Review of Mother of Divine Grace: An Update

When I started this blog, we were just getting into Mother of Divine Grace. I continue to get emails from readers asking this or that about the program. 

You may find it helpful to browse the archives if you too are reseaching this homeschooling program:

• Mother of Divine Grace Review: Why We Still Love It
• Streamlining a Box Curriculum for Multiple Ages
• Working the MODG Syllabus
• Student Binder: Helpful Homeschool Habit
• Mother of Divine Grace Update

Do we still use Mother of Divine Grace?

I’ve mentioned in several posts that we haven’t followed Mother of Divine Grace as closely the last 8 months, but I wanted to make it more official with a post detailing why we are again forging our own homeschool path.

I also want to share why I still think MODG is a great option for Catholic homeschoolers. 

I’ll gladly field your questions about the MODG program as best I can, but feel that I need to be very upfront in our current use of the program.

Why we dove into Mother of Divine Grace

READ MORE: Mother of Divine Grace: Why we Chose It

MODG became a part of our homeschooling adventure in the middle of Lowell’s 3rd grade year. 

We are not unschoolers by any stretch of the imagination, but I like to mainly focus on the 4 R’s before 3rd grade (Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic, and Religion) allowing the children to learn the other subjects through reading and exploration. 

When Lowell hit 3rd grade, I knew we were ready for more of an academic challenge, but I wasn’t quite sure how to get from where we were to where we wanted to be.

Husband is a Seton Homeschool grad, but neither of us felt comfortable making the jump to Seton for a variety of reasons. 

Then we considered MODG. We already did poetry memory work, the Baltimore Catechism, great literature, and Saxon Math, so the changes were not insurmountable.

Did we ever follow MODG exactly?

Again, complete honesty here, we did not follow the MODG syllabus 100%.  But, to me, that is the beauty of homeschooling! 

I wanted to stay as close to the MODG syllabus as possible while still maintaining our freedom as homeschoolers to do what worked for our family even if that deviated from the program as written. 

I don’t know of any one who homeschools “by the book,” even among those who enroll in accredited homeschool programs.

Things we immediately changed using MODG:

1. Lowell was rather adept at reading maps (he did this for fun in his spare time as he traced historical railroad maps-ha!), so we didn’t spend our time on the map study skills.
2. In an attempt to follow the program as closely as possible, I purchased the Abeka science workbook suggested by MODG the first year.  Previously, I had leaned toward an unschooling approach toward elementary science, using just living books and nature study to increase my children interest in the subject.  I was sorrily disappointed in the workbook.  It was dry and didn’t include anything that couldn’t be learned through reading well-chosen books.  So we ended up dropping that too.  (By the way, I have a BS in Biology, and I am 100% comfortable delaying formal science study until 8th or 9th grade.)
3. We also combined the art and music study into our family learning time.  There was no way I was going to be teaching each of my children different art pieces, artists, and composers. (You can read how we did that here.)

Why MODG fell apart for us:

We used MODG faithfully for Lowell’s 3rd grade and then for the first semester of 4th grade.  There were so many things I liked about the program (which I detail below), but slowly found ourselves using less and less of the suggested curriculum until I decided we could no longer officially call ourselves a Mother of Divine Grace family.

In addition to the 3 listed above, we ended up reworking the following subjects as well:

 History

The texts that Mother of Divine Grace suggested for History were good as history texts go.  Over time, I found it much easier to rely on the historical books included in our Required Reading List as well as our travel time listening to Story of the World audiobooks as we had previously done than to schedule in another subject. 

If you too like this approach, MODG does have fabulous book lists which includes great living history books.

• A Required Reading List for Your {Catholic} Child
• Resources for Creating a Required Reading List

I fully expect to have my children commit to a more structured history course beginning in middle school.

Spelling.

Spelling is not Lowell’s strong suit, and I really wanted the Writing Road to Reading (WRTR) to work for us. Thrifty me was excited about purchasing one book that I could use for all of my children’s spelling needs. 

After giving it the good college try, we weren’t seeing enough progress in his spelling. We eventually opted for the traditional weekly spelling list and test format (we find Seton Spelling workbooks to be especially good for this). 

Maybe this format doesn’t achieve better spelling, but I enjoy the ease of the workbook approach for this subject. 

(I kept my Writing Road to Reading text in the hopes that we can use it with a future child.)

Basic writing mechanics.

I liked the Primary and Intermediate Language Lesson books that MODG used, but found Lowell forgetting basic capitalization and punctuation rules in his daily writing.  I made him correct his mistakes on a daily basis, but it just wasn’t sinking in. 

We ended up switching to Seton English, because their endless drill seemed to be what he needed to break these habits. 

We have a long way to go in this department, but have seen a lot of improvement with the increase in practice.  Beyond that, I have enjoyed how much he learns about the faith as he works through his Seton workbook.

Ease of implementation

This past January was a doozy for our family and it was hard for Lowell to continue in his studies while I spent 11 days driving back and forth to the hospital.

It wasn’t that MODG was hard to use, or that Lowell couldn’t do the work independently, but he needed me available to facilitate a lot of the work. Things like correcting his writing, helping with WRTR, etc. can quickly add up with more than one child.

This is fine in most circumstances, but at the time, we didn’t know what the next year (or 10) would hold. Our homeschool needed to be on autopilot as much as possible.

UPDATE (2020): Thankfully, Christian is doing much better. But the Lord has our family on an interesting journey the last few years. Several family members have had serious health issues that have necessitated lots of ER visits, hospital stays, time consuming testing and appointments, and surgery. I’m so grateful that God has our homeschool in a place where it is VERY easy for the children to work indepently when needed.

READ MORE: My 10 Criteria for Choosing Homeschool Curriculum that works in for our family and is mostly independent.

Why I still think Mother of Divine Grace is a Great Program:

So in light of all that, why do I think MODG is still a fabulous program?

Handholding for the Harried Homeschooler

MODG was a real boost as we navigated the move to a more structured homeschool. 

During the summer, I spent less time fretting over curriculum decisions and more time structuring our homeschool day for success. 

The syllabus made implementation and checklist creation very easy.  (You can see how we simplified MODG by using the syllabus as a checklist here.)

Most importantly, MODG helped me to stop curriculum hopping.  Maybe it is the few extra years of homeschooling, but I am much better at choosing the right curriculum from the start. We now rarely switch curriculum mid-year.

If your homeschool is lacking structure, rigor, or direction, MODG is a great step for moving in the right direction.

Continuity

There is value too in the continuity of an established program.  MODG helped me see the “big picture” and prompted me to make our family’s own scope and sequence.

Enrollment

We did not enroll, but if you have the finances or the inclination, enrollment in MODG is a great option. 

You will have access to a lot of resources like:

• custom weekly checklists
• transcripts
• accreditation
• consultations

Living Books

I enjoy MODG’s living book lists and they help me compile our own family’s required reading list.  We haven’t been disappointed with any of the MODG literature suggestions.

• A Required Reading List for Your {Catholic} Child
• Resources for Creating a Required Reading List
• 2nd Grade Required Reading List
• Liturgical Year Book Lists (month by month with printables)

Reusable Materials

MODG uses many materials that can be used from child to child, something we single income homeschoolers can all appreciate!

Solid Classical Education

Classical education gives our child a solid grounding from which they see truth, beauty, and goodness.  MODG materials allowed us to focus on truth, beauty, and goodness in a manageable way.

Our 3 semesters using MODG hardly make me an expert on the program, but I offer you my humble thoughts as you determine your own homeschool direction. May God bless it!

You’ll also enjoy:

Facing Ugly:  Counter “I could never homeschool…”

Creating Your Own Scope and Sequence

What we are using for the 2017-18 School Year

My Ten Criteria for Choosing Homeschool Curriculum