joyfulhomeschooler Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 How is this used? Is 9 too old to start for a child who's good at LA? It looks fun from the samples. Is it just a story you read to your child? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 9 is the age it's intended for, and there's a lot in the books that goes beyond grammar, especially in the poetics and writing components. It's a 3rd-4th grade book, and a fairly involved one at that. It's accessible to younger children because it IS funny and feels lighter than it is, but if you look at the "using MCT below 3rd grade" thread on the Accelerated Learners board, you'll note that a lot of the people who started it early aren't actually doing the writing assignments. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joyfulhomeschooler Posted February 11, 2012 Author Share Posted February 11, 2012 9 is the age it's intended for, and there's a lot in the books that goes beyond grammar, especially in the poetics and writing components. It's a 3rd-4th grade book, and a fairly involved one at that. It's accessible to younger children because it IS funny and feels lighter than it is, but if you look at the "using MCT below 3rd grade" thread on the Accelerated Learners board, you'll note that a lot of the people who started it early aren't actually doing the writing assignments. That's great! So 4th grade sounds like the perfect time to start. Can you tell me how it works? Do you read a chapter a day? I read through how to use it on the Royal Fireworks Press website, but am still very confused and can't seem to find any reviews on it anywhere... or any information except for here on the well trained mind forums. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandylubug Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 http://rfwp.loge.co.uk/pages/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/LA-ELEM.pdf This is a slide show teaching you how it is intended to be used. eta: it takes a few seconds to download Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joyfulhomeschooler Posted February 11, 2012 Author Share Posted February 11, 2012 http://rfwp.loge.co.uk/pages/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/LA-ELEM.pdf This is a slide show teaching you how it is intended to be used. eta: it takes a few seconds to download Thanks!!!! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 9 is the age it's intended for, and there's a lot in the books that goes beyond grammar, especially in the poetics and writing components. It's a 3rd-4th grade book, and a fairly involved one at that. It's accessible to younger children because it IS funny and feels lighter than it is, but if you look at the "using MCT below 3rd grade" thread on the Accelerated Learners board, you'll note that a lot of the people who started it early aren't actually doing the writing assignments. Correct. The grammar in the entry level "Island" books is quite accessible for bright younger students, as is the intro level vocabulary book. But the poetics book is quite advanced, and the writing tends to be nicely challenging on intended the grade level. Those who start younger (we are examples of such) tend not to do all the writing assignments, nor expect their younger students to get a full mastery of all the technical parts of the poetry mechanics covered in MCT. It is a marvelous series and I doubt you will be hurting for "challenge." Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TKDmom Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 That's great! So 4th grade sounds like the perfect time to start. Can you tell me how it works? Do you read a chapter a day? I read through how to use it on the Royal Fireworks Press website, but am still very confused and can't seem to find any reviews on it anywhere... or any information except for here on the well trained mind forums. A chapter would probably be too much for one sitting. I typed up the schedules I used for Island and Town levels. I can email them to you if you want to pm me your email address. I went through the grammar books a little slower than a lot of people seem to, but I tried to pick the natural breaks in the narrative for stopping points. I figured it would be easy enough to read additional sections if we wanted to move faster. If I were to do the Island level again, I would do it like this: Grammar Island 3x/week for 6 or 7 weeks Music of the Hemispheres 1x/week (this would probably last about half the school year). Once Grammar Island is complete, start: Sentence Island 2-3x/week (read one day, do writing exercises the other days) Building Language 1-2x/week Practice Island 4x/week (analyze one sentence per day) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mommyfaithe Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 Thanks, now I feel better for holding off for a year. This looks great for my little guy...just next year. Faithe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joyfulhomeschooler Posted February 11, 2012 Author Share Posted February 11, 2012 O.K. I have looked at all the samples and am sold on the excitement of it. I would like to just use it as a supplement though. What would I want to get? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joyfulhomeschooler Posted February 11, 2012 Author Share Posted February 11, 2012 A chapter would probably be too much for one sitting. I typed up the schedules I used for Island and Town levels. I can email them to you if you want to pm me your email address. I went through the grammar books a little slower than a lot of people seem to, but I tried to pick the natural breaks in the narrative for stopping points. I figured it would be easy enough to read additional sections if we wanted to move faster. If I were to do the Island level again, I would do it like this: Grammar Island 3x/week for 6 or 7 weeks Music of the Hemispheres 1x/week (this would probably last about half the school year). Once Grammar Island is complete, start: Sentence Island 2-3x/week (read one day, do writing exercises the other days) Building Language 1-2x/week Practice Island 4x/week (analyze one sentence per day) That would be great! Did you use the whole LA program then? Not just as a supplement? PMing you now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TKDmom Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 (edited) That would be great! Did you use the whole LA program then? Not just as a supplement? PMing you now. Yes, I used the whole program with my dd when she was at the end of 3rd/beginning of 4th grade. The writing instruction wasn't enough for her at that point--she needed more instruction in the basics of getting words onto paper. But it really helped her develop a love for language. If you want to use it as a supplement, what you buy is going to depend on what you are looking for. Grammar Island and Practice Island are the grammar portion, but Sentence Island (writing) also expands on the ideas introduced in Grammar Island. SI was our favorite book in the series. Practice Island contains sentences to analyze using the 4-level analysis taught in Grammar Island--that's where dc really solidify their knowledge of the parts of speech, parts of the sentence, phrases, and clauses. Building Language (vocabulary using Latin roots) and Music of the Hemispheres (poetics) are a little more stand-alone. All of the books are integrated with one another (for example you will notice the poetry devices introduced in MotH while you read through SI), but I think of these two as the more optional books. Building Language seems to be everyone's least favorite book (myself included). It was useful for teaching my dd some of the most common Latin prefixes and suffixes, though. Edited February 12, 2012 by bonniebeth4 clarification Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joyfulhomeschooler Posted February 12, 2012 Author Share Posted February 12, 2012 I'm really thinking it would be best for us as a supplement. Maybe a cozy couch time thing. So in that case would I just get the books I want or would I need/want the practice books as well? I'm thinking Grammar Island, Sentence Island for the remainder of this year. Followed by Grammar Town and Paragraph Town for next school year when he'll actually be in 4th. I looked through the samples and I think he is past ready for the grammar and sentence Island books so they would mostly be review. We were doing Rod and Staff 3 and he learned a ton from it, just thought it was boring and moaned when I brought it out. We are now using BJU english and he is just breezing through it. Especially the grammar portions.. writing he is slower in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joyfulhomeschooler Posted February 12, 2012 Author Share Posted February 12, 2012 Another question What's the difference in the TM & student book? If I find a good deal on the TM would that work in place of the student book? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 Yes, it would the TE includes the full student book, plus supplemental information-there are some sidebars that you'd want to cover, but they're usually nicely post-it sized :). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TKDmom Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 If you're doing R&S you can probably get by without the practice books. They do have some fun sentences that reference the story in Sentence Island, but you could maybe just use some of the R&S sentences to practice the MCT way of analyzing. I just used the TMs. I think there was one time the whole year when I wished dd had her own copy of the book, so that she wouldn't see the answer to a question, but it wasn't enough to justify the expense of additional books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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