My Father’s World Review

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With its packages of structured, faith-friendly, literature-based, multisensory and curated learning material from well-known and respected educational providers, My Father’s World can offer an easy to use and highly convenient solution for Christian homeschools.

What We Like

Affordable
Full year curriculum packages are pretty
convenient time savers
Easy to teach students of different ages at the
same time using the same base materials
Very strong Christian values and lessons
Easy to teach, well-designed lessons
Lots of multisensory resources and activities
Strong Math, Science and Language Arts
resources

But watch out for

Not necessarily as modular as some other
solutions
Can be a little parent intensive, particularly
with K-8

What Is My Father’s World?

Created by David and Marie Hazell, My Father’s World is a Christian homeschool curriculum provider that offers educational resources and packages across a variety of subjects and grades. 

The company uses a blended approach across its different subject areas that combines core lesson guides, literature-based learning, select third-party curricula, hands-on / multisensory activities and a strong Christian outlook. 

What Grades Does My Father’s World Cover?

My Father’s World offers curricular solutions for students in pre-K to grade 12, with specific, multi-subject curriculum packages or programs available for each grade plus electives at the High School level.

GradeThemePackage
Pre-K 3DiscoverAll Aboard the Animal Train
Pre-K 4Voyage of Discovery
KGod’s Creation from A to Z
1Learning God’s Story
2Adventures in US History
Grades 3-8InvestigateExploring Countries and Cultures
Creation to the Greeks
Rome to the Reformation
Exploration to 1850
1850 to Modern Times
9DiscoverAncient History and Culture
10World History and Literature
11US History to 1877
12US History from 1877 to Present

While many of the packages and programs offered by the company are roughly aimed at specific grades, one should note that grades 3-8 are aimed at a broad range instead. 

Although the company strongly recommends that they be done in sequence (note that they do follow something of a chronological order), these five packages can be started and studied by students in any of these grades, which is kind of interesting. 

It is also important to keep in mind that My Father’s World is a homeschool curriculum provider and their packages can of course be used by students learning outside of a typical progression. 

So long as they are ready to read and have the essential concepts of number recognition down there is, for example, nothing really stopping a precocious 4 year old from beginning God’s Creation from A to Z, which is intended for students in Kindergarten. 

In fact, because My Father’s World requires parents to pick up additional grade-specific resources beginning at around grade 2 for certain subjects (particularly in Math and Language Arts), much like programs such as Bookshark it allows parents to tailor learning to a child’s skill a bit more than some other subjects.

This can be very beneficial to homeschooling students with a jagged learning profile, i.e. those with a particular strength or weakness in one or more areas.

Students in grade 5 who are having a harder time in math, for example, may study Bible, History, Life Science and so on at grade level but work remedially with 4th grade (or lower) math resources. 

Conversely, those with a strength in Math or Language Arts can freely work a year ahead. 

One thing to note is that My Father’s World really only really offers placement tests for its Dimensions and Saxon math programs.

Its packaged solutions, Language Arts, Science and so  are grade-leveled and so parents of students working above or below these grades will need to do some research on the company website and generally use their best judgment about their student’s skill, something that can be a bit challenging for new homeschoolers.  

What’s Included 

As mentioned previously, My Father’s World offers a number of ready homeschool packages for teaching Preschool through High School. 

The contents of these packages, as might be expected, can vary quite a bit depending on their intended grade but in general they tend to include a wide variety of teaching materials that cover certain core subjects – Bible, History,  Art, Music, Reading and Writing and so on, as well as essential add ons in Math, Spelling, Grammar, Writing from grade 2 and Science from grade 6.

As with other ready curriculum solutions, the materials offered by My Father’s World are highly curated, being picked for their educational value, ease of use and faith-friendly content. 

In general, My Father’s World can make things a lot more convenient for homeschooling families as each package does provide, if not a complete curriculum per se, the vast majority of what they will need for a year’s learning so parents don’t have to rush out to find and buy a ton of different resources for each child.

The company also tends to include a teacher’s manual for each grade that, as we will discuss below, can serve to help parents more easily and more effectively use the materials to teach. 

Parents should be aware, however, that these packages can be quite expansive and, with various books, teaching guides, lesson plans, student sheets, hands-on learning items and more, there can be a lot to unpack, store, organize and keep track of throughout the year. 

Pre-K-8 

Teacher’s Manual

For courses up to about the high school level, where students are naturally expected to take a more active role in their own education, each curriculum package in My Father’s World comes with its own Teacher’s Manual. 

Generally speaking, these are black and white spiral bound books that contain everything parents need to organize and use the various multidisciplinary books and resources that each package contains. 

picture of my father's world teacher's manual book

They include, for example, memory verses, tips for teaching, suggested schedules and pacing information, instructions for introducing and using the program’s recommended add-on resources (such as spelling or handwriting materials), materials lists, weekly lesson plans, various activities, demonstrations and exercises, important facts and concept reviews, questions for parent-student discussion and more.  

In addition, towards the back of each Teacher’s Manual is a helpful appendix where parents can find additional optional activities, Book Basket lists, occasional illustrations and diagrams, suggested books for independent reading (with included summaries) and more.  

Overall, we believe My Father’s World’s Teacher’s Manuals to be pretty well organized, laid out and easy to follow, with a good number of tips, suggestions and explanations of methodologies located at the beginning of each book that we feel can be helpful for those new to homeschooling.  

While parents will have to gather materials for lessons, in general the program doesn’t really require a whole lot of prep for each lesson. 

My Father’s World teacher’s manuals also tend to be moderately scripted, providing a good deal of clear, step by step lesson instructions but stop short of giving a specific dialogue for parents to follow during each lesson.  

picture of lesson from my father's world teacher's manual

As a result, we feel that the programs strike a good balance between ease of use and allowing parents to add their own spin on things and interact with their child more naturally. 

That said, the lack of a directive, word-for-word script can make things a little more challenging for those new to homeschool teaching, as they may have to spend some time figuring out how they want to introduce concepts or topics to their students. 

Student Sheets

In addition to a Teacher’s Manual, each package of My Father’s World also includes a variety of student activity sheets.

These sheets are illustrated, colorful and contain a wide variety of different activities to reinforce a student’s lessons and learning.

Depending on the grade, they may include things like memory verses and bible study activities, timelines, composition work, short readings, reproductions of historical documents, mapwork, drawing exercises, coloring book work, cut outs, notes for experiment and activity results and much more. 

With different activities for each lesson, My Father’s World tends to keep things interesting for students, engaging different skill sets and cognitive pathways and generally preventing them from becoming bored or lessons from becoming too stale.

They also tend not to be overly long and are, on the whole, pretty straightforward and intuitive to fill out. 

This can make lessons a lot less intimidating and/or frustrating for students, even in subjects that they may have a hard time in, such as History or Science.

It is important to note, however, that there can be quite a few sheets included in each package, which means that parents will have to organize and store them in a binder to prevent them from getting lost or destroyed. 

It is also important to note that the specific instructions, background information and notes for these activities are located in the Teacher’s Manual, which in turn means that My Father’s World can’t easily be used as a self-study program and does need a fair amount of parental involvement and oversight. 

Books, Resource Books and Textbooks

As we will discuss a little later on, My Father’s World favors a literature-based approach to learning and often includes a good deal of reading materials in the form of read alouds, various resource books (such as atlases, Usborne/DK products, visual encyclopedias and more), inspiring books, craft activity books, flashcards, phonics readers, books for spiritual growth and more. 

Some examples of notable titles included in the packages include:

PackageBookSubject
God’s Creation from A to ZFor The Children’s SakeHomeschooling resource
Amazing Animal AlphabetReading
A Tree Is NiceLiterature
God’s Amazing WorldScience
Learning God’s StoryBible ReaderBible Studies
Usborne Science With WaterScience
Usborne Science With PlantsScience
Eric Carle’s Animals AnimalsLiterature/Science
Honey for a Child’s HeartHomeschooling resource
Takes from Cherry LaneSpiritual growth
Adventures in U.S. History Discoverer’s Bible for Young ReadersBible Study
Usborne First Encyclopedia of ScienceScience
Usborne Science with Air/in theKitchenScience
The Story of the U.SHistory
American Pioneers and PatriotsHistory
Farmer BoyHistory/Literature
In Grandma’s AtticHistory/Literature
The Courage of Sarah NobleHistory/Literature
Exploring Countries and CulturesChildren’s Atlas of God’s WorldGeography
Geography from A to ZGeography
Usborne Living World EncyclopediaScience
God Speaks NumanggangCultural studies/Spiritual development
Hero TalesSpiritual development
Properties of EcosystemsScience
Usborne The Great Animal SearchScience
BruchkoCultural studies/Spiritual development
The Narrow Road Cultural studies/Spiritual development
Creation to the Greeks Usborne Encyclopedia: World HistoryHistory
Berean Builders’ Science in History (read our review)Science
DK Illustrated Family BibleBible Studies
Streams of CivilizationHistory
Make It Work! Ancient EgyptHistory
The Children’s HomerLiterature
The Tanglewoods’ SecretSpiritual Growth/Literature
Dinosaurs of EdenLiterature/Science
Rome to the ReformationThe Story of the World Vol 2History
Foster’s Augustus Caesar’s WorldHistory
Usborne First Encyclopedia of the Human BodyScience
Apologia Exploring Creation with AstronomyScience
The Wonderful Way Babies are MadeScience
Dangerous JourneyLiterature/Spiritual Growth
Galen and the Gateway to MedicineHistory
Exploration to 1850 The Story of the World Vol 3History
Almost HomeLiterature/Spiritual Growth
Building a City On a Hill
History
Exploring Creation with BotanyScience
Guide to God’s AnimalsScience
Then Sings My SoulSpiritual Growth
George Washington’s WorldHistory
1850 to Modern Times Story of the World Vol 4History
Smithsonian American History – a visual encyclopediaHistory
Exploring Creation with Chemistry and PhysicsScience
Courage To RunHistory
A Young Person’s Guide to Knowing GodSpiritual Growth
Tales of PersiaHistory/Spiritual Growth

By and large, My Father’s World’s selection of resources and titles are quite good and can be quite engaging for students, particularly when it comes to the always high quality and often visually stunning Usborne and DK visual guides and encyclopedias or gripping titles such as The Narrow Road or Courage to Run. 

Interestingly, My Father’s World includes quite a few resources that we have previously reviewed and found to be of excellent value (and whose in-depth reviews users can read more about), such as Berean Builders and The Story of the World history series.

Math (Add-on from Grade 2)

To Grade 1, My Father’s World integrates and weaves math lessons into its lessons, using activities, readings and exercises to teach kids concepts rather than a separate, specific text. 

Interestingly, the packages often also include math manipulatives, such as clocks, pattern blocks, number boards and so on, which is kind of cool and is something we always like to see in a math program.

These manipulatives and their related hands-on activities can help make math lessons more engaging and interactive, as well as help younger students grasp abstract concepts, something they tend to struggle with before the age of 12 or so

From Grade 2 on, however, My Father’s World does not include math in its packages and requires parents to pick up a separate math program as an add on (i.e. as a separate purchase). 

The company itself strongly favors and refers to Dimensions Math from Singapore Math, using this curriculum to about grade 6. 

As we’ve noted in our review of Singapore Math, Dimensions is a highly respected and high quality math curriculum that we feel makes an excellent choice.

It encourages parents and students to explore and understand math in a more conceptual manner.

This involves spending time studying the why behind math concepts (what math concepts really are, why certain functions work, why we use certain approaches, and so on), rather than just learning how to solve problems quickly and relying on rote memorization.

It also tends to teach students different strategies and approaches to solving problems, something that can help students become more comfortable when faced with challenging or unusual problem sets.

screenshot of dimensions math approach to teaching showing emphasis on strategy and understanding

It also takes a mastery approach, which allows students to spend time working on one concept until they understand it deeply. 

More than that, Dimensions makes use of the Singapore CPA approach, which can help younger students more deeply and thoroughly understand what they are doing and why by having them first interact with math concepts in a hands-on way before gradually moving to visual representations and finally equations and written notation. 

example of visual approach found in singapore math dimensions

With My Father’s World, students and parents continue with Dimensions until about grade 7 when they shift to Saxon Math. 

We found this to be a bit of an unusual choice overall, as Saxon tends to be a pretty different math program compared to Dimensions.

As we noted in our review of Saxon, Saxon math is a traditional procedural math program that tends to emphasize the development of math fluency, i.e. the ability to solve math programs quickly and accurately, rather than spending a lot of time explaining the why of things.

example of saxon math pre-algebra exaplaining remainders

Rather than spending a lot of time delving into the why of math, the program tends to have students do more straightforward, computational math drills and problem sets to hone their abilities and skill. 

picture of saxon math practice problems

It’s also a spiral curriculum, which means it introduces concepts a little at a time and returns to them in greater and greater depth throughout a student’s education. 

Some parents may wish to continue to continue with a mastery/conceptual program for at least these middle school years and may find this transition to a different approach to be a bit odd. 

With that said, it should be noted that Saxon Math is also a highly recognized and extremely capable math program that can and does produce very strong math students. 

In some ways, its greater focus on developing speed and accuracy through drill and practice can be extremely beneficial to students entering middle and high school, as they will tend to face more standardized, college prep tests. 

Further, the program tends to offer strong pre/Algebra I/II, Geometry and Trigonometry/Pre-Calculus courses, explaining these courses in a notably clear and straightforward manner. 

Ultimately, we feel that, while it would be nice to have a little more choice in the matter as is done with Bookshark where parents can select from Math U See, RightStart, Saxon and Singapore, the choice to use Saxon Math for upper years is a solid one that should benefit most homeschooling students (particularly those who favor a more traditional approach to math learning) in the long run. 

Literature Arts  (Some add ons from Grade 2) 

Much like with Math, My Father’s World also integrates essential language arts learning into its learning to about Grade 1, blending phonics, letter recognition, vocabulary and beginning reading/comprehension into its lessons pretty tightly. 

From Grade 2, the program does shift a little bit and tends to work various language arts activities into the study of history, science, Bible studies and more through the use of read alouds, independent reading exercises, narration/copywork/dictation/memory work exercises, focused composition exercises and so on. 

My Father’s World also supplements these in-lesson activities with resources for teaching spelling, handwriting, grammar, mechanics, oral language skills and more through the use of various  add-on supplements. 

As with Math, parents can use their own programs to help hone language arts skills, but My Father’s World does offer/recommend certain programs, such as Language Lessons/Writing Skills for Today, Spelling Power, Applications of Grammar, Zaner-Bloser Handwriting, and more, that we have found to be pretty solid on the whole (as can be seen in our reviews). 

Unfortunately, these skill-building are sold separately from the main program, which can result in an extra cost for parents (although to be totally fair programs such as Zaner-Bloser and Spelling Power are, helpfully, not that expensive). 

Science (Add ons from 7th grade)

Unlike Math and Language Arts, My Father’s World tends to include Science along History and Bible Studies to about Grade 7. 

As can be seen in our sample chart of books and resources, the program tends to include a good deal of highly visual, pretty thorough and faith-friendly science educational texts, including various titles produced by Usborne, Apologia, DK, the Smithsonian and more, as well as readers and books (such as Dinosaurs of Eden, Guide to God’s Animals, the Body Book and more)  that can help students dive into certain concepts in a more engaging manner.

 

At the same time, the Teacher’s Manual often has experiments and activities (that often use common household materials) to help demonstrate and formalize the learning a bit more. 

Interestingly, some of the company’s packages come with ready science kits that can help students get hands on with their science in a more convenient manner, such as with a Soda Bottle Feeder or magnet games, and many others offer various kids (such as ant farms, butterfly gardens and more) as optional enrichment items.

From Grade 7, My Father’s World tends to use Dr. Jay Wile’s Berean Builders series of science books (Science in the Atomic Age and Discovering Design with Earth Science).

As we noted in our in-depth review of the Berean Builder’s series, these books offer students an in-depth look at scientific concepts from a strongly Christian point of view that never really shies away from tackling difficult questions.

Further, the books are also quite activity rich, bringing theory to life through a wide variety of cool hands-on demonstrations and activities included in each chapter, which is always fun and often very helpful in getting students interested in the subject matter. 

picture of experiment instructions found in berean builders science in the atomic age textbook

Music and Art

Finally, My Father’s World offers parents and students a good variety of music and art programs to supplement the usual core K-8 subjects.

Aside from the various hands-on projects and arts and crafts work that are included in the programs History, Science and Language Arts lessons, the program also includes various music appreciation lessons. 

These mainly skew towards more classic music and, throughout the years, allow students to study the music and even lives of Bach, Handel, Mozart, Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky and more. 

Towards the later years of the history-oriented programs, students can also study the music of more modern and influential American composers, such as Gershwin and John Philip Sousa. 

By and large, although the music tends to lean towards more traditional and may not include every family’s favorite artists, the inclusion of music and art in each program alongside the typical core subjects does make My Father’s World a bit more of a well-rounded program compared to some others that we’ve seen. 

High School

My Father’s World continues into High School level learning with a variety of year-long, strongly faith-based programs that combine a strong core of history with English, Government, Economics, Geography, Bible Study and Literature. 

These are: 

  1. Ancient History and Literature
  2. World History and Literature
  3. U.S. History to 1877
  4. U.S. History 1877 to Present

As with many of the K-8 courses, the company requires a few add-ons in the way of Math and Science, and offers students the ability to study a variety of rather interesting electives, such as in Logic, Personal Finance, SAT/ACT/CLEP prep, Health Science, Economics and more. 

Student Lesson Plans

As might be expected of homeschooling programs aimed at high school students, My Father’s World expects students to be a bit more independent.

Consequently, instead of a Teacher’s Manual and separate student resources, the High School programs tend to provide students with daily lesson plans that are directly written to them, rather than to a parent or teacher. 

These lesson plans generally contain everything a student needs to coordinate their learning and the use of each level’s resources over the course of a year.

They include, for example: 

  • An overview of course and subject expectations
  • Resource guide
  • College requirements and suggestions for learning
  • Suggested schedules and pacing information
  • Scripture and bible verses
  • Daily readings and assignments
  • Writing assignments 
  • Vocabulary quizzes
  • Evaluation guides and rubrics
  • And more

By and large, the lesson plans are pretty clear, easy to read and go through and generally do a good job at laying out exactly what a student is expected to accomplish during a lesson, background information, related activities and/or exercises and the general expectations for learning. 

This does, of course, mean that students do need to have the ability and discipline to study on their own, at least more so than they would at the Middle School level.  

This is not to say that My Father’s World is a completely self-study program. 

While parents are able to step back into more of an administrative role (grading/evaluation, quiz and test administration, weekly oversight and so on), parents are encouraged to do weekly reviews and engage with or even learn alongside students as the lesson plans contain a number of interested discussions, questions, debates, brainstorming (particularly when it comes to the great deal of writing that these levels involve), Bible study and more. 

One thing busier homeschooling parents may want to note is that My Father’s World offers optional DECLARE coaching for its high school courses. 

This is a learning and accountability program that has students meet online with a personal coach once every two weeks to go over what they are learning, track any goals the student may have set for themselves, set new goals, make sure that assignments are on track and so on. 

It also has the coach meet online with parents about once every 3 months to go over student goal achievement and general learning, as well as brainstorm and troubleshoot any problems that might arise. 

Although parents are still required to evaluate student work and grade them, it can add a bit of support for students who aren’t quite as comfortable working on their own and can take a little bit of the load off of parents, which can be quite welcome. 

This coaching does come at a price, however, generally costing a couple hundred dollars on top of the price of each individual package, which is something that more budget-minded homeschoolers might want to be aware of. 

Math

As with the K-8 levels, at the High School level students using My Father’s World make use of a separate math program that parents pick up separately. 

Continuing on from grade 8, the program leans on Saxon Math packages for Algebra I through Pre-Calculus. 

As we’ve discussed previously, Saxon Math offers a more traditional, straightforward and practice-heavy approach to these subjects that should prepare students pretty well for SAT/ACT/CLEP testing.

As My Father’s World expects students to be a bit more independent at this level of study, its Saxon courses are offered along with DIVE CDs. 

These are video-based lessons that are designed to go along with each Saxon course, helping explain concepts and providing on-screen step-by-step demonstrations that make it easier for students to understand what they are reading in their student textbooks.

Although parents will still need to go over and evaluate student work, and while the videos themselves aren’t always the most exciting and fast-paced, they can ultimately help students learn more advanced concepts in math on their own, which is certainly good for busy parents and those that are uncertain about their own math skills.

Interestingly, DIVE also has a distinct Christian worldview, frequently making use of faith-themed examples and occasionally discussing Christian concepts, which is kind of interesting for a math program and allows it to mesh with My Father’s World’s overall Bible-based worldview pretty well, in our opinion. 

Science

For Science, My Father’s World recommends that students at the High School level courses go with Berean Builders’ Discovering Design series, notably with their Biology and Chemistry, and Apologia’s Physics and Advanced Biology courses in grade 12. 

In general, both these recommended courses offer clear, approachably written and in-depth examinations of their respective science subjects, exploring topics in science with a good deal of rigor.

screenshot of lesson in apologia advanced biology offered by my father's world

At the High School level, students are exposed to a variety of interesting topics, which both courses tackle head on. 

In general, while both programs favor a Young Earth/Creationist point of view, neither program shies away from challenging topics (such as evolution or the fossil record), using them as an opportunity to strengthen a student’s faith with strong refutations and logical arguments supporting a Biblical worldview.

picture of berean builders text in my father's world approaching evolution from christian point of view

At these upper grades, students are also expected to complete a number of interesting labs using microscopes and chemistry kits and, of course, learn to write up their results in an organized and systematic manner, giving both programs a strong hands-on and experiential component to go along with their illustrated texts. 

Parents should note that, as with many other homeschool science programs, while these packages include a textbook, test manual and answer guide, they don’t necessarily come with all the equipment and materials that students may need for their experiments (such as dissection kits, microscopes, beakers and more).

Consequently, parents may still need to do a little shopping at the beginning of the year. 

Optional Electives

Finally, My Father’s World encourages high school students to take on a number of electives throughout their studies and offers a good selection of fairly interesting packages to accommodate this. 

These include courses in Logic, Economics, Personal Finance, Health Science and even standardized test prep (SAT/ACT/CLEP), all of which can be pretty useful for homeschooling students and can serve to broaden a student’s worldview. 

As with My Father’s World’s other resources, these electives tend to favor more casual, commonsense and approachably written guides and books, rather than standard (and often boring) textbooks that most other curriculum solutions provide for these kinds of courses.

They also, in line with My Father’s World’s Christian outlook, tend to include resources to help connect the subject matter to Christian values, which we feel many homeschools will appreciate particularly when it comes to topics such as money, economics and finance. 

Certain packages also come with custom lesson plans devised by My Father’s World, which can go a long way in helping guide students through each course, providing them with scheduling and pacing help, relevant discussion questions and more. 

At time of writing, My Father’s World includes titles such as:

SubjectBooks
EconomicsOikonomia Economics For Life
Common Sense Economics
Money, Greed and God
Personal FinanceMoney Matters for Teens
Money, Possessions and Eternity
My Father’s World Lesson Plans
Health ScienceTotal Health: Choices For A Winning Lifestyle
My Father’s World Lesson Plans
Introduction to LogicThe Fallacy Detective (which we’ve reviewed here)
The Thinking Toolbox

Logic  – Fallacy Detective and thinking toolbox

My Father’s World Approach To Teaching

Blended Philosophy and Approach 

My Father’s World borrows methods for teaching from a few homeschooling approaches, most notably from Charlotte Mason, but also from Classical and even Unit studies.

At various times throughout the courses, students might engage in some Charlotte Mason exercises such as:

  • Copywork, narration and dictation
  • Notebooking
  • Memory Work, particularly with Scripture
  • Read and use living books as part of their learning
  • Do some arts and crafts
  • Or even go on a nature study
picture showing nature walk and other charlotte mason activities in my father's world teacher's manual

In addition, much like a traditional Classical model for education, My Father’s World’s pre-K-12 education is split across three stages of learning, Grammar, Logic and Rhetoric. 

Although these are referred to as Discover, Investigate and Declare, rather than using the traditional titles of the Classical trivium the overall idea is the same, with the program first establishing the foundations of learning, then teaching students to analyze and make sense of facts and, finally, teaching them to synthesize their learning and logically derive conclusions from their studies.

More than just the trivium, My Father’s World also strongly emphasizes the study of history, has students read a number of classical texts and Latin/Greek roots of language and history and, in later years, encourages students to formally study logic and philosophy.

Finally many, although not all, of the programs in My Father’s World break their lessons and subjects down into themes and units, which often involve multidisciplinary study such as learning about a particular point in history, the music and art involved, the literature created, the science discovered and so on, 

As with other Unit studies approaches, this can be a lot of fun to go through and is a somewhat intuitive way of organizing studies. 

It can also give students a more holistic, interdisciplinary look at their learning and the world in general, which is always nice to see. 

One thing to note is that, while this does blended approach make My Father’s World pretty comprehensive, activity rich and interesting as a curriculum provider and while most families will enjoy the variety of its organization and activities, it may not be the best option for “purists” of any of these approaches, such as those seeking a more traditional and distinct Charlotte Mason or Classical homeschooling approach.

Literature-based learning

My Father’s World is also a strong believer in literature-based learning. 

This means that in addition to its lesson plans and formal texts, the company’s curriculum solutions also include a large number of high quality encyclopedias, read alouds, readers and books to help students learn more about the subjects at hand, be that in History, Spiritual Development, Geography, Cultural Studies, Language Arts Or Science. 

More than that, the program makes independent reading a highly encouraged and even key part of learning, with a wide number of suggested titles in its Book Basket and independent reading lists located at the back of each parent guide or student lesson plan.

In keeping with its Charlotte Mason influence, My Father’s World also includes quite a few living books in its selection.

Living books, as we’ve discussed in another article, are books written about a subject by experts or enthusiasts and that are written in an engaging way that will spark a student’s passion or interest in the topic.

As such, these books are designed to get students to want to learn more on their own and also manage to avoid having a lot of “twaddle”, i.e. less than useful or inappropriate writing or information. 

In this way, My Father’s World not only helps students develop better reading habits and literacy, but also allows students to explore concepts outside of traditional textbooks and educational materials.

This in turn can help make learning more accessible, engaging and even entertaining for students, especially when the books have particularly gripping or fascinating storylines or writing styles.

On the downside, while each package does come with quite a few books that are referenced and used during lessons, parents will still have to source many of the titles in the Book Basket and independent reading lists.

This can involve some time, money (if the books are purchased and not borrowed from a library) and effort and, with so many books included in each level, can therefore involve quite a bit of planning and organization on the part of parents to keep things from getting lost during the year.

Strong Biblical Worldview

My Father’s World is a strongly Christian homeschool curriculum provider and doesn’t content itself by simply quoting scripture here and there. 

Bible study takes a prominent place in each of the program’s levels, with students spending a good deal of time studying the Bible, analyzing, discussing and memorizing scripture and reading faith-inspired books as part of their read alouds, ELA coursework and independent reading, from God’s Ten Good Rules in Pre-K to books like Twice Freed in later years through to titles such as A Missionary Life for Burma in later High School.

Additionally, the company has incorporated specific character and moral studies into most levels, with students spending time developing their spiritual understanding of God and self through well-known, positive and thought-provoking titles such as Cherry Lane, Thinking Like A Christian, The Purpose Driven Life, Practicing His Presence and more. 

There are also a good number of interesting activities and exercises that can help connect students to elements of Christianity, both historical and contemporary, such as celebrating ancient Biblical holidays through their feasts, building a paper Temple or even learning the Days of Creation in Hebrew.  

Further, the company has curated many of its core curricula offerings to suit faith-based families, for instance by including resources from Apologia and Berean Builders, which offer a strong and thorough, yet distinctly Christian-friendly and Bible-based, take on history…even when it comes to more challenging subjects.

In fact, due to the relative popularity of the program, My Father’s World actually includes some revised versions of popular history and science resource books, such as Usborne’s Living World Encyclopedia or DK’s History of the World, that either remove or edit topics that refer to Old Earth and Evolutionary theory while still keeping their highly engaging, informative and often visually stunning content. 

picture of science encyclopedia included in my father's world showing illustrations and colorful approach

This stands in contrast to other solidly Christian programs that are forced to simply exclude these often fascinating and quite helpful titles. 

This very strongly Christian approach to learning can make My Father’s World an ideal choice for strongly Christian homeschools, as it tends to provide both a solid, faith-friendly core education and very in-depth spiritual development. 

On the other hand, it does mean that it may not be the best choice for homeschoolers looking for a more neutral approach, and obviously not a great choice for secular homeschools, who may want to take a look at providers such as Bookshark, Torchlight or Moving Beyond the Page, respectively.

Multisensory Learning

In general, My Father’s World includes a number of multisensory learning options at each of its levels. 

The company’s lesson plans include a wide number of hands-on activity suggestions, as do many of its resources and core curricula (such as Berean Builders, Dimensions Math, Notgrass History and so on), that have students do arts and crafts, engage in various projects, use manipulatives, listen to narrations or read alouds, conduct interesting experiments, go outside or even bake or cook various treats as they learn. 

As a result, in addition to the usual reading and writing, students have a great opportunity for auditory, tactile and kinesthetic learning, which in turn can get students more active, interested and engaged in their learning. 

It can make My Father’s World a better fit for students with different learning preferences, which can make learning feel more personable and enjoyable. 

More than that, the use of multisensory activities has been shown to engage different cognitive pathways and to generally improve the encoding, recall and retention of information, which in turn can lead to better educational outcomes in the long run. 

The only real downside is that the inclusion of a greater number of activities, particularly hands-on ones, can require a little more time and effort from students and parents, particularly when it comes to materials gathering and set up, as well as any excited discussions that might be had afterwards…something that homeschools with packed schedules might want to keep in mind.

The Family Learning Cycle

For families with multiple children, My Father’s World offers the ability to allow students of different ages to study together (from about the 3rd to the 9th grade) with what it calls The Family Learning cycle, kind of like a one room schoolhouse. 

With the exception of math, language arts and science (for 7th and 8th graders, at least), as directed by the program’s teaching material, students largely use the same resources and are able to study at the same.

Parents use the teacher’s guide to differentiate each student’s readings, depth of learning and activities as needed, as well as their schedule of learning (allowing the youngest students to stop while older students continue to learn, for example)

In this way, students of different ages can learn together and at the same time from a single curriculum, which can save parents significant time and money and prevent wear and tear on both the course material and parents themselves, which is kind of cool. 

How It Works

My Father’s World offers convenient full (or almost full) curriculum packages and is, on the whole, a pretty straightforward program.

For the most part, each package contains everything parents and students need to learn a year’s worth of History, Bible Study/Character, English Literature, Composition and more, including detailed lesson plans, worksheets and associated readings and literature. 

As mentioned, the levels are divided up into a classical trivium of sorts (Discover, Investigate, Declare), and from about grade 2 each level is roughly arranged around an overall theme in history, which in turn influences many of the activities and choice of literature, such as:

  • Adventures in US History
  • Exploring Countries and Cultures
  • Creation to the Greeks
  • Rome to the Reformation
  • Exploration to 1850
  • 1850 to Modern Times
  • Ancient History and Literature
  • World History and Literature
  • US History to 1877
  • US History 1877 to Present

Also from about grades 2 and on, the company requires parents to pick up add-on curricula in Math and Science created by pretty respected third party companies (notably Singapore Math, Saxon Math and Berean Builders).

With Math in particular, parents new to the program are encouraged to have their student take one of the company’s placement tests, which will allow them to study at their individual skill level, rather than at any generic grade level. 

Until the High School level, My Father’s World is largely a teacher-led program, with parents working from a Teacher’s Manual containing detailed lesson plans, activities, scripture for memory work and Bible study exercises, reading and writing assignments, discussion questions, vocabulary quizzes, materials/resource use information and more. 

Students, meanwhile, follow along during lessons and complete exercises and activities in their student sheets, as well as complete readings as directed by their parents. 

As we’ve discussed, from grade 9 students are expected to be able to work more independently, with lessons in each subject directed specifically towards them and parents stepping back into more of an administrative and guidance role, participating in discussions, doing grading and evaluation, overseeing pacing and generally making sure the work gets done. 

Parents of students who need a bit more structure or who need a bit more help overseeing things can also subscribe to an online coaching program, which will give students access (for a fee) to bi-weekly meetings with an individual coach who will help oversee their work, help them set and track goals and generally help parents keep abreast of their student’s progress. 

Pros and Cons

Pros

Convenient, full year curriculum packages

My Father’s World offers ready-made packages and add-ons that contain pretty much everything a parent and student will need to learn over the course of a year, including lesson plans, textbooks, great literature, and even hands-on/multisensory resources.  

Consequently, the company’s offerings can be very convenient and useful for parents who don’t have the time, ability or even desire to buy, store and organize the materials for multiple subjects on their own. 

Easy to teach students of different ages 

Through its Family Learning Cycle, My Father’s World allows larger families with children of different ages to stay together and learn using the same materials and resources while still providing all the critical guidance and resources needed to differentiate and deepen learning based on age and skill. 

Lots of interesting, high quality literature

Each level of My Father’s World offers parents a number of living books, resources and suggested titles that can help bring learning to life and make learning a lot more interesting compared to the usual assortment of stuffy textbooks. 

Strong Math and Science options

Using recommended resources from Singapore Math, Saxon, Apologia and Berean Builders, My Father’s World has curated a selection of highly effective and solid curricula for math and science that can help ensure students get the best faith-friendly education possible. 

Very strong Christian values promoted throughout

My Father’s World doesn’t content itself with simply sprinkling some passages of scripture into its teaching manuals. 

Rather, Christian thought, morality and a Biblical worldview are deeply ingrained into its materials, with Bible study being a key component at each level and the company directly providing or recommending resources that balance their subject matter with strong Christian values. 

Lessons are well-outlined and clear, pretty easy to teach

In general, My Father’s World teacher’s manuals and, later, individual lesson plans are well laid out, well-written and easy to follow, allowing parents and students to navigate through each year’s resources and materials without issue. 

Lots of multisensory and hands-on activities

Through its teaching manuals, lesson plans, student sheets and selection of subject-specific curricula and resources, My Father’s World offers parents and students a wide range of hands-on learning opportunities and multisensory activities that can keep lessons highly engaging, interactive and of help to students with different learning preferences. 

More affordable than many other full curriculum solutions out there

With most packages costing around $5-600 (minus any add-ons), My Father’s World is actually a little more affordable than some other all-in-one curriculum packages out there such as Bookshark or Moving Beyond the Page. 

Cons

Not quite as customizable or modular as some others

Unlike some other solutions we’ve seen, My Father’s World doesn’t readily offer parents a lot of choice when it comes to customizing subject options, particularly when it comes to Math. 

Can be a little parent intensive at times, particularly at the K-8 level

My Father’s World does require a good deal of parental involvement at the K-8 level during lessons (and even a fair amount at the High School level), which can be an issue for some really busy homeschooling parents. 

Who Is My Father’s World Ideal For?

Families looking for a solid, Christian homeschool package for pre-K-12

With its strong emphasis on Bible study, faith and character development and assortment of curated curricular solutions, My Father’s World can be an ideal solution for Christian families looking for high quality homeschooling packages that balance educational rigor with a faith-based outlook. 

New homeschoolers and those who don’t have the time to build a full year’s plan

Offering more or less complete packages, My Father’s World can save busy parents a lot of time and effort when it comes to assembling a complete year’s learning. 

Fans of literature-based learning

Each level of My Father’s World contains a number of high quality thematic readings, as well as extensive recommended book lists, that integrate with lessons.

This can really help students connect to the subject matter and deepen learning while simultaneously helping them hone their literacy skills. 

Those who enjoy multisensory lessons

My Father’s World offers a number of hands-on learning resources and integrates many different activities into its lessons, including listening exercises, arts and crafts, experiments, demonstrations and more.  

As a result, each level as a whole can be considered highly multisensory, which can both help with long term information retention and help students with different learning preferences connect to their studies. 

Those looking for a Christian program with a strong Math and Science component

My Father’s World tends to recommend parents use Dimensions Math, Saxon Math, Apologia and Berean Builders as key parts of its Math and Science components, all of which are highly respected and strong programs in their respective subject matters.

Those looking for a somewhat more affordable option than other all-in-one packages out there

With many other all-in-one curriculum solutions costing over $1000 per year, it is somewhat refreshing to see a program whose core costs about half that but still manages to offer a good deal of high quality resources and learning components. 

Who Is It Not Ideal For?

Secular homeschools and those looking for a neutral approach to learning

My Father’s World makes no secret about being a Christian homeschooling solution and the Christian faith and its morals and values play a key role in both the company’s lessons and its choice of curricula and readings.

Those looking for a ton of choice in learning materials

While parents have some choice in add-on materials, in general My Father’s World doesn’t provide families with quite as much in the way of choice when it comes to selecting which Math or Science curricula to use as some others. 

Those looking for a compact, minimal homeschooling solution

Generally speaking, each package of My Father’s World tends to come with a good deal of resources, texts and books for homeschooling families to enjoy.

In addition, the company offers a wide number of recommended books for students to check out and its hands-on activities and exercises can require the use of a fair amount of household materials, which can in turn necessitate occasional trips to the store. 

While this can provide a very rich learning experience overall, in the end it can be a lot for some parents to organize, store and keep track of throughout the year. 

Price

Note: Prices correct as of writing, all prices in USD

While the actual price per package can vary quite a bit between grade level packages, being dependent on the type and quantity of books and resources contained in each, broadly speaking full year packages for My Father’s World range from about $400 to about $960, with most grades costing somewhere between $500 to $600. 

In addition to these packages, in certain grades parents will have to pick up add-on packages for Math, Science and Language arts, which can cost an additional $1-300 per student per subject (depending on the resource and grade level). 

With all that said, My Father’s World frequently runs a variety of discounts and special offers on its curriculum packages, so it is always worth checking for the company’s latest prices.

Or

Is It Worth The Price?

As with other all-in-one curriculum solutions, My Father’s World can provide a lot of value to the right homeschooling families. 

The company offers fairly comprehensive ready-to-teach curriculum-in-a-box solutions, which can save homeschooling parents quite a bit of time and effort.

These curricular solutions contain easy to read and use lesson plans that not only contain a good deal of teaching and scheduling suggestions and guidance, but also contain a wide variety of hands-on and multisensory activities and exercises that can really help bring a student’s studies to life. 

Further, each level in the program contains a highly curated selection of high quality teaching materials and literature, with each year containing strong individual curricula and resources (Story of the World, faith-friendly revised titles from Usborne and DK, Singapore Math, Berean Builders, Spelling Power and more), as well as a diverse selection of interesting living books that can help students engage with the material a little better. 

Finally, My Father’s World manages to strike an ideal balance between a thorough education and providing exceptionally strong Christian values-based learning, going far beyond the simple inclusion of scripture and integrating Bible study and Christian thought into its lessons, readings and coursework to a far greater depth than most other programs we’ve seen. 

Bottom Line

Homeschooling can be challenging enough for some parents without the need to source, purchase and organize a ton of learning materials each year. 

With its packages of structured, faith-friendly, literature-based, multisensory and curated learning material from well-known and respected educational providers, My Father’s World can offer an easy to use and highly convenient solution for Christian homeschools. 

Photo of Jennifer Keenes, a writer for the smarter learning guide

Jennifer Keenes is a writer and a new mom living in Florida. She studied education and, prior to becoming a freelance writer, worked as a substitute teacher at the elementary and middle school level. She is a big fan of the beach, working out and homeschooling her two daughters.

Jennifer