This was our 6th year using My Father’s World. We absolutely love this curriculum and there are so many things we enjoy about it. This year my girls continued in the family learning cycle with Rome to the Reformation. This was the second year for both of my girls to be in the family learning cycle. If you’re not familiar with the family learning cycle it’s when all of your elementary aged children join in and do the same topics for history, science, bible, art, and music. You read the same books and do the same lessons for the most part. For older children there are some modifications to make it age appropriate. And the same goes for younger children as well.
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Read Aloud Books
I loved the suggested read aloud books this year. This year we read The Bronze Bow, Twice Freed, The Door in the Wall, and The Dangerous Journey. The Bronze Bow is a story of the Roman oppression of the Jews and one man’s encounter with Jesus. It was such a good book! I cried at the end! Twice agreed is set during the time of the apostle Paul and the early church. While reading it my girls recognized some of the names in the story from the Bible. It was a really good book. The Door in the Wall is a tale of a young boy in medieval times. The Dangerous Journey is an adaptation of The Pilgrim’s Progress. I chose to read the poetic retelling of the Pilgrim’s Progress and Little Pilgrim’s Progress. I highly recommend both stories! I loved reading the poetic retelling the most. I just enjoyed the way all the words flowed together. It was a much shorter story compared to Little Pilgrim’s Progress. But the latter was such a sweet story! And my girls and I loved the illustrations.
History
This year we picked up history where we left off in Ancient Rome. It was so interesting to learn about life during Jesus life and ministry. We continued using the Usborne Encyclopedia of World History From Ancient to Modern Times. We love this book! It is an internet linked book. You can visit their website and enter the book title, it will give you videos, games, and other resources pertaining to each page. My girls loved looking through it.
We continued with Streams of Civilizations this year. It is meant for older children. I would sometimes pre-read myself and then summarize for my girls. But after while I got tired of doing that and I would just read straight out of the book while they colored or worked on a project of some sort. The bulk of what they learned/ remembered was from the Usborne history book.
We also used the Roman Empire Hands on History book. This is similar to the Ancient Egypt book we used last year. It is full of fun hands on projects. We didn’t do every suggested activity but my girls enjoyed the ones we did do. It’s really up to you which projects you want to include or not. We did ours based on whether we already had the materials. If we didn’t we skipped it, unless my girls really wanted to do it then I would go buy the materials for them.
A new book for us this year was Augustus Caesar’s World. I wasn’t sure if we were going to like this book. But it actually turned out really good. One thing I would change would be to find an audio version though. Because I butchered so many names!
This year we officially started Story of the World volume 2. Last year we read volume 1 as an audiobook even though it was included or suggested in the curriculum. We really enjoyed Story of the World! I’m a big fan of the way stories are intertwined with history. It makes it so much more interesting.
For our narration entries this year I got my girls each a notebook from Anna Vance Paper Co. I chose the Rebekah Journal in wide ruled with a midline and room for illustration at the top. My girls still used the artwork from the notebooking pages from MFW. They cut, colored, and pasted it to the notebook. We used rubber cement so the pages wouldn’t get wrinkled from glue.
Science
Our science studies this year were the human body and astronomy. We started the year studying the human body. The curriculum came with quite a few human body books.
We didn’t have many worksheets pertaining to the human body this year. We mostly did hands on projects and models. But my girls did use their Juniper Grove Journals to record some things. They each have science inserts with lines on the bottom and room for illustration on the top.
The First Encyclopedia of the Human Body is another Usborne internet linked book. So obviously we loved it. There were a lot of fun games and videos. This was where we got the bulk of information.
The Human Body for Every Kid has a lot of science projects and activities. Each chapter would have some information on the topic and then a quick science project. Most projects involved household items and were easy to do. We didn’t do every project though.
The Body Book is full of easy to make hands on models of the human body. This was a lot of fun to complete. We made paper models of major organs and systems of the body. At the end of the study we had a complete skeleton full of organs. You can see the completed skeleton in the photo above. I photocopied the book so we can use it again the next time around. I will say, there were a couple of models I was struggling with trying to figure out how to assemble. But I searched the Facebook group and found some photos on how to assemble them.
Speaking of hands on projects, I did add a few additional science books, resources, and activities not included in the curriculum. I share them all in my curriculum blog post. If you only add one thing let it be these super fun brain hats! They were a huge hit!
We also read through Galen and the Gateway to Medicine. This was very interesting to me. Galen was a physician during the height of the Roman Empire. This book tells how he contributed to modern medicine and how the body works.
The Wonderful Way Babies Are Made was another included book for the curriculum. I didn’t end up reading this aloud to my girls. Honestly, I just wasn’t ready to discuss that with them just yet. But we’re ready I will read it.
The second half of the year we studied astronomy. We mostly used Exploring Creation with Astronomy from Apologia. My girls and I really loved this book. We’ve studied astronomy in the past, but we still learned a lot of new things this time around.
Bible
For Bible each day we usually just read different passages in the Bible. We mostly read from the New Testament following the life and ministry of Jesus. We also used the DK Illustrated Family Bible as well. I mostly read from this instead of the Bible readings except for when there was no suggested readings in this book.
They also had weekly memory verses to copy and recite. They memorized the books of the New Testament and verses in Romans, 1 Corinthians, and Philippians.
This year I got my girls some blank memory verse cards from the Daily Grace Co. we loved them! I had my girls write down the verse in the beginning of the week and we would review them throughout the week. These were so nice to have instead of in a journal. They were quick to grab and easy to handle when reviewing. I should have ordered two sets for each of my girls through because we ran out towards the end of the year. I will be ordering more for next year.
English From the Roots Up
We completed English From the Roots Up. Last year we learned all of the Greek root words, this year we did the Latin root words. The curriculum includes a book with all of the root words, definitions, and derivatives of each. It also includes how to use the book and some teaching notes. There are twice as many Latin words this year as the Greek last year. So we typically did 2 words a week, sometimes more.
Art
For art this year we continued using God and the History of Art. This was the first art curriculum I’ve ever actually used. I enjoyed this book because it not only taught basics of art and drawing but also the history of art and how God has been incorporated in various art pieces over the years. The lessons are quick and easy to complete.
The book is meant to be drawn in, but if you have more than one child or would like to reuse it they recommend making copies of certain pages. I chose to get a blank sketch book for each of my girls to use. For lessons where there were things you had to draw on I would just quickly draw them in their sketch books for them to fill in. For example, the photo below shows a lesson where they had to draw designs on the two pots. So I drew the outline of the pots for them to draw on. I know not everyone can or wants to do this, but it worked for us.
Music
The music studies were mostly listening to cds of famous composers, their biographies and their music. My girls always enjoyed when we would listen to them. I would usually play it while they were doing independent work or art.
Things I Recommend Adding
I love having a curriculum already set up for me. I love having the lesson plans done and the resources and books selected. But I also really love adding our own spin on things. Especially additional projects, crafts, and activities. That being said I added a few various books and resources this year that we all really enjoyed.
MFW – Rome to the Reformation Facebook Group
If you only do one extra thing, join the Facebook group! This group is full of other families who are working through or have already completed the curriculum. It is the perfect place to ask questions and get recommendations on the curriculum. The file section is jam packed with free resources to use in conjunction with the curriculum.
I highly suggest printing off the Latin sheets for English from the Roots Up in the files section. I bound the sheets into a book for my girls. Each day they added something to the sheet. We did two words a week. The first day they wrote the Latin words, meanings, and drew a picture of the words. The next day they would write a derivative of the words and their meaning. The next day they would write a sentence using the words. And the last day we would review all the Latin words already learned.
English From the Roots Up Flash Cards
I purchased these flash cards from Amazon and used them on our review days. I just held each card up and let my girls say the word and it’s meaning. You definitely don’t need these cards but I ended up preferring them over the book. After the first month I used the cards exclusively to teach. It seems to be unavailable on Amazon currently. But you may be able to find it elsewhere.
Science Notebooking Journals
I purchased the science notebook from Apologia to go with our astronomy study. I’ve always just used blank journals for my girls to write and draw in. But we had a difficult start to the second half of school and I wanted some additional help. My girls actually loved the notebooking journals! They said it was their favorite part of science. We didn’t do everything included in the journals though. They mostly did the mini books and cross word puzzles. I didn’t have them do any copy work though.
Story of the World Vol 2 Audiobook
I’ve learned I do better teaching if I can limit how much I read aloud. I just get exhausted reading aloud all the time. So if I can find something on an audiobook I’ll get it. My girls and I really enjoyed listening to the stories. I usually played them while they were working on notebook pages, doing art, or playing a game.
We played it on this little portable CD player. It’s the perfect size! I love that I’m able to take this anywhere we’re doing school that day.
Story of the World Volume 2 Activity Book
I was really excited about this activity book. Although I quickly realized we wouldn’t be able to actually do list of the activities included. There’s a lot! However I’m still so glad I got it. I mostly used it for the review questions and narration examples at the end of each chapter. Having questions to ask my girls after listening to the stories really helped them to retain the information easier. And having the narration examples were so helpful when it came time for them to write their own narrations. I wish they just sold the review questions and narration examples in a separate book. Because this book is pretty huge. But it was worth it to me. I do wish we would have done more of the map work though. Looking back I probably should have added that in there. While we did do some map work with MFW I would have liked to do more. I just find it so interesting.
Things We Didn’t Do
I don’t know if I’ve ever followed a curriculum exactly how it’s suggested. There’s always a few things here and there that I modify, swap, or skip altogether. Looking back on this year I realized we skipped quite a bit of the suggested lessons. Not because I didn’t think they would be good learning opportunities though. It was mostly because we had a rough start back in January so we just did the bare minimum at that point. We didn’t even do school in our homeschool room. We were in the living room for the whole second semester of school. After that I just didn’t add some of the things back in for one reason or another. Mostly because I simply forgot since I was so used to skipping them for a month.
Timeline
We continued using the already made timeline from My Father’s World. I found that my girls just weren’t interested in cutting out, coloring, and gluing the events to the timeline. I still wanted to have a visual representation of a timeline though so I purchased the already completed one. We have made timelines in the past using the accordion style. I have a free printable on this blog post if you’d like to use it.
Math Drills
I’ve never actually done these math drills with my girls before. I guess because I never look at the math portion in the teachers manual because they use Masterbooks math and just follow the lessons as they come.
Last year I said I wanted to do math drills. But did I? No, no I didn’t. I do still wish I would have done some math drills though. Maybe every Thursday do a different drill; addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division. Maybe next year I finally will do the math drills.
All the Science Experiments
I don’t think I’ve ever done every science experiment suggested. Especially this year. There were projects using chicken bones and things like that. Honestly, I didn’t want to even get into that kind of stuff. It felt like a lot to add on so we skipped it. Although we did do more experiments this year than in years past. Mostly because they were pretty simple, minus the chicken bones.
Book Basket
I have always loved the book basket in the back of the teachers manual. And I was really good about getting books the first half of the year. But again, something just happens when we come back from a break in January, I struggle to do anything. I just never really added it back in. I hope to utilize it all next year though!
Music
Every year I say we’re going to really dive into the music studies. But unfortunately every year we don’t. We start off strong but it doesn’t last long. I guess it’s just not a priority to me. And that’s ok. I have come to terms with being ok not doing all the things.
My Thoughts on the Curriculum
All in all we really enjoyed this curriculum. There were so many aspects that were wonderful! Also some things we changed. We’ll be doing it again in 5 years so I’m excited to see how it will be with older children the next time around.
A question I get a lot about this curriculum is, is it worth the cost? For us, most definitely. I like to purchase the next year’s curriculum in the Winter when they are the least expensive. My Father’s World always has sales going on, but the Fall and Winter has the most discounts. I’ve thought about buying the items separately, but I have found it’s cheaper to just buy the whole package. Although if you’re looking to purchase now, it may be less expensive to purchase items separately. I guess it just depends on where you can find the various resources. There are several MFW groups on Facebook that sell the curriculum and other items used. And I always like to check Thrift Books and Abe Books for used books. Amazon and eBay are good places to check too. As well as any half priced book stores near you.
I am not affiliated with My Father’s World, they don’t have an affiliate program. (I wish!) But they do have a customer referral program. If you’d like to help support me you can use my referral code W062704 at checkout. I will receive a small amount (5%) of each sale to go towards my next order of curriculum.
Sometime in the next month I will be sharing about our curriculum choices for next year. Spoiler alert: it’s My Father’s World. But I’ll also be sharing our choices for math, language arts, and any additional books and resources I plan on adding to our main curriculum.
Thank you so much for your support over the years on my blog, Instagram, and Facebook page. I love sharing about our homeschool journey, the things we love to use, and what works for us in hopes that it might help you in your homeschool journey. Please let me know if you have any questions about this curriculum or anything for that matter!
