I am about ready to quit

[neesek]

MFW ECC that is. It is just not working for us anymore, and I am really tired of just studying other countries. Plus, we are behind and it will really take some time to catch up.

I need some suggestions for what to do for the rest of the year. We did MFW Adventures last year and we are going to start the ancients next year, so I am thinking it might be good just to do a very broad review of American history for the rest of this year. I have looked at History Stories for Children, but I don't really know too much about that.

Do you have any suggestions? This is for a 2nd grade boy, and we will probably finish our school year mid-May.

Thanks

[Dawn]

I don't blame you - I disliked MFW ECC a lot too. I did it with a 3rd and K'er and it wasn't a good fit at all - some of the books are too advanced (and very dry IMO).

I plan to use A Child's Geography the next time we cover it.

I don't have any suggestions for reviewing Am. history (other than maybe covering some of Adventures again) but just wanted to let you know I empathize wth you on the ECC....

[Kristafish]

but my daughter will be starting 6th grade.
We have never used MFW before so I emailed them and asked where we should start and they were very nice about telling me to start with ECC then what to move onto..

I'm looking forward to using a new curriculum :)

Sorry it's not working out for you

[jg_puppy]

Do you like crafts? If you do then how about a lapbook. I am about to start one with my dd and I think she will enjoy it. Also homeschool in the woods has some early American Cds that include readings, craft projects, and ideas for a lapbook.

http://www.ourlosbanos.com/homeschool/history/americanhistoryindex.html This site also has some good suggestions for American history. You could just pick a few of the books that you can easily get from the library.

Jan

[Rhondabee]

He's in 2nd grade. Just drop it. Really. Then pick up with whatever next year. In a traditional curriculum, they only spend 1/2 of the year on "social studies" in 2nd grade - he'll be fine!

So, you have maybe 12 weeks of school left this year....Find 12 really good read-alouds at the library and do those during the time you were doing MFW. And let him read whatever he wants.

Write narrations if you want. Look up places mentioned in the books in the atlas. Google images of plants or animals or other interesting things.

Enjoy!

[Dawn]

I just thought of something...

Rod and Staff have really inexpensive and sweet books that you can go through in half a school year if you want. They have Understanding Our Community - about (library, police, city govt etc), Proper Manners and Health Habits (mealtime manners, care of rooms, keeping clean etc), Patterns of Nature (identifying seasons, seeds, wildflowers, trees, insects etc), Our Fathers World (a book and worktext that covers basic geographical terms like ocean, city, lake, etc., surface features like mountains and 12 of the 30 lessons are stories of children around the world. They are all appropriate to your child's age and are very sweetly done. You can tweak it however you want or do it as is.

Just an idea. :)

[KayT]

We kinda realized that we didn't want to spend a whole year on it either so I basically dropped the teachers manual and now we spend a week about once a month on a country pulling in extras to expand on the culture and religion of the country. We have done this 3 times so far and it is working great!

[OhElizabeth]

He's a good age to read the Childhood of Famous Americans series...

[CalicoKat]

MFW ECC that is. It is just not working for us anymore, and I am really tired of just studying other countries. Plus, we are behind and it will really take some time to catch up.

I need some suggestions for what to do for the rest of the year. We did MFW Adventures last year and we are going to start the ancients next year, so I am thinking it might be good just to do a very broad review of American history for the rest of this year. I have looked at History Stories for Children, but I don't really know too much about that.

Do you have any suggestions? This is for a 2nd grade boy, and we will probably finish our school year mid-May.

Thanks

We've already done vol. 1 & 2 with great success. I don't know what I was thinking when I changed over to MFW Adventures. Anyway, we're going to keep going with Adventures but add in SOTW. My kids love SOTW and listen (we have the cd's) to it just for fun at any time during the day when they're bored. They love to color the pictures and add a few of their
own.

I say go back to what worked before and tuck that feather in your cap for next years planning, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."