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/

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!

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?

I'm finding it difficult to find a writing tutor who embraces the MCT style like many of us on WTM do. I am not terribly comfortable teaching writing myself, but I can't find anyone else who really knows or understands materials by Michael Clay Thompson. But having read Essay Voyage twice now, I'm beginning to wonder whether I can't swing this on my own. While MCT is huge on this board, in the real world it seems to be unheard of. Do any actual schools use MCT? Are there any math-y or science-y or non-writing people who teach writing to their kids? Using MCT? Please feel free to add any thoughts or vent about teaching MCT essay writing or anything else related.

Has anyone created tests for MCT's vocabulary or other the other MCT books? What about vocabulary testing in other programs? What are some of the features, fun things, or ways to really make sure the information is not just rote? My son is asking for Caesar's English tests since he is really loving all the words, history, and such. For my text anxiety kiddo to ask specifically for a test is quite remarkable and I do not want this opportunity to go by without jumping on it. They do not have to be official tests, just something that I can make look test-ish. Ours are not going to actually count for anything other than just practice and me writing a score on top of the page for him to get excited about. I can make some up, but I was curious what anyone else had discovered or if others were out there so I didn't have to reinvent the wheel?

My dd was reading about MLA in Advanced Academic Writing Volume 1 and looking at the sample paper on p. 17. In the margin the text instructs the student to "Underline book titles." But the book titles in their sample paper (The Age of Liberation, The Liberator) are italicized. I'm not sure now whether MLA wants to see italics or underlines for book titles.

How did you use AAW1? I was skimming through it and noticed it only has 4 essay assignments. Is that enough? Did you supplement with additional writing exercises?

Hello, We recently completed the MCT's Town level and I was researching what to purchase for the next level - Voyage. In the past, I have only purchased the TG of all the books (except the practice books where I get both student and TG). However, for the Voyage, it seems like he is really recommending getting both the student and TG for Grammar Voyage. Has anyone used the newer 3rd edition and is the student and TG both needed? We also used the Classical version of CE 1 last year and really enjoyed it ~ although I saw that they now have a color edition available! ;) Also, is the student book necessary for World of Poetry or Essay Voyage? Whew! It is getting expensive to keep up with this curriculum and we really like it but are trying to keep costs down as much as possible. ;) Thanks for the help, Jenny

Hi -- We have happily and successfully used FLL & WWE (two years)/IEW (started last year). We saw MCT at his first conference in Valley Forge, but our oldest is just now at the right age to consider this curriculum. I have a lot of questions, but saw several threads about the same concerns so I will study those later, so for now I am only wondering: Can the MCT poetics (specifically Music Hemispheres & maybe Building Poems) stand alone? Regardless what we do with grammar/writing/language arts in general, we would like to introduce this sort of poetry instruction. If the MCT poetry stuff can be used independently of the other MCT things, that would be super! Thanks for any help with this!

I've about given up on finding used copies of MCT Town level books. I'd like to get the new classical education edition, probably the fancy color one but I'd be fine with the b/w one. This lists the package options: http://www.rfwp.com/browse/package As far as I can tell, there are 7 level 2 packages but I don't think any of them include the teacher manuals, skip the extraneous student books, but still include the new CE classical books. I thought most homeschoolers just got the teacher manuals. Do I need to buy them all separately or am I missing something?

Posting this here since I previously bothered ya'll with my waffling about grammar for next year...and b/c it's about doing a grammar program ahead of "schedule." I picked up the TM for BL, GI, SI, and SI-practice for dirt cheap at a used curriculum sale, so that has put my plans for next year in revision. Few questions - 1) The set I got didn't come with MotH, so while I'm at it, I think I should add it in. I'm poking around the internet for a cheap used copy - would it be a problem to use a first edition of MotH if the rest of the books are the revised editions? Is the revised MotH so much better that I should try to get that? 2) I was flipping through BL and, um, I have a basic question. MCT calls prefixes "stems." Now, everything I know about grammar I learned from my Greek class (and now SWB with FLL 1 & 2). But in Greek you always take off the prefix, such as an alpha privative, to get the "stem of the word" so my mind is rebelling against the idea of calling "pre-" a "stem." So in English grammar, prefixes and suffixes are called stems? Does this not cause a problem for further study of Latin (and possibly Greek)? 3) Additional LA - I'm planning to use HTTS, which includes dictation. And continue reading lit, and have him narrate there. He's done basic mechanics in FLL2 and is "so done" with that. So other than that.. I had been looking at W&R Fable because I have nagging low-level anxiety about not doing any creative writing with him. He had done quite a bit of that in his K class, but this year I have just been working on those little "optional" things that make writing readable, like forming letters correctly, and spelling, and not putting capital letters in the middle of words, and leaving spaces between words (! :svengo: !). He still writes stories on his own, and he has shown great improvement in the above areas, but the idea of paragraphs aren't on his radar yet. I was thinking I could go slow and modify Fable, but after looking through the TM it seems that the real issue would be maturity, CP just doesn't logically reason "why" very well yet, so many of the discussion questions would be lost on him. And Fable seems to presume you know how to paragraph (yes?). I don't want to start Fable too soon and miss out on the real goodies in it in the process, kwim? Which is all to say, should I be confident in Island giving my kid enough (structured) creative writing practice? Can I put a DONE check-mark next to LA, and resist the temptation to buy anything else?

My dd13 and I pretty well have had it with Magic Lens 1. It just seems heavy on nomenclature of phrases and clauses for which we already have an intuitive understanding. We're about finished with ML1, and my next step was to start on 4Practice, but now I'm having second thoughts. The end of ML1 has a bunch of 4 level analysis, and frankly, I'm not sure how helpful that has been for my dd13. The trouble is 4 level analysis does not give much practice in identifying errors in punctuation and usage. Maybe this was obvious to everyone else except me, but now I think I need to catch up. I'm considering starting her on my copy of Sadlier's Grammar and Writing book. What would you use in place of 4Practice to practice usage and punctuation? I will probably continue with Advanced Academic Writing and WWW. Alternatively, if you feel like 4Practice has been awesome, I want to hear from you, too.

I am trying to pull together materials for next year, and I'm wondering what version of CE2 people like? I am currently overwhelmed a bit by all of the versions available on the rfwp site. Is the color version worth the upgrade? We used the new CE1 last year, but I'm somehow confused at the moment about what I need or want for this year.

I have been using FLL and WWE with my older child from 2nd through 4th grade but I am re-evaluating the curriculum choices for her and also for my DS who will be in 1st next fall. I'm planning on using CAP W&R 3&4 for her in 5th. But could she benefit from Paragraph Town as well? I'm still kind of on the search for a 5th grade grammar curriculum. I would like for it to have some diagramming so DD doesn't forget what she already learned in FLL4. It doesn't seem like there's much out there with that kind of diagramming. Is MCT Grammar an option after FLL4? I've glanced at the samples. I don't get what the student does. :confused1: For DD, soon to be in 2nd grade, is it too early for the first levels of MCT writing and grammar? Again, not getting what the student actually does. How do they practice writing? Do you need to buy the Teacher books? Thanks. I appreciate any tips on this.

I want to use mct for the grammar section only. After reading lots of threads on this, it seems that both grammar island and sentence island have grammar in them and I should get both. Also, I am planning to get practise island - both student & teacher books. 1. Is this what you recommend? 2. Can I get just the teacher edition of both books (grammar island & sentence island) or do I need student editions as well? 3. How updated are the new editions? Would getting an old edition used be a good option or have they really improved them so that I would want the newer editions? 4. These will be for my younger children. If I want an older child (hs age) to get review for grammar - something she has always struggled with - would you use these for her to read through or would you get a higher level? [cost is a factor for me here]. Thanks for your thoughts!

Okay, I'm such a grammar dope, I don't even know whether I'm wrong or the book is wrong. So here are some fun grammar exercises for you from your friendly copy of Magic Lens 1 (MCT). The geneticist's hobby was to study pathogenic substances. The book says "pathogenic" is a noun. I think it's an adjective. Cracked lengthwise, the object was discovered near the cascade. The book says "cascade" is an adjective. I think it's a noun. Closing the door helped to reduce the cacophony. The book says cacophony is an adjective. I say it's a noun. And finally this one: Dr. Garcia, the new mortician, was mortified at the wound. The book says "mortified" is an adjective. Dd thinks "was mortified" is a passive verb phrase. Can someone help me to distinguish the two? Is there a good rule of thumb?