Content - Describe MFW Screening?

[Amy in NC]

I think I've read mention about MFW curriculum screening what books they choose and saving some of the more mature topics for when kids are older. I definitely appreciate that!

I'm curious about their guidelines though... for example, I just got another catalog and the books in the catalog are Christian books, but I'm not sure she'll be ready for them. (and we're probably going with MFW anyway... lol) So is this something MFW would screen out and save for later or am I just overprotective and will find this in any curriculum?

The books in K are the same. There are 1 or 2 books that the K TM tells you to skip a page because of content.

In 1st, you get the book Honey for a Child's Heart, which helps you choose age appropriate read alouds.

In Adv, the read alouds begin to have real life stories. There are some scary moments in those books, ie Little House books often have scary "Indians" and weather, Sarah Whitcher, the bear, lost in the woods, lots of native Americans and settlers interacting.

But there isn't any blood, guts, offensive characters or fairy tales prior to ECC. Not to say ECC is filled with those things. The read alouds in ECC do ramp it up a bit with the missionary stories. Nate Saint is the "worst" we've encountered this year. Don't get me wrong we loved reading Nate Saint, but it definitely had a bit of gore. But by the time you get to ECC your oldest should be 3rd grade, around 8yo. In my reality, my 4th grader, 9yo, loved the read alouds this year. My 2nd grader, 7yo, had a heard time following them, and generally went off to play or fell asleep if it was bedtime.

I don't know if this answers your question, but I hope it helps in some way.

[Julie in MN]

I think MFW will satisfy your standards well. Of course, we each are different, but I feel confident that MFW will at least give you a heads-up if there is anything that anyone out there might worry about. For instance:

* No wars studied until CTG, which means at least 4th or 5th grade
* No wars studied until the child is thoroughly grounded in praying for the world and in seeing the fall of man and God's plan for redemption
* For younger siblings tagging along, there is even a separate history supplement when needed (EX1850 & 1850MOD)
* No emphasis on fairy tales until ECC, when they are enjoyed in terms of cultures around the world, rather than reading a lot of those as preschool storybooks (simple fables are there, but I mean magical/scary stuff)
* When the first missionary tragedy is introduced (Nate Saint), there is careful instruction alongside showing what the Auca people were thinking (human things like trying not to get in trouble) and how they eventually were wonderfully saved
* Things like gruesome facts, mature themes, and evolution are minimized or when they can't be avoided, there are notes in the teacher's guide about pre-reading and possibly summarizing or skipping small sections

Hope that helps you get a sense of what's ahead!
Julie

[cbollin]

In book basket lists in the upper programs, I really appreciate that they do a lot of pre screening the way Julie and Amy described. Marie and her family have read all of the book basket selections they offer. And they leave notes. I know I'd feel safe using Marie's list, especially with the ** or * on them.

And then if there is a book that is otherwise really good but might have one or two little things, they leave a warning note. All of those books are in the enrichment reading (book basket) which means you don’t have to read the exact title to make the program work.

MFW waits for some topics until the oldest child is older and more ready for it. Then you end up naturally filtering down information for younger kids. Or the oldest does that for you. Oldest will laugh if a story in Creation to the Greeks is about false gods and the younger kids tend to do what the older ones do and “not believe it either”. Ah, the joys of family style teaching! But that becomes easy to do if you have not introduced those topics too early to the oldest. :)

I remember I was using another program's Kindy list to have read alouds for my oldest when she was in K age. We didn’t know about MFW back then. I just didn’t like that too many of the books that we did pick and choose from were just too much over her head. We read the book again, years later in MFW, and it made sense. It wasn’t a scary issue or a bad topic – it was just wasting her time to read over her head. And there were also books on that Kindy age list that were too deep and too scary to really cover with that age. Again --- the same books were in MFW but at a time when our children are old enough to handle topics like WW II and the issues with it.

I like that about the pre-screening in MFW. Not too early and not over-sheltered for a life time. MFW strives for and finds the balance point between it. been happy with it that way since 2003.

-crystal

[mgardenh]

Personally I have one kid with pretty major medical needs and one with Autism. I work 20-30 hours a week outside the home and my wife works full time. I do not have time along with everything else to prescreen everything. That is one of the reasons we switched to MFW -- because of the general prescreening. That doesn't mean I don't prescreen but I have learned to trust MFW and have yet to find something inappropriate. So MFW works in my real world and is helpful for me.

[Cyndi (AZ)]

Another thing to think about on the books - there are different threads for ideas for each of the years in MFW. Some of us will add a book title in there that we "screened" and loved to go along with a particular topic.

[HSmommi2mine]

We used ECC this year. I really appreciated that when there was anything I could have possibly objected to it was noted in the TM. Even though this particular book was recommended for 5th grade and up they gave detailed info about the chapter and content of the possibly objectionable material and suggestions for how to deal with it (skip it or talk about XYZ with the child).

It makes me feel so confident about the recommendations in MFW. If it is even possibly objectionable it is noted so I can make the best decision for my family.

[MJ in IL]

As far as the content screening...I have used other curricula with too-mature-of-reading-selections-for-me. I have come to trust what Marie has chosen. I cannot keep up with pre-reading all the books we get...so I only pre-read what I find that she hasn't put on her list. I have found that her notes in the lists of books and the actual manuals have helped me in determining when to read ahead if I may want to skip a book (I haven't) or edit a selection (I have.)

[SandKsmama]

Just chiming in to say that this is IMO, one of the more glaring differences between MFW and other literature lists. The author of MFW has been very careful to give us literature lists that are pre-screened, and if there's anything potentially objectionable, it's always noted. The same is true of the content throughout the main program - I have yet to find anything that might be "mature" or possibly objectionable that wasn't noted, to give me the opportunity to skip it, or read it first myself and discuss it with my kids. I SO appreciate this, especially having 3 school-aged kids, it's almost impossible to screen every single resource that comes into our home. I love that the Hazell's have done a lot of this for me with MFW. After 3 full years with MFW, I fully trust their choices.

[dhudson]

One of the things I LOVE about MFW is their preserving of innocence for the younger grades. Based on this fact can I safely assume that if I choose to order any of the other * books on-line that they will be on the innocent side for these younger ages, as well as have a good introduction to history for these ages, without too much information? Thank you!

I have never found onjectionable content in any of the books recommended in the book basket. I am pretty cautious and read most things that my kids read so that I can discuss them and haven't had a problem with MFW recommendations.