MCT which components?

[MistyMountain]

I got the grammar portion of the island level but we are working through it pretty fast and I am going to have to get more components. I am not impressed with what you get for the money but ds actually asks to do grammar every day and he never cared for it before so that makes me want to get the other stuff too. I will get sentence island and practice island but I am undecided about the poetry book. I just got the teachers guide for the grammar portion and plan to do that for the sentence part but can you just get the student workbook for the practice portion? I think I will wait for the town level to get the vocabulary book.

 

He wants to get the next level next year but I want something specifically for composition. Does it pair well with Treasured Conversations or Writing and Rhethoric?

[Cake and Pi]

If only plan to get the TM *or* the student book for practice island, go with the TM.  You can just write the sentences on a white board or separate piece of paper to save on costs.  We have really been enjoying the Island level poetry books, but I'm not a liberal arts kind of person so I'm learning right along side my kid.

[RenaInTexas]

The Town vocabulary is a HUGE step up from the Island vocabulary. To 'fill the gap' we have been using Rummy Roots and Word Roots Beginning from Critical Thinking Co. So, I probably wouldn't start with Town vocabulary, unless the child has been exposed to Latin/Greek roots. That being said, you don't have to use the Island vocabulary. You could just use Rummy Roots and/or Word Roots as the introduction.

 

For us, the poetry is ehhhh. We like what and how it is teaching, but I insert 'fun-er' poems. His poems are very Shakespeare, Old English. We like more modern poetry. But the poetry is cohesive with the other components of the program which reinforces the learning.

 

My kids LOVE grammar as well bc of MCT. So it's not just money spent on a Language Arts curriculum, it's an investment in an ENJOYABLE LA curriculum that they LOVE doing and actually LEARN and RETAIN. Actually loving the process of learning is hard to accomplish and MCT does that for us.

[Clemsondana]

I agree that it's a pricy set of books. We found the poetry book to be pretty good - I'm sure that it depends on what you already know, though. We've got a STEM background, so without some sort of guide I probably wouldn't have done a very good job of teaching how different types of meter work, how different phonemes impart different moods to the poetry, etc. We bought the whole set, but for several of the books you could do OK with just the teacher's manual. We worked through the island level in a semester, but I had started with an easier level than recommended because I was using it with a kid who reads very well but struggles with parts of writing and interpretation. We're working through the town level grammar now and it started off with a review. Now that we're into phrases and it's added gerunds and infinitives, it's gotten harder.

[daijobu]

My favorite part of the MCT series is Caesar's English.  The rest is okay, but don't miss CE.  

[MistyMountain]

We are doing Latin and Greek roots using the English from the Roots Up cards as flash cards. How much should they know before beggining Ceaser's English?

[ikslo]

We are doing Latin and Greek roots using the English from the Roots Up cards as flash cards. How much should they know before beggining Ceaser's English?

My son knew none and he's doing fine.

[RenaInTexas]

We are doing Latin and Greek roots using the English from the Roots Up cards as flash cards. How much should they know before beggining Ceaser's English?

 

I think it depends on the kid. An older kid (10 or so) may not need any. But there is no way, I could have started my 7-year old in CE. I might have been able to start my 9-year old there, but we would have had to go slow. I think we are now ready to hit CE in full stride.

 

It sounds like your kids have had good exposure. My kids were coming from PS, where vocabulary was non-existent -- it's not on the state exam, soooo, why do it (SMH)?

[RenaInTexas]

I forgot to add that we do Writing and Rhetoric and I do think that it is the perfect companion.

 

We do the MCT writing assignments, but they are very focused on the structure of writing --- understanding the parts used to structure a good sentence/paragraph, like, can you use a direct object in a sentence correctly. We enjoyed the activities, but I wanted more writing practice and variety than MCT included. W&R has a gentle approach to teaching writing where the students learn by imitating and gradually write more and more of the writing genre (ex: fable). Plus you get copy work, diction, and memorization.

 

So MCT prepares them to write solid, grammatically correct sentences / paragraphs and improve the sound of your writing using phrases, modifiers, etc... and then W&R teaches them what components are needed for a fable to be a fable (for example), writing it from different points of view, adding more details to a story, summarizing, playing with words/phrases, etc... So they fit together very well with zero overlap.

 

Writing has so many components that I don't believe there is any, one curriculum that encompasses them all.

[Crimson Wife]

I have the full "island" level but only feel that Sentence Island + Practice Island are worth it. The rest is a waste of money. My advice to people is to wait until the child is ready for "town", and then do Sentence Island followed immediately by "town".

[Jackie]

DD adored Island level, so much that she cried when I announced we had finished it and needed reassured that there were other levels. As incredibly expensive as it is, that makes it worth it to me.

 

The poetry book was one of her favorite parts. We only used the TM of Practice Island and I wrote the sentences in the whiteboard for analyzing.

 

The vocabulary in Island was minimal, and I think it is very possible to go directly into Caesar's English. Outside of the ten stems taught in Island level, DD had no word root or formal vocabulary before starting CE. It is an intensive vocabulary program that includes vocabulary, composition, and grammar. I thought it would be too intensive for DD (she's accelerated, but we're using it young and it's a *lot*) but it's her new favorite part of MCT and she flew through it (except the composition, which was too advanced for her).