn't translate to anything meaningful. We replaced it with Singapore Math (which is also the HOD and Sonlight recommendation) and it's going extremely well. I've ordered RightStart Math (used) and Horizons math to compare all three programs, since it's important to me to start with the program we plan on using for High School.

History is covered in MFW1st in conjunction with the Bible. It's good, but there's no world history integrated with it, which I feel helps to contextualize our world with the Bible. So we've added in HOD history with "History for Little Pilgrims" and "History Stories For Children".

Science in MFW1st is incredibly light for my kiddos. Why would they want to do the 3 R's every day and leave the "cool stuff" to only twice a week, one of those days being a reading assignment!? So I wrote down the themes from both programs and have combined them. Now they get to do science 4 times a week. Much better.

As far as the "fun" that they're looking for, is HOD all the way! There are fingerplays (we learned the continents in the first week with a little creation fingerplay) and fun activities. They love them all.

That, in a nutshell, is how to combine MFW1st with HOD LHFHG. Every day, make sure you do your vital subjects (the 3 R's - Reading, Writing and Arithmatic) and everything else is icing on the cake. Our icing on the cake includes French, Home Economics and Galloping the Globe but these are done if and when we feel like it at this point, since we are also doing LHTH and growing a 5 month old!

If you're combining programs, please let me know how it's going, or leave your blog address or web site - I'd love to take a peek!

Things are going well...

Some people's response to what we're doing is "You're crazy to do both programs!"

We, however, are done with school by 10:30 am every day, and continue with the "fun" activities. We are having a blast, and find the joy returning to our home school.

Full Circle with MFW 1st Grade

Some of you might remember that a few weeks ago I posted that we're "leaving MFW" because I had to do too many substitutions etc to make it work for us.

Well.

Yesterday we were in the learning room, and DD6 points up to the curriculum shelf and says "Do you remember the blue book with the whale on it?" I answered, "Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssss?" (Also to be interpreted as "Don't even tell me you're going to say what I think you're going to say!") I continued, "It's your MFW 1st Grade Workbook". "I want to do it!" she replied.

Umm. Ok. What now!? We're doing HOD Little Hearts for His Glory. And LOVING it! They want more, more, more. But she really wants to do MFW 1st. So we're doing it!

I'm doing the LA and when she needs it we'll use HOP and/or Bob Books for review. Math is Singapore Math. Science is whatever we can add to the current theme to make it a daily thing.
And so we have gone full circle :) I'm going to keep this up for as long as I can, and we're doing all of HOD too (it's a fantastic program that adds a lot of activities that my kids love).

So I'm still praying for God's guidance and that He will lead us as a family.

Out of the mouths of babes :)

And it's going to STAY like this!

There's nothing like Spring to inspire me. Having come from a mostly sunny South Africa, the winter here becomes almost unbearable to me from January on. So with the bright sunshine and fresh air, I'm feeling like a crazy woman wanting to get my entire house completely spic 'n span from top to bottom.

However. Reality check. With 3 younguns, one only 5 months old, those sorts of dreams stay all warm and cozy in my head. For now, I am ecstatically happy to have gotten one room in my house sorted out. Aside from getting rid of the lemony yellow on the wall (I really, desperately don't like it and would rather have something like "Lemon Shine" by Benjamin Moore) and a few tweaks, it's pretty much done.

BEFORE

Granted, we are going through a curriculum transition, switching from one complete program to another, but still - this is kinda bad

AFTER
I can actually think in this room! I find that for me, less is more.

Oops! Must find that "D-d-dinosaur" flash card!

These "Desk Apprentices" from Staples are fantastic. Each kid has his/her own filled with the books they're currently working with. When it's school time, just whip it out and get on with it! These are going to be great when/if we move.

Must find a place for the scanner/fax/printers on the floor. They make it look messy. However, this is my office too, and if I'm going to get things done "in between" then this is where they must stay.

DD6's Grass

Last Tuesday (4/8) DD6 planted some grass in a grass head. When it first started growing I couldn't look at it without laughing. Here's why:




Of course, things are progressing a lot quicker with the grass than DS0's hair ;)

What am I looking for in my blog?

I have restarted my blog a zillion times. I have limited coding knowledge and so I have been unable to even modify an existing template, never mind create one from scratch.

If I were going to do so, what elements would I incorporate?

• I would have "pages". Somewhere to hold static information.
• I would like it to have 3 columns because I prefer to have static info available near the top. I find it strange to have to scroll down miles of posts...
• I would love a bible-based theme. That is, after all, life's foundation. In fact, I really like this one: http://oneroomhomeschool.blogspot.com/
• In fact, if you want to see a whole bunch of blog designs that I think are gorgeous, go here.
• I think it would be interesting to make it a "Life is about learning" type of theme, as opposed to "home schooling" because then I'd be able to include my photography and what I'm learning there.

I'm going to have to think more on this one and come back to edit. It's the kind of thing where when I see it I say, "ooooo I like that!"

They never cease to amaze me!

I have always expected my lefty to be more creative than logical, doodling on essays and preferring "randomness" over order. I also know that this is a generalization.

The instruction from LHTH was to "decorate the 'A' with the Cheerios". Which picture belongs to which child?



The results were completely the opposite to what I had been expecting. I had thought that my logical, perfectionist, left-brained righty would place the Cheerios neatly on the 'A'. I had thought that my creative, anything goes, right-brained lefty would have Cheerios everywhere on the page BUT on the 'A'. It was completely the opposite and the left 'A' belongs to DD6 and the right belongs to DS5.

Who woulda thunk it?

Spring has sprung - Park Day!

What a pleasant surprise to get an email saying “We’re going to the park…want to join us?” I love that kind of sponteneity, especially when I actually got the slow cooker going this morning and the day was ours to enjoy :)

The Lord praised on National TV

I don't know why this happened or who was behind it, but our Lord was praised in song on one of the biggest shows on national TV, American Idol. Here it is:

Loving & Learning with Lefties

I suspected when he was 2 years old that I have a lefty learner and so I went to a workshop by Dari Mullins at the MassHOPE Convention in 2006. It was called “Loving and Learning with Lefties” and it was one lightbulb moment after another!

I finally understood how my hubby functions too :)

It really is amazing just how different the perspective of a “lefty” right-brained person is. I mean really different. For example, I asked my kids to “count backwards”. My completely logical, right-handed dd counted from 10 to 1. My creative little lefty, however, counted from 1 to 10 while walking backwards :) He followed the instruction correctly, but creatively, and this is how it goes most of the time with lefties.

I hope to listen to the CD of the workshop again soon, as well as post my notes from the lecture. Now that ds is starting to learn the alphabet and beginning to write letters, I need a refresher course…

Kindergarten Reading & Writing

My Father's World Kindergarten curriculum has some fun themes, and an LA program that makes complete sense. The year starts with learning the letters of the alphabet, and ends with teaching CVC words. Handwriting begins with the letter 'S' since this is the most difficult to write from a fine motor skill perspective, giving the student the longest time to practice it through the year.

I do, however, want to begin cursive early on because research I have read has convinced me that this is the right approach and results in less confusion between the letters (e.g. 'b' is not confused with 'd') and neater handwriting. This is the approach that has successfully been adopted across Europe. We will be using A Beka's Cursive.

K & 1st Grade Math

We have tried every Math program under the sun, and I have settled on the first one I tried. Should have just stuck with it from the beginning ;)

Kindergarten Math

1st Grade Math

1st Grade Reading & Writing

Language Arts



Hooked On Phonics 1st Grade
Bob Books - I get the complete set in a nice "bigger" edition from my local Costco for $10!

Literature
To be determined

Handwriting

A new beginning...

We have been using My Father's World since day 1 of home schooling. I have fought and struggled to make it work for us because I have felt "safe" with it. We used MFW K and had to adapt and change so much that it didn't really look like the original program! Now, we're doing the same with MFW 1st.

I believe the Lord is guiding me to something different than what we've been doing. We are told in His Word to "Trust the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths." I can honestly say that this has started as a heart thing, and my brain followed along after! I have taken the leap of faith and we're moving away from using "My Father's World".

I decided to use the following for DD6:

• LA - Hooked on Phonics
• Writing - A Reason for Writing
• Math - Singapore Earlybird
• Bible - I want to explore the NT with her so she can understand her Savior, while at the same time contextualizing it in history (or should I rather say, history with it!)
• History - I want to do an overview of history from Creation to now, from a Biblical perspective.
• Geography - Galopping the Globe looks like a blast!
• Home Economics - Home Economics for Home Schoolers
• Latin - I want to start Latin early, since that's when language comes easiest, however it's not a priority and I want to get the 3 R's prioritized for attempting "extras"
• Music is also considered a language and imperative. I want to get a piano and begin lessons ASAP. Praying for the Lord to provide this...

I had decided all this when I found Heart of Dakota's "Little Hearts for His Glory". The program allows me to select my own LA and Math, and schedules this along with an outline of history from a Biblical perspective :) Science is "God's World" which is just up our street!