Talk me into, or out of MCT this year. And a lit question

[Runningmom80]

DS is 5.5, 6 in November. His strength is language arts. I'm so torn about getting MCT island. I'm worried that he won't be able to do the writing involved, but of I wait until he can physically do the writing, he will be past the content.

 

 

I thought about starting with the aesops fables from mct now, and maybe the lit trilogy, and then moving on to island in January.

 

 

Second question, Is the lit trilogy (Alice, Peter, mole) even worth it? I already own WITW, and Alice in Wonderland, so I'm hesitant to buy those again, unless it's a great product.

[kokotg]

I think the problem you're likely to run into is not with Island but with moving on to Town with a 6/7 year old. Island is very gentle, and the writing can be dictated if the child isn't up for the actual, physical writing. But there's a big leap between Island and Town. I'm kind of in the same situation with my 6 year old--I don't want to start Island with him yet, but I'm running out of tricks for what to do with him for language arts. He did the Aesop books last year, and he LOVED them, so I think that's a good plan. I wish Island were something I felt I could stretch for two years for younger kids, but I just can't see it happening--my oldest son did it in half a year with no problem in fact. As it is, I'm going to keep looking for something he can do this year and put Island off until he's 7.

 

I think it'd be tricky to do the lit trilogy (or at least to get a lot out of it) before the child's been exposed to MCT grammar--the 4 level analysis and all that. We used the books some last year, but I wasn't super excited about them. They're very heavy on analyzing the grammar in the books rather than on literary analysis (there is some of that in the teacher's guide, but not enough to justify buying the program, I didn't think).

[Runningmom80]

I think the problem you're likely to run into is not with Island but with moving on to Town with a 6/7 year old. Island is very gentle, and the writing can be dictated if the child isn't up for the actual, physical writing. But there's a big leap between Island and Town. I'm kind of in the same situation with my 6 year old--I don't want to start Island with him yet, but I'm running out of tricks for what to do with him for language arts. He did the Aesop books last year, and he LOVED them, so I think that's a good plan. I wish Island were something I felt I could stretch for two years for younger kids, but I just can't see it happening--my oldest son did it in half a year with no problem in fact. As it is, I'm going to keep looking for something he can do this year and put Island off until he's 7.

 

I think it'd be tricky to do the lit trilogy (or at least to get a lot out of it) before the child's been exposed to MCT grammar--the 4 level analysis and all that. We used the books some last year, but I wasn't super excited about them. They're very heavy on analyzing the grammar in the books rather than on literary analysis (there is some of that in the teacher's guide, but not enough to justify buying the program, I didn't think).

 

 

Thank you! I think I will just get the fables for now and re evaluate in a couple of months.

 

 

Good to know about the lit, I'm glad I hadn't ordered it yet. I don't want to do a ton of analysis at this age, I just want him to keep enjoying reading.

[justLisa]

I am going through it this year with DD and DS. DS has had a formal grammar (FLL3) so I want something different. He just wasn't that "into" the MCT last year but now he thinks it looks nice. And DD just loves the storybook aspect.

[EKS]

DS is 5.5, 6 in November. His strength is language arts. I'm so torn about getting MCT island. I'm worried that he won't be able to do the writing involved, but of I wait until he can physically do the writing, he will be past the content.

 

 

I thought about starting with the aesops fables from mct now, and maybe the lit trilogy, and then moving on to island in January.

 

 

Second question, Is the lit trilogy (Alice, Peter, mole) even worth it? I already own WITW, and Alice in Wonderland, so I'm hesitant to buy those again, unless it's a great product.

 

If you think your son is ready for the Island level, you could go for it. You could skip or modify the writing lessons as needed.

 

I own Alice, Peter, and Mole and I don't think it's worth the money. Teaching the Classics is a better investment IMO, though the book list in the back is not easy to use.

[boscopup]

I was in the same spot. I ended up not using MCT grammar, since I discovered KISS, and DS and I both love it. I looked at MCT's writing at the convention, and there was no way he was going to be able to even do Island level anytime soon (and he's 8, not 5 or 6). Just no possible way. He hates creative writing type stuff, even if done orally. So I picked up the Vocab and Poetry books, and we're just doing that, along with KISS for grammar and IEW for writing. We are having a fabulous year so far. :D

 

DS is mathy, but he's also strong in language arts. Most grammar programs have bored him. He didn't need much repetition. When looking at MCT grammar, since we'd already done half of FLL3 and level 1.1 of KISS, I decided there really wasn't much "new" that we would get from MCT, except a cute story. I couldn't justify paying that much for it, and as I said, the writing was out of the ball park not happening. :lol:

 

Also, as far as doing lots of grammar super early like that... At one point, I decided to not focus as much on grammar because its usefulness was for writing, and he wasn't writing yet, so he was getting so far ahead and then having no way to apply it. Now he's starting to apply it, so we can move forward again.

[BugsMama]

I have Alice, Peter, and Mole and agree it's not worth the money. Or I think it is as doable with just the teacher guide.

 

I like Teaching the Classics as well. I especially wanted it for the book list, but yeah it is rather annoying the way it is set up.

 

Good to know! I have illustrated versions of alice, peter pan and wind in the willows, and keep looking at the lit guide. I'll stick with the teaching the classics book and pull out my own sentences when we get there!

[Runningmom80]

Ah! I'm still so torn. :lol:

[kohlby]

I

think the problem you're likely to run into is not with Island but with moving on to Town with a 6/7 year old

 

I agree. There's not just the writing but a drastic increase in the vocabulary. (Look up Caesar's English and you'll see what I mean!) My oldest started Island in the suggested 3rd grade, so at 8. And it really wasn't that hard. He's doing find in Town, but I notice a steep increase in content. We did not use the literature component with MCT but used other literature books instead because I wanted it to be high-interest.

[LMD]

I was also torn at the beginning of this year with my 6.5y/o rising 2nd grader. I also wanted to do CW Aesop. Content wise she would have been fine, but the writing stamina just wasn't there. I decided to do CW primers to increase her stamina, and continued with LLATL yellow as a lighter LA (We did Red last year) to get her used to doing 2 programs worth of work. So far so good, though I have been tempted to skip forward to MCT/CW, I think she'll be well prepared to begin next year (7.5y/o)

 

JMO of course!

[dbmamaz]

to be clear, i've never seen island. I actually bought Paragraph Town to use with my EIGHTH grader the first year we started homeschooling, because he couldnt write a reasonable paragraph. He is 2E, and he did not find paragraph town too baby-ish at all, and his writing really improved. We used the complete voyage level in 9th grade, and . . . well, he has trouble with writing so it wasnt too bad, level wise. I usually made him do the hardest of the suggested excersises. But we got really tired of it . . . it took us slightly over a year to finish, and at that point we were done with MCT. Well, I MIGHT break out the level 4 grammar and vocab books I bought way back . . . but i'm not sure. He's not a studious kid and they are DRY

 

My 8 yo is way advanced in math and way behind in english. I understand the Island level is gentle, but I still cant imagine using it with him this year when he turns 9.

 

my point is - there is no rush. The level 4 is not grade school level at ALL . . . its more advanced that what is done in public high schools. MCT is fun stuff, but pace yourself!

[Truscifi]

We did Island around that age, but took 2 years. We are just starting Town this year. Ds is 8 and I think he is ready to handle the jump in vocab based on his progress in Latin as well as Building Language and Megawords. I'm not sure about the writing output - I think it will be okay, but we may have to modify some of the assignments.

 

So you have options - you could just go through Island very slowly! ;)

[tarahillmom]

Here are my thoughts. My kids and I love MCT. If you plan on doing MCT in successive year, be forewarned, once you get to the Magic Lens level books these are very challenging books. My son has been very successful with them (scored perfect in English on his Explore Test in 5th grade after doing ML #1). You may want to map out the next few years. My 7 year old is going to do Shurley English 2 before we jump into MCT completely with her so she can just start and continue through 8th grade. I just got my package from RFWP today, and am excited to start another year with my oldest two. I am not saying don't do Island Level, I am just saying what are your future plans in English?

[Jill]

Then again no harm in doing Island now and waiting on Town.

I agree. That's essentially what I did. Island is wonderful and did with my son approximately when he would have been a 2nd grader. Sorry, I don't remember all of the things I used to stretch it into 2 years but just a smattering of things that reinforced the basic parts of speech and sentence structure. Some of that was in his EPGY program Language arts section which we then dropped when it was time to do the Town series last year. We would do "Mad Libs", play "Silly Sentences" game, memorize "Schoolhouse Rocks" grammar songs, etc...

[katemac]

Just to chip in our experience, I too have a DS going into 6 this Nov. We read some pages of Grammar Island to test the water. We were into some 30-ish page. But I figured the enthusiasm is just not there yet. I can't see the sparks when I produce the book. It's not the right time yet to introduce MCT to him.

 

DD7.5 (going to be 8 end of the year), on the other hand, seems to find Grammar Island quite an attraction. She read the whole book in one evening. Now I'm ordering the Practice Island to let her continue with the daily sentence analysis. From here, I figured it's better to wait till DS hit 7.5-8, to put him on MCT Island.

[Runningmom80]

Here are my thoughts. My kids and I love MCT. If you plan on doing MCT in successive year, be forewarned, once you get to the Magic Lens level books these are very challenging books. My son has been very successful with them (scored perfect in English on his Explore Test in 5th grade after doing ML #1). You may want to map out the next few years. My 7 year old is going to do Shurley English 2 before we jump into MCT completely with her so she can just start and continue through 8th grade. I just got my package from RFWP today, and am excited to start another year with my oldest two. I am not saying don't do Island Level, I am just saying what are your future plans in English?

 

Well, I don't really have plans per se, but he is strongest in English/vocab. When he took the WJ-III at a week shy of 4, he had to be normed as a first grader because his reading was off the chart. As a 4 year old being scored as a 6 year old, he still scored in the 99th. I think he scored grade 3 for decoding, and grade 2 for comprehension, and this was 2 years ago. I'm not trying to brag or anything, just give an idea of where he is at. I'd like to find a way to nurture this, and challenge him, since it's his strong point. :001_smile: