Preparation - Box Day! and helpful hints

[BHelf]

I finally ordered Adventures today! I'm so excited! So, all of you experienced MFW-ers, any advice on what to do when I get it? What do I do first? Where do I need to look? Any tips?

I like to read through as much as I can of the teacher's manual and become familiar with the books. I will usually read through the first two weeks of material covered so I have some idea of how the school year will begin. If time allows (ha) I would love to do this for the whole year in bits and pieces. If there are copies to be made for the year, it is ideal (for me) to have them all made at once and then put them in order in a folder or binder as to when we'll use them.

But mostly---HAVE FUN!!! Box day is fun around here! It's like a birthday present or Christmas present!

[Pylegang]

Welcome! From one new MFW gal to another!

When I got my guide book I combed through the introductory pages. There is a nice section called "Preparation" that details various things you need to do, i.e. pages to copy, supplies to purchase and recommended materials. The guide also details teaching tips/ideas for each subject! This section is terrific. I thoroughly reading this information.

After reading the introductory pages, I flipped to the back of the manual to look through the book basket list. I browse through the notebook pages for each student.

The guide is well laid out and easy to use. I think I'm going to love using MFW this year. Hope you do, too!

[hollybygolly]

Mrs. Lilac~

Glad to meet you! We've been doing Adventures for almost a month...it's a very enjoyable program. I did similar to the other ladies: read through the preparation pages, skimmed the history books to get familiar with their layout, and read through the first 2 weeks of curriculum to get a feel for the day.

[Editor's note: This one applies to Adventures 1st edition]
One other thing: there are quite a few pages in the appendix that you'll need copied for the year's work. I took my manual down to Kinko's and had them unbind the manual, copy all of the pages, and rebind it. I'm teaching twins and needed two copies of the appendix...it cost less than $10. Enjoy looking through the manual when it comes! God bless! Holly

[LA in Baltimore]

Welcome!

Two thoughts...

1. Enjoy box day! It is so much fun to look through the box and oooh and aaaah about school.

2. Read through the introductory pages that tell you all about the program, how to get it all in, etc. BEFORE you start school. It might also help to collect the supplies you need before you start (the items are listed at the beginning of each week in the manual for ADV) and keep them in a box so that they are handy as your school year progresses. I made a "food list" by week and kept that near my shopping list so that I could add whatever fresh items I needed when we went grocery shopping.

Enjoy your year!

[Julie in MN]

I just ordered MFW Adventures & 1st yesterday. I am really excited to get started! Right now my craft supplies cabinet is very bare and I am planning on going to the store tonight to stock up. What are some craft staples I should have on hand for Adventures? I know there will be things throughout the year that I will need to go purchase...but I would love to have some of the things that are used more often on hand. Thanks!

I never got to do Adventures, but I know there are threads around here where people had the exact same needs as you. How about trying these:

http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=3628
http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=5423

Also for some extra hints and such, have you tried the Ideas forum?
http://board.mfwbooks.com/viewforum.php?f=24

Have fun!
Julie

[Cyndi (AZ)]

Can't wait for it to arrive.
DD, 8, is in 2nd this year. We've tried another curriculum that her older brother has used & loved for the last 6 years, but it's just not working for her.
I had read about MFW a couple of years ago, and it has always stuck in the back of my mind.
Something keeps pulling at me to try it, so I finally went ahead and ordered it yesterday. I ordered the Deluxe package.
We can't wait to get it in so I can look through the teacher's manual.
DD is excited about having the art & science also.

Anything special that I would need? Any suggestions for a newbie?

Welcome! ADV has been my most favorite year so far -- I *loved* teaching it!!! I hope you all enjoy it as much as we did. There's some awesome threads around here about prepping for the year [above] Honestly, everything you need to know for the year is spelled out very well in the TM - MFW puts out awesome manuals with so many teaching tips. You're going to love it!

[baileymom]

Hi Mom of 2!

I agree with Cyndi, the TM is so full...the biggest NEED is time and more time to READ it!

We'll complete Week 15 of ADV Friday...it really is a lot of fun!

[jhagberg]

My advice? Jump in with both feet! Forget everything you've ever done and just enjoy the beauty of this program. I taught in a Christian school for eight years, and then I used PACEs for another six years with my oldest (now 15). Now I am "starting over" with MFW for my younger ones. I love it! It is completely new and fresh and I couldn't be happier. Enjoy!

[Metairie]

First, welcome! You are never on your own here. Ask away. We are a mid year switch also. We are loving Adventures and currently finishing up Week 4. My advice is to sit down with a cup of coffee (insert favorite beverage) and read the manual. It's been a blast. We are taking our time and doing everything. No prep at all! They even tell you to number pages in a book that has none. LOL!!

Sit back and enjoy the ride!!

[schoolmom2]

We enjoyed Adventures sooooo much last year! I second the advice to sit down with a favorite beverage and just read through the TM. It is all so well-laid-out, and doesn't take much prep at all. The only other advice I would add is to be sure you keep on top of putting books on hold at the library. I usually put all my books on hold two weeks before I need them (we are allowed to keep books for 3 weeks here), so that most, if not all of them are available when I need them. There must be several other MFW families in our area, because the same books I need are often checked out. I am sure you will love your year in Adventures!

[Mom of 2]

Thank you all so much!
I got an email saying that my package was already shipped out yesterday afternoon (Monday).
It's scheduled to be here Wednesday. That's fast!!
We are so excited to get it and look through the TM and all the great books.
I'm also very excited to see what's in store for the book basket. I think that is a wonderful idea!

[Mexmarr]

We start today!!!!! I am so excited. The kids are to, but I am probably the most excited.

In preparation, I went through the TM and pulled out everything that I need for Week one and am using a Sterilite box with handle as my Adventures box. Then I took gallon ziplock bags and made one for each week (1st 8 only). In each bag, I place the items needed for that wee that are not used in previous weeks. We were also able to purchase 1 book basket book for each of the first 12 weeks, so those books went in, as well. Now, I just have to grab the next bag at the beginning of the week.

I have my name letters written out for my 2 oldest girls. Wow, that was hard! But I am please with the results. I printed them out on a beautiful Rose boardered printer paper, using italics and a pink font. I think that they will love them. I am giving my K'er her own Adventures notebook, and she has student sheets. That way, she will feel included, though she won't be required to do any work. She loves coloring and drawing stuff, so I think that she will enjoy doing most of it.

If you are doing Adventures, check out Amazon for Book Basket book! I got many of them for 1 cent, plus shipping. Others are moderately priced and they have a buy 3 get one free special for the new ones. I had a gift certificate and got 16 books!!!! Those go with the first 12 lessons, and now I am hoping to continue buying 1 a week, if I can.

[cbollin]

Ok we are new to MFW curriculum and everyone is so excited! In order to have the books ready for Book Basket for the first week or two I need to request them from an inter-library loan program....which can take a couple weeks for the books to arrive. Can anyone help me out with the first lesson or two for topic/content and a few suggested (or favorite) books for the book basket as well? Our library is a small town library and likely won't have what we need ...so we do the library loan request and they bring it in from other larger libraries in surrounding areas. I love it but it takes time.

So excited to be doing school in this more relaxed way. Plus getting to teach two kids at once is going to be great!!! Never been able to do that before.

Welcome along!

This is what I'd do if I were in your situation. I'd fill book basket with anything that is interesting to your child for those weeks to just enjoy and learning to enjoy books. It could be a nice way to ease into the year with the idea of book basket. But then again, I know that some weeks when I'm relaxed about book basket, we have a lot of fun.

I'd also not worry about "exact" titles for those weeks. You could look at the table of contents for ADV and select some books on the viking, eric the red, columbus. and select from younger levels of books at your library.
I guess after many years of book basket, I have a real relaxed approach on those first couple of weeks getting started and use what we have.
I'm always hesitant to list specific titles because my tastes are my tastes and the book basket list has good notes about the titles that MFW likes.

oh, one idea might be to find a US cookbook, or an overview of the states with pictures -- and call that a preview book for down the road.

I didn't even think to look at the sample to see what the first few lesson topics were! Thank you! I just requested 2 books for the first two weeks in case they ask for more info about anything. I feel like I am flying blind but I know I will feel much better once I have those lessons plans. We've never tried anything like this before. I am really looking forward to the change in direction and pace this year. Burn-out was always a major issue before in trying to do traditional workbook style schooling with 4 kids. I felt always pulled in every direction and like I was constantly cutting corners to be able to fit it all in....art, science, history and other fun topics always got cut in favor of struggling through the LA and Math portions of our schooling day. It left everyone ho-hum about school and sometimes it was the hardest to get the teacher motivated let alone the kids. I am feeling much lighter and freer as we start this new direction. Just in time too.

We are using Adventures for my 2nd grader and 4th grader (4th grader has dyslexia and is at a lower reading level so we did adventures). Then we are using the preschool package for my 5 year old who isn't ready for K yet, and the high school year one. We've never done a curriculum with Bible at the center of it before, we've used some christian curriculum but it was pretty light influence.

I'm catching your excitement about the year. (((hugs))) I do hope that MFW is a blessing to your family as much as it has been to mine. My youngest (age 9) has autism and is enjoying making her names of Jesus poster from ADV. She's doing an eclectic mix of some MFW stuff and some special learning things.

-crystal

[gratitude]

Original plan was september but we have had june off and feel ready for the routine again. I've wanted to do a year round schedule so that us what we will do. Dd is on board and unexpectedly excited! so monday we will start adventures. Any tips for our first year of mfw?

Make book basket a priority. I think it is very important for the ADV program. I hope some others chime in; it was the only thing I could think of tonight!

Thanks! I found a few books of our own but hope to get to the library today top.

The other thing I would say is give yourself grace as you get into a routine. It may take a week or two to do everything in ADV scheduled for one day, done in one day. Once the schedule becomes a routine it becomes easier and easier to do. Does that make sense?

If you haven't done any note booking you may want to think about where your dd is for writing:
1. Is she ready to write 1 - 2 sentences as original sentences? OR
2. Is it better to have her dictate a few sentences to you for the note book while she watches you write it down and then copy what you write?

If you saw samples of the ADV note book for different people you would realize that it can vary a lot what people do for the writing. I started by having him dictate and copy. By about week 7 or so he was writing one original sentence. So think about what writing goals you have for 2nd or 3rd grade.

Are you using PLL? People do the copy work and dictation in different ways for that too. Many do as much as they can for the dictation (they tend to be long) and then move onto the next lesson the next day. I did the same thing, but I continued it the next day until it was done.

Other thoughts....
Look ahead for materials you need and try to gather them for hands on activities, or improvise. I had to improvise a fair amount. A hair dryer by the way can replace an iron for melting crayon between wax paper (I don't own an iron; since I use our dryer for it).

The last thing I would add is that MFW gives a structure, but it also gives a lot of freedom to you as a teacher to make it what you want it to be. So doing book basket, gathering materials, making goals and decisions for the writing, etc. is a big part of what can make MFW successful.

Enjoy!