In a recent update, I mentioned that we’d decided to make a shift in our homeschool curriculum this coming year.  In the past, I’ve assembled my own curriculum, because I’m a “tweaker,” and it made more sense to me to just put the curriculum together myself than to pay a lot of money for a curriculum I was going to tweak to death anyway. 😉  But in taking my own advice from Energy Budget, we needed to move to something less energy- and time-intensive for planning.  We chose My Father’s World, and I want to take a few minutes to talk about why that’s what we chose, what that setup will look like for us this year with children in very different grades, and what we’re using to round it out.

My Father’s World

The short version of why we chose My Father’s World (often referred to as “MFW” by users, for brevity) is that it’s very much like what I would have put together myself, but the lesson planning is already done for us.  So we save a lot of time and energy on the front end, lesson plans are clear to both me and Michael — but minimal (if any) tweaking is required, because the overall philosophy is very much like our own.  Some key elements that define the curriculum:

• It’s Bible-centric.  (It’s also missions-centric.)  The primary focus is on the idea that we learn about the world because God made it.  We want to know Him better, serve Him better, and effectively take dominion as He instructed.  And that is the basis of all education.  So “Bible” is not just some tacked-on subject, but the spine of the program.(Don’t get me wrong; there’s plenty of history and science, etc., but everything is studied with the understanding that the Bible is the ultimate foundation, and glorifying God is the ultimate goal.)
• It’s built around classical stages of learning.  Classical education recognizes that learning happens in three distinct stages: grammar, logic, and rhetoric.  To some extent, each individual subject area goes through this process but, on a larger scale, these are also developmental stages.  The Bible seems to reference these stages of learning as knowledge, understanding, and wisdom.  My Father’s World calls them Discovery, Investigation, and Declaration.
• The style of learning has a heavy Charlotte Mason influence.  This means that actual learning activities are time-tested types of activity, such as the use of “living books,” modeling (copying those who are already writing, etc. well), narration, nature study (observation), notebooking, etc.  These methods are not only Charlotte Mason’s methods, but have been used successfully by a variety of educators throughout much of history.
• They’re unit studies.  Integrated learning is more effective, efficient, and more like real life.  Most children also find it less tedious.  There’s something very overwhelming about having 5-6+ subject-based textbooks, each of which has no overt connection to any of the others.  A much more intuitive approach to learning is to make your subjects all connect to each other as much as possible.  (This is how we remember things, too, neurologically speaking — by making connections between things.)

Almost all of the contents of these programs are non-consumable, so siblings can all use the same ones.  (There is a package of student sheets for each set that needs to be replaced per student, and the occasional Bible study workbook, timeline, etc. scattered throughout, but these are a very small proportion of the overall contents.)

The Divisions

My Father’s World curriculum packages are divided into groups based on MFW’s designations of the classical divisions of “Discover,” “Investigate,” and “Declare.”

The real crux of the program is the “Investigate” series, also known as the “Family Learning Cycle.”  This series of five programs is designed to occur in a cyclical fashion, and most school-age family members are expected to do it together (at whatever academic level they’re at, of course).  It begins with Exploring Countries and Cultures, which provides a strong foundation in geography and introduces cultures, with an emphasis on God’s love for the world and the importance of missions.  The following four years: Creation to the Greeks, Rome to the Reformation, Exploration to 1850, and 1850 to Modern Times (the latter two focusing on U.S. history) move sequentially through history.

These are designed for 3rd to 8th graders (a student beginning in 3rd grade with ECC will cycle through all five years and then roll back around and complete ECC a second time, in greater depth, due to his increased academic capability).  Second graders can also join in with the Family Learning Cycle if they have older siblings in the program.  The idea is that as younger siblings reach the appropriate age, they jump into the cycle at whatever point the family is currently at, and will eventually cycle through the whole thing.

Younger students begin with the “Discover” series.  There are two separate, consecutive preschool programs available, All Aboard the Animal Train (for 2’s and 3’s) and Voyage of Discovery (for 4’s and older 3’s).  Although these are heavily play-based, I don’t particularly recommend formal preschool under most circumstances so, although I’m sure these are very good, in most cases I’d skip them.

(They do have a set of cards in the VoD program, though, that we went ahead and bought.  These cards have specific learning activities you can do with a few of the manipulatives/learning toys — mostly Lauri products — that are a handy “in between” option for parents who want a little bit of guidance in providing learning opportunities, without anything too formal.  They also make available an “Educational Toy Package” that contains just the activity cards and the accompanying toys, without the full curriculum.)

Lauri Number Puzzle Boards & PegsLauri LR-2561 Smooth Lacing Shape SetLauri Crepe Rubber See-the-Difference Puzzle – KidsLauri Fit-A-SpaceLauri Toys Big-Little Crepe Rubber Pegboard

The series then moves on to kindergarten (God’s Creation from A to Z) and first grade (Learning God’s Story), and has a “gap year” U.S. history option (Adventures in U.S. History) now for 2nd and 3rd graders who do not have older siblings in the Family Learning Cycle.  (If they do, they can just start straight into the FLC.)

High school has its own four-year “Declare” series.  It includes Ancient History & Literature, World History & Literature, U.S. History to 1877, and U.S. History 1877 to the Present.  These, of course, are intended to correspond to 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th grades, although they can be adjusted if necessary.

Adding On

Most subjects are incorporated into the program; however, a couple things need to be supplemented because of the cyclical nature of the program and the fact that skills subjects are dependent on age/grade/development.  What needs to be supplemented depends on the level.  “Discover” series programs are pretty well self-contained.  They include language (including phonics) and math.  The one notable feature I don’t care for about MFW is that they use the more typical “horizontal” phonics (learning short sounds, then long sounds, etc.) rather than “vertical” phonics (as in The Writing Road to Reading, The Logic of English, and our preferred Teach America to Read and Spell), so this is one area where I might do a little tweaking.

“Investigate” series programs require the addition of math and language (and, in 7th and 8th grades, potentially supplemental science).  We will (at least for the time being) be continuing with Life of Fred math, which our middle daughter has really been enjoying this year.  For grammar, we’ll continue with KISS, which is working well and which I love for its simplicity and lack of fluff, and also incorporate Institute for Excellence in Writing‘s program.  I purchased the teacher training program (Teaching Writing: Structure and Style) rather than one of the student programs, because one of the things I love about this method is that it provides a basic structure which can then be used with any material — so we can make our writing assignments integrate with the MFW units.  I think it is also going to complement KISS Grammar very nicely (and it catches those elements of grammar that KISS doesn’t really tackle in its core methodology — like punctuation).

“Declare” series programs — especially Ancient History & Literature — are heavier on composition than the younger grades, but require the addition of both math and science.  Our math is still currently undecided, but we will be using science programs from Master Books.  Our oldest has an interest in some more specific areas of science (specifically astronomy and geology) that are tough to find textbooks for, but Master Books has some great science programs that use existing texts and provide accompanying teacher’s guides with assignments, worksheets, etc.

Our Upcoming Year

We are doing a little bit of juggling of “years,” because we’re making the switch to MFW “in the middle.”  Our oldest only has three years of school left, so she obviously can’t complete four separate years of high school.  The next child has only four years left ’til high school, so she’ll be “missing” a year of the family cycle.  Meanwhile, we have a 6-year-old who is not quite ready for 1st grade yet, and a precocious 4-year-old.  Given all of these factors, as well as a couple others (like that the oldest’s school work last year most closely resembles U.S. History to 1877), the plan for the coming year is the following:

The oldest will be in Ancient History & Literature.  (She will then move on to World History & Literature, skip U.S. History to 1877, and finish up with U.S. History 1877 to Present over the next couple years.)  Her science for the year will be Master Books’ Survey of Archaeology & Geology, which should pair well with ancient history.

The next oldest will be in Rome to the Reformation.  This is not where MFW would ordinarily recommend that a student start; it is generally recommended to start in Exploring Countries & Cultures at whatever point you start.  However, this will have Sophia cycling back around to ECC in 8th grade, and the one Investigate series program she’ll miss will be Creation to the Greeks — because she’ll move from the Investigate cycle straight into high school’s ancient history instead.  (Meanwhile, this also brings us back around to ECC just in time for the younger two to jump in with it.)

The 6-year-old will be in the kindergarten program (God’s Creation from A to Z).  The 4-year-old will be tagging along, but completing only those reading/math assignments that are appropriate for him (which may be none of them, and that’s okay, but knowing these two, I will not be shocked if they both pick things up at about the same rate).

Next year they’ll move up to 1st grade, and the expectation is that we will simply “backtrack” the younger one to the kindergarten math and language if/as necessary.  (That is, they can do the core unit activities together, but he may need the math and language adjusted down.)  Because Livia is showing a little less school-readiness than my older kids, and Caleb will still be a bit young, we’ll probably then go ahead and use Adventures in U.S. History for them the following year, and then roll them both into the Family Learning Cycle with ECC.  Meanwhile, they will both also pick up with KISS Grammar and IEW as that becomes appropriate.  (That will be about the time this newest baby is ready to start with kindergarten!)

That’s the current plan but life happens, and we will be observing and adjusting as necessary as we go.  It’s helpful to have a “big picture” view, though, so we have a general idea of what’s happening down the road.