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Resource Description
My Father's World is a full package curriculum (math & language arts are from other vendors) with a Christian perspective that, like Sonlight but less intense, has history as its backbone, and relates the rest of the curriculum to it. It was originally created for missionaries.
Website: My Father's World
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(29 Reviews)
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Contributor Reviews
Reviews are solely the opinions of the contributor.
Cons: Science not my favorite
Grades Used: K and 1st
We love My Fathers World! It has made homeschooling easy and fun for all of us.
A lot of times I hear people say the MFW K is too light. I couldn't disagree more. I think it really hammers in the basics. My daughter could actually read before we started it and I came very close to skipping K. Thank God I didn't. By the time we finished K she was reading at a 3rd grade level. The Bible part was great. It opened the door for a lot of discussion. It challenged my children to think and draw conclusions based on the word of God. I did supplement some but it was because I could, not because I felt I had to. (If that makes sense.)
MFW 1st was a great phonics program. I loved the biblical timeline. We all learned so much. I added my own spelling program and used Saxon math. We also did not use the science program they recommend. I for one love the TM. I have almost zero prep to do on my own, unless I want to. My daughter took the CAT test this year and scored at a 5th grade level in language arts and her overall score was in the 99th percentile. We do not plan on changing curriculum any time soon.
One thing about MFW I have noticed, hands on/ crafty people are the ones who love it the most. I'm not sure why this is. Maybe it's because it is pretty laid back. It can be as hard or as easy as you want it to be. I felt like I had complete control over my child's education.
Cons: I didn't like the English lessons
Grades Used: 1st and 2nd
I have used MFW for two years, and I plan on continuing. I love how the different subjects often overlap in a week (ex. studying the Wright bothers in history, and air and flight in science). I also love the list of suggested library books. I need the structure but I don't feel obligated to do every suggested activity, and I supplemented a couple lapbooks and occasional copywork. I like the weekly schedule, but it can be a challenge to adjust when a day off is needed in the middle of a week.
I did not like the English book, and I now supplement with Learning Language through Lit.
Cons: had to supplement
Grades Used: K
For my first year homeschooling, I really liked MFW K curriculum. The newer manual book is much better than the older one, liked the layout better where you can see the whole week at a time over 2 pages. For more detail, the individual days are described on other pages. I liked how the theme for the week was truly carried through each day the entire week. For my son, the reading/phonics was too easy for him but I think thats just because he is more advanced in that area.
I liked how its flexible and we could pick and choose what we would do each day. We were actually able to do 2 weeks into one week most of our year in order to finish before a new baby was born. My son seemed to enjoy MFW. I did supplement for math to make it more rigorous and challenging.
Cons: notebooking pages of cycle years lacking format
Grades Used: K, 1st, Adventures, ECC, CTG
When we first began homeschooling and I looked at My Father's World I thought too gentle, that's just play stuff, not "real" education, not "beefy" enough. And for many moms who look at the K and 1st grade programs for their oldest child I hear those same concerns. But I still did like the family cycle concept and so we still did come to MFW later to try it with Adventures with a 3rd and 1st grader together. I prefer that we are all learning the same history era and science concepts together. I love how the Bible and art is connected as an unit- I definitely enjoy the unit style of homeschooling. And we LOVE the Biblical foundation, focus, and mission of MFW.
After trying MFW's older years I did go back and use K and 1st with our younger children. It was then I realized the brilliance of the gentle, seemingly too "easy" K and 1st grade programs. When you have older children and other responsibilities you cannot spend hours on K and 1st. These are designed to creatively and inspiringly cover what a K and 1st grader need to learn, instill a love of learning and curiosity, all while keeping your schedule reasonable to manage! It is such a blessing to have that special time with just your younger ones, still have a sweet program for their K and 1st grade years, but not feel overwhelmed.
With My Father's World I also can enjoy many components of Charlotte Mason's theories without the struggle of how and when to implement them. The nature walks, copywork, art, music, and wonderful family reading times are right in the Teacher's Manuel schedule for you!!! Narration and notebooking are encouraged and some are provided but allowing you to customize it to the extent that you would prefer.
Which leads me to the last reason I've stayed with MFW- the flexibility of the literature used. Unlike Sonlight, Heart of Dakota, Veritas Press and others- MFW does not require you to purchase at new book price a large amount of literature. They offer a few selections they consider a must have in their deluxe packages and the rest is suggestion. In the TMs there is a whole appendix of recommended books to either buy yourself or borrow from your library. Often they will include a brief summary and age appropriateness. I love this aspect. I add many books from Sonlight, HOD, and other's catalogs- but I don't have to buy them! I keep my eyes out at sales or use our library's interlibrary loan system extensively!! If there was one or two we really enjoyed, I often do try to buy it somewhere but as any homeschool family on a budget it's freeing to not have to buy new books and worry about keeping them nice. Also there are so many resources for ebooks and audio books online now!!
Most homeschool moms tweek and change their curriculum and I will admit I have done that with MFW as well. But everything that I change is minor to the backbone of what I consider MFW's core. I have found it is much easier to add little things I like to MFW than to try to take the things I like in MFW and add them to other curriculums. An example, during ECC we added Download N Go units from Amanda Bennet and other lapbooks from other sources, not for every country, but some mixed in. This avoided a repetition for us and took a lot of pressure off of me due to a situation of a high risk pregnancy that particular year.
My only cons of MFW are their LA recommendations and notebooking. While I do use Spelling Power and Progeny Press guides, I do not use their writing or the PLL/ILL. It just has not worked for us. But MFW offers them as recommendations, they are not a must to use MFW. Our first year with Adventures was also our first exposure to notebooking. We greatly enjoyed it but as we've moved to older years, I find I need to add more "pretty" notebooking pages than what MFW provides. That's my choice to add more, many families feel it's enough, many families add more as well. Again, it's the flexibility of MFW not to make you buy a $40 set of full color notebooking pages if you don't prefer that aspect of homeschooling.
Thanks for reading and happy homeschooling.