Choosing ADV for More than 1 year? 2 years?

[Marie]

I received my Adventures curriculum last week and the books are wonderful (I am still awaiting the TM to arrive in August!!) I have seen several posts where Moms have used a curriculum over a two year period--can I do this with Adventures? Any suggestions how??? Or maybe any objections??

We design each program so that you really can complete it in one school year. We are careful not to assign too much each week. We even give you a "light" Friday so that you can catch up. (Many of us do extra things in the week -- piano lessons, coop classes, etc. and need the catch up day.) We feel strongly that it is best to complete a program in one year so that you keep moving and stay on track for the future. There is so much to learn in the coming years and it is all so interesting! Adventures is a lighter program than the following years, and you can finish it in about 3 hours a day, including all subjects.

However, if you start a program early, you can take more time. For example, some children are ready to start K at 4 1/2. They can take up to two years to finish it since they are starting early. (We don't want anyone to rush their child into K -- but some kid are just SO ready at an earlier age.)

Of course this is general advice and there will always be exceptions, but from our experience and counseling many, many, many families, this is what we recommend.

[cbollin]

Okay, I am planning to begin Adventures with Kanen in September, and I plan to use it for two years for both 2nd and 3rd grades so that when he is ready for 4th grade Abia is ready for 2nd and they can do ECC(I think that's what it is) together.

Is there anything wrong with that plan? If I use Adventures for Kanen's 2nd grade year only--what do I use with him for 3rd grade? Thank you for any and all insight! Blessings,
Debbie

This is my opinion :)

Do Adventures with Kanen in the 2nd grade.
Do ECC with Kanen in 3rd grade and allow Abia to be invited to join in as many activities as she would like, but still concentrate on learning to read and write. There is no real reason to wait until the oldest is in 4th and 2nd grade to do ECC.

It will be ok for them both to be in CTG in 4th and 2nd grade b/c Abia will not have to do all of the assignments.

-crystal

[henryteachers]

We have been doing Adventures this year with the plan to do it in 2 years. It is working great for us. We take each week and try to finish it in 2 weeks. I decided to do it this way because I thought it would be easier to go at a slower pace with us using MFW k next year. My kids are the same ages 7 and 5 and love to learn together and so we'll be learning a lot together with ADV and K next year. This year we are doing the first half of ADV with joyschool (a preschool curriculum). For art/music, we hadn't done MFW 1st grade recommendations, so we're doing that this year with I can do all things and will continue to do I can do all things next year with ADV music. We do the basics--reading, writing, and math everyday except Friday. Then each day we have a subject of the day--
Musical Art Monday
Terrific History Tuesday
Wacky Science Wednesday
Thankful for History Thursday
Fun Friday (nature walks, field trips, park days, playgroups)
Just thought I would share what works for us doing it in 2 years.
I love that you don't have to be a slave to the curriculum and do what works for your family. That's the best part of homeschooling.
Mindy :)

[MFW-Lucy]

Hi Debbie,

Well, you can do it, but it is not recommended. The reason primarily is that you run the risk of either going to deep with the subject at this age or that your student becomes bored having to do it over a 2 year period.

Another reason is that you will find that since Adventures is only about a 2 1/2-3 hour day you will find yourself searching for more activities to engage him if you cut it all in half each week. This will be more work for you on top of teaching and daily chores that need to be done.

In your particular case it seems that since your daughter has started K she will most likely begin 1st material in the middle of next year and then be done in the middle of the following year. She will enjoy lots of ECC with her brother and be ready to fully join him in CTG the following year. I hope that makes sense. If not please ask again.

We really want your schooling to go as smoothly as possible so we are glad for you to ask more questions or give us a call at the office. If need be you are welcome to e-mail us your number and we will gladly call you back. info@mfwbooks.com

Lucy

[Julie in MN]

My son is 7 and will be in 2nd grade. My daughter, who is beginning to read already, will be starting MFWK. (We have done the first lesson, as she has been 'itching' to start. We school year-round, so why not!)

As I have begun to look at ECC, I really think I need to make "Adventures" more of a two year study for my kids, waiting until ds is 9 and dd is 7 to begin ECC. Would this be okay? Has anyone done it? If I did this, I would just 'stretch out' the lessons for Bible, History, Science, Music, Art and allow ds to move at his regular pace for Grammar, Math and Reading. As well, I think we will start a handwriting curriculum. This would also allow me to go through MFWK and MFW 1st grade with DD, making sure she has a handle on reading and writing, like I was able to with ds. Just wondering folks thoughts on this.

ECC looks amazing and I, personally, am so excited to begin it (even though it's a year away); however, I just don't think dd will be ready in a year and I want to make sure they are both in the cycle, getting the most out of it and me not getting stressed or overwhelmed.

Hello,
I was going to mention that ECC is a much fuller year (written for up to 8th grade), so it might be easier to spread over two years? Again I'm not sure since I haven't done adventures. My best advice would be to just begin. Take it at a good pace for your children and see where you end up!

Julie

[jasntas]

Our experience. We just completed ADV and K. It was a great year all the way around. We will be starting ECC and 1st this fall. (Well, my dd already started 1st this summer.)

My dd picked up more from ADV than I would have ever imagined. I think she will do fine with ECC this year as well AND she will repeat ECC in 6th grade so I don't feel like she will be missing anything.

I was a bit overwhelmed with ECC when I first got the package. Then there were some discussions on this board along the same lines. (That overwhelming feeling.) I was reminded that we will not have to do everything. Just the things on the level for my ds. And modified where needed for my 1st grade dd. My ds will only go through ECC once and I'm still a bit anxious about that and I hope I don't try to overdo it with him on that but as far as my dd I'm not too concerned since she will be repeating it again in a few years anyway.

For you, if you did ECC next year, both of your dc would get the chance to repeat it at a higher level. I don't know that you would want to stretch ADV out over 2 years. Maybe 1 ½ if you delved into the states more deeply. Maybe.

Just one opinion.

Edit to add - I like Julie's idea. If I were to spread one out over 2 years, it would be ECC, not ADV IMHO

[cbollin]

I like Julie's idea. If I were to spread one out over 2 years, it would be ECC, not ADV IMHO

agreeing. If you had to spread out something to 1.5 or 2 years, do that with ECC, not ADV. There might be points in ADV where you spread one week into 2 weeks, but not the whole year like that. You'd really be adding in a lot of material to ADV to spread it out. That seems to me it would kinda of defeat your big picture goal if I read your post correctly. but I have been known to read things wrong on the screen.

I think you'll find that MFW K and 1st will not be too overwhelming. Your daughter will sit in on a lot of older sibling things just because it is part of family life. When she's in 1st grade and you're in ECC with older, there will be times that she is naturally included (game, prayer, food, get her a passport). It's ok if a younger sibling "folds into the cycle" in 2nd grade at whichever program the family is naturally in that school year.

-crystal

[wisdomschool]

We used Adventures for my oldest son's 2nd and 3rd grade years, though we didn't really "stretch out Adventures", if we could of gotten to Adventures everyday we would of completed it in a years time. However, I learned that "life" seemed to demand we do other things rather often and knew we wouldn't get to the "Adventures" part every day.

We still did "school" most every day, just not always the Adventures stuff......three r's mostly and lots of character training and life learning:)

It worked very well for us, and we're looking forward to using ECC with a 4th grader, 2nd grader and 1st grader starting this summer/fall.

I agree with Julie that it's a good idea to just begin, and see how it goes--things can be changed to meet your needs as you go! This will be our first year to actually begin curriculum at the "right" time, the way it worked for our family in the past was to "begin" new books in December/January yet our childrens grades "changed" in July--it's all worked out just fine!


Blessings to you on your journey,

Debbie

[Julie in MN]

My ds will only go through ECC once and I'm still a bit anxious about that and I hope I don't try to overdo it with him on that but as far as my dd I'm not too concerned since she will be repeating it again in a few years anyway.

Tammie,
Just to calm your worries about this (so you don't put the pressure on), my son did ECC in 3rd and only got to do one semester of ECC in 8th and I would say that, really, after doing all 5 years of the MFW cycle, he was sitting pretty well even if he hadn't done ECC again. He knew a lot of geography from the entire cycle and he really had a Godly perspective on the flow of history. He knew the value of translating the Bible, and would have enjoyed the 7-8th grade biographies during his reading time even if he weren't doing ECC. Plus he'll have some of those things in the high school years.

So, even though ECC the second time had interesting and educational things to offer, to me it felt more equivalent to any good year with MFW when we did it the second time, rather than being the very foundational year it felt like the first time thru at our house.

And your ds can always join in with his siblings for some fun ECC things as a break from his high school day

Julie

[cbollin]

My ds will only go through ECC once and I'm still a bit anxious about that and I hope I don't try to overdo it with him on that but

Tammie,
My middle gal did ECC in 4th and will not repeat it either. I'm trying to think back a little for some tips that worked for me to "not over do" it with her. (she's just finished 5th grade this year)

*she enjoyed having me sit with her to do the World Geography book pages with her. I looked at it not as "do your worksheet", but rather, let's practice together how to cross reference materials and learn along the way about other places.So the early continents we did together, then there were times she would try stuff on her own. I remember my own childhood of sitting with my grandparents and learning how to cross reference phone book, city directories and jury duty calling lists. (my grandfather was a deputy sheriff and back in the old days, jurors didn't call an automated number to learn if they were to report the next day. the jury sheriff would call and tell you. well, I learned how to call out the right number to granddaddy.) anyway, notice how my family didn't make me take "enrichment courses" in academics even though I was labeled as "gifted" in the public school. They taught me to water the plants, snap the beans, and cross reference multiple resource so that jury duty happened. Oh, never to answer the phone next to grandma's bed as t hat was the phone to dispatch the rescue squad. That was in the years' prior to 911 systems. and my grandparents were involved in starting the first rescue squad in our county, so while the new building was under construction, the 7 digit phone number to call went into their house. ok. all of that to say: don't sweat the worksheets, use them as a time to learn research and reference skills and 10 year olds can do that.

*middle gal loves watching animal shows on TV and some history/geography/mystery thing too. So, we did videos to show the world around us and learn landmarks and things like that.

*on Illustrated World Atlas, we did compare and contrast. I remember she noticed patterns in the maps section with the interstates. wow, USA has a lot, but this other place doesn't. How do people in that country? so, keep it "informal" so that the maps and charts are about learning how to read those maps/charts, and to glean a bit of information from them. Plenty of them she just didn't get, so I didn't worry about it. I know she'll get economics again in high school when she's older.

so, that's the academic side of it.

Bible/praying/missions: it becomes part of you even when the lesson plans aren't there. A family in our church is spending this year serving as support staff for bible translators on furlough. My middle gal follows her friends on facebook and their website. It's a lot of fun hearing how the boys are doing with lizards in the house and shower, and all of that.

Science: biggest tip I have for Prop of Eco: don't expect them to learn all of the new vocabulary in the first week. enjoy the pictures, experiments, and use the notebooking worksheets to fill in what they do remember or what they did learn. Don't worry if parts of blank.

When my oldest was 2nd grade and I didn't know we'd repeat ECC... story, her uncle and aunt were honeymooning in New Zealand. My husband's father (who was still doubting this homeschooling thing) talked to her like a 2nd grade grandchild about where her uncle was visiting. Grandpa said "it's an island in the ocean". My first born, being a first born, said 'well, actually it's 2 islands in one country. North Island and South Island. and here it is on a map"

that was enough. no one cared if she knew how many sheep were there, or the capital, or anything like that. So, grandpa has 9 children, and uh currently 8 grandchildren that i know about, and he wouldn't have expected a 4th grader to learn everything in the book. In fact, grandpa and his wife get to do lots of world traveling these days and they are still learning about other cultures. They sent us pics of China and stories about it. My kids were loving it. (there's that and this and oh yeah, squat pants in the village, no diapers, yeah). So, I guess I"m saying in all of this, you don't have to learn every fact in ECC. Help them develop a love of learning and praying and being able to enjoy grandparent's "slide shows" from Asia and South America. Grandpa raised 9 kids who are all super genius, high achiever (scientists, 2 lawyers, blues musician/office worker, an ad exec with Pepsi, etc.) and even grandpa is still learning about God's world.

I know that went nowhere. but hopefully as you do ECC with oldest in 4th, it might help you to treat him like a first born but with the experience of teaching a middle child, and seeing into the long term.

-crystal

[jasntas]

Sorry mezzogirl. I was not trying to turn an ADV question into an ECC discussion.

I do agree with others on the board. Take the year as it comes. See how it goes. Sometimes life happens and you get behind or sometimes everything just goes smoothly. I think maybe since you have a year to 'play with' so to speak, you could make ADV and ECC a year and a half long each and still end up ok. You could do like others have ended up doing and have to begin a new 'school year' in January or whatever. Again, just take it as it comes. If you find you'd like to spend more time on a particular subject, you have that freedom and the little cushion of time. I don't know if I would want to use all that up intentionally though, but I still like the idea of being able to have the freedom to delve deeper into a subject the dc may really show an interest in or even be able to just deal with life issues as they arise and not have the pressure to feel like you have to get done on this date. I like the cushion idea. Again, just one opinion.

Thanks so much Julie and Crystal, for the encouragement. I have already had to learn how to modify lessons and such for my ds. As I've mentioned on the board before, we believe him to be dyslexic and sometimes it is hard for me to let go of the 'traditional' ways of doing things. We do most things verbally, like you have done Julie, and we watch lots of videos and we try to include other types of experiences, like you have done Crystal. I think once we start ECC and I get a feel for what can be accomplished and what can't, I'll be ok. I was actually a bit anxious about 1st with my dd. But after the first day I felt right at home with it and I'm not so anxious anymore.

My ds already loves science and has found, during ADV, that he enjoys geography and history as well and really seems to soak it in. So, I don't know what I'm so worried about? I'm sure it will all work out.

[RachelT]

Hi! We did Adv. with my oldest (son) while my younger one (daughter) was in MFW K. She was an advanced writer and reader for K, so she really enjoyed doing the Adventures activites, state sheets and notebook, listening to the read alouds, etc. I think you can use MFW K and MFW 1st grade as more of a secondary program if you want, focusing on what you need from it and still have her involved in Adventures while she is doing K or 1st for her phonics/reading, writing, and math time. K and 1st are great programs, but you don't have to do every single thing from them alongside of ADV. For instance, just choose one art or science curriculum if you want. Don't overwhelm yourself!

I also think that if she is "itching" to begin, you may move more quickly through K or 1st. You might do more than one lesson in a day, if she wants to do that. So you don't neccessarily have to make ADV stretch out longer until she catches up. She may be able to finish K in less time than it is scheduled for and then go on into the 1st gr books. My dd was able to do more than one 1st grade lesson some days and she wanted to. It wasn't enough to get her done really early, but she was just ready to finish the phonics work and move onto reading more advanced readers, writing her own story, learning to spell sight words, etc. We did these kinds of things and played games while doing them for the last few weeks of her 1st gr.year.

I also agree with everyone else that ECC was SO FULL of information and topics that it would be much easier to stretch out over two years than ADV. Both are great programs, but ADV was designed for a younger student.

[mezzogirl]

Thanks, everyone. I think we will do Adventures as designed and then stretch out ECC, as necessary. I think several of you are write in that dd might fly through MFW K, as I am the one holding her 'back' so as to speak. She read her first 'book' on the short "a" vowel on Sunday. I was flabbergasted.

Thanks for y'all suggestions, wisdom and encouragement!

[MelissaB]

I've seen comments before on stretching Adventures out over 2 years. How do you do this? In what way did you stretch it out? What sort of schedule did you follow? Did you add in unit studies to correspond with the units?

I kind of like this idea. Being Canadian, I originally planned on subbing the US history for Canadian history, but now I'm thinking that it would be nice to study both (we live 5 minutes from the US border and are in the US all the time, so I feel it's important for them to learn both). I was thinking if I took two years maybe we could do US history one day (or one week) and then Canadian the next. Learn them both at the same time, to see the parallels?

Like that idea! Just wondering.. What do you have for Canadian History? Is there a good hs curriculum with Canadian History?

If you google Canadian History [.com], there's a website that covers all of the eras, politics, geography, culture, various historical documents, etc.. It's literally called "Canada History," and it might be perfect for teaching without having to purchase a lot of materials.

We didn't learn about Canada's history at all when I was in public school. I love that MFW covers some Canadian history. If we're going to be neighbors, shouldn't we know a little bit about one another?

[mshanson3121]

This year, we're using Barbara Greenwood books (with MFW 1), right now using A Pioneer Sampler (which by the way, has been readapted, so it can be used for Americans, now, too). Awesome books. Examines the life of pioneers in the 1840s. It's set up to read as a journal, but has information and lots of hands-on projects. They also have them for the Yukon Goldrush, Underground Railroad and Thanksgiving and Christmas.

I looked online at the sample of Adventures and got the topics list, so I came up with my own study topic list of chronological history from the discovery of to the creation of Canada, including some of the wars, and then a study of the 13 provinces and territories. For that I just planned on using living books, hands on projects etc...

[Smoakhouse]

Interesting. I was just thinking of the same idea. Except we are no where near Canada, just the stretching part.

I have a later addition to the family and he will be working through the cycles alone. He is currently doing MFW 1st grade. I was thinking of a skip year and come back to Adventures for 3rd grade so that would line him up for the rest of the cycles. But I haven't found anything that seems like a good fit to add in for 2nd grade. Now I'm thinking about doing Adventures over 2 years. I figure the history won't be any problem, just reading more books and adding activities. But I don't want to end up totally re-writting the whole thing, then it would be worth it buying it in the first place.

Has anyone done this? Do you have any suggestions or other ideas?

Wondering what has others done with an only child in the program?

Thanks,

[lea_lpz]

I've heard this recommendation because I'd like my kids to start the family cycle together and my oldest is a girl and so have considered doing Adventures, but stretch over two years, adding the Prairie Primer or Portraits of American Girlhood books and activities where they would seem to fit in with Adventures according to read aloud's / book basket, and then I start the ECC with a 2nd and 4th grader.

I'm not sure if I will do that afterall though. I am starting to like the idea of doing ECC for 3rd and repeating for 8th grade before the high school history cycle at a more advanced level now. I might still get the POAG and PP and add in some of the fun actiities but just not do it as a "whole curriculum", but more of a supplement and probably not doing all the books, just the ones in book basket / read alouds section instead. As fun as it seems, and as much as I loved both those series as a girl, looking at the online samples, it seems like a lot of leg work and prep for mom to make it a full curriculum. I like that when I get busy, MFW has it all layed out for you with a supply list for the upcoming week at a glance so it makes my life easy.

As for Candian history, are there any simialr homeschool curriculums to MFW that are based on Canadian history that you can do for a year. Or maybe you could spend 2 years on ECC and add in a long unit on Canada? Just saw someone throw that out there who was Canadian (you?), so thought I'd throw it out there.

Good luck and hope you find what you are look for.