Beautiful! Thank you so much for sharing, Marie!

My son wasn't too young when we did MFW 1st grade, but he is autistic and also has a very short attention span. I spread both MFW K and 1st over 1 1/2 years for him. It allowed me to slow down a bit and do less work on any given day, because he couldn't handle doing everything scheduled for 1 day. M...

Hi! We just started our summer break, but I'm already starting to think about and plan for the next school year. Anyone else doing that, too? 😀 We have used MFW continuously in our home since 2006 until last year. My daughters, ages 13 (8th) and 17 (12th), use a variety of different materials to mat...

For a similar book, I thought of the Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace.

Hi Amy! When I read your post, I immediately thought of Patrick Nurre and his company Northwest Treasures. I heard Patrick speak at our state homeschool convention 2 years ago. He is a geologist who presents geology from a young-earth perspective. He was trained in secular geology, but after he beca...

You are doing a great job teaching your son! Don't ever doubt that! It's taken 10 years of homeschooling, but I have finally totally gotten over the idea that I need to finish something in a school year. I have had many times now where my kids are either ahead or behind and we don't finish in a scho...

I'm a little late to the conversation. I see you've made a decision to stop using Singapore 6A for awhile and use some Life of Fred instead. I'm glad you were able to come to a decision about that. I just wanted to comment that my oldest only finished through Singapore 5B by the end of 6th grade (th...

Hi Jason! Welcome to MFW! I have been using MFW for 11 years now, and I think you will be pleased with the interaction you will have with your children, the interaction they will have with each other, and the wonderful hands-on activities, among many other things! :-) We are on our 2nd time through ...

Thank you so much for sharing this, Marie! I was not familiar with Prayercast, but I LOVE that site! I think it would be a wonderful supplement to ECC. I can't wait to share Prayercast with my daughter throughout the rest of our ECC studies this year.

Another idea would be if your family decided to support a child through something like World Vision or Compassion (and there are other sponsorship organizations), and then write to the child. Letters maybe wouldn't come as often as from a more local penpal, but it is so neat to see and read firsthan...

At the beginning of the year, for the first 3 weeks or so, there is a handwriting review of all of the letters. This is when you could review the proper strokes, etc. It goes pretty fast, but you could slow it down if you need to. After that, the child practices handwriting by copying a Proverb each...

I have a VHS copy of an animated movie called Our Friend, Martin. It's a time-travel adventure, but it has actual historical footage. My kids and I enjoyed watching that each year until our VHS player broke down. Now, I get out all of my books about MLK, Jr. (I've collected quite a few), and have th...

Our Christmas traditions include: *I bake and the kids decorate gingerbread cookies. (We read the story of The Gingerbread Man when my oldest was in Kindergarten. The book we used had a recipe for gingerbread men. We made the cookies that year to go with the story. The recipe is wonderful...such sof...

Has anyone read Teaching from Rest by Sarah MacKenzie? I just started reading it. I used to be a public school teacher and I find I have a hard time not checking off boxes and focusing on teaching the curriculum instead of my children. I am teaching Adventures and Kindergarten with a three year old...

With my 6th grader, we just started Week 3 of ECC. The last time I did ECC, my current 6th grader was in kindergarten, and my oldest daughter was a 4th grader. It has been fun doing ECC with an older student. My daughter doesn't remember much from the last time we did ECC. Since she has already lear...

Do we read the lesson together? Should he do it on his own? Thanks! Kathy Hi Kathy! I don't know what the official recommendation is, but I think you could do it either way. From personal experience, I think it is best to either read the lesson with your student or at least hit the high points with...

It has been wonderful to glean from this message board. What wonderful information and advice. It is greatly appreciated. We will be starting ECC this year. We are in a situation of having to care for an elderly relative out of town and do not know how long this will go on. With the going back and ...

Hi Cyndi! Great to "see" you again! :-) You know, I think you could go either way with it. If you feel that going into Algebra 2 directly following Algebra 1 will be a good fit for your daughter, then do it. :-) My dd, who will be in 10th grade this year, completed Saxon Algebra 1 halfway through 9t...

Hi Katrina. :-) How exciting that you'll have all of your kids home with you again this coming school year! I had just a couple of thoughts as I read your message. Regarding RTR for your 8th grader: If it is your desire that he continue to have a bit of school time with the family rather than comple...

I think you could go either way with either ADV or ECC. Both are great years! If you're torn about which one to choose, perhaps ask your daughter where her interests lie. Would she rather study American history or countries and cultures this year? Whichever year you choose, you can adapt it to fit y...

Oh, I hate to think of you being so overwhelmed and almost dreading the school year before it begins. You do have quite a load and a lot on your plate. Hang in there! This, too, shall pass. It is only a season. Perhaps give yourself grace and give up the idea that your kids are behind. Who says they...

I was just going to mention that, as Tricia said, there are A LOT of timeline pieces for 1850MOD. So, even though I was able to put the timeline pieces for the 3 previous years on the wall, it would have been challenging to do that for 1850MOD just because there are so many pieces. It was my underst...

Welcome to homeschooling and to My Father's World! Your excitement is contagious! It is so exciting to get started on this homeschooling journey, isn't it? I started homeschooling my oldest in 2006 with My Father's World Kindergarten, and now, 10 years and 2 more kids later, we are starting our 11th...

Thank you so much for sharing this, Marie! I love it when you share your beautiful heart and what God has been showing you or teaching you in your life. Your message and the Hawk Nelson song were such blessings to me today.

Jen

I can see why you are tired. You have a lot on your plate right now and a lot going on in your family. I don't know if I'll be much help with all of it, but I thought I'd comment on a few things. My 7yo son, too, has autism. I replied to a previous post of yours and told you about my son in that pos...