Rosie Posted November 24, 2011 Share Posted November 24, 2011 I have officially decided to buy the Island level books (probably minus the vocab book), but I can't decide when to start using them and with whom... Background info: My dd8 has been reading non-stop since she was three and has a good intuitive sense of what language should sound like. She has always been linguistically advanced. We are working this year to get her to a point of doing more actual handwriting because right now she is dictating most writing assignments to me. She is an auditory learner, but also highly visual. I feel like we could do more in LA for her right now. She currently does handwriting and one other LA component (copywork, dictation, freewrite, revision, short written narration, letter, journal, keen observation or communication game a la Bravewriter) each school day and it takes her about 15-45 minutes in total. I don't feel like she's being challenged very much. Her copywork is flawless and dictation is nearly so. Every once in a while she misspells a word, but she is a natural speller and will remember the correct spelling from then on once it is pointed out to her. The only challenging thing is getting her to write MORE and I don't want to push that too much. Her intellect is her strength and I'd rather push a bit harder in that area than in small motor skills. I think she would really enjoy MCT right now. She would learn a lot but I don't think it would be too challenging. My dd6 has been reading since she was four but not as voraciously as her sister. She spells on a 5th grade level, but writes (dictates) on a pretty average 1st/2nd grade level, I think. She is not as intuitive with grammar (or maybe she is/will be and I don't realize it. Her sister was in K at that age, not learning much, and I wasn't working with her on writing at all so I can't accurately compare them). She is an extremely visual learner, very good at making leaps in math concepts on her own, and loves to cuddle on the couch to do school work when at all possible. She would sit all day creating elaborate works of art or doing math sheets and rarely crack open a book or write a story if I'd let her. I obviously could start on MCT with my 8yo, but I seriously don't like to waste time and like to school them together as much as possible. They often do the same dictation, sometimes the same writing assignments. They do Bible, History, Science, Poetry, and Read-Alouds together. They even do a lot of math together since we do a lot of extra fun math stuff and the 6yo is very mathematically intuitive. I enjoy doing school this way and just know to expect more from my 8yo than my 6yo. For instance, I expect my 8yo to work on giving either complete narrations with as many details as possible or ask her to give a summary in a couple sentences. My 6yo is still at the point of needing me to ask specific questions for her to answer. So, I'm used to differentiating instruction/expectations a bit. Is it possible to do that with MCT? Would my 6yo be missing out on a lot by starting it earlier than the recommended age range? I don't mind doing writing assignments orally with her. That's pretty much what we do right now, anyway. If we decide to stick with MCT, I'm totally fine with stretching Island, Town, and Voyage over 4-5 years for them. If we run into a wall at some point (and I'm assuming we will) I have no problem coming up with my own thing for a while until they are ready to move forward. But, since I'm in no rush to finish the three levels early, should I be in no rush to begin them? I'm just excited to start because it looks like we'll really like it, but I don't want to rush ahead if it would be better to wait. I plan on having them listen to Grammar-land a couple times over the next month. They have had close to no grammar instruction at all yet. Brian Cleary books, Schoolhouse Rock DVD - that's it. I don't know if they need more than that to begin the Island level. Has anyone BTDT? I don't want to jump the gun on this if it's not the best thing for my kids.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carrie12345 Posted November 24, 2011 Share Posted November 24, 2011 I think your best bet is going to be the try and see route! I can tell you that my 9yo is enjoying MCT Island and picking up the concepts fairly easily (minus her recent email to MIL that read "Me and Morgan learned about subject pronouns and object pronouns today." :001_huh:) My 8yo enjoys it, but struggles, likely due to LD issues. My 4.5 yo doesn't "do school", but picks up quite a bit from the overheard lessons. All to say, I don't think there's a "too young" for MCT. I don't believe there's much drawback to slowing down the pace if the older is doing other things in addition, formally or independently. Island covers things I did't know until now, so I consider it a bonus if my kids know before high school! ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halcyon Posted November 24, 2011 Share Posted November 24, 2011 I use MCT Island with my 6 year old, and he adores it and has learned a lot! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LittleIzumi Posted November 24, 2011 Share Posted November 24, 2011 I started it with my 6-year-old, and she liked it a lot but wasn't retaining much, so I'm waiting until she's a little older. She remembered pronouns, but that was it. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alte Veste Academy Posted November 24, 2011 Share Posted November 24, 2011 I started it with my 6-year-old, and she liked it a lot but wasn't retaining much, so I'm waiting until she's a little older. She remembered pronouns, but that was it. :lol: :lol: The pronoun stuff is amusing. My DD started Island with us at 6 and she actually likes it better than DS8 (and that's saying a lot). However, who you need to hear from are the people who have used many levels, as I've heard repeatedly that the writing ramps up fast and can be harder to keep up with. DD loves it and keeps up with it now. Only time will tell if the pace can be maintained. If, as you said, you don't mind slowing down and supplementing with other resources, you'll probably be fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadrunner Posted November 24, 2011 Share Posted November 24, 2011 I use MCT Island with my 6 year old, and he adores it and has learned a lot! Same here. However my 6 year old can't handle writing assignments just yet and I believe poetry is going over his head. However, he nailed grammar and loves sentence analysis. We will read the poetry book again when he is older. The material is intended for 3rd graders, so it's just right for 8 year olds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoo_keeper Posted November 24, 2011 Share Posted November 24, 2011 I'm doing the Island level with my 4 & 6 year olds. My 4 yo loves the stories and the poems but only really retains the nouns and a few other parts of speech when we do PI (I'm planning on cycling back through the series with her, just like SOTW). The 6 yo, however, rocks everything. (The only things they didn't get as a whole was the analysis of poem parts in MotH, and I didn't retain that myself.) I am amazed at how much the 6 yo has soaked up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acurtis75 Posted November 24, 2011 Share Posted November 24, 2011 I use MCT Island with my 6 year old, and he adores it and has learned a lot! :iagree: my 6 yo dd is enjoying the Island series also. She's doing well with the 4 level analysis also. I think it would be fine to read/discuss it together but expect the 8 yo to do the analysis on her own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joannqn Posted November 25, 2011 Share Posted November 25, 2011 Island level is pretty gentle so I think it would work out fine. I think you may have issues with higher levels, though. Town and Voyage level is so much more advanced than Island. Magic Lens is so much more advanced than Town and Voyage. I can't imagine most 9 year olds being able to handle Magic Lens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie Posted November 25, 2011 Author Share Posted November 25, 2011 Thank you for sharing your experiences, everyone! I think I'm going to get it for them for Christmas, go over the parts of speech with them over the next month, listen to Grammar Land, and then start Grammar Island sometime in January. We'll take it slow. I guess I'll have to wait and see if the 6yo can handle it or not. I absolutely don't plan on speeding through these at the normal one-level-per-year rate. We have plenty (Bravewriter stuff, copywork/dictation, oral and written narration, 2 Sonlight LA levels) to keep us busy if we need it. A bit off-topic, but are the Magic Lens levels independent? It seems that I keep choosing teacher-intensive programs and I have a third child coming up to school age pretty soon so I don't know if I'll be able to continue with this way of doing school! It would help if SOMETHING could be independent at some point besides handwriting! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosie Posted November 26, 2011 Author Share Posted November 26, 2011 Would you all mind taking a look at the following thread? http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=327293 It's a slightly different take on the question I asked in this thread. Thank you!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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