Is My Father’s World Kindergarten Too Easy?
In 2013, our Family switched to My Father’s World, a Charlotte-Mason inspired Curriculum.
A common “complaint” (if you want to call it that) I hear from other homeschooling moms about My Father’s World is that the kindergarten curriculum is too easy.
Since I’ve used My Father’s World kindergarten with two of our sons (and will soon be using it with our youngest son), I thought I’d share my honest opinion and let you decide for yourself.
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MFW Kindegarten in a Nutshell
My Father’s World kindergarten curriculum is set up into 26 units.
Each unit explores one letter of the alphabet and is designed to be covered in six days.
If you follow the scope and sequence, your child will learn the entire alphabet (and learn to read simple words) by the end of one school year.
What if my Child Already Knows Phonics?
I guess this is where some moms have issues with MFW kindergarten.
If your child is one of those brainy tykes who learned to read in preschool, then yes, you’re going to find progressing through the ABC’s for twenty-six weeks to be a study in digression!
MFW preschool is completely hands-on (no work books), so a gentle approach to phonics and reading is a natural step if you’re following the curriculum sequence.
(You can read my personal approach to homeschooing preschoolers here.)
My Take on Early Reading
My own experience has taught me that early reading doesn’t work every time, or for every child.
Neither does every curriculum.
I’ve bounced around with several curricula, including A Beka, Christ Centered Curriculum, and a few others, before I decided on My Father’s World.
Two of my five children have struggled severely with reading, so my approach to phonics and my expectations in this area will differ from other moms.
So is MFW kindergarten too easy?
That’s really up to you to decide.
The gentle approach works beautifully for us.
Yes, I speed things up a bit; we finish one unit in a four-day school week, instead of spreading it out over six days.
For some, it may be too laid back.
If your child is already reading by kindergarten, My Father’s World is probably not a great choice.
Or maybe you prefer a text-book style approach instead.
Whatever works for you and your kiddos is what is right for you, Mama!
If you’re a homeschooling mom, or are simply curious about home education, I’d love for you to check out my ebook, Homeschooling Day By Day.
Get Homeschooling Day By Day for your Kindle…
and let me know what you think!
Have you used My Father’s World kindergarten?
What’s you take on this?
Here’s to living & loving well-
xoxo,
Kristy
P.S. Thanks a million for sharing this post!
I’m a new homeschooling mom, my 5 year old son is starting Kindergarten this year. I have not purchased curriculum yet but am really interested in My Father’s World. I see that there are 26 unit, 6 days each. My state requires 180 days of instruction – how would this work for us to meet our state requirements. Thanks for any help!
Hi Sarah! What a great question! I tackled it in a Q&A post right here: https://simplykristylynn.com/homeschooling-q-a-my-fathers-world-and-required-school-days-per-year/
Thank you for reading and commenting… I hope the Q&A post helps a little!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on MFW-K! You’ve raised some really valid points and I think it will help a lot of parents know what to do when it comes to homeschool. Kind of wish I had seen it earlier but we now have a just-turned-five-year-old in Unit 6 and even though he went into it with basic reading skills, we love exploring all the different ways to learn through books and activities and creativity – not just busting out reading, writing and arithmetic!!
We have been using MFW since my 2nd grader started Kindergarten. She loved it. Not too far into it, she began grasping the concepts and we breezed through it in 8 months, with several significant breaks (a week to several weeks). We often did double lessons (or 3 lessons in 2 days).
My son, at about the same age she started (he’s almost 6), on the other hand, didn’t know his letters (wasn’t really interested). He had figured out numbers up to 9, and he is showing a definite preference for numbers over letters. We have been doing 3-4 lessons a week, sometimes only 2, which means we won’t be done with it by next summer. No big deal. He has started using a LeapFrog electronic letter thingy, and he has learned at least twice as many letters as he had known a few weeks ago. And he’s very independent about it. He used to ask me for help, but now if I try to help him, he picks it up and runs off!
Anyhow, I figure that I can make it as heavy or as light as I want to. I kind of suspect that my 3rd child, who is 2 1/2 now, could be reading early. He sits in on his brother’s kindergarten some days, and he also plays with the leapfrog game, and he points to words on things, asking me what they say, and he loves books. If I do MFW kinder with him, we will probably go through it very quickly.
I have a daughter who has had to fight to learn everything she knows. She did not speak at all until age 4 1/2 and is now 6, talking fairly fluently. We are doing MFW K this year for her and it is working wonderfully. I actually schooling her and our 4 yr old boy in K together. I love the laid back approach because it works for us. We also have a 9 yr old son that uses Timberdoodle because MFW is too easy for him. We have used Abeka in the past and loved it, but it is much to advanced for me to handle teaching 3 children on different levels, dealing with learning delays in one child. I supplement a LOT with Library books and hands on activities. 🙂
Sarah, I found A Beka a bit overwhelming for the same reasons, although I really loved the phonics program with our oldest daughter.
So glad you’ve found something that’s working so well for your family!
I do struggle with thinking MFW K is too easy. I believe it would be a bit redundant to spend 6 days drawing out the unit. We also condense to 4 days and at times, 3. I have supplemented with Singapore Math and we prefer All About Reading and All About Spelling over the MFW language arts. So we really just use it for the Bible/Science/Activity side. And for that, I am grateful because I can’t seem to find a creative bone in this body, and having weekly units lined up for us is so much fun. Oh, we also supplement with TONS of library books each week and spend a ton of time reading “living books”. All in all, I’m happy with it!
Nikki, we condensed the weekly units into 3 or 4 days, as well. That worked really well for us! Thanks for recommending All About Reading and All About Spelling… I’ll check those out!
Did you do All About Reading Level 1 or PreReading with MFWK? Did you just add on AAR each day after MFW or did you leave out parts of MFW or reorder any of the units?
Alison, we followed the MFW Kindergarten unit without adding or taking out anything. It is a comprehensive phonics curriculum all by itself although, as I mentioned, it is not necessarily an “early reading” curriculum.
I ordered the MFW kindergarten literature collection with this unit, and was so glad I did. We really enjoyed the extra read alouds!
Let me know if you have any other questions, Alison, or if I need to clarify anything here. 🙂
Thank you so much! This is exactly the post I was looking for. We have a 4 yr old, 2 yr old, and 7 mos old. We have been doing a loose preschool homeschool (free from abcjesuslovesme.com) but are wanting to get more structured with our 4 yr old next year who clearly ready for phonics. I keep wavering back and forth between Abeka and MFW. Now to just pray a little more and discuss with husband! Thank you for your honesty, and would love to know about your year round schedule!
I’m so glad you found this helpful, Heather! Thanks for commenting. 🙂
I read so many great reviews on the MFW curriculum, and a friend of mine started it in 1st grade and loved it, but I didn’t realize it was an ‘easy’ Kindergarten! My son has been in public prek for 2 years and I have been teaching him to read with 100 easy lessons which has gone extremely well. In the Fall I plan on starting him on MFW K, which I already purchased, but now I’m feeling frustrated because it may not be challenging enough for him. I can’t return it at this point and I can’t afford to just buy 1st grade right now either. So I think I may do what you are doing with your son – turn it into 4 days instead of 6, and then maybe start him in 1st sooner. My other thinking is that for a first year of homeschooling maybe it’s not such a bad thing for our family that it will be easier work but I don’t want my child to miss out on his full potential. I’m just bummed because I feel like I made the wrong choice and financially it’s just – too bad at this point. :/
We will begin kindergarten with our oldest this fall. I’ve been trying to decide between Heart of Dakota and MFW. We will also have a 3 yr old, 18 mo old, and newborn so a slower pace sounds awesome right now. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
I have used MFW for my 8 year old now every year, she is now in 2nd grade and my 4 and just turned 6 year olds are doing MFW kindergarten this year. We love it and would not go back and change a thing. How awesome to have schooling material that is God based where they learn to read and write using God’s word!where Hope you lovers much as we do. God bless!
We use MFW for K and love it! We are on our 3rd kindergartner using MFW and have adapted to each child but typically do a unit per week. Question. I noticed the 3-ring notebook in the pics, do you just have all the sheets in the 3-ring notebook to form like a workbook?
We are using MFW K with our five year old son and we are really enjoying it! We also speed it up, but I find that it’s perfect for him!
I have heard wonderful things about MFW! I use Rod and Staff for preschool and Language Lessons from K on, plus adding The Phonics Pathway for reading {I found this on Amazon} and my girls are doing really well with it!
I used 100 Easy Lessons and MFW 1st grade for child #1 during K. He already knew all his letters and sounds when we started K. Child #2 was not interested in anything learning when he started K. I used 100 Easy Lessons and Rod and Staff workbooks (love these) for him. They are now 3rd and 5th graders using Preparing Hearts from Heart of Dakota. Child #3 will start out in Heart of Dakota. It is funny how different each child is. I am thankful that I can homeschool and meet their individual needs!
I took used Rod and Staff with my son last year in K. It worked for us! And this year I switched to Heart of Dakota and it has been fabulous. He loves learning through history!
Thanks for sharing this! we are using MFW k and I absolutely love it! I’ve heard it said so many times that it’s too easy. To me if they aer enjoying school and learning the things they need to know it’s not too easy. It’s perfect! We’re on B (started feb last year since little guy was too excited to wait) and it has been such a fun year with him! He’s getting the reading and even though i haven’t “taught” much math he gets addition easily. i’m excited for 1st grade with him (which i’ve heard picks up the pace quite a bit) and also doing k again next year with my 2nd daughter. Enjoy the rest of k with your cute little coqboy!