Trying to decide between HOD and MFW

[aveigel]

Hello-
I am having a hard time deciding between HOD and MFW for several reasons, and I was wondering if you all could help me. I have 2 sons, 10 and 13, who will be in 4th and 7th grade. My older son is my main concern. He is very smart, but athletic and social and just wants to finish school every day so he can play outside with friends. He is easy to teach, but seems bored and wants to get by with as little as possible every day. To be honest, I am worried that he is going to beg to go to public school soon. He asked about it last year, and we explained why that is not an option, and he accepted it, but I still am concerned that he thinks it might be more "fun" to be at school with friends.

That said, we have been doing Simply Charlotte Mason for Bible and history for the past 2 years--ancient Egypt and ancient Greece--and I think we are all a bit bored by the tedious pace and ready for a change in curriculum. So, I am considering these 2 curriculum but feel torn. On the one hand, I would like to do MFW because we could still do history together and pick up where we left of with their Rome to Reformation guide. With HOD it seems like my 7th grader should be in the RtR guide, which would have him skipping the life of Christ in his studies, which I don't really like but growing up in a Christian home, he has gotten a LOT of teaching on that. None of us want to study the OT again for a while , so I guess I would put my 4th grade son in the PHfHG guide, which would probably be a good fit because things come a bit harder for him. I am not excited about my older son being totally independent, but if the RtR guide is really engaging, I can be convinced. He said he would be ok with studying completely independently, but I'm not completely confident that he can handle all of the work.

My husband wanted to ask if it's possible to start in the middle of the Creation to Christ guide (beginning where the Romans are studied), to stay together somewhat and keep the continuity of the Bible teaching, but I embarrassed to even ask if that's a possibility.

Ok, I could ramble for a while, so I will quit. I would really appreciate any feedback from any of you!!
Thanks,
Ashley

[rumkimom]

Ashley - I am starting my daughter in the R2R guide also (she did not do CTC). She did Bigger for about 1/3 of the year one year but at that time it did not work for her due to her learning disability. I think she is ready for something new and more challenging than what she was doing before.

[LynnH]

My son really enjoyed RTR. He especially enjoyed the church history components and Mystery of History. I don't think you can combine your 2 sons. It sounds like their skill levels are very different and that is where HOD differs from MFW. By placing them each in their own guides where they fit skill wise then you can slow down things for your younger son if needed and yet let your older son go at his own pace with work that challenges him at just the right level. You said something about your son in RTR being totally independent. Did you mean that he will be studying something different from your younger one or are you thinking he will do all his subjects completely independently? I just want to clarify that you will still be very much involved in his school. Any box that has a T is teacher directed, any box that has an S is Semi-Independent and the I boxes are independent, but you still listen to oral narrations, interact with them as instructed in the guide and look over written narrations.You can look at the week in review to see which boxes are marked which. The bible devotional study was a great time of discussion for my son and I. I continued to read the storytime books with my son at this level and we really enjoyed that interaction together.

[Jennymommy]

Hi Ashley, I agree on the separate guides for your boys. I had two boys combined in HOD for a year, but it really held back the older, and the younger never really engaged because he felt overshadowed by big brother After separating them, both boys have grown so much! Also, while much of their work is independent, I still pick some books to read along with them and discuss...I want to know what they are thinking, and give them opportunity to share (and form) their opinions. I got the idea from another post to have them bring completed work to a designated spot in order to be checked each day...I'm going to try to use that also as a way to be involved in their daily learning without actually "teaching". I hope some of that made sense

[aveigel]

Thanks so much for your feedback, ladies. I appreciate the clarification about independent work and my ongoing involvement. I think I did picture my older one doing most of his work without my input, so I feel better about that. Also, the encouragement to separate my boys makes a lot of sense for us. We also have the problem of the younger one feeling overshadowed, and the older one wanting "space".

Thanks again!
Ashley

[Nealewill]

I have used MFW for a year and a half and I then switched to HOD finding it to be a much better fit for my kids. One thing about HOD that is very different from MFW is that HOD is very skill based. MFW is not. It is very topical based. So with MFW, yes you could go through and study the topic that you wanted but you would have to modify assignments for each child. The guide in MFW does tell you how to do it. But I always found that I had a riot on my hands when I said to my oldest that she had to write a paragraph and then my middle son only had to write 2 sentences (or something like that). Also, I found that with MFW, I quite frankly, was exhausted from running all of my kids activities all the time. With HOD, the kids get to do a lot more independently. At first, I thought I would hate it. When I first found HOD, I considered switching to them only because I thought it was made to combine. After talking with Julie on the phone for an hour, I then realized the benefit of splitting my kids up. My first year I ran the guides Beyond and Preparing. The nice thing I found with HOD is that everything was at my kids level. In MFW, there were many days were one topic was way to easy for my oldest or way to hard for my youngest. I also found that because everything was SO easy for my oldest, I never really let her answer questions or talk much about what were learning in school. I was letting the younger kids do all of that. Also - in MFW, I was constantly modifying the guide to meet my kids needs. In HOD, I don't have to do that. Each child is now placed in their own guide and the day goes very smoothly with very realistic expectations. My kids know what is expected of them and they don't balk at the work before them much. Because I don't modify things for them, they know that if the guide says do it, they do it. The discussion ends there. And that is why it is so important to place them according to their skills. And finally, I do now love that my kids stuff independently as they grow in guide. I work from home. I don't have all the time in the world to spend sitting around doing school with them. When I did MFW, we would skip things because I was so tired from running their day and holding their hand all the time. No granted - I only used MFW for a year and half. And my first year, my kids completed the K, 1st and Adventures level at one time. We had a great year that year. But then the following year I had a child in 1st and then my two oldest were in ECC. I had to go to the library all the time. I had help with all assignments. I was falling asleep at the table because I was reading everything to my kids. I had to help tremendously with all writing assignments for my middle child. It just wasn't a good fit. And with MFW, I felt like if I left things out, then my younger son was getting more and more distance from the assignments. Plus, my kids HATE to color. There is A LOT of coloring in MFW. So anyway, switching to HOD has really helped us get our days done. I am not longer responsible for everything single thing my kids complete. Sure, I help them out if they get stuck. Or if there is something they need to do that takes a lot of time I may jump in and help them get it done. But it is rare that I need to do a lot of handholding. Having my kids be more independent is a huge blessing. And your kids don't ever need to be fully independent. I still spend about 1-1.5 hours a day with my oldest, 1.5-2 hours with my middle child, and 2 hours with my youngest. This is the heaviest teaching year I have had so far and is my 3rd year with HOD. Last year was about 4 hours of teaching per day and next year will probably move back to that time frame. Preparing and Bigger are the two most teacher intensive years so doing them together isn't necessarily highly recommended.

As for old testament, you will study some old testament in Preparing and then CTC is all old testament. One nice thing with HOD is that you will probably study it very differently than you did before. There are a lot of well balanced activities that go with these subjects. And if you plan to stay with HOD for the long term, then your 4th grader is placed right into the guide that will have him start the high school guides right in 9th grade. Plus, in CTC, Carrie schedules a ton of interesting science experiments. And there is a wonderful water color activity that goes with the poetry. If it were me, I would still have your younger son eventually complete CTC. It really helps build skills needed for him to be very successful in RtR. Just my 2 cents.

[aveigel]

Thank you, Nealewill, for taking the time to explain that. Were you really typing at 425am? Your explanation of why trying to combine your kids
didn't work is really helpful. I can totally see that being an issue here.....and leading to boredom in my oldest.

Thanks again!
Ashley

[Nealewill]

You are welcome.

And no - it wasn't 4:25 where I live. I am 2 hours ahead of this time stamp. But I do get up most days by 5:00 or 5:30 though.