Anyone NOT like MP enrichment?

[lulalu]

Anyone NOT like the MP enrichment? I am looking at the 1st grade. I have heard many good reviews, just wondering if there are negatives.

 

I am also thinking of FIAR, but leaning towards MP as it includes music, art, and poetry appreciation.

[Starrinytes]

The MP enrichment for the lower grades really is lovely. We have used FIAR and MP Enrichment, and MP wins hands down for us. It's super easy to implement, and I really have nothing negative to say about it at all. With FIAR, it is a nice program, but there was just more "work" do to for me personally to implement it (you can use it in a variety of ways, so really it was likely me making it more complicated than it actually was).

[AimeeM]

I like most of it. We do not "do" the art cards as suggested in the enrichment, though (we use those with morning meeting), and we skip the poetry almost entirely right now. What I like the most about it is that it's flexible. I'm adjusting the Grade 1 right now to fit my special needs' boys.

[Moncha]

I have been "using" both FIAR and MP Kindergarten Enrichment for 1st grade this year (I think it had more of the books I wanted to use compared to the 1st grade one and the content didn't seem much lower)

I honestly haven't used either of them a ton. I did a fun year in K using BFIAR and FIAR but really used a lot of blogs for finding activities vs the book, it was a lot of work. 

I thought MP would be easier...

We have a great library so I've only bought a handful of books. 

I don't really share the author and illustrator info with my son as he doesn't generally find it interesting and I don't think it's necessary at this point.  The "Before You Read" section can be helpful. Vocab can be helpful to cover prior to reading the story too. 

We do a decent job of talking about the story without the review and comprehension questions in the book, which I think was written with a class in mind so one kid should not be answering all those questions by themselves... or at least it would take way longer than I'm willing to put in, ha. So I guess in general the book study portion is good. 

I do try to find some books at the library that tie into the theme... but am doing another science and history program so don't really delve into that too much. For some books they give some nice ideas for nature study though. 

I bought the art cards but was pretty disappointing with them. They are just so small! and I feel like the printing is not the best. I would buy the bigger posters if you can. I don't get into critiquing the art much, pretty much let my son look at it, talk about what he thinks of it and then hang it on the fridge.  They do a pretty good job of making it fit with the theme of the book. 

I haven't followed the music portion of the book, again I think it's overkill for most kids this age to cover the lives of these composers but the music would be fine.oh, and for first grade you need another book for that... after looking at the music enrichment book , I think it looks great and really scripts out what to say to the kid in a very child friendly way... but another thing to buy.  I haven't used the poetry either for the most part but it looks like a good tie in. 

The one thing I was most bummed about was that you have to buy a separate book for art/craft to go along with the books. I found a table of contents and just drew some ideas from it and pinterest for art/crafts. (not overly impressed with the craft ideas that were offered... you can see the TOC on Rainbow Resources) 

I just don't feel like I have the time this year to cover a book in the same way as I did last year. We loved the "Rows" we did last year but just have so much more going on this year. 

I think if I wasn't doing another Science and History (and Music and Poetry) this would be more fun, and I'd feel like I was getting more out of it, MP really means for the book to be read daily and for this to cover your science, history, art, music and poetry lessons up through 2nd grade. It is part of a full curriculum and to get everything out of it you really need more of the parts (art cards, craft ideas, music book, supplemental science read alouds, etc.) I feel like it's too late for me this year, but if I could do it over, I think I just would have done this instead of the other programs I decided on.

Edited February 26, 2018 by Moncha

[ktgrok]

Does it just go up to 2nd grade? Thinking this might be something that would work for me. I've got the basics down...we do CLE Math, Abecedarian Reading, and a book from Seton for handwriting. But I want something easy to implement but not TOO much, for the rest. As it is I've just been reading aloud from something/anything almost daily (usually a Little House book chapter, sometimes a few poems) and randomly grabbing CHC's science book to read from. She'll be 3rd grade next year, but it seems the 2nd grade one would probably be fine? She's also dyslexic which effects her reading but also her ability to listen to books it seems...her stamina is not as high as some kids. 

[nixpix5]

We really love it. We do most of the suggested books and activities. My kids really like it alot and protest if we skip a week. Now that we have an echo the music part is easier. We do the art cards and the poetry. If another book is required I get it from the library the week before.

 

Sometimes their is an activity that requires a little more pre thought. For example, The Ink of Brother Theophane has an activity where the kids had to make ink out of berries and do some art with it. They loved it!

 

If there is anything negative about it then maybe that there is a literal laundry list of discussion questions. Don't feel like you have to do them all. Before we read I make a list of the vocabulary on our dry erase board and we discuss them. Then as I read they listen for the word (and get all excited when they hear them). After the story we do somewhere between a quartet to a third of the questions and then typically do deeper discussion questions.

 

For example, when we did Lyle Lyle Crocodile we spent a lot of time talking about personification. We then read an Alligator and Crocodile book by Gail Gibbons afterward to discuss real crocodiles. We then did a group art project and drew a crocodile out of one of the Draw Write Now books but that was our addition.

 

You can do as much or as little as you want. We love the art cards and after each week we review previous cards.

[ExcitedMama]

Here there is no contest between FIAR and MP Enrichment. I’ve tried and failed to do FIAR a lot. MP is much better to actually implement. Plus if you follow the traditional school calendar from September to May it follows the seasons and the holidays. As said above it really is up to you how much you want to do with it. You could just do the main book for the week and be done. Or you could do a lot. There’s a theme for the week, like a holiday or animal and everything ties together. If you want to expand it you can. Some of the artists are easier than others to expand on for this age. We started in K and had a lot of fun. I added classical Kids for the music study and DS leaned a lot. I was very impressed with the questions for the book. It’s not just reading comprehension but also art appreciation. It really pointed out a lot of details we would have missed. It probably depends on what you’re looking for and what you’d do on your own. I know nothing about art and classical music so I knew I’d never do it on my own. Plus there is a poem every week so it guaranteed I’d do those extras. Plus it was fun to do the seasonal studies. I did not read classic kid books when I as a kid and I usually pick out out newer books so I liked that MP focused on books we would have missed it. DS was not excited by the look of these old library books at first but he really enjoyed most of them. Our library usually has most of them but I always have to track a few down that they don’t have. I can usually find them pretty cheap from Amazon and the kids are usually glad to have them and a few have become favorites. DD listens in and I’m excited to start back over with K with her in the fall. K was definitely my favorite of them but I’m going to miss doing them with DS since we are almost done with the 2nd Grade book now. You might consider starting with K if your signature is accurate and you have a Pre-K’er. The K books were really great and if you are abroad and need to buy them I don’t think you’d regret doing so. Since it’s Enrichment you won’t be missing much since the format of all the books are the same.

[Elizabeth86]

Ya'll kill me. I thought I had next year mapped out, now Im not sure. I have always had my eye on mp enrichment. Ugh. Saying it's like fiar except easier to implement makes me want to try as I found fiar hard to plan for even though I liked it. So if you use it for second grade, tell me, what else did you do. Is it enough or did you feel the need to add more science, history. I'm only on my first kid here, so I spent K and 1st concerned I was missing something so part of me would like to do better with a more gentle and fun second grade year. I had some big plans for next year, but part of me worries it won't get done.

[nixpix5]

Ya'll kill me. I thought I had next year mapped out, now Im not sure. I have always had my eye on mp enrichment. Ugh. Saying it's like fiar except easier to implement makes me want to try as I found fiar hard to plan for even though I liked it. So if you use it for second grade, tell me, what else did you do. Is it enough or did you feel the need to add more science, history. I'm only on my first kid here, so I spent K and 1st concerned I was missing something so part of me would like to do better with a more gentle and fun second grade year. I had some big plans for next year, but part of me worries it won't get done.

We do it solely for fun on Thursdays. We use it more like a lit study or analysis with some art and music sprinkled on top. I don't see it as a complete program. It fits into MP cores. So if you were using it along with MP cores they still include lit, science, history, phonics, Spelling, math etc. It really is just enrichment but totally fun none the less :)

[happynurse]

I own the K enrichment. I would say I've "done" it, but that would be a lie, because it's been more in fits and spurts and I haven't been as intentional with it as I had hoped. Especially with the art cards and music. It just didn't happen on a scheduled basis here, although the readers were read.

 

This is my experience almost exactly. That being said, it has been great for reading comprehension, gentle artist exposure (we didn't do the music...ahem), and has introduced  us to some great books.

 

We only have K. I bought all the books on Amazon for less than that package deal on MP. I just check the science and recommended reading books out from the library. On Monday we do part 1 (read, vocab, comprehension  questions) and Thursday we do some of part 2 (science read-aloud, art/artist card).

 

I do like it. I think it is sweet and gentle. I don't think much of the artist or illustrator information is being retained whatsoever. It is a little verbose for the K age, but the vocab and reading comprehension portions are great. 

[ktgrok]

One other plug I'll put in for them is that I liked that they used picture books. My little kids were not ready to read chapter books until very recently, so the K enrichment books were perfect for them. We had to push back SL A until recently for that very reason- they just didn't have the attention span to sit through pictureless chapter books, no matter what activities I tried to give them during read-aloud time. The MP books were better suited although there was nothing dumbed down about them- they're mostly beautiful engaging books. 

 

What level do you think would work if my 8 yr old is able to sit through one chapter of a Little House book, but often only half a chapter of say, Trixie Belden. 

[Elizabeth86]

We do it solely for fun on Thursdays. We use it more like a lit study or analysis with some art and music sprinkled on top. I don't see it as a complete program. It fits into MP cores. So if you were using it along with MP cores they still include lit, science, history, phonics, Spelling, math etc. It really is just enrichment but totally fun none the less :)

Gotcha. I think I may stick with plan A. :lol:

[ktgrok]

On the MP, from what I can see on the reading list,  I think you'd be good with either 1st or 2nd grade. I don't think you could really lose either way on the Read Aloud sets. I think I remember you've used BookShark in the past, so you're probably set with chapter book read alouds if you need more of those, but either of the MP sets will give you a great picture book collection and your youngers can join in too. 

 

To save money last year, what I did was buy the Enrichment book and then I ordered the books in batches of six off of Amazon. It was a lot cheaper and spread it out, as well as I got to make sure I didn't end up with a bunch of dusty books on shelves. 

 

Actually....we didn't get very far in Bookshark because of her stamina with read alouds. And because I ended up with prenatal depression. And then post partum depression. Sigh. And honestly, she didn't like some of the books very much. Here's a Penny, for instance, was just pretty boring. 

[ExcitedMama]

As said above MP Enrichment even in the 2nd Grade level is really just extra, it’s not complete. It would definitely not be enough by itself. For me it’s great as a checklist to add in art, classical music, poems and sometimes more with their theme. The main part is the one book and the reading comprehension questions. The books are pretty short so I don’t think you’d have any problem with a child who can listen to chapter books.

[ktgrok]

As said above MP Enrichment even in the 2nd Grade level is really just extra, it’s not complete. It would definitely not be enough by itself. For me it’s great as a checklist to add in art, classical music, poems and sometimes more with their theme. The main part is the one book and the reading comprehension questions. The books are pretty short so I don’t think you’d have any problem with a child who can listen to chapter books.

 

Ok, good. I'm just looking foe enrichment.

[ALB]

We use the art cards as part of our morning time, so they are in a basket along with our Bibles, verses, poems, etc.  I flip through them like flashcards and the kids race to identify the names of paintings and the artists.  We do spend time discussing the current one of the week, but the rest are just for continual review.  Btw, that's for my older kids.  You can keep doing parts of MP enrichment every year even after siblings move past the ages.

 

A bonus of this is that my kids have learned to differentiate between styles of various artists.  When a new piece comes up, I'll sometimes have them guess who the artist might be.  If it is one they have seen before in an earlier year or week, they often recognize the similarities.  It's like making friends with paintings :).

[lulalu]

Thanks for the replies!