greenmamato3 Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 i'm so excited that in july we will begin our adventure with MCT. i have looked, rebooked, and scoured again all the books in our complete package. i'm trying to make sense of the "planning" i need to do ahead of time to understand the flow. basically, what i understand is that we'll spend about 2 weeks in the first book, then move on to the second, while continuing with the first book, keeping them simultaneously going .... and then .... well, i just get sort of lost understanding the day-to-day flow. how does one know when it's time to wrap up MCT for the day? is it a "watch your child for signs of doneness" type of thing, or do you find that you just work for x # of min? i just need help plotting this into our grid, not so much from the standpoint of plotting when we'll be done with page such and such, but rather just understanding about how much time i need to mentally block off for that portion of our LA time each time we sit down to do it. or maybe i'm asking all the wrong questions about the implementation of it and need to instead be asking __________, in which case, tell me what that question is i need to be asking myself as i sit down to plot out the first month or so of school. :) thanks!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 I would say just wing it. Be relaxed. Take whatever time you need to talk though what you are learning about. Don't obsess about a "schedule." My 2 cents. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cschnee Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 That's what I would say too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenmamato3 Posted June 1, 2012 Author Share Posted June 1, 2012 lol. thanks .... but just for the record: anyone else of a different opinion :) haha. [i just like seeing the big picture so that i know what my daily parameters and signposts are] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 lol. thanks .... but just for the record: anyone else of a different opinion :) haha. [i just like seeing the big picture so that i know what my daily parameters and signposts are] Whatever you do, don't just wing it. Do not be "relaxed". Don't take whatever time you need to talk though what you are learning about. Obsess about a "schedule." Howzat? :D Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenmamato3 Posted June 1, 2012 Author Share Posted June 1, 2012 (edited) that's the thing, i'm not making a schedule. i'm just *mentally* blocking the amount of time that i will likely need to set aside each time we sit down for MCT studies. for example, i know i need approx 45 min to 1 hr for a RS math lesson & game with one kid but only 30 for the other kid b/c that's how their brains are wired. i know that with one kid, 20 min of spelling is *enough*, but the other could go on for 45 min if i wanted to join him. i know that 25 min of WWE is all one kid can handle and the other can only handle 15. i know that one kid, in her grammar program, can handle 30 min if i keep it varied, but spiral back around the next time to grab a bit more info/depth. but in my other child's grammar program, there's no way to spiral back around so if we do anything it's for only 15 min and it has to be mastered at that time or we have to repeat it completely before we move on. these things are age-related. they are wiring/curricula related. i was looking for people to offer "my one child did well when we sat down for 15 min and did grammar but moved on to building language and spent 30 min" or "we found that dd could handle 5 pages before he started glazing over on some days but only 1 on others" just basic parameters. bill, your first suggestion of just relaxing is a great suggestion, b/c it's your opinion and offered in an effort to help. my question was in search of answers that would represent a VARIATION in replies, representing a SPECTRUM of approaches i can take with MCT. thanks for your first suggestion. i will consider your "relax" approach. i'd also like to hear other approaches from moms using MCT how are *like-minded* to me and wish to have some sort of outline to follow. Edited June 1, 2012 by greenmamato3 eating humble pie & not being easily-offended. yum! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
besroma Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 (edited) I would say just wing it. Be relaxed. Take whatever time you need to talk though what you are learning about. We do ours very similar to Bill. I would block about 30-45 minutes minimum if you are doing Grammar Island and Building Language. We start with Grammar Island, read as long as they are enjoying it and absorbing new information, then move to Building Language and do the same. Sometimes this takes 30 minutes, but we often go on for an hour. We do not just read the text.....we have a lot of discussions and question/answer. This is with three children from ages 6 to 10. You can easily have a fixed schedule, of say, 30 minutes and stick to it, but it is so enjoyable for everyone, it really is difficult to stop! :D Don't feel bad about Bill's post. He isn't mocking you. He is a really sweet guy with a great sense of humor. He really is a great help, especially with MCT and Singapore Math. Even if it sounded offensive in the post, he did not mean any harm at all. I haven't read all of his 14k+ posts, but I can say that I have never seen a post of his that was harmful. Edited June 1, 2012 by besroma Clarification about Bill's post Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
serendipitous journey Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 (edited) am :bigear:, because I also thrive with some level of structure (our days apparently look quite flexible from the outside, but having that mental idea of time & energy assignments is crucial to me). I did find this schedule for MCT island, in which about 30 min/day are planned, though the blogger dropped the program b/c of poor fit with her child so there's not feedback on how it worked out over the long term. Also came across this thread. Of particular interest might be the post on the second page: the poster allowed about 20 min./day for Island. Note that Bill bumped that thread up for somebody, so there's some sympathy there for folks in need of a nugget of structure; I think he was making a joke in his pp here, though I also understand the OP's reading of it ... let us be gentle and kind with each other, things can sound so harsh on the threads (I should know, I've made several harsh-sounding posts myself!) :grouphug: and handshakes all around :). Edited June 1, 2012 by serendipitous journey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 Here is a link to a schedule of MCT Island put together by Angela (board name "Satori," after her daughter). http://satorismiles.com/2011/06/10/mct-island-schedule/ I will note that while Angela is one of my favorite board members, and I miss that she is no longer posting regularly, her MCT schedule did not fit our needs at all. It was way too slow. I do not think anyone can give another person a "magic number" of minutes or pages for anyone else. Or for themselves, even. One of the best things about the MCT approach IMO is that it is inspiring. Sometimes that might mean the lessons inspire a conversation that might "interfere" with a schedule if it is engaged, other times the "inspiration" might be to drive on with the lessons/reading because you are having such a good time. I think sticking to some pre-determined schedule is counter-productive in either of the situations above. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 I think I get where you are coming from - I like to have a plan, at least inside my own head - and then for implementation I really do just wing it. So here is how Town level is looking for us so far, and how I "plan" to complete it - ;) First we did Grammar Town. That took, I don't know, about 3-4 weeks, doing it probably about 3 times a week. How much to do in a day? You really can tell by looking at the kid - when eyes glaze over and attention wanders, it's time to close it for the day. Some days we did 8 or 10 pages, and some topics (verbal phrases) we took two days to cover (that is just a page or two in the book). I do have LA & Lit scheduled for about an hour each morning, but when we are engrossed in an especially fascinating book, Lit make take up more than its share of the time (we were reading To Kill a Mockingbird while doing GT!) We have started CE, because I couldn't wait till August - we are doing the enhanced CE, so we take two days to do each lesson. Once we start up again full tilt in August, we will do CE 2x per week, Paragraph Town 1x per week, Poetry 1x per week, and then she will do some Practice Town sentences on her own 1x per week. PT is broken up into lessons, with poetry we will just wing it - look for the glazing eyes - and then on to reading poems for our lit study that day (once a week). So we'll be done with Town probably by January - at that point I'll make a call as to whether we will jump straight into Voyage, or take some time to do other stuff - maybe Kilgallon, maybe try KISS. We are doing WWS as well, I should mention. Anyway, thats kinda how it looks at our house - winging it on a day to day basis, with a flexible plan as overall framework. Hope that helps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Embassy Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 I would think about 1.5-2.25 hours a week however you want to split it up would be typical. If you aren't doing the writing assignments then it would be less time than that. I totally understand the need for a schedule. I could wing things when I was working with one child, but when I have multiple children who need one-on-one attention for subjects I need to schedule it out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Embassy Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 am :bigear:, because I also thrive with some level of structure (our days apparently look quite flexible from the outside, but having that mental idea of time & energy assignments is crucial to me). I did find this schedule for MCT island, in which about 30 min/day are planned, though the blogger dropped the program b/c of poor fit with her child so there's not feedback on how it worked out over the long term. LOL, that was me. I separated it into chunks. Some were pretty quick and others took a bit longer. Overall we did it 2-3 times per week and went about 1/2 through the list before I finally gave up and looked for something else for my son. If you use the list chronologically then I would expect at least 3x30 per week with you working for 30 minutes each time since there are over 170 chunks, but you may need to spend longer if you do all the writing assignments like 3x45 or 4x30. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rivka Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 I just started Grammar Island this week, so I'm in a similar boat to you. I posted on here asking for advice and was surprised that the response was almost universally that I should wing it. I think of WTMers as being extremely, maybe even overly, plan-oriented, so that seemed strange. Now I've started, and my advice is... wing it. :D I thought we'd do small chunks, like 15-20 minutes three times a week. In reality my daughter is begging for more every time we do Grammar Island. Seriously. The first day we even had a second grammar lesson after the rest of school was finished, because she wanted it so much. I find that, at least so far, Grammar Island has plenty of natural stopping places. We read until we get to a stopping place, and then I mentally evaluate whether we've done "enough" for one day or whether we should take it a little further. The next stopping place is usually just a few pages further on. Try allotting about half an hour, three or four times a week, and see how you do with that. Then you can adjust if necessary. But I think planning would be hard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenmamato3 Posted June 1, 2012 Author Share Posted June 1, 2012 thank you, ladies! :group hug: these suggestions and "experiences from the field" are so helpful for me to have a great mind-set as we begin our adventure in july. i'm super excited about finding the right flow for us and knowing the gamut of ways people have utilized MCT is so enlightening. later tonight, i'll look over all the links you've offered and see how to adapt those suggestions to our flow. now, i feel like i'm filling up my toolbox of ideas and advice so we can be as successful as possible from the beginning. we need some "fresh wind" in our sails around here after a looooong year as a schooling family. :) still :big ear: bill, i *do* understand what you mean. i would never "shut down" a learning time just because a bell rings. nor would i ever miss a moment to go deeper with my children just because "the schedule" says it's time to move on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 thank you, ladies! :group hug:these suggestions and "experiences from the field" are so helpful for me to have a great mind-set as we begin our adventure in july. i'm super excited about finding the right flow for us and knowing the gamut of ways people have utilized MCT is so enlightening. later tonight, i'll look over all the links you've offered and see how to adapt those suggestions to our flow. now, i feel like i'm filling up my toolbox of ideas and advice so we can be as successful as possible from the beginning. we need some "fresh wind" in our sails around here after a looooong year as a schooling family. :) still :big ear: bill, i *do* understand what you mean. i would never "shut down" a learning time just because a bell rings. nor would i ever miss a moment to go deeper with my children just because "the schedule" says it's time to move on. I'm just trying to impart the idea that MCT (to my way of thinking, and I don't believe I'm alone here as other posters are making the same point) is particularly resistant to "planing." Other than the sentences in Practice Island (which are easy to portion out on a so many per time-basis) the rest is less "lesson based" than most programs. I will step out now, but if you want a "big picture" view I'd say it should include the idea that MCT is very adaptable, and that you will/should find your own style of implementation. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenmamato3 Posted June 1, 2012 Author Share Posted June 1, 2012 If you use the list chronologically then I would expect at least 3x30 per week with you working for 30 minutes each time since there are over 170 chunks, but you may need to spend longer if you do all the writing assignments like 3x45 or 4x30. since we're doing WWE and IEW in combo, could i just omit the writing assignments in MCT, or are they part and parcel to the "MCT experience"? i haven't looked at them yet .... what book are they contained in? i don't want to overkill writing this year, esp since we've basically unschooled writing up until this point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalanamak Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 That's what I would say too! I used Grammar Island and now Sentence Island as a "break" from GWG. We'd do it for a week, then chug through GWG, and come back to these books. I think we've read through GI about 3 times and are on our first sweep through Sentence Island. That's how much my son likes them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 since we're doing WWE and IEW in combo, could i just omit the writing assignments in MCT, or are they part and parcel to the "MCT experience"? i haven't looked at them yet .... what book are they contained in? i don't want to overkill writing this year, esp since we've basically unschooled writing up until this point. By all means skip the writing assignments if you do not feel like they will serve your student well - we did most of Sentence Island orally, or maybe on the whiteboard. But don't even think about skipping the writing books! ;) They are the best part. Well, except for Caesar's English . . . I think that the writing assignments in Town will be great and will really supplement the kind of writing Miss P is doing in WWS, so we will be doing those for sure. But like I said, we did SI orally, not written. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalanamak Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 I will step out now, but if you want a "big picture" view I'd say it should include the idea that MCT is very adaptable, and that you will/should find your own style of implementation. :iagree:It is so different from the grammar in GWG and WWE and WT, it is hard to predict. If kiddo is "on" that day, and focuses well, we go on and on until I get the first flagging (often from ME). If he isn't focusing, it is not like I can clear my throat and point to an error he made and ask him how he could do better (our cue to "focus"). It is more ephemeral than that. I find that if he isn't "on" at the moment, Grammar/Sentence Island is wasted that day. YMMV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
besroma Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 It is more ephemeral than that. I find that if he isn't "on" at the moment, Grammar/Sentence Island is wasted that day. YMMV. This is what we experience in our home also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathleen. Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 The MCT web site has a schedule of sorts, I believe. Are you using MCT as a stand alone for LA or do you supplement? I was considering using their basic program for my soon to be 3rd grader. We currently afterschool with Shurley English for the grammar portion only. To Spycar/Bil what promted you to use this paticular program as an afterschooler? And are you able to fit it into your child's schedule? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spy Car Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 To Spycar/Bil what promted you to use this paticular program as an afterschooler? I feel strongly about "English" being taught with a level of depth beyond the offering in our public school (which is one of the highest functioning schools in our district). While it is "unfashionable," I think it is important to learn formal grammar, poetics, Latin roots, and an appreciation of the beauty and loci of the language. MCT provides for all these topics in a way that is humane, fun, engaging, inspiring, and effective. It feels like a "smart" program and one that seems custom written for our needs. In contrast the Language Arts program used in the school seems scattered. We have good teachers on campus so they can compensate to some degree for scattered curriculum, but.... The children do write a good deal in school. What MCT does for us is provide the depth of education that I feel is missing. And are you able to fit it into your child's schedule? Yes. We did the bulk of Island last summer, and then finished up by Christmas (when Town arrived under the tree). Because this current semester was a little over-scheduled with extra-curricular activities I've gone a little light on Town (we've done about half of GT). We will start in earnest when school gets out. The little-man is not quite 8, so I'm in no hurry. But yes, it is easy to fit MCT into our lives. My goal is to always make the "after schooling" fit around our lives, rather than fitting our lives around "after schooling." The fact that my son really enjoys MCT make it all the easier. Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathleen. Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 Bill I agree with everything you said. We started Shurley way back when my now 8yo was writing something and I suggested she change the verb. Verb? She'd never heard the word before. I thought with all the writing her school does they would have said noun and verb. Apparently those words aren't introduced until the kids are older. They learn the concept just not the word. Shurley English has been a good fit, but I like all the extras of MCT. The level seems a bit easy now that my 2nd grader has learned the parts of speech. Would you suggest going with level 2 for the grammar and maybe picking up the other components of level 1, just stick to one level, or what? Out of curiosity.:) what other subjects do you "afterschool"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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