FLL3 and MCT?

[mamapjama]

I have planned on using FLL3 with my 8 yo. MCT keeps calling me. Would the two work together? Should I wait and do MCT another year? Are they similar in regards to what is taught (I know the styles are very different)?

[cindylulu]

Hi. I had to make the same decision for this year. My 10 year old did FLL3 last year for 3rd grade and we liked it alot. I had planned on doing it with my 9yr. old for 3rd this year, but MCT was "calling me" too. I ordered "Grammar Island" (just the main book) a few months ago. We read through it together and the boys loved it! I have since ordered the rest of the "Island" package. I plan to use MCT along with "Daily Grams" and "Story Grammar" (both suggested on the boards here). I don't know which is better though. My children could recite every list from FLL3 and never complained about doing the work. We liked it. However, when I needed them to apply the information learned, they couldn't. That might just be my kids though. The program is great. So, only time will tell if this new way will work better. Good luck.

[mamapjama]

If we did FLL this year (gr. 3) would Island level be appropriate for gr. 4 or would I move on to the next level?

[cindylulu]

I'm not sure where you should start. One of my boys just finished FLL1/2 and the other just finished FLL3. I am starting both of them at the "Island" level and working through from the beginning. Maybe someone will post a reply that's had more experience. The "Daily Grams" we are adding in are 3rd and 4th grade levels. I am doing this to make myself feel like they are at their appropriate grade level. Oh yea, and to give them extra practice. :001_smile:

[Crimson Wife]

If we did FLL this year (gr. 3) would Island level be appropriate for gr. 4 or would I move on to the next level?

 

I think a child who has finished FLL3 (and retained the material) would be fine with the grammar in MCT "town" level. However, the other components of the level might be a bit challenging. It really depends on the individual student.

 

Also, keep in mind that there's a pretty big jump up in difficulty between "town" and "voyage". So with a younger student you might be looking at having to take a break between those 2 levels. That's where my DD is this upcoming school year.

[MyLittleWonders]

We are currently doing FLL and MCT. Ds#1 is half-way through FLL 3 and ds#2 just started FLL 2. They each do FLL separately (right now dh is home so he'll do FLL 2 with ds#2 while I do FLL 3 with ds#1). Once the school year starts, I'll take turns with them in their level of FLL while the other does something independently.

 

Then, we do MCT together. I write the sentence from Practice Island on the board; they are getting a lot better at finding the 8 parts of speech and prepositional phrases. After that, I read to them from one of the books. We already read through Grammar Island, but we are rereading it (probably a couple times through). We also read through one stem from Building Language over two weeks. Yesterday we finally started Music of the Hemisphere and today we'll start reading through Sentence Island. We read for about 10 minutes or to a "natural" feeling break-point, and pick it back up the next week.

 

For now it's going well. I like the drill feel of FLL. Ds#1 complains a bit about it because he's tired of diagramming sentences. :lol: But, after a couple more lessons, the diagrams seem to take a backseat for a bit while we talk about other things. Ds#2 doesn't mind FLL 2 because we do it mostly all oral with him. ;) I plan on having the boys complete all levels of FLL while doing MCT together with me.

 

Our schedule is 3 days of FLL and 4 days of MCT (one day for each book - we started with just reading Grammar Island four days each week until we read through it, and then went to one day for each of the four books, with a sentence from Practice Island everyday at lunchtime). Hope that helps. :)

[mamapjama]

This helps a lot! Thanks everyone. Now to sit down and decide :lol: