.jpg)
It’s that time of year! Homeschool conventions and curriculum fairs are in full swing.
While we’ve added in a few supplements here and there, our family has enjoyed using My Father’s World since the beginning. We’ve enjoyed every single year and I especially looked forward to next year, when all three of my school-aged children would use one manual.
Recently, I’ve received several homeschooling questions which forced me to examine our own setup and current school year. Here’s the deal–it’s time for me to ditch my pride, forget the school year calendar, and meet my children’s needs.
We already started making tweaks this year but it wasn’t enough. My oldest son needs more one-on-one. As I’ve mentioned before, he has a spectrum diagnosis and is a very intelligent little fella who struggles with reading, writing, and processing speed.
So after a very turbulent start to our second semester, we decided that my oldest daughter would begin again with Creation to Christ from Heart of Dakota and is now entering Unit 5. The cool thing is we got to experience both the first semester of MFW’s Creation to the Greeks and now HOD’s Creation to Christ and it’s neat to see how the two compare! I can honestly say that these are both absolutely solid programs but they each take a different approach.
I was concerned about her repeating material, but she loves it! She’s enjoying HOD’s CtC immensely and since she’s a strong reader who thrives on independent work, she’s excelling. At the end of the day, she excitedly tells her dad about all the new things she’s learned.
Meanwhile, my son is working through the Emerging Readers Set from HOD, Rod and Staff English 2, and Science and Social Studies PACEs to focus on his reading skills. He’s already completed Teaching Textbooks this year, so we’re good for math for awhile. Once we feel his reading/writing/processing speed has improved, we will decide if we’ll move him into HOD’s Preparing or take a different route.
My first grader is wrapping up MFW’s 1st grade and will begin HOD’s Beyond when we finish.
And my soon to be K4er will use MFW’s Preschool items (Our 4th time through!) with the About 3 Series from Rod and Staff/Christian Light Education. (Also our 4th time through!)
And of course the sweet toddler will be tagging along, and enjoying a few items from Timberdoodle.
I know that changing curriculum in March sounds drastic, but I feel good about the direction we’re going. I hope to update with a positive report in the future.
What about you? Have you ever completely changed curriculum this late in the school year?
Free Guide For the Natural Living Mom
Want to know how to use essential oils and herbs in your home? In this guide, I share my top 10 favorites.
Plus get our latest content and news, including giveaways and freebies for the natural living and homeschooling mom.
Sounds like a great plan! I have never used HOD, but have heard wonderful things about it. We enjoyed My Father’s World for a few years and now use Trail Guide to Learning. Thanks for all your encouragement!
Thanks for sharing, Mary!!! I’ve heard good things about Trail Guide.
Sounds like you have a great plan in place, Sara Elizabeth! We actually looked into HOD for our family, but then realized that HOD’s high school program is not yet complete. Our daughter will be in 9th grade this fall, which was very important to keep us together. We will be using RtR and AHL for our family with MFW. I’m so sad to see you go, but know that you need to do what works for your family. The precious MFW families welcomed me back with open arms when we came back this year, and I’m sure we’ll do the same if/when you return! Love you, sister! 😉
Jackie, the family togetherness is the main aspect of why we loved MFW!
But this year what I found was my daughter following along and my son politely listening in but after a morning of school, he then needed to do extra work. I think he felt like he was doing double school. Many of the assignments in CtC are written to the child and since my oldest is very independent and is a self-starter, she can go ahead and begin the Independent boxes while I work with my son.
She likes this because as she puts it, she doesn’t have to wait until everyone is ready to begin. Plus it’s enabled us to keep our school day concise but still meet everyone’s needs. 🙂
I think highly of MFW and it will likely always be our Kindergarten and 1st grade curriculum. I’ve even contemplated using ADV for my 2nd grader instead of Beyond, and ECC was an absolutely wonderful and rich year!
Sounds awesome! Hope you and your family have an amazing Easter!
Thanks, Sara Elizabeth! I’m REALLY excited about MFW and hosting the blog roll!
That’s great! We love HOD. If you’d like to, I have an HOD blogroll on my site for this year and will be renewing it for the 2013-2014 year as well. You can find it here:
https://www.tothemoonandbackblog.net/p/hod-blogroll-2012-2013.html
Hope to see you there!
Thanks for sharing. That is what homeschooling is to me-being able to custom fit a program that benefits the child and family situation to the fullest. Every child is different and every family is unique. Why not utilize the flexibility of being able to change and make things better for everyone.