MCT's Alice-Peter-Mole

[greenmamato3]

i'm interested in hearing about anyone's experience with MCT's A-P-M. my DD8 finished Island this year alongside big bro; both will be continuing on with various elements of Town. i'm wondering if i could use A-P-M with her to fill out her language arts, but i can't tell much from the online samples.

 

:bigears

[Forgiven]

My DD10, who is a huge reader didn't like reading Alice. She complained the entire time. She's only half way finished with Peter, and she likes it better than Alice, but still, it's like pulling teeth to get her to read it. I think she'll like Mole best, as she's already read a young readers edition of Wind in the Willows and loved it. My DS8, who also did the Island level this year, is reading the Mud series that MCT wrote for the Island level. He is not a big reader at all, and he loves the Mud books. I had never seen this boy pick up a book and start to read--period, let alone first thing in the morning--until I had him start the Mud series.

 

I would get the Mud set for your DD8, and then use APM with the Town level, but that's just my 2 cents...

[greenmamato3]

have your children done any formal literature study in the past that they liked instead?

 

we've done a few progeny press guides as well as some memoria press. i have my own opinion about each of those ..... and have listened to many lectures from many different respected teachers in the homeschool curriculum world. i'm still on the fence about whether the alice-peter-mole is even necessary, even if it is supposedly a "better" way to approach literature study.

[km123175]

I agree with the pp who suggested the Mud books instead of the Alice, Peter, and Mole set. We have this set. My daughter had already read Alice (and through the looking glass) to herself several times before I got this set. So, she was easily able to pretty easily follow along. She's also listened to Peter enough to know the story almost by heart. :) I don't think she's read Mole yet.

 

That said, just because she can easily read the books did not mean that she was ready for that level of literary analysis and writing that is suggested in the teacher's book. I don't think the thinking part is too difficult, but I wanted to use them as suggested for literary analysis and writing about literature. For my daughter that was too complex at this point. She is 8 just like your children.

 

I have decided to invest in the Mud books for analysis and discussion this year, and I am going to start the other trilogy again when we're further along in Town. We've finished reading GI, SI, and are now 1/4 way through PI. We're also moving right along in Poetry and Language. I think cementing those things will make the Mud trilogy just right for toward the end of these studies, and the Alice, Peter, and Mole "just right" for the middle/end of the Town level that focuses more on paragraph writing.

[greenmamato3]

all the comments you've made so far are helpful -- makes me think of a couple of questions:

1. would it be possible to intersplice (is that even a word! lol) either the APM or the MUD trilogy with the other books i have selected already for them to read as part of their assigned reading/lit for the coming year, or would we pretty much be completely busy just doing one of those and thus limited in our other literary explorations?

 

2. is either of them loaded with writing assignments as followups to discussion as the vehicle for literary criticism or is it more like the Teaching the Classics approach to literary discussion? my first impression was the it was geared toward just discussion of literary analysis principles on an age-appropriate level, but the PP makes me think it's more writing intensive. we're going to be doing IEW follow up to our SWI-A from this year; we'll alternate that with WWE and WWS going for each of them (skill appropriate), so obviously, i'm not going to need another set of writing prompts or writing assignments.

 

3. i want them to spend time reading high quality literature (that i select based on what i feel is appropriate and suited for them). we've dabbled a little with the TTC but had some resistance to understanding "plot, setting, characterization, climax, etc etc etc" so i thought this would be a gentler more relational way to examine those literary principles. i think the TTC is better suited (for our family) to an older age, even though one uses picture books at the beginning as the lens of discussion. does APM or MUD trilogy indeed fit this desire?

[greenmamato3]

i think i'm going to skip the MUD and APM entirely. LOL. i think it will naturally arise from our discussion of our read alouds, which i care more about than more "course work."

[km123175]

all the comments you've made so far are helpful -- makes me think of a couple of questions:

1. would it be possible to intersplice (is that even a word! lol) either the APM or the MUD trilogy with the other books i have selected already for them to read as part of their assigned reading/lit for the coming year, or would we pretty much be completely busy just doing one of those and thus limited in our other literary explorations?

 

You can read them along with the other things you're doing. I've not read the MUD trilogy; so, I'm not sure. But the books aren't that long and they are fun reads (according to reviews I've seen). They do incorporate complex/classical vocabulary; so, they might be more difficult for your children, but the new/difficult/archaic words are defined at the bottom of the page.

 

2. is either of them loaded with writing assignments as followups to discussion as the vehicle for literary criticism or is it more like the Teaching the Classics approach to literary discussion? my first impression was the it was geared toward just discussion of literary analysis principles on an age-appropriate level, but the PP makes me think it's more writing intensive. we're going to be doing IEW follow up to our SWI-A from this year; we'll alternate that with WWE and WWS going for each of them (skill appropriate), so obviously, i'm not going to need another set of writing prompts or writing assignments.

 

The "comprehension" section of the Teacher's guide (I"m speaking of the APM set because that's the one I already have) is a list of quotes from the characters. You read the quote and the child should be able to identify the character.

 

Then there are really nice discussion questions for after you read the book.

 

There are some ideas for short "essays," which is why I thought it was more writing than my daughter was ready for at the time we looked at them. After each book, the discussion and essay ideas start to have the student make connections between/among the books. It's nicely done. Again, if my daughter was proficient with paragraphs (after Town) I'd be more willing to do those assignments. I imagine the assignments that are included in the MUD set are more inline with what's been learned in the Island level.

 

3. i want them to spend time reading high quality literature (that i select based on what i feel is appropriate and suited for them). we've dabbled a little with the TTC but had some resistance to understanding "plot, setting, characterization, climax, etc etc etc" so i thought this would be a gentler more relational way to examine those literary principles. i think the TTC is better suited (for our family) to an older age, even though one uses picture books at the beginning as the lens of discussion. does APM or MUD trilogy indeed fit this desire?

 

There isn't much in terms of plot, setting, etc. (that I remember in the AMP set).

[nmoira]

i think i'm going to skip the MUD and APM entirely. LOL. i think it will naturally arise from our discussion of our read alouds, which i care more about than more "course work."

 

 

But it isn't exactly "course work." You can choose to make it as formal or informal as you wish. For that age, I prefer just talking casually about different ideas in the books, and I found the parent's guide particularly useful for having a store of ideas to help add to our discussions and as aids to start some conversations in which we compared this or that element across books. DD the Elder had already read these books, and each at one point had been a read aloud. She has since read the books in the other literature sets (we initially did the Twain as a read aloud -- there were a couple times I thought she'd hurt herself laughing). She's a strong reader, and a fast reader, but she appreciates having material that forces her to slow down to appreciate language usage and sound, as this is something she'd usually only experience in books deemed worthy of repeated reads. FWIW we're firmly in the "read through first" then read again and talk camp.

 

I like the sets, and I wish there were more. :)

[amyrjoy]

i'm interested in hearing about anyone's experience with MCT's A-P-M. my DD8 finished Island this year alongside big bro; both will be continuing on with various elements of Town. i'm wondering if i could use A-P-M with her to fill out her language arts, but i can't tell much from the online samples.

 

:bigears

 

 

Well, it's been a hit here. DD is reading the third book, Mole, and we are delving into a few vocab terms every chapter. With the other two, we did a bit more, commenting on everything MCT wrote in the books, ie analysis, literary devices, etc., but with this one, honestly..this week has been rushed and I just didn't have the time. We will start hitting the language arts part next week. I LOOOVVEEE the parent manual for it- the essay questions are fabulous. My DD has done well processing them and I'm looking forward to discussing the rest after she finishes Mole. I think you can go as light or heavy as you want, with the accompanying language arts element. HTH!

[greenmamato3]

ok well i'm back on the fence, teetering over to the side of getting the MUD set for now and saving APM for next spring. LOL. you all are so great! :)