Posted by siloam on 17:09 Jul 4
In Reply to: sonlight vs. my father's world posted by Jennifer
I have only used SL, but I have friends using MFW.
MFW base is the IG, which holds the parents hands. All subjects revolve around the Bible. They have books lists so that you can order books from the library and allow the child to choose their readers. Because MFW includes hands on, it is more multi sensory than SL.
SL uses historical fiction to put the reader in the time being studied. If someone makes an emotional connection with something they are more likely to remember it later. This really takes effect in Core 3, when the readers and RA are all cordinated with the history. Before Core 3 the reades are based on reading level and RA will have some that pertian to the history, but most will just be good books. A big factor for you might be that SL does not include hands on for history or Bible. Some of the lower LA has phonics recommendations and the Science generally has one experiment a week.
Where MFW is all inclusive SL sells their curriculum in pieces: Core is History, for levels B-5 you can add Bible or not (the upper levels automatically include it), LA is separate and so is Science. Bible is important in SL, they cover the whole Bible in 6 years, making sure to do at lest one of he Gospels every year, but it isn't the main topic. With SL History is the main topic, Bible has it's own schedule and LA will coordinate with the reader and have both Science and History writing assignments.
I don't think either one is better than the other, they just meet different needs/goals.
Heather