Only one MCT series, which would it be?

[mamapjama]

I'm still toying with the idea of ordering MCT for this year (3rd grade). But honestly the price is killing me and it is $30 for them to ship to Canada :(

 

So for those of you who have all three levels, which would you say was best, or your child learned the most?

[Storm Bay]

We ordered this for the first time, but only ordered the books we need here the most since we already have so much from my eldest. I ordered two of the writing books and am very impressed after taking a good look at them. This doesn't answer your question, of course, but is another option.

 

Something to consider is that if you're doing more than one dc, you may be able to have them do the same level since they are for such and such a grade and up.

 

If I were you and all I was buying English for this year is grade 3 and you want to do an entire level, I'd simply order the first level and see how you like it. It may be worth it to you to order more next year. My ds is so different from my dd's that I may buy him more next year (especially if my eldest switches to ps for grade 11) but since I already own Rod & Staff I opted to start off having him do one book this year to see how it works for him.

[Susan in KY]

I haven't reviewed them all, but since there are no other replies....

 

I purchased Grammar Island and Practice Island for my dc, 4th/5th grades. When we read Grammar Island and began Practice Island, it was at the close of 3rd/4th grades.

 

Honestly, they didn't really get it at first. Grammar Island was fun, but they didn't really take it in and make it their own until around practice sentence #50! Let me tell you, though, they really understand it now and, I think, are ready to roll right into the full Town series. I briefly entertained going back to Sentence Island after thoroughly investigating the Town series—because Paragraph Town is THAT good. It's brilliant. Incidentally, I bought the other components of Town level as well, but if all my dc pick up is how to write a coherent paragraph, I will be satisfied.

 

I can't speak for Voyage, but I would say with a third grader that you should at least pick up Grammar and Practice Island, perhaps Sentence Island, and then move on to the full Town level. I can't imagine skipping the fundamentals in Paragraph Town.

 

Hope that helps you a little.

[radiobrain]

I can understand the shipping price is killing you (that's nuts), but I still never understand why people think MCT is so expensive. Especially if you buy the basic HS package. It has a year's worth of grammar, vocab, poetics, writing and practice. IEW, LToW, and many others are way more expensive, and piecing together the same content with other books must end up being nearly the same price, and not the same quality and cohesiveness.

 

Sorry, it has always bugged me. ;)

 

I think that if you can start from the beginning, it is best. The levels are all so different from each other.

 

But I would say that if your question really is, I am only going to buy one level no matter what... then I would say Town, NEXT year. I think Town level is spectacular. All 4 books. But Island is too, just in a different way, KWIM?

 

The levels are different. You can't get around that. Really. You can't.

[Matryoshka]

I'm still toying with the idea of ordering MCT for this year (3rd grade). But honestly the price is killing me and it is $30 for them to ship to Canada :(

 

Do you mean only one for this year, or only one ever? For this year, Island, no question. I like Town even better, but then I wouldn't bother getting it till next year or even the year after.

 

I can understand the shipping price is killing you (that's nuts), but I still never understand why people think MCT is so expensive. Especially if you buy the basic HS package. It has a year's worth of grammar, vocab, poetics, writing and practice. IEW, LToW, and many others are way more expensive, and piecing together the same content with other books must end up being nearly the same price, and not the same quality and cohesiveness.

 

That has always confused me too. The Basic homeschool package is $120 for Island, and includes writing, vocab, grammar and poetry. Honestly, at Island level you can skip the vocab and save $15 there. The whole Town level is only $105.

 

IEW TWSS is $145-$269 just for writing. LToW is $157 just for writing. Jr. Analytic Grammar is $40 just for grammar, and regular AG is $95 just for grammar. I never hear anyone complain about how expensive they are (except I've been complaining about LToW's price tag 'cause I want it! :tongue_smilie:)

[Kuovonne]

I still never understand why people think MCT is so expensive. Especially if you buy the basic HS package. It has a year's worth of grammar, vocab, poetics, writing and practice.

 

That has always confused me too. The Basic homeschool package is $120 for Island, and includes writing, vocab, grammar and poetry. Honestly, at Island level you can skip the vocab and save $15 there. The whole Town level is only $105.

 

Okay, so MCT isn't that expensive when compared to IEW, LToW, AG, BraveWriter, and other Language Arts programs that are geared to upper elementary and beyond.

 

If you've struggled through other upper-elementary writing programs, MCT sounds like a perfect match, and you value the poetry and vocabulary, MCT's price tag might not be a big deal.

 

However, more and more people are looking at MCT as a next step after lower elementary language arts, and are comparing the price of MCT with the what they are used to paying for language arts. MCT *is* expensive if you're coming from something like First Language Lessons, WWE, Primary Language Lessons, Language Lessons Series, LLAT, WRR, or free copywork & dictation. Plus, some people might not have done vocabulary or poetry before, and aren't sure they want to pay for it.

[radiobrain]

Okay, so MCT isn't that expensive when compared to IEW, LToW, AG, BraveWriter, and other Language Arts programs that are geared to upper elementary and beyond.

 

If you've struggled through other upper-elementary writing programs, MCT sounds like a perfect match, and you value the poetry and vocabulary, MCT's price tag might not be a big deal.

 

However, more and more people are looking at MCT as a next step after lower elementary language arts, and are comparing the price of MCT with the what they are used to paying for language arts. MCT *is* expensive if you're coming from something like First Language Lessons, WWE, Primary Language Lessons, Language Lessons Series, LLAT, WRR, or free copywork & dictation. Plus, some people might not have done vocabulary or poetry before, and aren't sure they want to pay for it.

 

Good point. But in the grand scheme of things... it is not a lot (as LA should be a GIANT portion of your home educating).

[JaneGrey]

I thought of getting just the Voyage level, because he includes review every time. I'm glad I didn't. It depends, though, on what your kids already know and how old they are. (Mine are little.) You might try purchasing Town (teacher's manual) and stopping after the parts of speech review to work through Practice Island exercises (there are 100 and he suggests one a day or something like that). If it's failing, go back and purchase Island. It's probably cheaper to purchase Town and Island and resell anything you don't want.

 

To trim down costs, I suggest choosing just the teacher's manual or student book for the grammar level you're interested in. (I got just the teacher's manual after seeing a teacher's manual and student book side by side. Notice that I have a very nice and well-endowed friend. Is she reading this?)

 

As for Practice Island, you can also purchase just the teacher's manual and get away with it. Write the sentences on the board and have them take turns figuring out parts of speech. If you want a workbook to rip up :tongue_smilie:, you could get the PI workbook, but you should still get the teacher's manual, because he has good tidbits in there.

 

I also borrowed the same friend's Building Language and Sentence Island, and I own the poetry book. There are basically ten Latin prefixes in Building Language. Of course, he writes about them eloquently, but you don't really need this. MCT is brilliant in his approach to grammar, so I would almost say you "need" his grammar. However, you can study roots/vocabulary another way.

 

Sentence Island is written as a long story in six or so chapters. My kids liked reading the story, taking turns voicing the characters. Some kids hate the story aspect. It's a silly story covering one common sentence problem per chapter (like writing fragments and failing to create agreement between subject and verb). At the end of each chapter, he has multiple choice review. At the end of the book, he has suggested writing exercises. (I must have been looking at just the teacher's manual.) You'll find one page of exercises (maybe 4-6 or something like that) per chapter. We didn't do all of these.

 

The exercises are creative, but I don't think think of this as a complete writing program. First, it doesn't teach different types of composition. Second, he doesn't provide step-by-step instruction on how to write well. (He might inspire you and perhaps your child, but you need to follow through.) Keep in mind that the beauty of his work is how he simplifies the topic so you can see the big picture. He's not trying to be thorough in his coverage. (Note that even with his grammar instruction, it's nice to have something to fill in the details. I used Rod & Staff.)

 

Finally: the poetry book. It was inspirational and lots of fun to read. I love poetry, so I appreciate his passion for it. However, I'm still going to try Poetry Primer and Grammar of Poetry, because I think those books cover similar ground more efficiently. So, I wouldn't say that you "need" his poetry book. You can read a poem every day and read about poetry analysis online. It would be much less lively, but it would get the job done. (Also, his exercises in the poetry book would have been a lot more fun with more kids, since it's written for a classroom.)

 

I hope that helps. I always appreciate details in reviews.

Edited August 8, 2010 by JaneGrey
more information

[Capt_Uhura]

If I absolutely had to trim costs, for Island Level, I would skip Building Language - I think those stems are reviewed in Caesar's English 1. You can skip the Practice Island student book and just get the Teacher's manual for Practice Island and have DC do them on a white board or write them in a notebook. So you'd buy Teacher's manual for Grammar Island, Sentence Island, Music of the Hemisphere's.

 

I haven't looked at Building Poems. Fellow MCTers, does Building Poems review much of what is in Music of the Hemisphere's? I would assume so. If so, then you can further trim Island level by skipping Music of the Hemisphere's unless poetry really floats your boat.

 

Then after that, for Town level, I'd go w/ the whole shibang (how do you spell that word?).

[Storm Bay]

I can understand the shipping price is killing you (that's nuts), but I still never understand why people think MCT is so expensive.

 

 

Well, if you've bought something like R&S or Easy Grammar (just for 2 examples) & then a used writing book, Spelling Power (which lasts for years for natural spellers) MCT does seem expensive to buy all at once. There are two reasons I've never bought something like IEP, and one is the price.

 

That said, sometimes we do need the bite the bullet and buy something like this. But if we were to spend this much for each subject per grade we'd exceed our budget. I realize that you're not addressing people like me who already have materials & are homeschooling at least one high schooler, but this was my thinking years ago. We were buying all subjects for 2 grades since dh was originally opposed to homeschooling & so I had one in K & one in gr 4 our first official year of homeschooling, and it was like this for several years.

 

ETA--I meant that if you've already purchased those items, and well before you ever heard of MCT and you would prefer to keep using materials for all of your dc if you can.

Edited August 17, 2010 by Karin

[radiobrain]

delete.

Edited August 11, 2010 by radiobrain
didn't really feel like it.

[mamapjama]

I did it :) I ordered the whole island level. Now for the fun of seeing how long it takes to cross the border and find my house! Thank you for all the help.