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Talk to me about MCT -- Love it? Hate it? Tell me why.


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For those of you who use or have tried MCT, please tell me why you think it's worked or didn't work in your situation.  

 

Do you use all the components? Grammar, lit, poetry, vocab, writing... am I missing any?

 

Do you find it complete, LA wise, or do you feel the need to supplement with other stuff?

 

Do you think the writing part is doable with a kiddo reading at a beginning high school level but writing at a beginning 1st grade level?

 

Anyone teach multiple children with MCT at the same time? 

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I used the grammar part with both my dds and I really feel it gave them a good foundational (is this a word? it should be) understanding of grammar. I used a little of the other parts, but I really liked the grammar instruction. I would definitely use it again if I had more kids.

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I have used all of Island level, and we recently started in on Town. It's been a huge hit here. DD was so upset when we finished the last lesson in Island, and equally excited to learn there were more levels.

 

DD is a concept kid. She works a lot better with big picture concepts than she does with detail work, and MCT is mostly about the big picture. The storyline in GI and SI is silly, which automatically earns points with DD. It was effective in painlessly teaching grammar, which wins it points with me.

 

It covers most of LA. We do separate work on handwriting and spelling. The writing in MCT is minimal, and we also choose to use Brave Writer. We were able to do the writing in Island with some adjustments; DD wrote at a kindy level at the time. Paragraph Town would not have been possible with that writing level, though - it's a major leap in skills needed. (We're using PT to reinforce her new typing skills. It's slow going, but it works.)

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I have used all of Island level, and we recently started in on Town. It's been a huge hit here. DD was so upset when we finished the last lesson in Island, and equally excited to learn there were more levels.

 

DD is a concept kid. She works a lot better with big picture concepts than she does with detail work, and MCT is mostly about the big picture. The storyline in GI and SI is silly, which automatically earns points with DD. It was effective in painlessly teaching grammar, which wins it points with me.

 

It covers most of LA. We do separate work on handwriting and spelling. The writing in MCT is minimal, and we also choose to use Brave Writer. We were able to do the writing in Island with some adjustments; DD wrote at a kindy level at the time. Paragraph Town would not have been possible with that writing level, though - it's a major leap in skills needed. (We're using PT to reinforce her new typing skills. It's slow going, but it works.)

This. I could have written this except for the town level. We haven't started it yet, have finished Island and ds was very sad.

 

What I really like about it is that my ds thinks it's fun. That's a big plus for me.

 

We will be using other programs for writing in the future. Brave writer, WWS, and CAP.

 

Just saving up for Town. :)

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Do you use all the components? Yes, but I do not use the writing activities.  We read the book, but I found the writing assignments frustrating to my DC.  DC needed explicit instruction not just the big picture that MCT does a great job of painting.


 


Do you find it complete, LA wise, or do you feel the need to supplement with other stuff?  I don't supplement (other than writing).  But we do talk informally about Capitalization rules and other miscellaneous LA-stuff.  Punctuation rules begin in the Town level in the extended lessons for Paragraph Town.  And many of these things can be discussed as you work through the Practice Island/Town/etc book.  Make sure you do the Practice book as MUCH of the learning takes place within that book.  


 


Do you think the writing part is doable with a kiddo reading at a beginning high school level but writing at a beginning 1st grade level?  The kiddo can understand MCT's premise but may have a hard time completing the writing assignment.  What I've been doing is reading the Sentence/Paragraph Town book, but skipping the writing assignments.  Here's what we stumbled upon and found to work for us:  


  • Year 1:  Read Sentence Island but skip writing assignments.  
  • Year 2:  Read Paragraph Town but skip writing assignments.  Additionally, I had DC doing Killgallon's Sentence Composing for Elementary.  MCT laid a great foundation for what a good sentence is.  Killgallon gave DC (1) more explicit writing instruction, (2) a chance to imitate good sentences, and (3) a chance to create some on his own.  If I weren't burnt out with school, I might have DC revisit the Island Writing Assignments to finish off year 2 of MCT.

 


I really, really like MCT's lack of repetition; there's no need to beat a dead horse for some kids to understand it.  I like MCT's emphasis on Academic Writing rather than creative writing. I like how MCT is very respectful to the child.  I like how MCT weaves themes and words throughout the whole level.  I like that MCT teaches using stories, often very clever stories.


 


I do not like the prices and the seemingly regular revisions/printings/new editions (but using iBooks can take some of the sting away).  But I don't let that stop me from using the material.  I just suck it up & try to save pennies elsewhere.  


 


Hope that helps a bit.


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My oldest two have gone through MCT Island, Town, & Voyage. We are strongly on the "love it" side.

 

Do you use all the components? Grammar, lit, poetry, vocab, writing... am I missing any? We use all the components except the literature trilogies. 

 

Do you find it complete, LA wise, or do you feel the need to supplement with other stuff? I found it very complete for covering language arts. I don't think it has sufficient writing practice, and most of the writing assignments suggested in the books are busywork. Basically, I skip all of his writing assignments. We do writing workshop style writing instead using Writers Inc as our reference. We take the writing concepts learned in MCT and apply them in the regular writing my kids are doing: science reports, history reports, persuasive essays, literary essays, etc. We have also supplemented with Killgallon in 5th & 6th grade, but that's because the Killgallon books are awesome.

 

Do you think the writing part is doable with a kiddo reading at a beginning high school level but writing at a beginning 1st grade level? It's probably doable, but I don't think it's ideal. He's going to get a lot more out of MCT if you spend some time on those basic writing skills first. I would spend a year focusing on handwriting, spelling instruction, and some original writing (journaling or writing stories, summaries, or simple reports) before starting MCT.

 

Anyone teach multiple children with MCT at the same time? Yes, but I kept them at different levels instead of combining them. It was more time consuming for me, but I felt like they got a lot more out of it that way. 

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Love

We use the grammar books (Island, Town, and ML1 levels), and practice books. The are explained in a way my kids get, and without the redundancy they loathe. I really hit Town hard. Island is mostly just for fun. ML1 is to expand on Town. I don't do grammar (directly) prior to this.

 

We use Paragraph Town, Essay Voyage, and Sentence Island to ready together. Occasionally we do a writing assignment from there, but we having different writing programs. It communicates the essential ideas of how to write, organize, and make lovely.

 

We have CE1, and I think it is great, but kids do Latin so it is redundant.

 

Haven't looked into the lit at all.

 

For me, MCT is primarily about the grammar.

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I really hit Town hard. Island is mostly just for fun.

Pulling just this part. I had read things about how Island was . . . "light" isn't the right word . . . and they're both "fun" . . .

 

Island was what my daughter would call "easy peasy lemon squeezy". It was completely cuddly and friendly and approachable and silly and, well, easy for a language-oriented kid. It didn't prepare us for the major jump up to Town. I'm having to sort out what we can and can't do in Town. Still love it, just quite a jump!

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Do you use all the components? Yes, but I do not use the writing activities.  We read the book, but I found the writing assignments frustrating to my DC.  DC needed explicit instruction not just the big picture that MCT does a great job of painting.

 

Do you find it complete, LA wise, or do you feel the need to supplement with other stuff?  I don't supplement (other than writing).  But we do talk informally about Capitalization rules and other miscellaneous LA-stuff.  Punctuation rules begin in the Town level in the extended lessons for Paragraph Town.  And many of these things can be discussed as you work through the Practice Island/Town/etc book.  Make sure you do the Practice book as MUCH of the learning takes place within that book.  

 

Do you think the writing part is doable with a kiddo reading at a beginning high school level but writing at a beginning 1st grade level?  The kiddo can understand MCT's premise but may have a hard time completing the writing assignment.  What I've been doing is reading the Sentence/Paragraph Town book, but skipping the writing assignments.  Here's what we stumbled upon and found to work for us:  

  • Year 1:  Read Sentence Island but skip writing assignments.  
  • Year 2:  Read Paragraph Town but skip writing assignments.  Additionally, I had DC doing Killgallon's Sentence Composing for Elementary.  MCT laid a great foundation for what a good sentence is.  Killgallon gave DC (1) more explicit writing instruction, (2) a chance to imitate good sentences, and (3) a chance to create some on his own.  If I weren't burnt out with school, I might have DC revisit the Island Writing Assignments to finish off year 2 of MCT.

 

I really, really like MCT's lack of repetition; there's no need to beat a dead horse for some kids to understand it.  I like MCT's emphasis on Academic Writing rather than creative writing. I like how MCT is very respectful to the child.  I like how MCT weaves themes and words throughout the whole level.  I like that MCT teaches using stories, often very clever stories.

 

I do not like the prices and the seemingly regular revisions/printings/new editions (but using iBooks can take some of the sting away).  But I don't let that stop me from using the material.  I just suck it up & try to save pennies elsewhere.  

 

Hope that helps a bit.

 

 

Thanks, this is incredibly helpful.  My oldest is dx dysgraphic, so we will probably need even more incremental, explicit instruction than usual for writing, though I'm not sure yet.  I like the idea of doing writing a year (or two) behind everything else though, and Killgallon's is at the top of my list for writing curic. 

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My oldest two have gone through MCT Island, Town, & Voyage. We are strongly on the "love it" side.

 

Do you use all the components? Grammar, lit, poetry, vocab, writing... am I missing any? We use all the components except the literature trilogies. 

 

Do you find it complete, LA wise, or do you feel the need to supplement with other stuff? I found it very complete for covering language arts. I don't think it has sufficient writing practice, and most of the writing assignments suggested in the books are busywork. Basically, I skip all of his writing assignments. We do writing workshop style writing instead using Writers Inc as our reference. We take the writing concepts learned in MCT and apply them in the regular writing my kids are doing: science reports, history reports, persuasive essays, literary essays, etc. We have also supplemented with Killgallon in 5th & 6th grade, but that's because the Killgallon books are awesome.

 

Do you think the writing part is doable with a kiddo reading at a beginning high school level but writing at a beginning 1st grade level? It's probably doable, but I don't think it's ideal. He's going to get a lot more out of MCT if you spend some time on those basic writing skills first. I would spend a year focusing on handwriting, spelling instruction, and some original writing (journaling or writing stories, summaries, or simple reports) before starting MCT.

 

Anyone teach multiple children with MCT at the same time? Yes, but I kept them at different levels instead of combining them. It was more time consuming for me, but I felt like they got a lot more out of it that way. 

 

Do you do any portion of the program combined, or are your kids working completely separately?  How do you schedule that?  

 

What do you like about Writer's Inc?  At what level of MCT do you add it in?  I looked at their elem writing series but felt kind of lost -- it felt disconnected and.... I don't know know, maybe *I'm* the one who needs explicit instruction, lol.  I will check out Writer's Inc from our curric library though.  I had just sort of written the program off because of the lower level books.  I will have to take a closer look at the secondary books now.  

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IMO:

 

The Caesar's English series is outstanding.  Lots of fun and you learn a lot.  

 

The grammar instruction is great.  Could use some improvement, but it does the job.  

 

I didn't really care for anything else.   

 

Do you mind expanding? What didn't you like about it?

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Do you mind expanding? What didn't you like about it?

 

I'm more of a math/science person (as are my kids), so take with a grain of salt.  

 

It's been a while, but I recall there were a lot of typos in my editions of the grammar texts, and there isn't an errata page so I would get stuck not knowing what was what.  If you yourself are solid on grammar, then it shouldn't be a problem.  When I would report on an MCT public forum (the yahoogroup) about errors, the response was lukewarm.  Did I mention there's no errata list?  

 

Otherwise, grammar was great until we reached (I believe) Magic Lens.  Then it seemed to get very detailed with progressive forms and present perfect and all that.  It was fine, but the 4Practice books didn't seem to reinforce these concepts.  It was all about parts of speech, parts of the sentence, phases and clauses like all the previous practice workbooks.   At this point, my dd was in 9th grade and I decided she had had enough grammar, so we dropped it.  (I also hadn't had this level of grammar detail when I was in school, so I didn't feel bad about it.)  But I'm eager to hear if others had better success with ML.  

 

I outsourced writing to a tutor, so we dropped AAW.  My kids really aren't into poetry (neither am I) so we stopped using those books after Level 1.  My kids can't be bothered with annotations, so they just read assigned literature from their kindle or library books.  

 

WWW is different from CE.  You should be able to find old threads on this topic.  The definitions are not always the ones I would choose, the words are sometimes obscure and weird.  For example in real life teratogenic means any substance that can cause birth defects.  MCT's definition relates to creating monsters.  Now I get it, the stem terato means monster, but at this point my dd was studying WWW independently, and I don't want her thinking babies exposed to teratogens  are monsters.  Dd also complained that she learned 2-3 synonyms for tightrope walker.    

 

Despite my complaints, we continue with WWW1,2,3 just because of ...I don't have a good reason.  We use it as an expensive list of words and stems and tests.  But I'm looking forward to switching to Worldly Word.  

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It's been a while, but I recall there were a lot of typos in my editions of the grammar texts, and there isn't an errata page so I would get stuck not knowing what was what.  If you yourself are solid on grammar, then it shouldn't be a problem.  When I would report on an MCT public forum (the yahoogroup) about errors, the response was lukewarm.  Did I mention there's no errata list?  

 

Yes ... this is true.  But supposedly part of the reason for the new printings/revisions of the book (which usually have a photograph on the cover) was to correct many of the errors.  But the no-errata-list is definitely irritating.

 

The MCT forum has moved from yahoogroups onto their own support forums.  Sometimes the response is timely, but oftentimes it's pretty stagnant there.  The facebook groups or here at TWTM can sometimes be the fastest way to discuss errors.

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Do you do any portion of the program combined, or are your kids working completely separately?  How do you schedule that?  

 

What do you like about Writer's Inc?  At what level of MCT do you add it in?  I looked at their elem writing series but felt kind of lost -- it felt disconnected and.... I don't know know, maybe *I'm* the one who needs explicit instruction, lol.  I will check out Writer's Inc from our curric library though.  I had just sort of written the program off because of the lower level books.  I will have to take a closer look at the secondary books now.  

 

They worked completely separately. Oldest dd has always been so advanced in language arts and writing compared to her younger brother that it didn't make sense to combine them. Dd would have been held back by working with him, and ds would have been very discouraged by working alongside her. Dd found everything in MCT easy and inspiring, particularly the poetry books which have led her to write a great deal of poetry on her own. Ds has enjoyed the program, but he's needed a lot more guidance and scaffolding to apply the writing instruction in his own writing.

 

I just scheduled separate English time for each of them (after I was done working with the younger kids), and I made sure to have the year paced out ahead of time (on a spreadsheet) so that I could put the assignments on their daily checklists. They could always analyze their sentence in the practice book or go over their vocabulary words independently until I was available to work with them.

 

Writers Inc is not everyone's cup-of-tea. I love that it's just a reference with no instruction or structure whatsoever. We have always scheduled a daily block of time for writing, and my kids choose their own writing projects, so a reference was really all I was looking for. I find opportunities in that daily writing to apply the MCT writing instruction. So last year when ds was writing a report on Rome, we spent a lot of time working on his paragraphs and the transitions between paragraphs, because we had just finished reading through Paragraph Town. And last year when dd finished reading Romeo & Juliet, she wrote her first literary essay, because she had just finished reading Essay Voyage. So instead of using the busywork assignments in the book or making up assignments myself, I try to find opportunities to practice and apply those skills in the writing they are already doing. This may be a little too free-form for some, but it works well for us.

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We've barely started on Town, but completed Island. Other than one page that clearly was just plain misprinted in Practice Island, I did not find errors in Island level. Maybe it has been cleared up in subsequent printings?

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Pulling just this part. I had read things about how Island was . . . "light" isn't the right word . . . and they're both "fun" . . .

 

Island was what my daughter would call "easy peasy lemon squeezy". It was completely cuddly and friendly and approachable and silly and, well, easy for a language-oriented kid. It didn't prepare us for the major jump up to Town. I'm having to sort out what we can and can't do in Town. Still love it, just quite a jump!

I used Town with my 2e kids in 5th grade and it seemed to be a good time for them.  I used Island in 3rd grade.  Nothing in 4th, and honestly nothing in 6th or 7th, except Latin.  We did ML1 in 8th for my oldest - it is quite deep and there's some in the verb chapter that I didn't learn (ever), and I have an English Composition minor.  I suppose we could have done Grammar Voyage in 6th or 7th, but I don't think it is necessary.  It isn't quite the same as math, where you need repetition all the time, because you are constantly thinking grammatically when you speak, read, and write.  I would rather they get it in a solid dose than piecemeal over time.  I suppose we would have tried Analytical Grammar had we not had MCT.

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Do you do any portion of the program combined, or are your kids working completely separately?  How do you schedule that?  

 

What do you like about Writer's Inc?  At what level of MCT do you add it in?  I looked at their elem writing series but felt kind of lost -- it felt disconnected and.... I don't know know, maybe *I'm* the one who needs explicit instruction, lol.  I will check out Writer's Inc from our curric library though.  I had just sort of written the program off because of the lower level books.  I will have to take a closer look at the secondary books now.  

I forgot to mention we also did Music of the Hemispheres together this year.  My dd had a lot of poetics the last two years in her Shakespeare classes, and I would talk to them about some basic poetics as we read aloud poems, but it was the first year of discretely teaching poetics to them all.

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Another thought: The errors were mainly in the practice books. You could get the iBooks version of this in the hopes that they update those more frequently.

The iBooks do get updated. I haven't noticed any errors yet in Island level on iBooks.

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I looked at it several times, but it seemed like overkill for my boys, who were picking up LA easily and reading voraciously.  We used Galore Park, which is simpler and teaches with a lighter touch.  Both boys have done fine, and one is studying English at a very good university.  Samples of the book for aged 7 are here:

 

http://www.galorepark.co.uk/Product/9781902984827.aspx

Edited by Laura Corin
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We've used Island level so far. We all the components. It was a lot of fun! I didn't notice any errors, but I did have the newest version. My kids were 11 and 8. It was my 8 year olds first exposure to any kind of grammar. She needed to do more in the practice book than my older child did. I did get the Mud Triolgy for her. She loved those! They taught vocabulary and reinforced sentence concepts in a fun novel wrapping. We did most of the writing assignments. My oldest was also doing Sonlight F, so we did a few of those writing assignments too. I LOVED poetry book! It introduced since advanced concepts in a fun way. We're almost through the Town level grammar book. It is definitely a jump up. My younger child may not be able to keep up with her brother on this level. I really like how everything is explained in a simple concise way without overkill. I plan to use all the books in Town level and do most of the writing assignments again. I don't think that we'll get the next lit trilogy though.

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Pulling just this part. I had read things about how Island was . . . "light" isn't the right word . . . and they're both "fun" . . .

 

Island was what my daughter would call "easy peasy lemon squeezy". It was completely cuddly and friendly and approachable and silly and, well, easy for a language-oriented kid. It didn't prepare us for the major jump up to Town. I'm having to sort out what we can and can't do in Town. Still love it, just quite a jump!

What is different about Town? We are starting it in the Fall.

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What is different about Town? We are starting it in the Fall.

The writing and vocabulary are the two biggest jumps. Sentence Island had mostly fun, light assignments about crafting good sentences. One of the first major assignments in Paragraph Town is a full page, multi-paragraph informational essay. And CE is an intensive vocabulary program after Building Language.

 

The grammar and poetry both seem to be about the amount of a jump I would expect between two levels meant to come one after the other.

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My oldest two have gone through MCT Island, Town, & Voyage. We are strongly on the "love it" side.

 

Do you use all the components? Grammar, lit, poetry, vocab, writing... am I missing any? We use all the components except the literature trilogies. 

 

Do you find it complete, LA wise, or do you feel the need to supplement with other stuff? I found it very complete for covering language arts. I don't think it has sufficient writing practice, and most of the writing assignments suggested in the books are busywork. Basically, I skip all of his writing assignments. We do writing workshop style writing instead using Writers Inc as our reference. We take the writing concepts learned in MCT and apply them in the regular writing my kids are doing: science reports, history reports, persuasive essays, literary essays, etc. We have also supplemented with Killgallon in 5th & 6th grade, but that's because the Killgallon books are awesome.

 

Do you think the writing part is doable with a kiddo reading at a beginning high school level but writing at a beginning 1st grade level? It's probably doable, but I don't think it's ideal. He's going to get a lot more out of MCT if you spend some time on those basic writing skills first. I would spend a year focusing on handwriting, spelling instruction, and some original writing (journaling or writing stories, summaries, or simple reports) before starting MCT.

 

Anyone teach multiple children with MCT at the same time? Yes, but I kept them at different levels instead of combining them. It was more time consuming for me, but I felt like they got a lot more out of it that way. 

When talking about a "complete" LA program, does the program also cover things like literary elements (plot, setting, conflict, etc.) and literary analysis? Does it cover concepts like simile, metaphor, etc?

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When talking about a "complete" LA program, does the program also cover things like literary elements (plot, setting, conflict, etc.) and literary analysis? Does it cover concepts like simile, metaphor, etc?

 

The poetry books cover poetic devices like simile, metaphor, rhyme, assonance, etc, but they are all taught in the context of poetry.

 

We haven't used the literature part of the program, so I don't know if there is coverage of literary elements there. Maybe someone else can answer that question. I do individualized literature lists for my kids each year and teach literary elements & analysis as we discuss the books they read.

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We used Island level this year and LOVED it!

 

For those of you who use or have tried MCT, please tell me why you think it's worked or didn't work in your situation.  Lack of repetition, playing with language, everything seemed to be right at the level my daughter could really appreciate. She was so sad when we finished the last bit and specifically asked if there were more Mud books.

 

Do you use all the components? Grammar, lit, poetry, vocab, writing... am I missing any?

I ditched the poetry pretty early on in the year - she just wasn't ready for it. I plan on picking it back up next year though, I've seen a lot of growth this year. Otherwise yes, I used all the components. I really like how they support each other.

 

Do you find it complete, LA wise, or do you feel the need to supplement with other stuff?

I didn't particularly like a lot of the writing assignments - I was always able to find one to give her, but I ended up having to incorporate writing into other subjects. (And honestly, when I let go of the writing some and gave her freedom to write in her history studies, she started showing her true colors!) I think the grammar portion has given her a great foundation for writing though.

 

Do you think the writing part is doable with a kiddo reading at a beginning high school level but writing at a beginning 1st grade level?

I don't have any advice there, I tend to be the trial and error kind of teacher because gifted students is not my forte!

 

Anyone teach multiple children with MCT at the same time? 

no, and I'm not sure my second child will be able to do MCT, or at least not early enough to do it at the same time as my older daughter.

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