Mom-ninja. Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 Yea! Another MCT thread. Right now we're doing FLL3. For next year I'm wondering if I should do FLL4 or skip it and go into MCT Island. They seem like completely different ways of learning grammar. Would it be confusing to do MCT and FLL? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WyoSylvia Posted November 23, 2009 Share Posted November 23, 2009 :lurk5: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HollyBee Posted December 1, 2009 Share Posted December 1, 2009 :lurk5: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radiobrain Posted December 1, 2009 Share Posted December 1, 2009 (edited) Probably not. I would think you could do both, even though I haven't seen a FLL since the first one.... Edited December 1, 2009 by radiobrain forgot something! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hscherger Posted December 1, 2009 Share Posted December 1, 2009 My son, who is also eight, is doing FLL3 right now and we are going to jump right to Grammar Town next year. No FLL4 for us. He gets annoyed with the constant repitition of the instructions. He often says, "I understand Mom!". My daughter, who is 12, is doing Grammar Town right now. She is flying through it and I think he will understand it just fine next year. Also, the idea of saving a little money is appealing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafiki Posted December 1, 2009 Share Posted December 1, 2009 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Alte Veste Academy Posted December 1, 2009 Share Posted December 1, 2009 If FLL is working, don't fix something that isn't broken. Why are you wanting to change? I'm not the OP but one reason is that since FLL doesn't go any further than 4, those using it have to move on at some point anyway. If you know you're going to be moving on to MCT materials, it makes sense to begin at the age/grade the program is designed to start with, even if that means abandoning the FLL ship a little earlier than you would otherwise. I'm very happy with our LA combo right now but I'm looking ahead for logic stage and following the MCT threads with great interest. I'm a little irritated that the programs I'm considering (CW and now MCT) are reaching down into the grammar stage because I would prefer to go through the next few years unconflicted. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafiki Posted December 1, 2009 Share Posted December 1, 2009 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom-ninja. Posted December 2, 2009 Author Share Posted December 2, 2009 I'm not the OP but one reason is that since FLL doesn't go any further than 4, those using it have to move on at some point anyway. If you know you're going to be moving on to MCT materials, it makes sense to begin at the age/grade the program is designed to start with, even if that means abandoning the FLL ship a little earlier than you would otherwise. I'm very happy with our LA combo right now but I'm looking ahead for logic stage and following the MCT threads with great interest. I'm a little irritated that the programs I'm considering (CW and now MCT) are reaching down into the grammar stage because I would prefer to go through the next few years unconflicted. :tongue_smilie: Exactly. We like FLL but we only have one year left. I'm looking around for what to use then. Since MCT starts 3rd/4th grade it makes me wonder if I shouldn't just start it now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom-ninja. Posted December 2, 2009 Author Share Posted December 2, 2009 My son, who is also eight, is doing FLL3 right now and we are going to jump right to Grammar Town next year. No FLL4 for us. He gets annoyed with the constant repitition of the instructions. He often says, "I understand Mom!". My daughter, who is 12, is doing Grammar Town right now. She is flying through it and I think he will understand it just fine next year. Also, the idea of saving a little money is appealing! I was wondering this. From the samples of Grammar Island it looks like it might be a bit easy after the rigor of FLL. Are you going to use all the parts of MCT? If you do will you also start everything at the Town level? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hscherger Posted December 2, 2009 Share Posted December 2, 2009 I was wondering this. From the samples of Grammar Island it looks like it might be a bit easy after the rigor of FLL. Are you going to use all the parts of MCT? If you do will you also start everything at the Town level? Good question. I am going to start grammar at the Town level because of the rigor of FLL. I am going to start vocabulary at the Town level because he has been learning latin and greek roots already. I am still up in the air about the poetry. I think over the next nine or so years he'll learn enough about poetry to make it "okay" to skip the Island level book :D We don't use MCT for writing because I love IEW and it works for us. I might be a more relaxed MCT user than some, but what we do use we LOVE! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom-ninja. Posted December 2, 2009 Author Share Posted December 2, 2009 I'll have to decide what level to start with then. Decisions, decisions. :001_smile: Ds will eventually do ABCD level D which teaches Greek and Latin roots so... I could do FLL 4 next year, and then start MCT in 5th. The only thing though is that FLL does diagraming and MCT does it differently. I don't want to teach too much with diagrams, and switch to a completely different method. :001_huh: Has anyone switched to MCT after doing FLL? When did you switch? What level did you start in MCT since it seems that FLL is more rigorous? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyLittleWonders Posted January 9, 2010 Share Posted January 9, 2010 I'm sorry for bumping this after a month, but it is the same exact question I'm debating for next year as well. We are doing FLL 3 and will start MCT in the fall - but the debate has been with or without FLL 4. I was thinking of starting at the Island level so that ds#1 is introduced to the program from the beginning, but I am not sure. I also thought if we started Island in 4th, then he'd (and subsequent ds') would finish the 6 years in 9th grade, right? I'm just thinking that the rigor of the later levels would be better suited for late-middle school instead of earlier, but this is all conjecture for now. Like others, we like FLL and it is working for both my school-aged kids, but we already know we want to use MCT, and so the decision of either finishing FLL 4 while starting MCT, or abandoning FLL a year early to start MCT. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoPlaceLikeHome Posted January 9, 2010 Share Posted January 9, 2010 I am doing FLL 3 as well as K12 Language Arts since ds is enrolled in a cyber school:tongue_smilie:. I plan on doing FLL 4 as well as starting MCT Island Level since I do not want him to miss either since they are both great:D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MyLittleWonders Posted January 9, 2010 Share Posted January 9, 2010 I am doing FLL 3 as well as K12 Language Arts since ds is enrolled in a cyber school:tongue_smilie:. I plan on doing FLL 4 as well as starting MCT Island Level since I do not want him to miss either since they are both great:D. That's no help! ;) :D My instinct is to buy both just because I like buying curriculum any way and I like FLL and have a very strong feeling we'll love MCT. But then I worry that FLL will be left on the shelf or I'll make us use it even if we don't just because I bought it and it's a good program. Chances are, though, I'll buy both. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs. H Posted January 9, 2010 Share Posted January 9, 2010 I've been spending a lot of time with my newly arrived MCT materials over the last couple of days, so I'd like to comment here. My impression of the elementary grammar books is that they ramp up in difficulty very slowly over the three levels. The example sentences, and especially the example paragraphs do increase in sophistication between the three levels, and there are more examples in Grammar Island, but very little new material is introduced in each level. A child who has completed FLL3 may not find much that is new in Grammar Island and it leaves the impression of being written to a younger child- it is a little "babyish" imo (of course others may feel differently). If your child did well in FLL3, I just can't see putting them in Grammar Island. The writing materials, on the other hand, seem to me to make a larger jump in difficulty between the three levels. The children are still just writing sentences at the end of sentence town, but there are some challenging exercises in paragraph town. Essay voyage really takes it up to a whole other level, and the examples used in the text include some difficult reading. Unless a child has done a lot of writing, and has a good feel for language use, I can see starting almost any elementary aged child in sentence island, even just to slow down the process so that they do not reach Essay Voyage too soon. Well, there's my two cents for you. Keep in mind that I haven't actually used the materials yet, lol, so others may have to correct some of my impressions. -Sarah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christine in al Posted January 9, 2010 Share Posted January 9, 2010 Music of the Hemispheres is so amazing. We are doing Grammar Island and FLL 3, FLL 3 seems obvious to him and he wants to jsut go ahead and diagram. I've started letting him. Grammar Island and FLL use slightly different terms, Adjectives describe in FLL, modify in GI. And a few of the otehr terms seem different. But so far it's worth it to do both because they cover things in different ways. diagram or label. why not know both?? ~christine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafiki Posted January 9, 2010 Share Posted January 9, 2010 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rafiki Posted January 9, 2010 Share Posted January 9, 2010 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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