6 Tips to Be Successful with My Father’s World Curriculum!

Looking for some My Father’s World curriculum tips and secrets to homeschooling success?

I have bought My Father’s World curriculum for kindergarten, 1st grade, 2nd grade, and 3rd grade, so I know my way around the curriculum pretty well by now.

The teacher’s manual is very organized and laid out with simple, easy to understand instructions.

But there are a few tips that I would definitely pass on to a friend if she decided to go with this curriculum.

I want to share these My Father’s World tips with you so that you can get the most out of the curriculum and your homeschool year!

6 Tips to Be Successful with My Father’s World Curriculum

1. Find the Facebook Group for Your Curriculum Pack

I don’t remember how I stumbled onto the official Facebook group for My Father’s World 1st grade curriculum, but it was a divine find!

It’s a private group where moms can post pictures of their wins and their kid’s finished projects.

You could also post questions about the curriculum when you didn’t understand something in the teacher’s manual.

I mostly appreciated that you could reach out for help and encouragement when you hit a bump in the road. Everybody is so kind and willing to reach a hand out to help and support. The administrator has years of experience with homeschooling with My Father’s World and did such a good job helping all of us when we needed it.

I highly recommend getting plugged in with a Facebook group as a resource throughout the year. You may not need it right away, but it will be wonderful to have someone to reach out to when you do need it!

Not sure how to find your people?

Start with searching your My Father’s World curriculum name (i.e. Adventures in U.S. History). If that doesn’t help, reach out to My Father’s World customer service and they can get you headed in the right direction.

2. You Don’t Have to Do Everything in the Curriculum

You probably already know this and agree with this…but doing it in practice will be a challenge.

The My Father’s World curriculum (really any curriculum actually) will call you for you to do something – a science experiment, a nature walk, art project – that you don’t have the time or resources for.

And that’s okay. 

That does not mean your child’s education will be lacking.

It doesn’t mean your kid is falling behind.

It means nothing. Just brush it off and move on with your homeschool. 

I worked so hard in the first two years with My Father’s World to make sure that we did everything.

It was very freeing to take some license in our third year to cut things out that didn’t work for us.

For example, my daughter really did not like working with the foreign currency (paper money) in My Father’s World Countries and Cultures. It was supposed to be a fun activity of using the foreign currency of the week to buy snacks throughout the day, but she really hated it.

She just wanted to get a snack and not be bothered with a school/math question.

That resonated with me, and I threw the money out and we moved on. She still had a blast with the curriculum and learned a ton of information.

Don’t be afraid to form the curriculum to your homeschool. You don’t need to form your homeschool to the curriculum.

That’s deep, I know.

3. Schedule a Day of the Week to Order and Pick Up Library Books

The weekly book lists in the back of the teacher’s manual significantly enriched our homeschool, but it can be difficult to keep up with.

As the weeks go by, it is easy (trust me, I know) to forget to order your books on your library’s website.

To get around that, I recommend picking a day of the week that is your library order day and a day that you plan to pick up what you ordered.

For me, I picked Tuesdays to be the day that I sat down and ordered books (usually took me about 10 minutes).

Mondays were the day that I packed everyone in the car and we went to the library to pick up the books for the week.

I would suggest ordering your books 1-3 weeks out, depending on how fast your library turns books around.

****Extra tip: Keep library books in a separate bookcase, bookshelf, or basket in your house. This will help so much when its time to get all the books together to return.

4. Purchase Supplies 2-4 Weeks in Advance

The beginning of every school week has a list of supplies you will need to complete the week’s activities. These are often things that you have at home…but sometimes they’re not.

You do not want to be looking at the list on Sunday evening before the school week starts only to discover that you don’t have a packet of seeds, paper plates, or some other necessary item.

I like to flip through the manual and keep planned out 2-4 weeks out. This gives me plenty of time to fit the shopping list into my normal errands or order something off Amazon.

Low-stress homeschool mom = happy homeschool mom!

5. Only Pull Out the Books You Will Need for the Week

I had mentioned this My Father’s World tip in my post about how to organize the curriculum, but I think it bears repeating.

When you receive your box of My Father’s World curriculum, you are going to be a bit overwhelmed by all of the books and papers they manage to smash into a box.

That will be double or triple for families that are using multiple curriculum packs.

You do not need to have all of those books displayed in your homeschool bookcase. In fact, I would tell you to definitely not display all of those books.

Go through your teacher’s manual on the weekend and be sure to only pull the books that the curriculum calls for that week.

Why?

• It will keep your homeschool area free of clutter and much easier to navigate.

• You can keep some surprises “up your sleeve” and keep your homeschool fresh when you’re still pulling out new materials throughout the year! Your kids won’t know what’s coming!

• When you tell your kid to grab a book off the shelf, they will be able to find it a lot faster if they’re not sifting through a year’s worth of curriculum materials.

• When you are grabbing a book to transition to another subject, you will be able to see and grab it a lot faster too.

6. Trust the Process

It is very easy to look at the small steps your curriculum will take every day and wonder – is this really enough?

Do I need to supplement with something?

Should I add in another resource?

Did I pick the right curriculum?

My Father’s World is known for having a gentle approach that builds, so its understandable that parents could be concerned.

On my first day of teaching 1st grade with My Father’s World Curriculum, I actually looked at the teacher’s manual twice to make sure that I didn’t miss anything – the day was so short! I couldn’t believe I had covered everything!

I got on Google and rechecked all those My Father’s World curriculum reviews I had been reading – was this really a good curriculum?

I decided to trust the process and here are some of the highlights for me:

By the end of 1st grade, my daughter could read short chapter books, she had memorized all the books of the Bible in order, and had a pretty good command of Biblical history.

By the end of 2nd grade (Adventures in U.S. History), she was at a 4th-grade reading level, she had fallen in love with history, and could identify all the states on a map.

By the end of 3rd grade (Countries and Cultures), she was able to easily identify over 100 countries on a world map, read long chapter books independently, and discuss advanced science concepts.

More importantly than any of that, my daughter loves learning. I don’t have a problem getting her to the classroom table to do school because I didn’t burn her out in 1st grade with a bunch of extra things to validate me as a teacher or my homeschool.

I really think this is notable because I know a number of homeschool moms who are using much more rigorous curriculum and their kids are significantly more resistant to school than mine are.  My kids look forward to school and often ask, “What are we going to learn about today?!”

I would encourage you to trust the process. Follow the teacher’s manual and enjoy the results!

Recap My Father’s World Curriculum Tips

I know you are going to be so happy with your decision to go with My Father’s World Curriculum.

It is so gentle, hands-on, creative, and fun for kids!

If you keep the above tips in mind as you use My Father’s World, I know you will have the year of your homeschool dreams!

Did I miss anything? Feel free to drop all of your best My Fath’er World curriculum tips in the comments below!

Want to save these tips for later?

Totally understand that.

Just pin this post to favorite Pinterst board and share with your homeschooling friends and followers!

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