End of the Year Review for WORLD CHANGERS by My Father’s World
Have you heard about the NEW World Changers curriculum by My Father’s World? Today, I’m going to dive in to reveal the ins and outs - what we loved, how we tackled it, and what I would change if I could do it again!
World Changers Curriculum Overview
World Changers by My Father’s World covers Bible, History, Music, Art, Science, and Read Alouds. According to the publisher, it is written for third graders but can also be used for 2nd and 4th graders. (In my opinion, this can be used for a much older child, too!) You add your own math, language arts, reading, and foreign language at your child’s level to make it a complete curriculum.
Each year of My Father’s World (MFW) curriculum is a unit study, and this year the curriculum is an overview of World History with a focus on biographies of 32 different “world changers” - ordinary people who changed the world in some small or big way using the gifts, talents, or abilities God gave them. There are short but engaging biographies of each of the world changers introduced in chronological order alongside a snapshot of the happenings of the world at that time.
Bible this year is a gentle, but powerful, devotional with a nature theme.
Science this year is lots of hands-on fun with chemistry, physics, and STEM!
Art is learning to draw.
Music is the Recorder!
Read alouds are themed with the time period - and these are NOT to be missed!
Let’s dive in!
A little bit about us…
My name is Katie. My husband and I have five children (one of whom was born halfway through our World Changers school year!) ages 10, 7, 5, 3, and 8 months. We used World Changers mainly for our 3rd grader (age 9), but our 1st grader and preschoolers joined for a lot of the fun and read alouds!
We joyfully participated in a Synergy Group with two other families all year. A Synergy Group is My Father’s World’s version of a co-op where we do some of the activities in the Teacher’s Manual together for a couple of hours once a week.
We have used MFW Adventures in US History (but didn’t finish it due to enrolling the kids in a hybrid school that year) and MFW Learning God’s Story in previous years and enjoyed them!
I write hands-on kids’ Bible studies (found here on raisingkingdomwarriors.com) and a Montessori-inspired Christian Homeschool curriculum for ages 1-7+ that we also used in the earlier years of our homeschooling journey and that I sprinkle into our learning even now. We have always used a variety of curriculums and pedagogies in our homeschool, adapting with the seasons, and implementing things I am constantly learning.
My Father’s World is a good mix for our family, with plenty of hands-on components, a mix of pedagogies, the freedom to teach the skills subjects however you want, the pre-written Synergy guides to foster consistent and fruitful community, and, above all, a solid Biblical worldview (from an evangelistic, protestant, young-earth perspective.)
Watch the Full Video Review HERE:
First, the FUN!
Homeschooling does not have to be dry and boring for your kids to learn! They can have some serious fun while still learning some serious stuff! I don’t skimp on math or phonics or grammar or writing, but I also love to see my children LIGHT UP with joy when we learn together!
World Changers is written with fun in mind for the whole family.
Fun Component #1: Your overview of world history is guided by Mrs. Periwinkle, the museum guide from “The Marvelous Museum of SALT and LIGHT.” About 6 times during the year, she shows up, decked out in her museum guide attire, and guides your children through the museum to introduce them to a new world changer! Sometimes she has snacks or a special student sheet. But, most importantly, she gets your kids excited to learn!
Fun Component #2: To start out the year, the kids get to use their creativity and STEM skills to invent a time machine that is used to travel to each time period studied throughout the year. You literally count down with your kids and “travel” in time to visit each time period. This was a huge hit.
Fun Component #3: This is my favorite. A huge focus of the year is on learning how these ordinary people throughout history were “salt” and “light” for the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus (even leading the way in Old Testament times.) Each Friday, in the Teacher’s Guide, there is an activity for Bible called “Shine Your Light.” In the beginning of the year, students are directed to come up with a list of ways they can shine light in dark places through acts of service, kindness, or even raising money for missions. Fridays are a light day academically, so, used intentionally, this makes for such a full year of practicing selflessness and godly character.
For our first “Shine Your Light” activity, the girls made brownies and delivered them to the neighbors!
Fun Component #4: SCIENCE and STEM. This was such a fun component this year - as we made chemical concoctions, built wacky gadgets with household materials to explore physics, and plunged into the world of PLUS-PLUS blocks!
Lily served her dad a glass of “H2O” made with toothpicks and grapes.
Fun Component #5: Nature walks corresponded to the Bible Devotional. Getting outside in Nature? Yes, please! Including it as a school activity? We’re in! I am a huge proponent of using homeschooling to intentionally disciple our children. Curriculum that does not align with that goal gets weeded out of our homeschool pretty quickly. God reveals Himself to us through His Word, but also He reveals Himself to us through NATURE. Spend this year intentionally discovering that.
Nature journaling in the backyard with friends in our Synergy Group!
Fun Component #6: We learned how to use the RECORDER this year! From the preschoolers to the 5th graders in our Synergy Group (and some of the mamas, too), we had a blast with the recorder! Some of the kids mastered three notes, and others were able to play full songs half way through the recorder book without help. Give it a try, but keep it FUN! Some kids may not be ready for much more than one or two notes. Put it aside and try again another year - because music is worth it!
Here the kids are practicing recorder during our Synergy Group time!
Let’s Dive into Each Subject
Here I’ll give some more details about each subject and add a little note about what I would do differently if I could do it all over again!
Bible
NATURE DEVOTIONAL
For Bible, the curriculum includes God is in Nature!: A Kids’ Devotional About HIs Awesome Creations by Jessica Doebler (who happens to be a homeschool mom herself!) It is scheduled three times a week. It’s a short devotional that includes a Bible verse, a short nature-inspired devotional, a prayer, and an activity prompt.
We loved this! Sometimes my 9 year old would read the devotional, and sometimes I would. She would look up the verse and read it from her Discoverer’s NIRV Bible. God is revealed in Scripture AND in Nature, and nature study deserves a solid space in anyone’s homeschool curriculum. This was a joy.
If I could do it again, I would DO each nature prompt on the day we read about what to do. I would put it in our afternoon schedule instead of putting them all of until the end of the week. We missed out on so much we could have done.
SCRIPTURE MEMORY
We also memorized 19 scripture verses that corresponded to the people we were learning about in history. The kids colored the provided Scripture memory cards, and we displayed them on a cork board.
If I could do it again, I would have my children copy the memory verse by hand for their notebooks in addition to coloring the cards!
History
History Component #1: World Changers covers a chronological overview of world history through excerpts in the teacher’s guide that you (as the teacher) read to your children and they narrate back. There are also notebook pages that summarize happenings around the world for each time period:
Creation to 1 BC
AD 1 to 500
500 to 1500
1500 to 1900
1900 - Present
History Component #2: In addition to the overview in the Teacher’s Guide, you study biographies of 32 people throughout history that have changed the world for God’s glory. These are explored in the MFW resource: The Official Guide to The Marvelous Museum of Salt and Light. The students create notebook pages summarizing the biographies of each world changer.
History Component #3: The children add each time period and world changer to a student created timeline!
History Component #4: Book basket! My Father’s World uses what they call a “book basket” to enrich the studies with extra books borrowed from your local library for each year. There are hundreds of recommendations for history that correspond with each time period and person studied. We enjoyed the Torchlighters videos that were suggested in the Book Basket!
History Component #5: “Thursday activities.” Most weeks, there are activities suggested on Thursdays to make the history come alive in more hands-on way. From an Egyptian feast to an internet search or video to watch to a visit to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, there are plenty of ideas
If I could do it again, I would utilize book basket much more extensively and require my children to spend 15-20 minutes looking through or reading these books each day! I would also make time for the Thursday extension activities - these seem really great to level the curriculum up for an older child, too, where he/she could do more independent research, write reports, and go down rabbit trails for topics of interest.
Personal Note: I have never been a great history student, and history never interested me much until I grew more in my faith and also started homeschooling my children! This year was an incredible, yet simple, overview for ME to anchor the time periods and understand a bird’s eye view of history that we can build on together in the years to come. The best part was being able to use actual people as pegs to further understand and experience the time periods. I even dove deeper into some biographies of the people studied for myself.
Science
For science, this year focuses on Physical Science and STEM. The books, “Inventor’s Workshop” and “Kitchen Chemistry” are published by My Father’s World. The Plus-Plus blocks are also included with the curriculum, as well as test tubes and an eye dropper.
We loved science and wish we did more of the experiments!
If I could do it again, I would do all of the experiments. It looked complicated to set up, but it never really was. What could be a better way to spend an afternoon at home? Let science trickle into the afternoons with these engaging and thought-provoking hands-on activities!
I would also purchase a craft kit for Inventor’s Workshop from Living Water Crafts on Facebook!
Read Alouds
From the publisher: Miriam loves her peaceful home by the shores of the Sea of Galilee. But when the wheat harvest fails and taxes are due, it seems as though her family will lose their house. "Jehovah will provide," Father says. Will He? Can we keep living in Galilee? Miriam wondered. There was a miracle-but not what they had expected. A story rich with the life and culture of Bible times.
From the publisher: Fifty-five years ago, Helen L. Taylor took John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress and simplified the vocabulary and concepts for young readers while keeping the storyline intact. The result was a classic in itself.
From the publisher: Can one person make a difference in their world? That is the question to ponder as you read the story of one little girl who brings joy to her town. This version is an adaptation by My Father's World of the classic story.
Five Tales by Hans Christian Andersen
From the publisher: Short, classic tales by Hans Christian Anderson. Includes The Real Princess, The Ugly Duckling, and three others.
The Mills Family of Entrepreneurs
From the Publisher: En-tre-pre-what? A creative adventure that introduces kids to the world of business and innovation.
WHAT WE LOVED
Well, we loved all of the read alouds, honestly. There are other curriculum companies that suggest a more “robust” read aloud schedule, and sometimes I feel like I’m missing out or that I should add more in, but when we stick to the manual MFW so lovingly provides, I am blown away by the results from simple, consistent progress.
Each read-aloud hit us in a different way and brought us to think through the theme of being a world changer from a new angle.
If I could do it again, I may linger over each chapter a little longer and go deeper in our discussions - meaning, carve out an extra ten minutes after each reading to discuss the chapter informally but purposefully.
Art
This year, we used the “Drawing Textbook” by Bruce McIntyre paired with My Father’s World’s notebook “I Can Draw.”
We all loved the art books! Make sure to order one “I Can Draw” book for each kid and for yourself!
If I could do it again, I would keep up with the drawings as suggested in the Teacher’s Manual. We tended to get behind, and there were so many skills I wish we slowly worked on! (Are you noticing a trend? “Do more, as written…,” instead of, “Veer off track and try something NEW.” LOL)
Music
We all had a blast learning and practicing the Recorder. Everyone worked at their own pace, and my third grader found a new passion!
If I could do it again, I would make sure we practiced recorder 4-5 days per week instead of the 2 that usually happened.
Final Reflection
Slow and steady progress over a full year is nothing at which to scoff. If I had viewed this program, from the beginning, as complete, robust, and full, I wouldn’t have veered off on so many rabbit trails. I wouldn’t have switched math curriculums four or five times. I wouldn’t have tried every “sniny new object (curriculum)” just to see if we were missing something.
In reality, when I look back, what I see is a beautiful tapestry of fun, hands-on learning mixed with serious, purposeful study. The lives of these “world changers” have impacted our family for eternity.
Don’t chase the shiny, new thing. Don’t second guess. Stay the course and jump all-in if you can! Simple works. Don’t overcomplicate it! There’s no way to keep up and do the curriculum well if you try to add in too much.
My Father’s World “World Changers” Curriculum FAQ
Can I use My Father’s World “World Changers” curriculum with a fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth grader?
Yes, I believe you can. The MFW website says it can be used for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders who are the oldest children in the family. Since it is a newer curriculum by MFW, some families have wanted to use it with older children. I would use the World Changers curriculum as a spine, and then you can be very intentional about adding biographies and world history book basket selections. Your older child can do oral or written narrations, make additional timeline entries, and be expected to spend more time independently for the extension work. Remember to check out the extension activities listed on Thursdays in the Teacher’s Manual for suggestions for extensions, too!
For science, you may want a more robust and text-heavier curriculum for your older children, but you can also require lab reports, background research, spin-off experiment designs, etc. and simply expand the curriculum included.
Obviously, you would want to do math, language arts, and foreign language at your child’s level. My Father’s World has grade-level suggestions for these on their website mfwbooks.com.
Would you change anything about My Father’s World “World Changers” curriculum?
Nope. :)
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