Yes, you can compartmentalize the program any way you see fit. I think you'll have the same issue if you use something else.
I do LOVE that my dd reads ahead. I have no interest in slowing her down by keeping her on schedule.
I have never felt that I slowed down my oldest by keeping her lessons on that same reading tied to the schedule. She reads ahead. But we do the lessons on schedule. does that difference help any that yes, MFW can be done with a child who reads ahead? Now, if she forgets stuff? that tells me she needs to read again.
my oldest has used mfw since 2nd grade. She's in 10th now. in WHL. Right now she's learning that she has to pace herself to make sure her other subjects get done too. She'll hyper focus on reading stuff and neglects all of the other things. She's finally realizing that stopping when told to stop might be a good thing.
And while it may not matter too much in 2nd or 3rd grade to bunch a week worth of science experiments at once -- this is another part of my story of doing something wrong when I thought it was ok......
*they need to do lab reports in jr. high and high school. psst.... even in ADV they were suppose to do them too.... so if you bunch up your labs on the weekend (and we do that)... they can spend the other days in the science time doing their writing assignments from the experiments. In other words, yes, encourage her to explore the science independently. Assign a due date for the lab reports so it matches the TM schedule. see the subtle difference?
you see... sometimes when we think we are not slowing them down by letting them work ahead, we skip essential skills and no matter how well intentioned we were (and yes I"m guilty here) we slow down the acquisition of the hidden skills in the manual that are on schedule.
so, please don't make the same mistake that we made..... ok? that's my heart in still typing here.
Have you read all of those times where Julie in MN talks about her son learned to read and phonics lessons were skipped? It's the same kind of thing here with science. Yes, kids love the hands on stuff! yes, you can do more than one experiment at a time. Use the other days to do the internet linked stuff, or to have them do their lab report on their own and make them turn it in on time. If they get all of the labs and reports done on time, buy them a science kit as a reward and incentive.
There's nothing wrong with getting ahead in some stuff as long as you are not skipping the skills that are done in the week too. Does that make any sense of what I'm trying to share?
My oldest would grab book basket and read it all. I didn't slow her down. She could read ahead (I usually brought home 3 weeks at a time).
She still groups all of her lab time in one day - usually at the end of the apologia module. Then, she's stuck trying to keep her lab notebook up on time each week.
It's perfectly fine to feed their interest and encourage reading.
so really the question is:
which program do you really want to do?
yes, you can flex the schedule and multi teach to 2 or 3 very different students. been there, done that...... my oldest and middle are night and day differences. ......
-crystal
Make sure to go over the information with your oldest when she does read the books by herself.
ACK!