Books Subs - For books already read

[mom2woii]

I need a couple alternate literature suggestions for Adventures. We've listened to the Little House Books so much in the past few years out loud and on tape, I think I'd like to choose two alternate books in place of Farmer Boy and On the Banks of Plum Creek. Any suggestions?

I encountered the same dilemma and decided to just read one of the chapter books from the Book Basket as our read aloud. When we finish (because they are usually shorter than the Little House Books), I just pick out another one for the time period we're studying.

Lana

[donutmom]

We did the same as Lana and would pick one of the longer books in the lists and used them as read alouds, such as Skippack School and others.

My children liked In Grandma's Attic so much that we read the next one in the series (More Stories from Grandma's Attic).

We also read some longer biographies on people being studied in which my son had more interest. Most of these were books that could be read over several days. I just looked them up at the library.

I forget if this was listed as a suggestion, but a favorite of ours was The Year of Miss Agnes. It's about a small out-in-the-boonies town and a teacher who comes to teach in the one room school house. It's set in Alaska, but we read it before we got to Alaska in our study (because we borrowed it, and because I didn't think we'd get it done if we waited).

Those are some that we used that come to mind at the moment.
Dee

[cbollin]

Hello! We are in the middle of Week 4 and are really loving MFW! I feel like it is an answer to prayer. (Thank you, Hazells!) We started the week of Thanksgiving and couldn't help reading Squanto
during that week. I feel like there is a void now that we are really supposed to be reading Squanto, and am looking for a read-book that would go with the subject of Native Americans or, for next week, Pilgrims. Does anyone have any ideas? We have read most of the suggested books for Second Grade listed in the back of the manual. Thank you for any help!
Amy

If I were in that situation, I'd probably just use book basket books and have some read aloud time from those books. I might even read it a second time out loud on another day.

I might grab something like Magic School Bus books to go along with the science topics too. In week 6, you'll start the next scheduled read aloud, so you don't need too long of a book.

-crystal

[forbothmykids]

Amy,

We add in extra read-alouds around here, too. After we finished Squanto, we read Naya Nuki, Girl Who Ran. It was on the book basket list and we thought it was excellent. It was about a young Shoshoni girl who was kidnapped from her tribe, but she manages to escape and travel hundreds of miles by herself to get home.

Denise

[LSH in MS]

We do extra read alouds from the book basket too. Molly's Pilgrim is good and Stories from the Pilgrims by Pumphrey. My library had a lot of picture books about the pilgrims that we read aloud. Some of them had a lot of information as well. It was a fun week.

[Jenileigh]

I've heard that Focus on the Family Radio Theatre has The Legend of Squanto on cd.

[Poohbee]

I agree with the ladies who said you could just fill in with some of the wonderful books on the book basket list. Another idea is for you to fill in with a book that you liked as a child or a book that is by a well-known children's author or something like that. You could choose a few books you think would be good and then let your child choose one. Just another idea for you.

[gratitude]

I am new here. I am considering MFW for next year, trying to get things settled in my mind. We are doing American history up to the Civil War this year, and we love the books, but since there are no notes regarding the books, I am considering switching.

I know Adventures is american history, but it seems to hit on various American patriotism instead of just straight history like AS1. Also, I like the state study, which will be new. The science will be new. I wonder how much of it will be repeat for us and if it would be unwise to go into this time period again or if MFW will give us a different flavor. I would be willing to skip sections in Adventures and just fill in with lapbooks or curiosity driven study for the week.

Do you think this would work or would I be skipping so much that it would be a waste to try Adventures? WP hits major people and events and everyday life of colonials, revolutionary times, a tiny bit of slavery, pioneers. Too much repetition from this year? I thank you for your response!

I forgot to mention that. They will be in 2nd and 3rd grades next year. I will also have a 4yo in the mix.

We are moving onto Adventures in January. I wanted to share though that MFW ties Bible into everything, and it really is a Bible worldview curriculum tied into History. Marie is very organized and the curriculum guides are easy to follow (I actually use them, which for me says A LOT! I ended up not using my 1st 2 curriculum guides from other sources). It is her heart for the LORD, that she pours into her curriculum, that really is at the center of what you will receive from MFW. So for Adventures Jesus being the Bread of Life, from my understanding, will be a central theme; in addition to the American History.

Blessings in your decision!

[jasntas]

If I remember correctly, the history of the U.S. is about the first 3rd of the program and is covered pretty lightly. Nothing too heavy or deep. Just the right amount for a 2nd and/or 3rd grader and youngers tagging along. Around Thanksgiving is when I think the state study really begins. Some are only covered in a day. Some are covered over a few days. The states are studied in the order they became states with Alaska and Hawaii at the conclusion.

I think if the time period or subject has been previously covered, you could probably add in lapbooks or the like to enhance the learning if you choose.

ADV was our first introduction to MFW and we loved it.

You can view the table of contents and see sample lessons here (if you haven't already):
http://www.mfwbooks.com/pdf/advsample.pdf

You can scan the archives to get an idea of what is covered and some ideas of how others have enhanced the program for themselves here:
http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewforum.php?f=24

HTH

[jjn3beans]

This is really looking up! It seems that when we get to a portion we covered this year, we could look in our notebooks from this year and review and remember what we did, possibly even read new book recommendations from the Book Basket. I really like the state study, which the girls will be a perfect age for. Hmmmm, got some more thinking to do now. I guess I could even use a few books that we will miss from our current program and read those. Gotta check the library.

Anyone else have any insight?

[Julie in MN]

I think you could spend a lot more time on each state, enjoying the book basket and such. I think that would be fun.

[beastgal]

We are doing Adventures this year and my boys are loving it. I think it could work for you. I am not sure how much hands on activities you have done with the History portion this year, but you could do the hands on stuff that MFW includes next year and just add on to what you learned this year. We are enjoying the read alouds and some of them may be different than what you are doing this year.

Best wishes, Adventures is really a fun year (well the 15 weeks have been so far!!)

Wendy

[Cyndi (AZ)]

My dd and I loved ADV. My dh loved doing some projects with us. My niece and nephew loved sitting in when they visited us. It is so interesting and so fun, you can't help but love ADV.

I particularly liked how things just unfolded with the timeline. Yes, the majority of the US History is given up-front, leading up to 1776, but the State Study has lots of history woven into it. You may study a new state per day for a few days, based on when they were added to the union, but then you study other events that happened at that time period. It all just comes together so well.

And having the Bible focus on the names of Jesus and relating it to the Science is just genius. We still have our Names of Jesus poster displayed in our school room two years later - after moving it across the country with us.

I'm biased, but ADV was definitely my favorite year to teach. Perfect for 2nd and 3rd graders!

[doubleportion]

Just chiming in quickly. We loved ADV! I wished I had blogged that year but we have great memories. The work load is just the right amount for 2nd and 3rd graders (we did it in 2nd with our oldest). It would be so easy branch out using book basket books or other library books, if you come to a topic that you have already covered in depth. I loved the science being tied to the names of Jesus. And, yes, we still have the poster too! Just a really great year! I would say do it! You will be glad you did.


Edie

[Julie in MN]

Can someone suggest an alternate title to replace "Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims" ?
We read this one not too long ago. Just looking for something along the same lines/time period.
Thanks for any suggestions!

I vaguely remembered one we read, and had to look it up here:
http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=4847

Here it is:
John Billington, Friend of Squanto
by Clyde Robert Bulla

[Bandy]

Thanks very much, Julie!
Sounds like a great read!

[Julie in MN]

I am looking at the Adventures guide for my son's 2nd grade year. We are currently using another program that utilizes some of the same books that are part of the Adventures program. I think that could be too much of a repeat. As anyone else had this problem? Are there other books that could replace those that will be repeated...mainly American Pioneers and Patriots and some of the storytime books.

I have a Kindergarten son that I would like to tag along so that is why I wouldn't put the 2nd grader in ECC yet. I think it may be too much on the 5 yr old and I'm really looking at ways to teach them together.

Thanks!
Jenny

I haven't done Adventures, so take this with a grain of salt. But there are 50 states in Adventures, with book basket ideas for each, so I'd think that's where you could take up the slack. Plus a few presidents -- there's always more to read about presidents.

I also think kids don't remember everything, so there may be times where you'd want to read something again. But I'd expect that since Pioneers & Patriots is more of a storybook, you could just sub stories listed in the book basket list? Those book basket lists are all correlated to the topics/weeks you are working on, so it wouldn't be like you were planning from scratch.

Oh, and the "Ideas board" for Adventures will have even more books that different families really enjoyed.

Hope those are some possibilities,
Julie