My Father’s World Rome to Reformation
Rome
to
Reformation
2020-2021
We have homeschooled for 6 years now! We have used My Father’s World curriculum since the beginning. It works so well for us. I love it for so many reasons but probably the biggest is that the curriculum weaves our Christian faith through everything while still teaching about other cultures and world views.
This year, I have two 5th graders and two 4th graders. My youngest daughter was adopted only a few weeks before we started this school year. She was learning a new language and getting use to family life so she didn’t do any real schoolwork until later in the year when I started preschool/kindergarten with her.
This year, like all the others, did not disappoint. We started in the Roman Empire and studied history through the Reformation. The kids and I learned so much!
In the Teacher’s Manual, there are detailed instructions on how to teach each week. There are even schedules for each week on what to teach each day. Fridays are light days or, in our case, often catch-up days. There are 34 weeks, however you can add more if you’d like or if your state requires more school days.
History
Our main history book was Streams of Civilization. It is very detailed and it often repeated what some of our other history books taught. Because of this, I would teach from this book after all the rest and sometimes pick and choose what we would really dig into. My oldest son LOVES history so he really got a lot out of this book.
We love the Usborne Ancient & Medieval world books! There are so many detailed pictures. The kids really loved learning from these books. I’d often find one of these books in my son’s bed at night. He would spend hours consumed in them.
We made a castle! The kids had fun playing with it.
The Roman Empire book was another favorite. It had lots of costume ideas and other things to make.
I love how The Story of the World is written! It really grabs your attention. This was our first year using this series and I’m excited to continue using the same series next year. I’ve heard that there is an audio version if you need a break on all the reading.
At first I wasn’t a fan of Augustus Caesar’s World but after a while it grew on me. It isn’t written from a Christian viewpoint but this was actually a wonderful experience for my kids and I.
My son has been struggling with some doubts about whether stories in the Bible were really true. One night, in bed, it really bothered him and he prayed about it. The next day, without me knowing anything about his struggles, we read in this book about how Roman astronomers had recorded that there had been an extremely bright star (actually three planets that came together) around the time that Christ was born. This was a recorded event outside of the Bible. This was huge for my son who shared with me right then what he had been struggling with. (This information is on page 227 of the book.)
If we didn’t homeschool, I would have missed this time to show my son this truth. That right there was the Holy Spirit working.
We also used the Bible for history. The Victor Journey through the Bible helped us dig deeper into the culture and meanings of each passage.
Trail and Triumph is full of stories of Christians who suffered for their faith. This is an excellent book!
How the Bible Came to Us explained the process of how the Bible was compiled and translated.
The curriculum had us read some of Galen and the Gateway to Medicine as well.
We tried to learn how to play Chess but I didn’t make it a priority. I hope to go back and learn it better.
Science
During the first part of the year, we studied about different parts/systems in the body. We got our information from the Usborne First Encyclopedia of the Human Body and the Human Body for Every Kid. We made models of each one from the Body Book. I bought the PDF version from Scholastic and printed off what we needed for each model. The models could be quite challenging to make sometimes but it was really neat once they were completed. I tried to have each kid make one but sometimes we did them together.
On week 21, we started studying Astronomy. Each week we studied about a certain part of our solar system until the last week of school. Each week they wrote a summary about what they had learned.
We really enjoyed Exploring Creation with Astronomy. There are many experiments in the book but we didn’t do all of them.
Literature
We read the following books together this year.
- Twice Freed-this was my favorite! It was a story of Onesimus who was the slave of Philemon in the Bible. Although most of it is fiction, it was so neat to see what the life of Onesimus might have looked like.
- The Bronze Bow-this was my second favorite. It was the story of an orphan boy who grew up during the time that Jesus was on earth. We found a reading of this on YouTube.
- The Door in the Wall-this was a story about a boy and a monk. We found a reading of this on YouTube.
- Dangerous Journey-this was an abridged version of the Pilgrim’s Progress. We found a video reading of this. Here is the link. https://answersingenesis.org/kids/videos/series/dangerous-journey/?fbclid=IwAR3Opl5_h5jKAAvrD5Rha-k6z_VNtvn1sV8YRcG51bAxKK_TC9VSSoLi67M
In the beginning of the school year, I had made a plan for what each kid would read each year. We stayed faithful to it for a couple of months but then we got behind and eventually stopped. I have some kids who are natural readers and some who don’t enjoy it. Maybe we’ll try again next year.
Math
We have been using Teaching Textbooks math for three years now and I am a HUGE fan.
We struggled for years to find a good fit in math. My oldest son and daughter started with Singapore math as recommended by My Father’s World. My son did ok with it but my daughter struggled with it. She has learning disabilities and it didn’t work for her. My son stayed with Singapore and I started my daughter with Math-U-See along with her next two siblings. We really liked Math-U-See but my daughter still struggled along with my younger son. Around this time, I switched my oldest son to Teaching Textbooks and he did amazing with it. A year later my middle daughter switched to Teaching Textbooks as well.
I attended a homeschool convention and heard about the Rapid Recall System from Little Giant Steps. This program was made with learning disabilities in mind. We took a solid year to go through the addition and subtraction section of this program. My daughter and youngest son memorized all the addition and subtraction facts. I also purchased the multiplication and division curriculum but we didn’t complete them. The reason we didn’t complete them is because I felt that, at that point, they could do Teaching Textbooks as well.
I started my daughter and younger son in Teaching Textbooks and they did pretty good. The only problem was that they were behind in math but I wasn’t too concerned about that as long as I was seeing progress.
To complete a level in Teaching Textbooks in a school year you have to do 4 lessons a week, so I had them do it 5 days a week and they also did math in the summer. I know it doesn’t sound like much fun to do school in the summer but if we didn’t they would have lost a lot and they would remain far behind.
At the end of this coming summer, my younger son will be totally on grade level in math and my daughter will be only a year behind. Considering her learning disabilities, this is AMAZING!!
The reasons I love Teaching Textbooks
- Independent learning
- Automatic grading
- Version 2.0 is on CD rom and can be used multiple times. So, I only have to purchase it once and all my kids can use it. After a few times, you do have to call Teaching Textbooks to reset it but they are totally happy to do this and encourage you to do so.
- If a child struggles with a concept, they can listen to the lecture again and you can delete their wrong answers and have them do it again.
I’ve made a few rules that help us get through math each day and to make sure each concept is learned. The kids have to complete their lesson independently, without my help at all. If they make less than 90%, I go back and delete their missed answers and we go over them together often listening to the lesson’s lecture again. This system has worked very well for us and keeps the stress down for me.
Spelling
We started using Spelling Power in 3rd grade and we LOVE it. We have really found our groove in it and I can see great improvements in each child.
English
We have used Language Lessons for Today for many years now. I love the slow approach. This is a great subject to work with the kids individually or in pairs.
Writing
We changed to IEW Student Writing Intensive for writing this year. We didn’t finish the book because I decided we needed extra practice with each lesson. We will continue to use this next year.
We watch a video where the instructor teaches the kids how to form a keyword outline and creatively rewrite stories into their own words. It is really helping with the kids’ writing skills.
Latin Roots
Last year we learned Greek roots and this year we learned Latin roots. By the end of the year, we had learned 62 Latin roots. It’s amazing how many times we have used this knowledge to decipher words the kids did not know the meaning of.
Scripture Memory
This year we memorized the following verses as instructed by the curriculum.
- Romans 3:23
- Romans 5:8
- Romans 8:28
- Romans 12:1-6a
- 1 Corinthians 13
- Philippians 2:3-16
Organization
I organized all the student sheets in a hanging file labeled by each week. During the summer, I built a rolling shelf for the kids’ notebooks. It worked out pretty good but next year I’m going to keep each of the kids’ subjects in one huge notebook. I think that will be easier. I was given an amazing little tote for pencils and such. It has been perfect.
I hope you enjoyed reading about our year! Thank you for following us on this journey.
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