Okay, I'm a young earther. There, the cards are on the table. Anyway, I think you'll do fine with MFW. Being in the homeschool community, your children will encounter a lot of young-earthers and perhaps you should have an ongoing discussion of "some Christians believe that the earth is about 10,000 ...

Cliffhanger is an understatement. "More, Daddy, more" is the cry in our house. Anyway, we've read all three and are back to Jotham again this year. They are on sale at CBD (or they were a few days ago). Tabitha hasn't been re-released but hopefully will be soon (or you can pay $100 on ebay for it). ...

Just a welcome to you! We've not started mid-year but I don't see any problem with it. School years are for ... SCHOOLS! You can do it at your pace and start when you say start. Like you, I have an 8 (nearly 9) year old that needs constant help with reading. Things don't "stick" with her until about...

Well said Crystal. Hope I didn't come across as a slacker. Most of our days are ordinary days where we plug through the grid and finish the day. But not all. Today is a different day for us as we had our pet parakeet put down. He had cancer and was not expected to live past May and today was miserab...

You know, I confess that I try to balance "schedule" with "living in the moment" all the time. I personally feel more comfortable with a schedule at my side. However, I know that I can take it too far and end up missing out on a beautiful park day because The Schedule said, "Tough luck, it's nice ou...

Praise the Lord she's doing so well! And take advantage of that free time that having a bright student allows. I have two teens who are busy with school work, orchestra, dance, and Science Olympiad and I miss that free time. I have a son who dawdles and can make a 8 AM - 1 PM school day last until s...

I guess I have just one comment. "Pure, unmarried" is a nice way to describe Mary when she was pregnant with Jesus. I'd make sure that your children realize that married folks can be pure in their marriage too. Without getting into details (each child is ready at a different time), you can say that ...

I have to point out that this [testing] is just for me (well, and my kids). I am wanting to know where they are. My state does not require testing. We have never tested, and I feel like I need a plumb line. My wanting to test is not out of a question/concern about MFW.We just switched from another ...

Sorry you are dealing with sick kids. No fun for them or you. MFW is written so that Fridays are light and usually it's easy to make up missed days without having to go into the summer or Christmas break or whatever. We've got four kids. When one is sick, the others continue with individual work -- ...

Hi Friends, Today I was at KMart buying boring stuff and poked my head in the school supply section at the front of the store. In addition to the usual crayons, backpacks, and glue sticks, I found a really neat 2 CD set called Anthems of the World. The first CD has national anthems of many countries...

Oh wow, a chance to hop on that old rusty and dusty soapbox of mine that I've not been on in a while. First off, I don't feel guilty spending $$ at the MFW booth or the MFW website. I thank God that he's once again enabled us to buy new curriculum from MFW. And I know that when we purchase MFW new f...

Oooh, I like the colored pencil option. I use very light check marks and could use something more. As for scripted vs. not very scripted, I really think that "not very scripted" is probably the best way to go for us homeschoolers. God has uniquely designed each child, each parent, each family and ea...

Crystal, Great ideas and great attitudes. The feasts CAN seem so overwhelming, but are so worth it. They don't have to be fancy or time-consuming, just meaningful. Also, if you know someone else doing CTG or otherwise studying the feasts, go in with them and share the effort and ideas. We had a grea...

I was inspired by the ADV post of this nature and wanted to see if you have any helpful tips on preparing for ECC ( 2nd Edition). ANYTHING will help. I seem to be struggling in getting the ball rolling this year. I did track with Book Basket books our library has vs. which ones needed to be purchas...

If he's having a tough time making up a PLL story, give him another intermediate step (and perhaps stretch a one-day assignment into two days). Suppose he's looking at a picture in PLL and has to make up the story that "happened before" it. What you might want to do instead of just having him sit th...

My oldest child is a boy who will be 9 next week. We just finished up PLL. He can narrate things back to me fairly well but is is very rigid...if you know what I mean. It is like he concentrates very hard to memorize things word for word instead of understanding the meaning of the selection and tel...

Okay, our ants didn't last long, but thankfully the kids never were really "into" them. We've had great luck with our butterflies. Every single one of them turned into a butterfly except one. Anyway, when we get the new caterpillars I will be sure to wear my reading glasses when it comes time to pin...

I also agree with the no curriculum approach for spelling and know many people doing that. They keep track of misspelled words and teach those. It works.

Wow, I'm surprised (and a bit flattered) anyone would really be interested in our grid sheets. They work but they are so far from flashy. But, they are cheap and don't take up floor space. The grids do look a lot like the MFW grids. But, I added a generic goal to them. Let me see if it is possible t...

Thanks to all you encouraged me to take the plunge. Yeah! Our boxes came with ECC and K. I am loving exploring everything and the kids are excited. (yeah!) I am going to have a 5th, 4th, 2nd, and K with two young ones when we start. I am trying to figure out how to make it work. It would be nice to...

We're homeschooling our 4 dc (ages 8 to turning 15 next week) and I must say that this "love of reading" develops at different ages and to different extents. If a child has a real "love of art" then perhaps that crowds out the available time for love of reading. If a certain child would rather be on...

Wow, ECC and RTR are both terrific and fun years. Why not do ECC and take a break and have a two or three week "Knight School" in the middle of ECC? We did this (well, not Knight School -- more like Wright School). We started our homeschooling adventure in 2003 with a 4th, 2nd, preschooler, and a di...

Actually, Marie H. planned my days when she wrote the TMs. :-) We eat breakfast and all, then get together for Bible and prayer and do all the "together" things together and then the older kids work separately on LA, math, violin and chores. I float around helping them, spending most time with my yo...

Okay, here are my more or less random thoughts: What is the worst that can happen if your child were to absolutely BOMB the test? Okay, now chances are your child won't "bomb" the test but will do somewhere between below average to stellar, where most kids fall. Remind yourself and your kids that th...

Just got done (okay, Antartica is in our future) with ECC with my 8 yo. We'd line up the chairs to be a plane and we'd do different things (snacks, an in flight video on the country we're going to, act like a tour guide, read a book, etc.). I'd challenge my dd to line the chairs up facing the right ...