*MFW 1st - Descriptions

[cbollin]

Hands-on - Does MFW1 have many projects?

Hi, I'm new to the board. I thought maybe someone could give me some information on My Father's World Grade 1. Are there a lot of hands-on projects? If so, what types?

Rickysmom,

The teacher’s manual has some different easy to do math activities and games to help with learning concepts. It combines hands on activities, oral activities, pencil and paper task and real life situation. You can also buy extra math things in the deluxe package (pattern blocks, and a workbook called The Complete Book of Math).

Some of the kinds of activities suggested are: playing store and restaurant; using everyday objects for math games for addition and subtraction. egg cartons and buttons, etc ---- and the instructions for what to do with that kind of thing is included in the teacher’s manual; playing number guessing games, matching socks (counting by 2’s), various charts and graphs. It is a very interactive teaching style in MFW. You work with your child instead of just giving them a workbook. The t.m. also includes a weekly guide for the math program to help you rotate through different goals and objectives.

Other hands on activities are in Bible lessons: not all lessons have an activity. But they vary from a simple craft project, to making a scroll, simple costumes, meal ideas.

There are simple hands on game ideas included in the teacher’s manual to reinforce the phonics lessons. Many of the games are active in nature and encourage multiple senses to be used.

The science: it is almost completely hands on science activities. Simple projects to help introduce science concepts. Using Usborne books and an encouragement each week to do a nature walk or exploration day.

--crystal

[TriciaMR]

My kids are 6 years old and in public school kindergarten this year. I plan to start homeschooling them next year and I'm trying to decide on a curriculum. I like the looks of MFW, but I'm also a little confused as to what's what. I am looking at the deluxe package "Learning God's Story."

Some are obvious, like math, art, etc, but what is teacher's manual?

The Bible Reader - is this for phonics/spelling/reading?

Bible notebook - what subject is this for?

Student sheets and student workbook - what subject is this?

Subjects I want to teach would include writing, grammar, reading/spelling, and history.

Please help! Thanks!

Hi, welcome!

The teacher's manual schedules out each day - what pages of the student sheets to do, or the Bible Reader or the Bible notebook. It includes what to teach (sometimes exactly what to say) for phonics and math.

The Bible reader is Bible stories written so the child can read, based on the phonics lessons. It isn't started right away, but as they learn enough to begin reading it, the teacher's manual will tell you what pages in the Bible reader to do.

The Bible notebook is a notebook that the student uses to write a 1 to 3 sentence summary of the Bible story that the child read, and it has space to draw a picture to go with it.

Student sheets - these are pages you need for activities that go along with the teacher's manual. So, at the beginning of the year, the kids practice writing their letters neatly, and then make a scroll out of the sheets. Or, there are word sorting activities, or picture books to create. I think these now include some math activities, too. (I did the 1st Edition, so I'm not 100% sure of the new things in the 2nd Edition.)

The Student Workbook is a phonics workbook (or spelling workbook for kids who are already reading).

My Father's World starts "grammar" by having the children narrate and writing those Bible summaries. Then, in second grade, they recommend adding Primary Language Lessons for a little step up in grammar. MFW follows more of Charlotte Mason's recommendations of saving formal grammar to the jr. high and high school years. Intermediate Language Lessons (recommended for 4th - 6th grade), start covering a little more formal grammar in 6th grade.

The "History" in 1st grade is basically Bible history. The child reads through his Bible reader, which starts with Genesis and has key stories up through Revelation.

Hope this helps.

[MelissaB]

Hi,

I'm smiling, as I'm sure a lot Moms will as we remember our first year homeschooling.

The Teacher's Manual is your tool. It provides charts showing what should be taught each day, as well as step-by-step instructions ... very helpful.

The Bible Reader retells Bible stories using words at the level a first grader can better understand.

The Bible Notebook is mostly for handwriting. They'll listen to the Bible story, draw a picture, then write a sentence to help them remember the story below. Reading comprehension/art/handwriting combination there.

Student Sheets are loose-leaf and are used mostly for reading and science, cutting and glueing, etc., while the Student Workbook, which is spiral bound, focuses primarily on phonics and writing activities.

Writing, reading, spelling, history, Bible, science and math - - it's all in there!

We used MFW 1st grade last year. You're going to love it. Just a side note: MFW 1st Math is incredible. Don't let it's fun, hands-on activities fool you. By the end of the year, our daughter was adding, subtracting, counting money (!), fully comprehending place value ... It was wonderful. Today, she's in 2nd grade, and her grasp of math concepts is very strong. I think MFW 1st math had a lot to do with that.

Enjoy your year!

[kw4blessings]

Tricia and Melissa have spelled it out well. But, I wanted to add my praise for MFW 1st! It is definitely a full, comprehensive 1st grade curriculum and so much fun. My daughter has gone from only reading small short-vowel words (CVC) at the beginning of first, to now being able to read pretty much anything (she still has to sound out bigger words, but does a great job of it!). I also second Melissa's comment on the math. It is hands on, fun, and a very rich program for 1st grade. All of the hands on activities have really helped my daughter grasp addition and other math she just "didn't get" the previous year when we used a workbook program.

I'm sure you'll be as thrilled with MFW as we have! We can hardly wait to begin Adventures and K in the fall!

[4monkeyz]

Hi! I wanted to chime in and sing First's praises too. Our family has used a variety of other methods for teaching reading and this is by far my favorite. We started our MFW journey this past fall with Adven. (loved it!) and I had heard good things of First, so I bought it for my dd. Wow. Solid phonics. Amazing Bible focus. The workbook pages are not too intense, the games are fun and the Bible reader is amazing. It has been such a joy to see my daughter grow from August till now -- it brought tears to my eyes to hear the Creation story being read in her little voice. And she is SO proud of being able to read from her Bible reader!! We both have Bible notebooks, I use an artist pad, she the Bible notebook, and the times we spend together are priceless. Colored pencils and feet swinging. Sigh. They grow so fast. First Grade has been so much fun!! You will love it.

[gratitude]

Welcome to Home schooling!

Hi,
My kids are 6 years old and in public school kindergarten this year. I plan to start homeschooling them next year and I'm trying to decide on a curriculum. I like the looks of MFW, but I'm also a little confused as to what's what. I am looking at the deluxe package "Learning God's Story."

Some are obvious, like math, art, etc, but what is teacher's manual? The teacher's manual is your schedule, teacher's notes, hands on activity descriptions, Bible stories printed out, science experiment descriptions, explanations of narration and note booking, explanations of math hands on, etc...etc..

The Bible Reader - is this for phonics/spelling/reading? This is used for reading. The first three weeks are a Kindergarten review. Then around day 60 or so the student will start to read frequently out of the Bible reader aloud to you. It covers Bible History from Genesis to Revelation (over view).

Bible notebook - what subject is this for? The first history MFW teaches is Bible History. It begins with 6 days of creation and ends with the New Heaven and New Earth. During the year the students hear the Bible story read, read it themselves from the Bible reader, color a time-line piece for the wall time-line for some of the stories, and then draw a picture in the note book and write a sentence in the note book. All of my 3 oldest will tell you from this program that the Bible is real events that happened in history. At this point it is on the wall and so is Columbus and Benjamin Franklin, etc. So they learn first the History of our faith from the OT and NT and then in ADV they learn the names of Jesus and American History.

Student sheets and student workbook - what subject is this? Phonics and spelling and reading

Subjects I want to teach would include writing, grammar, reading/spelling, and history. Writing starts in the Bible note book. Grammar starts in 2nd grade. Phonics for reading is in the student work book along with spelling. History is ancient history from the Bible from Creation to Christ as their first history. American History starts in 2nd grade in ADV.

Please help! Thanks!

I hope this helps!

[lea_lpz]

We finished our 4th week. We really love the science and math so far. I actually really like the science books and am happy with the science enrichment options. We are also doing a science journal.

We also really like all the hands on math and lit. I feel like it gives her a solid understanding of each topic covered in a fun way. Phonics instruction is going well and right now can complete all our seat work (student sheets, workbook, and CBM sheets). I am really excited to do the Bible reader and Bible notebook as is my daughter.

[Joyhomeschool]

I did! DS is on week 9. We love the new layout! Much better than the past edition we had. Its so much easier to do.

[Mom2theteam]

Hi all,
Is the layout of kindergarten similar to the layout of 1st grade?
Thanks!

I would say that depends on if you mean the manual or the program itself.

The manual, yes, it is similar. There is a grid with specific day to day notes behind it. The notes for teaching throughout the year are in the front. There is a book list in the back. The biggest difference would be that the K is a 2 page spread for the grid and it's only 1 page in 1st.

The program itself, pretty different. In K, everything is focused around the science theme. In 1st, everything is focused around Bible/history. The phonics and writing is ramped up a lot. Math is done daily and more directly. Science is done 1-2 days per week. There are still a lot of hands on, but it's not as much. I find it a little less relaxed than K, but that is to be expected as the child gets older.

I really enjoyed K. I'm doing it again now with my seconds in line (twins). I LOVED 1st! LOVED, LOVED, LOVED it! Can't wait to do it again next year with my current K'ers. It is truly a wonderful and amazing program. After I was finished with 1st, I loved K even more than I had when I finished K because I could see the whole picture of where we were going. I will use both programs at least 2 more times with a second set of twins and my 11 month old when he gets there. I won't use anything else because the academic foundation is so good...and I love the Bible emphasis.

So, it's similar, but different yet just as good and for my family, even better.

Thank you for your response. My son and I are enjoying k but he gets bored with it. He works really quickly through his work and I have ended up cutting it from a 6 day program to a 4 day program. We do most of the extra activities and I just feel like its a little too relaxed for me. I am sure that I will probably enjoy the relaxed pace a little more when my 2nd child is in kindergarten. My oldest though is more like me and likes being challenged a bit more so I am finding that I have to supplement a bit. I've gone back and forth with changing to a different curriculum for first possibly piecing one together but I really love what MFW stands for.

In any case thanks for you response. I really appreciate your help.
Tabitha

I had the EXACT experience. My son is slightly on the older side for grade as well. So, he was just a month from turning 6 when we started MFW K. At first, it was fine, but as we went along it was a little too slow moving. We ended up condensing the days also. Then, I found myself questioning if I should do MFW 1st or something else or piece something together.

After much prayer and thought, I decided to stick with MFW 1st because I decided that MFW 1st was the best program to follow and finish the phonics instruction he started in K. Obviously, it would pick up right were he left off.

It starts out with review, but quickly picks up speed. It starts out a little relaxed but really picks up by about 1/3rd of the way through. It's very full once they start reading and notebooking the Bible reader. I was very glad I stuck with MFW for 1st.

Toward the end, when I really started to assess where he was in terms of LA (I used Singapore math &) I needed more hand holding than the 1st edition of the manual provided. I might not do that again with the youngers. The 2nd edition math has a lot more direction.) Anyway...back to what I was saying...when I started to assess where he was in terms of reading and LA, I discovered he was far ahead and doing outstanding. MFW 1st is a VERY good and solid program. He learned a TON from it. And, to be honest, we do just the bare bones because I have a lot of littles running around and not a lot of time. So, if we got that much out of it, that's saying something! He went into it barely reading CVC words and complaining about reading anytime it came up to him reading on a high 3rd grade level and telling me he loves reading. He is also doing great in writing and learned some basic sentence structure. He spells very well. Truly, I'm amazed at how far it took him and how much he learned.

So pray about it and make the best decision for your family, but if you go with MFW 1st, I have no doubt you'll be thrilled at the end of it. Oh and I meant to say, that once I realized how well my son blends and what a strong blending foundation he has, I realized how good MFW K really is and what a great foundation to work on blending so much. He can blend anything without any issue. All he needed to learn was the special sounds, no need to teach him ST says /st/ and such. His blending is fantastic!

Enjoy the rest of your year knowing your child is getting a firm foundation for whatever you choose for 1st.

[gratitude]

Thank you for your response. My son and I are enjoying k but he gets bored with it. He works really quickly through his work and I have ended up cutting it from a 6 day program to a 4 day program. We do most of the extra activities and I just feel like its a little too relaxed for me. I am sure that I will probably enjoy the relaxed pace a little more when my 2nd child is in kindergarten. My oldest though is more like me and likes being challenged a bit more so I am finding that I have to supplement a bit. I've gone back and forth with changing to a different curriculum for first possibly piecing one together but I really love what MFW stands for.

We have used MFWK twice, MFW1 once in full and twice pulling out what I wanted from it, ADV, and are doing ECC Bible and some of its geography right now.

Heather gave you some great answers from recent experience!

Both times I did MFWK I did it as a 3 day program since I like to keep K to 3 days a week. Both times it took a year with summer off in the middle. So I was actually looking for a more relaxed K program that wasn't too difficult, but would introduce my younger children to school and provide a phonics base. MFWK did that for me.

Since my first program with MFW was MFW1 I never experienced it with an oldest, and having a lighter K was perfect when I was teaching older siblings!

I think your real question is will MFW1 be enough. It was for us, even with my oldest. I did add some science with him to it. I read a lot of books aloud when he was in MFW1 that are not scheduled. I did use Singapore instead of MFW1 math. It has been different the second and third time since I know the program and what I like best and what I want most from it. I do think the time-line, Bible note book, and Bible reader are valuable at laying a first foundation for Bible history. I think it has been important for my children to do and the program means a lot to me for that reason. If your child is reading CVC words easily going in you may want to skip the MFWK review at the beginning for phonics if you choose to use it.

MFW to me, from my experience, stands for a few things:
*Wanting families to see the world through God's eyes, missions.
*Bible translation
*Family learning
*A more relaxed learning experience so school is done earlier and there is time for service
*Projects - hands on.
*Book basket with library books.

So yes, MFW1 is relaxed in the way that MFW is relaxed...but not in the way MFWK is. MFWK is the most relaxed program I have used from MFW.

I hope this helped answer the question, and not confuse the matter. It is hard to know until you try, and that is the challenge. MFW1 though does increase in reading and writing substantially from MFWK and was always at least a 4 day program. It partly depends on what you are wanting his first grade year to look like.

[lea_lpz]

We did k last year and I'll be teaching it again next year for the 2nd time .

We started mfw 1st this year and are on week 8. So far we are enjoying it.

I added some stuff in but have since removed them since it was just dragging our day down.

In my opinion, the tm offers a lot of suggestion for doing more if you want.

For example, you could read some math lit. books and science enrichment books every day. You could make sure to do a science journal page on Fridays and do the nature walks and do a journal page on that too. You can also do all the suggested optional activities. You can play the reading and math games. Get videos on science topics, go on field trips, etc.

If they fly through it, at this age I would be happy because it gives you the ability to pursue other interests and have more time to do other things, like do a co-op or a park day or volunteer, etc.

I think that's the point of keeping it short for mfw. If you can get through it in an hour or so double up days and have 2 days a week free, I think that offers a great opportunity to get out and live life!

[ruthamelia]

Is the first grade Bible notebook just bound empty pages? Or is there some kind of content or organization built in? Thanks!

Reply from Julie - Staff » Thu Mar 16, 2017 10:45 pm
I would describe the Bible Notebook as...

1. Spiral bound
2. Hard back, for a stable writing surface
3. Bible Notebook cover
4. Drawing-quality paper
5. 1st grade size lines for writing Bible summaries
6. The first pages have just one line for writing, and gradually there are more lines as the child goes through the year

HTH,
Julie