Seeking advice from this tribe of homeschoolers. I am new to the WTM Community online but have been homeschooling for 4 years. I have four kids DS 9, DD 7, DS 5, and DS 6 months. My husband was homeschooled so he is very supportive of what I am doing. For the past three years, we have been in different CC communities (different ones bc of moving). I am disenchanted with CC. I don't want to start bashing CC, it just doesn't seem to be working for my family. However, it relives the burden of art and science and my kids love the social time. I am thinking about talking to my husband about not returning next year. However, we have already paid a deposit. 😐 I know he will be concerned and ask questions if I can do it on my own. Its been a difficult year with the new baby and recovery process. Right now, I only get through Language Arts LOE and Horizons Math every day. I will start Apples and Pears Spelling soon with my DS 9. It scares me when I reread WTM and see everything she suggests. Grammar, spelling, reading, writing, science, art. etc. How do I devote that much time to older three and take care of a baby. I realize history, science, etc. can be taught in a group. But getting my kids to get their math done takes an hour. And its three different levels. After phonics, we are worn out. Okay, so after all this venting a question. How do you do it all?! Teaching multiple ages on different levels with a baby in tow? I wantI to follow WTM but my day to day just has too many people and emotions to deal with. I have looked at MCT for a long time for language arts and would love to do that next year, but DS 9 will be in Essentials next year and starting IEW. I'm nervous it will move too fast for him but I also don't know if I can teach it on my own. Please give me advice, encouragement and tell me what your day looks like with multiple kids!

I apologize if this has been discussed already, but my searches both on here and google are coming up empty. Has anyone used Royal Firework Press's Michael Clay Thompson Mentor Network before? I used (and thus own print copies already) MCT's 1st 2 levels of language arts & literature curriculum. However, my job has subsequently gotten exponentially more demanding so I have started integrating more and more online courses. My older two (11 and 13) are blossoming in this environment, but my youngest is 8 and thus not taking that many. I love MCT's grammar approach so I was looking around for options that use his materials and stumbled across the newly released Mentor Network (maybe launched Fall 2018?). However, I have questions even after looking through the sites linked below. First, if anyone has used it, I'm looking for reviews and insights into your experiences. Second, if you're familiar with the program, am I interpreting the information correctly? Specifically, since I already own the books and would like the material to be graded automatically, I am considering Level 1 options without print materials but with instructors. Right now, that means I would sign up for Building Language (seat & instructor, $250), Grammar Island (seat & instructor, $250), and Practice Island (seat, $12.50). I believe that since I want instructor involvement, I would need to wait until their academic year which I assume to be 9/3/19-5/24/20. (If I didn't want access to an instructor I could start at any time and my subscription would be for one calendar year.) In Fall, my daughter would work through Grammar Island and Practice Island on her own and there'd be some type of instructor involved with Building Language. In Spring, an instructor would enter the scene somehow in Grammar Island. Is that right? Even if I have the costs right, I'm still fuzzy as to what actually I'd be buying. Is it an online interface like Khan Academy or Beast Academy that the student logs into and reads passages and then answers questions which are then automatically graded? If I don't purchase the instructor option are the answers still automatically graded? There's no real "class," right? While I'll pay that price for year-long WTMA classes, shelling out $500+ for a year-long solely online platform seems pretty dang steep. Anyway, if you've made it this far, I appreciate it and would also love to hear about people's thoughts on the offering. Thanks! https://www.rfwp.com/series/royal-fireworks-press-digital-learning https://rfolc.com/mentor/ https://rfolc.com/mentor/courses.shtml https://www.rfwp.com/pages/mct-mentor-network/

Hi For those of you with experience with MCT Language Arts, l plan to start this curriculum next fall with my son who will be a 9th grader and has HFA. Because l don't want him to miss anything, l have been collecting cheap, used copies of the older editions of the early level TE's in order to fill in any blanks in his knowledge. Language Arts are not his strong suit, as he is more math/science brained. That being said, I am just curious to know at what level people have started their older kids who are new to the curriculum. He can tolerate things addressed to younger kids, as his social development is well behind his cognitive level. I don't want to pay retail for multiple levels, hence my search for inexpensive earlier editions. A particular question l have is, which poetry volume should we start with in order not to miss anything? Btw, we will be using Mosdos press gold for literature. Any input from the experienced is appreciated!

I meet tons of people who have used the first three levels of MCT, but have yet to meet anyone who has used all seven levels. If you have used MCT through high school, please share how your child did through the program. What was their academic experience after they were done? TIA

Has anyone here bought any of the MCT ibooks? I'm specifically looking at the Town level: Grammar Town, Practice Town, Caesar's English 1, and possibly Paragraph Town. I noticed that for the Practice book, the TM isn't necessary because of the interactive nature and "check" feature it contains. If you have used any of the ibooks, how have you and your children liked them? Did you also buy the TM for any of the student books you purchased? I live overseas and, therefore, the ibook format is very appealing. However, I would like to know that it is worth it and if so, which TMs I would need to purchase. My son loved the Island level and is begging for Town this coming year.

Can anyone recommend where I can look for Michael Clay Thompson (MCT) Island level to purchase used?

I have seen people talk about a presentation that Micheal Clay Thomas has given explaining how to implement his program, but I can't find it anywhere. Does anyone have a link?

Help! I have two kids, a rising 4th grader and a rising 1st grader. The 4th grader is the harder one to hs. She reads pretty well, about a sixth grade level, but has some speech and grammatical errors, slow to process, and EF problems. She's slow to write and has a hard time organizing her ideas. I'm strongly considering the following two programs together, but worried it's too much. IEW- She has problems summarizing succinctly. I think this will help quite a bit and the sequence of routines should help. I don't think it's enough grammar though so I'm considering ordering MCT. I know they say it is written for gifted students. She has some 2E learning differences, but grammar is not one of her talents. She's artistic though so I think the illustrations and the story book format will appeal to her and help her remember the grammar. I could just buy grammar island and practice island, but they both love doing poetry tea so I could see using Music of the Hemispheres too. Are both of these something I can conceivably use together or will it take me forever to get through both of them throughout the year? FWIW, for reading, we loosely follow a reading through history sequence and we use Singapore for math. TIA

This is from MCT's Practice Voyage: Acrid fumes poured from the engine room; we hoped to put the fire out. TO PUT THE FIRE OUT is described by MCT as a direct object and infinitive phrase. OUT is labeled as an adverb, but we can't figure out what it is modifying. It can't modify TO PUT because it TO PUT is a noun and adverbs only modify verbs, adjectives and other adverbs. So what is OUT modifying? Thank you for your help!

Hello! Can someone please help me understand what to buy? I want to start with the Island series and don't want the writing component. I think where I'm confused is that It states under Grammar Island teacher manual that any teacher manual includes the student book. (In my experience the teacher's manual is different from the student book). This is only $5 more. I just want to be sure that if I buy: for example, Grammar Island teacher manual that I don't need to buy the Grammar Island student book as well. So, from what I'm understanding this is what I want: 1. Building Language: Teacher Manual 2. Grammar Island: Teacher Manual 3. Sentence Island Teacher Book 4. Music Of the Hemispheres, Teacher Manual 5. Practice Island, One Hundred Four-level Analysis Sentences: Teacher Manual Buying these individually is $120 verses buying the packaging ($190). What else would you recommend? Is this everything that I would need? Thanks for any info!

I loved CE 1 and 2 because they were so open and go, and it was obvious how to use them. Now I opened WWW1 for the first time, and I see each chapter has a long list of stems, but only one is actually discussed in detail? In place of a detailed discussion of vocabulary words and how they are used, there is an essay on Greek history. Huh? And why do they insist on placing the answers to the quizzes on the facing page to the quiz itself? Why? Why? I miss CE's mixture of stems and words, and detailed discussion of each stem and each word. I also liked that there was just 5 or so words for each lesson, not 25 like WWW. I'm not really sure how to use these books. How do you use them?