Introduction and fitting it all in

[Mindy LaBerge]

Hi! I'm Mindy, and I have 3 girls ages 10, 8, 6 and 1 boy age 4.
This is my 2nd year with MFW. Last year we did Exploring Countries
and Cultures and this year we're doing Creation to the Greeks. One
year doesn't make me "experienced" so I problably don't have much
wisdom, but I can talk about our experience with ECC and some things
I've read on the MFW message boards.

Honestly, I'm guessing we only did 1/2 the art projects scheduled, and
3/4 of the science projects (always read the science just didn't
always get the projects done). We started out well and did less and
less by the end of the year. Still, even with this, I feel like we
had a very full year, learned a ton, and did enough fun stuff to keep
everyone happy. My 2nd grader sometimes did 1 page from World
Geography for each continent and my 4th grader sometimes did 2 or 3,
but with those ages, if you were having trouble fitting it all in I
would drop that book completely. We had trouble fitting in the
geography game - towards the end of the year we were doing it 1/2 to
3/4 of the time it was suggested and the kids still learned most all
their countries. For me, organization and planning seem to be the big
key to us getting it all done. If I do my planning and get everything
organized for the week on Sunday, and if I fill the workboxes every
night, then we generally get it all done. I'm getting better at this
every year as my kids get older. If you have babies/toddlers/
preschoolers, give yourself some grace, do what you can, it will get
easier.

All that being said, just wanted to say we're loving Creation to the
Greeks this year. Learning about mummies this week in history, and to
go along with it decay/preservation for science. Today we buried
peeled and unpeeled apples and potatoes, along with a piece of
plastic, wood and a rock. Looking forward to digging them up in a
week and seeing the results of decay on the different items. We also
put a plain piece of bread in a bag, a toasted piece of bread in a
bag, and bread with antiseptic ointment spread on it in another bag.
We're going to watch and see which things helped preserve the bread.
I'll post some yummy looking photos when we're done!

Enjoy your year with MFW!

Mindy