Looking ahead

[SunshineMom]

Can anyone talk to me about the differences between FLL and MCT? Will FLL 1&2 prepare for MCT? How accurate are proposed grade levels for each? We are moving slowly but alot of FLL is slow, we are skipping many pages. I am not in a rush and I am looking ahead. Better to stick with FLL over the years or MCT? Please tell me your experience with either program. Thank you in advance!

[LisaDSB]

My DS9 is using the first level of MCT - Grammar Island. He loves it, as do I. It is fairly subtle in introducing the parts of speech -- there isn't any drill (although there is a book that comes after the grammar book, called Practice Island, where they apply what they've learned). He hasn't found it too challenging, as he already knew the parts of speech pretty well, but he really enjoys the materials and often asks to do grammar or the vocabulary book from the series (this is a math/science kid). We do it as a read-aloud mainly, so it's a pleasant time together too.

 

I started my DS7 on FLL 1 & 2 this year, and I would say it isn't going over nearly as well as Grammar Island does with the older boy. I skip through most of it, as long as he can tell me the definitions. We do the memory work, because he likes that, and I basically treat it as a way of ensuring there aren't gaps in his knowledge.

 

My DS7 is great at language arts, but I didn't feel he was quite ready to do Grammar Island this year. We will do it next year for sure. It's meant for about grade 3 or 4 gifted. I won't do FLL again, I'm quite sure, but I think FLL 1&2 will prepare DS7 for the switch to MCT next year.

 

I think MCT is a wonderful program -- a great combination of attractive, inspiring materials, higher-level analysis that gifted kids need and a comprehensive approach to language arts.

[Donna]

My dd (7yo) did part of FLL 1 when she was 5. She got bored with it and at the time I was using an unschooling approach for her so we stopped. Last year at 6yo, she did MCT Grammar Island (and the rest of the series- poetry and vocabulary) joining in with her older brothers lessons and learned it as quickly as they did. We started Grammar Town and Sentence Island in the spring last year but it was a fairly big jump not do much with the grammar books but the vocabulary and poetry books got much more difficult so I put it all away until this September.

 

I saved Practice Island until this year when she is working through Grammar Town and Sentence Island concurrently. Besides Practice Island, there is no workbook or review so it works well with the second level when she can do all the levels of analysis on the sentences.

 

Grammar Island starts out fairly slowly and clearly explains the parts of speech. My kids don't do well with busy work so the program works well for them. As far as level goes, I think it is geared toward gifted 3-4th grade but it has worked well for 1st and now 2nd grade for my dd.

[EKS]

I extensively reviewed FLL 1/2 when my son was in kindergarten and ultimately decided that it would drive him and me crazy with the repetition. Instead, he used GWG 3 in first grade and now in second grade is using the Island level MCT materials. I would say that GWG was a valuable experience, though one of the reasons I moved away from GWG is that he was retaining very little (though he did answer every question in the Language section right on the second grade ITBS last year). I do think it helped prepare him for MCT though, in that he was at least familiar with many of the terms. I think going into MCT without that base would have been more difficult.

 

I just realized that I have no idea if this addressed your question at all.

[radiobrain]

I started MCT Island level when my boys were 8 & 9.

 

All we had done before that was mad libs. I had 2 late readers, so we were working more on that (I read at 2, so I had NO IDEA how to teach reading... it was awful!).

 

So, it is possible to do MCT w/o any previous stuff. I am sure it will be fine.

[melmichigan]

We are using FLL 1/2 with WWE this year and I also skip a lot and sub in pages from the VE workbook at times to cement something, and to force handwriting for my one reluctant writer. I'm not sure, but I will definately be looking at MCT Island for next year. My DD10 will be doing Voyage this spring. I will start FLL and WWE younger with my last two DC.

[TKDmom]

I have come to the conclusion that FLL 1/2 is not a good fit for a gifted child. It has waaay too much repetition. Maybe it would work for them at the K level. I'm going to try it with my K'er starting in Jan(I will only loosely follow the script and not repeat definitions 15 times). It was a spectacular failure with my (then) 2nd grader last year.

 

I know I'm not really answering your question, but if I were to do it again with a 2nd grader, I'd probably look into FLL 3 (which I haven't tried). I am going to buy MCT for my 3rd grader as soon as we get back from Christmas.

[Truscifi]

I started FLL with my then ds4, and even then we skipped a lot of the repetition. We are almost done with FLL2 and are looking at starting Grammar Island next. I think FLL has provided a good base to start from, and we have liked learning all the poems.

[SunshineMom]

I think we will finish FLL1/2 this year, have some fun with MadLibs and next year, try MCT. FLL is slow but I am hoping that the book will be meatier towards the second half. Thank you all for the insight.