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Posting this here since I previously bothered ya'll with my waffling about grammar for next year...and b/c it's about doing a grammar program ahead of "schedule."

 

I picked up the TM for BL, GI, SI, and SI-practice for dirt cheap at a used curriculum sale, so that has put my plans for next year in revision.

 

Few questions - 

 

1) The set I got didn't come with MotH, so while I'm at it, I think I should add it in. I'm poking around the internet for a cheap used copy - would it be a problem to use a first edition of MotH if the rest of the books are the revised editions? Is the revised MotH so much better that I should try to get that?

 

2) I was flipping through BL and, um, I have a basic question. MCT calls prefixes "stems." Now, everything I know about grammar I learned from my Greek class (and now SWB with FLL 1 & 2). But in Greek you always take off the prefix, such as an alpha privative, to get the "stem of the word" so my mind is rebelling against the idea of calling "pre-" a "stem." So in English grammar, prefixes and suffixes are called stems? Does this not cause a problem for further study of Latin (and possibly Greek)?

 

3) Additional LA - I'm planning to use HTTS, which includes dictation. And continue reading lit, and have him narrate there. He's done basic mechanics in FLL2 and is "so done" with that. So other than that.. I had been looking at W&R Fable because I have nagging low-level anxiety about not doing any creative writing with him. He had done quite a bit of that in his K class, but this year I have just been working on those little "optional" things that make writing readable, like forming letters correctly, and spelling, and not putting capital letters in the middle of words, and leaving spaces between words (! :svengo: !). He still writes stories on his own, and he has shown great improvement in the above areas, but the idea of paragraphs aren't on his radar yet. I was thinking I could go slow and modify Fable, but after looking through the TM it seems that the real issue would be maturity, CP just doesn't logically reason "why" very well yet, so many of the discussion questions would be lost on him. And Fable seems to presume you know how to paragraph (yes?). I don't want to start Fable too soon and miss out on the real goodies in it in the process, kwim?  Which is all to say, should I be confident in Island giving my kid enough (structured) creative writing practice? Can I put a DONE check-mark next to LA, and resist the temptation to buy anything else?

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What MCT calls "stems", I call "roots".

 

It's one of the nit-picky things where I think MCT is wrong, like his calling articles adjectives. They're not. An article always precedes a noun but an adjective can come after the noun it modifies. An adjective can be modified by an adverb, but an article can't.

 

I decided not to get MOTH. I found with Building Poems that the concepts went WHOOOSH over my DD's head, and that would be even more the case with MOTH. I think it's totally fine to hold off on the poetry component until the child is older.

 

 

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What MCT calls "stems", I call "roots".

 

It's one of the nit-picky things where I think MCT is wrong, like his calling articles adjectives. They're not. An article always precedes a noun but an adjective can come after the noun it modifies. An adjective can be modified by an adverb, but an article can't.

 

I can live with "roots." So the question is, when reading BL do I swap out every occurrence of the word "stem" with "root"?

 

And I noticed the adjective articles, too. I suppose articles fulfill the definition of an adjective, defining a noun (definite/indefinite, sometimes number), but...they're still articles. Odd.

 

Also, since I learned grammar with Greek, I figure out if something is a noun by putting an article in front of it. Calling them adjectives muddles my already weak grasp of grammar.  :laugh:

 

 

I decided not to get MOTH. I found with Building Poems that the concepts went WHOOOSH over my DD's head, and that would be even more the case with MOTH. I think it's totally fine to hold off on the poetry component until the child is older.

 

CP did some poetry study in his K last year, but I think they just did end rhymes. He points out rhymes that aren't "true" rhymes and wonders if it's wrong. He seems to think poetry consists of rhyming, which is something I want to correct. And, isn't the poetry in MotH good prep for the poetry exercises in BL? In any case, I was planning on doing some poetry with him anyways next year, so while I'm doing Embassy's (?) schedule, I should maybe make things easy on myself and do the scheduled poetry. I'm after simple exposure to other things that make up poetry right now, that's all.

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I adore MOTH! It's my favorite book at the island level. But I agree, it's also the most difficult.

 

I just love seeing my kids bobbing their heads, trying to write something in trochees or iambs. I love the discussion of rhyme and the choice of poems MCT included. Most of all, I wish I had had this book at a young age. It can be difficult to enrich our children if they're gifted in the humanities rather than the STEM subjects. This book does it for me.

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We aren't a fan of MOTH, I'll sell you ours if you want it! Lol

 

 

Is it the TM? Rev. Ed? Do you live near Atlanta to save on shipping? Can we haggle?  :)

 

 

 

 

I have survived reading LOF so far - I should be able to handle idiosyncratic LA as well for a year, yeah?  :p

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MotH was our favorite book in Island level! I love the focus on the sounds of language rather than on "what did the poet mean?" I love that he uses the classics as examples, rather than cutesy children's poems - MotH gave my daughter, who was a 7yo second grader at the time, an enduring taste for Shakespeare. I considered the technical language something I was exposing her to, rather than something I expected her to retain. Mostly it was of value to us as a way to help her fall in love with poetry.

 

I have a friend who is a poet by profession. He was blown away by how excellent Music of the Hemispheres and Building Poems are - he ordered his own copies, even though he has no young children. He says that even many adults don't "get" what poetry is supposed to involve, and he can use the MCT books to explain it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

MotH was our favorite book in Island level! I love the focus on the sounds of language rather than on "what did the poet mean?" I love that he uses the classics as examples, rather than cutesy children's poems - MotH gave my daughter, who was a 7yo second grader at the time, an enduring taste for Shakespeare. I considered the technical language something I was exposing her to, rather than something I expected her to retain. Mostly it was of value to us as a way to help her fall in love with poetry.

 

I have a friend who is a poet by profession. He was blown away by how excellent Music of the Hemispheres and Building Poems are - he ordered his own copies, even though he has no young children. He says that even many adults don't "get" what poetry is supposed to involve, and he can use the MCT books to explain it.

May we quote your last paragraph? Love it!

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This (MotH) was my daughters favorite book of the series too. I didn't expect her to "get" as much as she did. I gave her the post-test out of curiosity and she got 100%. She got more than I did! I think it's a beautiful book. I don't plan on getting any other of the Town books, but I will get Building Poems for her. She really really loved (begged for) poetry time last year.

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