serendipitous journey Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 I'd thought to start Button, now 6, on KISS grade 2 sometime between this summer and fall, and add MCT in 3rd. I'm trying to gently accelerate his output but am not in a hurry (we've recently begun WWE2, and will work through the WW_ series year-round): is there any reason to start MCT earlier? thanks so much! Y'all helped me get my head 'round history, so we're moving down the list :D... ETA: it occurs to me that this isn't accelerated work; maybe would better x-post on K-8? please let me know if you think that's better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 (edited) I have integrated the 2 programs in the opposite direction. My ds(8) has done MCT grammar island for 2nd, and when he is finished, we will cover a few topics in the KISS grade 2 book that are not covered in MCT Grammar island, and then move to the KISS grade 3 book. I have noted the material to cover in the 2nd grade book on post 76 in this thread http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=324737&highlight=kiss+grammar&page=8 IMHO, KISS is harder than MCT by 1 to 2 years. But MCT does a nice job with the big picture. Ruth in NZ Edited March 5, 2012 by lewelma Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 IMHO, KISS is harder than MCT by 1 to 2 years. But MCT does a nice job with the big picture. Ruth in NZ Ruth, if we're doing KISS grade 3 book now, would we still enjoy MCT Island? Or will we be bored out of our skulls? DS won't be ready for the writing on Town at all, and he'll be third grade, so I thought Island would be best, but then we found KISS and loved it, so... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Ruth, if we're doing KISS grade 3 book now, would we still enjoy MCT Island? Or will we be bored out of our skulls? DS won't be ready for the writing on Town at all, and he'll be third grade, so I thought Island would be best, but then we found KISS and loved it, so... After my older ds finished the grade 3 KISS book, we did a detour to the MCT Grammar Town for a month, and then onto the level 3 KISS book ( whatever grade it is called now) So I have done 2 different things older Kiss grade 2 kiss grade 3 MCT grammar town (1 month) Kiss level 3 (whatever grade) Kiss level 4 (whatever grade) Diagramming (1 month) Analysis of own sentences !!!!! fun! fun! Younger MCT grammar island (1 year) (finishing now) Planned: Kiss grade 2 (2 months to catch a few things) Kiss grade 3 Kiss level 3 (whatever grade) Kiss level 4 (whatever grade) etc. Both have been successful (so far). Ruth in NZ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dana Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 What's KISS? I checked the abbreviations page and didn't see it... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 What's KISS? I checked the abbreviations page and didn't see it... http://home.pct.edu/~evavra/KISS.htm Kiss grammar is available free on-line. The website is horrible but the program is the best out there IMHO. Read this thread to get a feel for it http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=324737&highlight=kiss+grammar Ruth in NZ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dana Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CupOCoffee Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Thanks! Definitely read any threads on here about KISS before trying to figure out the website or the grades/levels. It will save you a LOT of time, and it really helped me totally understand KISS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serendipitous journey Posted March 5, 2012 Author Share Posted March 5, 2012 I looked at Ruth's plan for DS2, which seems maybe ideal, except I don't think Button will be up for the writing portion of Island next year. I could go with MCT Island, though, and postpone Sentence Island 'til the end of things, and then start up with KISS: does anyone think that has a strong advantage over KISS grade 2, then MCT + next level KISS? (or maybe a round of MCT, then pick up with what we've missed in KISS a la Ruth's post on this ...) I'd thought to postpone grammar until 3rd, but Button likes it -- he is analytical, and got a kick out of Growing With Grammar but stopped retaining + the formulaic sentences weren't teaching what they ought to have been. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 After my older ds finished the grade 3 KISS book, we did a detour to the MCT Grammar Town for a month, and then onto the level 3 KISS book ( whatever grade it is called now) Ok, so it looks like you did Town after KISS level 2 then? We're in level 1 (just started complements last week). We've done FLL3, so KISS is not all new stuff, but real sentences are new, and that makes them actually challenging. ;) I don't expect us to get to level 2 before starting MCT this summer. We use KISS 2-3 times a week right now, and still kind of alternate with FLL3 (halfway through that). So I suspect that when we start Island, we'll have subjects, verbs/verb phrases/helping verbs, complements (PA, PN, IO, DO), adjectives, adverbs, coordinating conjunctions, and prepositional phrases under our belts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Ok, so it looks like you did Town after KISS level 2 then? Yes. The grade 3 book corresponds to level 2 in KISS. MCT grammar town gets into verbals which is Kiss level 4, but my son was pleased to have a general understanding of them while working on kiss level 3 (clauses). He has found the kiss level 4 book on verbals very straight forward because verbals have already been in his awareness for the year that he worked on clauses, and because kiss uses real sentences there were, of course, verbals in the clause book. We did not do Practice Town, which is why we only did MCT for 1 month. My ds asked to go back to KISS.:001_smile: Ruth in NZ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 Yes. The grade 3 book corresponds to level 2 in KISS. MCT grammar town gets into verbals which is Kiss level 4, but my son was pleased to have a general understanding of them while working on kiss level 3 (clauses). He has found the kiss level 4 book on verbals very straight forward because verbals have already been in his awareness for the year that he worked on clauses, and because kiss uses real sentences there were, of course, verbals in the clause book. We did not do Practice Town, which is why we only did MCT for 1 month. My ds asked to go back to KISS.:001_smile: Ruth in NZ There is also a level 1 grade 3 book. That's what we're using. Didn't want you to think we were accidentally using level 2. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 There is also a level 1 grade 3 book. That's what we're using. Didn't want you to think we were accidentally using level 2. :lol: :glare: I have tried to get Ed to change the labels, but alas, you can see I have not been successful. I will go and look at my materials and try to figure it out. We printed the lot 4 years ago when we had access to a color printer, so all of the names of the books have changed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TracyP Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 Ruth, if we're doing KISS grade 3 book now, would we still enjoy MCT Island? Or will we be bored out of our skulls? DS won't be ready for the writing on Town at all, and he'll be third grade, so I thought Island would be best, but then we found KISS and loved it, so... Bored out of your skulls, nah, it is MCT;) Learning anything new... I highly doubt it. I ended up going from Island to KISS level 1. What we learned in Island is really helpful as we work through KISS, but I would feel like it was a major backtrack to go from KISS 1(or 1.2, or whatever:001_huh:) to Island. However, you do have two more kiddos so that may be justification enough to just order it and decide for yourself. I'm trying to use that excuse myself to purchase Town.:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 Bored out of your skulls, nah, it is MCT;) Learning anything new... I highly doubt it. I ended up going from Island to KISS level 1. What we learned in Island is really helpful as we work through KISS, but I would feel like it was a major backtrack to go from KISS 1(or 1.2, or whatever:001_huh:) to Island. However, you do have two more kiddos so that may be justification enough to just order it and decide for yourself. I'm trying to use that excuse myself to purchase Town.:D :lol: Yeah, I would probably use it regardless with the other two. I'll be purchasing at the convention, so I can look through it thoroughly before purchasing it. I know he'd do fine with the Town level grammar. Grammar comes easily to him. He's handling everything in KISS just fine so far. We're a few exercises into the complements section, and he's doing great. He's sooooooo not ready for the Town level writing though. Not at all. He's plugging along at WWE2, and the physical act of writing is difficult. He's still having to think about how to form some of the letters so he doesn't reverse them. Not ready for paragraphs whatsoever. So it's basically the writing that has me looking at Island first. And then I go back and forth over whether I should just skip MCT Grammar, but I'd like to use the full program so we get the most out of it. And getting the homeschool package is probably not much different in price from getting the individual pieces by themselves without the grammar book. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted March 6, 2012 Share Posted March 6, 2012 :glare: I have tried to get Ed to change the labels, but alas, you can see I have not been successful. I will go and look at my materials and try to figure it out. We printed the lot 4 years ago when we had access to a color printer, so all of the names of the books have changed! For level 1, he has online materials for grades 2-11, but he has Word doc workbooks for grades 2, 3, and 6. The grade 2 seems to be different in some manner, but I didn't look at it (DS is doing fine with the grade 3 book, and he has prior exposure to most of the topics taught at this level). For level 2, he has online materials for grades 3-11, but he has Word doc workbooks for grades 3 and 6. For level 3.1, he has online materials for grades 4-11, but he has Word doc workbooks for grades 4 and 6. For level 3.2, he has online materials for grades 5-11, but he has a Word doc workbook for grade 6. For level 4 plus 5.8, he has online materials for grades 6-11, but he has a Word doc workbook for grade 6. And btw... it'd be nice if he'd put the PDF format next to the Word doc, but oh well. I converted it myself. :tongue_smilie: I'm using KISS on my Android tablet with the ezPDF app. We only have to print the occasional page where writing sentences is required (I don't have a stylus, and writing sentences with my finger would be worse than chicken scratch). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lewelma Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 For level 1, he has online materials for grades 2-11, but he has Word doc workbooks for grades 2, 3, and 6. For level 2, he has online materials for grades 3-11, but he has Word doc workbooks for grades 3 and 6. For level 3.1, he has online materials for grades 4-11, but he has Word doc workbooks for grades 4 and 6. For level 3.2, he has online materials for grades 5-11, but he has a Word doc workbook for grade 6. For level 4 plus 5.8, he has online materials for grades 6-11, but he has a Word doc workbook for grade 6. Ok, I went back and compared my printed materials with what is on the site now, and figured it out. My older son did MCT Grammar Town after finishing both the 3rd grade level 1 and level 2 books. HTH Ruth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 :lol: Yeah, I would probably use it regardless with the other two. I'll be purchasing at the convention, so I can look through it thoroughly before purchasing it. I know he'd do fine with the Town level grammar. Grammar comes easily to him. He's handling everything in KISS just fine so far. We're a few exercises into the complements section, and he's doing great. He's sooooooo not ready for the Town level writing though. Not at all. He's plugging along at WWE2, and the physical act of writing is difficult. He's still having to think about how to form some of the letters so he doesn't reverse them. Not ready for paragraphs whatsoever. So it's basically the writing that has me looking at Island first. And then I go back and forth over whether I should just skip MCT Grammar, but I'd like to use the full program so we get the most out of it. And getting the homeschool package is probably not much different in price from getting the individual pieces by themselves without the grammar book. Why not consider doing just Sentence Island, and then moving into Town using all the components? That's what we ended up doing. FLL4 was boring us to tears, so we stopped and did GrammarLand (really fun!) and now we're wrapping up SI and about to launch into Town. SI is fun, a great story, a nice review of basic grammar concepts relating to sentences, and the writing is light - we are doing a lot of those exercises orally, anyway, because we're doing WWS for writing. Anyway, if he's ready for all the other parts of Town except writing, it's one way to go . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boscopup Posted March 9, 2012 Share Posted March 9, 2012 Why not consider doing just Sentence Island, and then moving into Town using all the components? That's what we ended up doing. FLL4 was boring us to tears, so we stopped and did GrammarLand (really fun!) and now we're wrapping up SI and about to launch into Town. SI is fun, a great story, a nice review of basic grammar concepts relating to sentences, and the writing is light - we are doing a lot of those exercises orally, anyway, because we're doing WWS for writing. Anyway, if he's ready for all the other parts of Town except writing, it's one way to go . . . I definitely want to wait until 4th grade for Paragraph Town, no matter what I do. DS is only in 2nd grade now. I'm sure that by 4th grade, he'll either a) be writing well enough to handle a paragraph, or b) be able to type! :D We won't be doing FLL4 at all. I love FLL3, but I just love KISS more, and so does DS. Anyway, I'll take a look at everything at the convention and make a decision there. I can't wait to see MCT speak! I didn't go to his lectures last time, because I was in denial. :tongue_smilie: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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