How do I schedule MCT Town Level?

[veryblueberry]

We are starting the Town Level (2) in January and are new to homeschooling.  I LOVE everything I have read about this LA curriculum but I haven't been able to find anything that tells me how to go about using it other than recommendations we should read Grammar Town first.  But then what?  I saw on the rfwp website that Caesars English begins after Grammar Town.  But what about Paragraph Town, Practice Town, and Building Poems?  Anyone completed this level?  I also ordered the trilogy Alice, Pete, and Mole.  

[MinivanMom]

Here's what we did:

 

-We read through Grammar Town over the course of about a month.

-Then we spent several weeks doing just Practice Town - one sentence a day - until they got the hang of analyzing the sentences.

-Then we added in Caesar's English. We continued to do a sentence a day from Practice Town and also worked through about one lesson of CE each week.

-When we were done with CE, we started Paragraph Town while continuing to do one sentence a day from Practice Town.

-When we were done with Paragraph Town, we started Building Poems. Around the time we started BP, we finished Practice Town so we finished out the year with just poetry.

[veryblueberry]

Thank you so much!  I knew there was some overlap but didn't want to do too much.  

[Raifta]

Just as a different perspective, we actually started with Caesar's English and then moved on to Grammar Town.

 

Once we had completed Grammar Town, we started Practice Town, doing one sentence a day and started Paragraph Town.  

 

We continued to do one sentence a day from Practice Town all through Paragraph Town and then through Building Poems as well as Paragraph Town did not take us too long to finish.

 

We didn't read the trilogy, so I can't comment on that.

 

Having down it this way for Level 2, I've chosen to go with the same flow for Level 3, and we've begun that with Caesar's English II.

[Cake and Pi]

From the RFWP website, this is MCT's guide for how to implement his LA materials at the elementary level:

 

https://www.rfwp.com/pages/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/LA-ELEM.pdf

[silver]

We have 45 four-day weeks for school and decided to skip the poetry book this year.

 

We read through all of Grammar Town first, reading everyday. Then we started doing one day a week with Paragraph Town (either reading or a lesson from the teacher book). We do 2-3 sentences a week from Practice Town. We take about two weeks to go through a lesson of Caesar's English, spending two days on it a week. It works out that we only do one book each day.

[Clemsondana]

My older child is on the 3rd level, and my younger started Island this fall, so we're on our 4th run though a MCT series. We have always done grammar first, although this year older chose to do grammar and vocab concurrently. Once we're through with that, we do a practice sentence or 2 most days. We have varied how we do the other books. Sometimes we certain days for each book - for instance, the writing book (sentence island, paragraph town, essay voyage) on certain days and poetry or vocab on others. Other times, we do the books sequentially. We tend to make a schedule and assign certain subjects to certain days, and how we choose to schedule MCT depends on what our other days look like. It also depends on how much we do out loud. I know that many of his books are intended to be as a group, but older reads quickly and gets frustrated by the slowness...so I let him read the vocab books to himself but insist on doing poetry together because he needs to hear the cadence. For him, I schedule poetry on days when we have more time together and vocab on days when he might be working independently (such as when we're in the car, or when I've scheduled something parent-heavy with my younger student).

[TKDmom]

I made myself a pacing guide before I started Town level. More to organize my thoughts and make sure I wasn’t trying to do it all at once. If you do use it, don’t be a slave to the schedule. I looked for natural breaks in Grammar Town when I scheduled it, but go at a pace that’s comfortable to you. I wish I’d let us go a little faster at the beginning, because there’s all this momentum and excitement with a new book that you don’t have after about week 10.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_zKb3BIbuwcMERfLV9sUmNRTkd3Y18zZGlObWU5UQ/view?usp=drivesdk&resourcekey=0-HTpXw_AunfcAbeOOxiR4xQ

ETA: Google changed their security settings and I’ve had a few requests for access. This is the new link, but if it you aren’t able to access it, feel free to request access. 
 

Edited December 4, 2021 by TKDmom

[veryblueberry]

I wrote out a flow type chart of each of the guides that you all shared.  It really helped me see how this is going to flow. And then I printed yours Bonnie.   Thank you all so much for this great information.  This is the one subject that had me feeling a little overwhelmed, especially since we are starting in the middle of a school year.  I did look on the MCT site and see their chart.  But it was too general and just didn't make sense to me.  I need details. lol

[veryblueberry]

So we are 7 weeks into our homeschooling.  We read Sentence Island as was recommended before we started Grammar Town.  And have completed both of those.  We've begun Sentence Island and have added Caesars English and Paragraph Town.  At first it seemed like a lot of book/subjects.  However, I have our lesson plan in excel and have scheduled the rest of the semester.  We will complete nearly the entire course by the end of June or at least come close.  We will do the poetry books over the summer. 

I absolutely LOVE the MCT Language Arts.  My fifth grader has nailed down most of the grammar (those darn infinitives though) and absolutely loves all the discussion.  We pretty much do all of our work verbally in the recliners beside the fire.  It's just torcherous. LOL  She does write in Practice Town but we go over it verbally.  Although LA has been the most involved class and required a little more planning on my part, it has been the most rewarding.  We are loving Fishmeal and Qweequack; they are hilarious.  

She loves to write and there hasn't been too much of that YET.  She's looking forward to more involved assignments later on in the semester in Paragraph Town.

I can't tell you all how much I appreciate your schedules and plans.  I've looked at them numerous times and finally feel like I know what I am doing.  I am pretty excited for next year!

[Clemsondana]

I'm so glad that you're enjoying this series! It has made the biggest difference for my kids. They both do a great job with the practice sentences. I love that we do so much orally, and it's easy to adapt to our schedule. I'm amazed at how much I've learned - I learned little about poetry in school, and I love the classic writing examples in Essay Voyage. I had wondered how much of it was sinking in, but the day my kid came home from a Disney karaoke thing at church and said that 'Under the Sea' had alternating dactyl trochee, I knew that we had a winner.