MCT grade level

[alisha]

I'm very interested in MCT Island, but have a few questions. I first found out about it here from some rave reviews.

 

But, on the website, the samples seem simple enough, so why does it start at 3rd grade? (I have a soon to be 1st grader). Does it get harder past the point where the samples are shown?

 

It seems to be just a story-does it need supplements? Or is it enough on it's own? (I would do Grammar, sentence and practice; maybe vocab)

 

Thanks for your insights.

[Momof3littles]

I think it is very, very hard to understand MCT by looking at the samples. JMO. It wasn't until I used all of the parts together that it became obvious how rich and deep the program is. It is hard to understand that from the samples, IMO, and yes, the samples look deceptively simple. The presentation is simple for such complex concepts, but the depth there is quite amazing I think.

 

We used Island with a group of bright third graders this year in a small co-op setting and it was fantastic. Some of the grammar concepts are easy to grasp using the story, some are more complex and better suited to probably 3rd grade or so IME. The poetry and vocab (MoH and BL) were also very deep and rich. I think a younger child could listen in and pick up on it, but for my DS1, 3rd grade was just right. For example, in MoH they are identifying various forms of meter that I'm quite sure I didn't learn until high school, and even then, I don't think I learned everything introduced. In BL, they write similies and poems using the stem words.

 

You could of course adapt it for a younger audience, but I thought for us, third grade was the sweet spot.

[Alice]

I think it is very, very hard to understand MCT by looking at the samples. JMO. It wasn't until I used all of the parts together that it became obvious how rich and deep the program is. It is hard to understand that from the samples, IMO, and yes, the samples look deceptively simple. The presentation is simple for such complex concepts, but the depth there is quite amazing I think.

 

We used Island with a group of bright third graders this year in a small co-op setting and it was fantastic. Some of the grammar concepts are easy to grasp using the story, some are more complex and better suited to probably 3rd grade or so IME. The poetry and vocab (MoH and BL) were also very deep and rich. I think a younger child could listen in and pick up on it, but for my DS1, 3rd grade was just right. For example, in MoH they are identifying various forms of meter that I'm quite sure I didn't learn until high school, and even then, I don't think I learned everything introduced. In BL, they write similies and poems using the stem words.

 

You could of course adapt it for a younger audience, but I thought for us, third grade was the sweet spot.

 

 

 

I agree. I was pretty skeptical after looking at the samples but finally went ahead and tried it. My dh got tired of hearing me dither about it and told me just to order it and stop talking about it. :) I’m really glad we did. It’s become one of our favorite things we do. Some if the Island level was a review for ds in 3rd grade having used FLL but it was richer and is a really great program. This year I’ve been very happy with Town also and I wouldn’t have wanted to use it earlier than 4th grade. I’m pretty sure the CE (vocab portion) is the same book one of my partner’s sons is using in the “gifted†program in 5th grade public school. Which doesn’t really mean anything except that I think it’s a good fit for the upper elementary age.

[km123175]

My older daughter is "using" MCT Island level now. While my younger can listen in to what we're reading - there is not the same level of understanding. If you want a solid foundation for grammar at the 1st grade level I would not use MCT to do it. FLL 1 and 2 were a good foundation for using MCT. Much of the grammar part is review of FLL - but my daughter has to apply the information in different ways - which shows me how much she understands beyond having them memorized.

 

For example, last night at bed time she was trying to figure out if "of" was a preposition. (We didn't fully memorize that list of FLL2). From what we learned about prepositions we use the easy sentence "The squirrel ran ____ the tree." Using this sentence, even if it is silly (The squirrel ran aboard the tree), helps her determine if something is a locative preposition. She's still trying to figure out how to identify the other prepositions - beyond just knowing the list - WHY are they prepositions.

 

In MCT PI books we have lots of discussion about what a word is doing in the sentence to determine the part of speech. This has led to good conversations about the productive nature of English in terms of using nouns as verbs (i.e, google it, or squeak). When analyzing a sentence today, she first assumed that "squeak" was a verb because "something can squeak." After further exploration and realizing that a verb didn't really fit that part of the sentence she figured out that it was a noun in that sentence.

 

I'm not sure that 2 years ago we would have had the same depth of conversation. There is no harm in holding off MCT until she's within their recommended age ranges. The flip side is also true, there is no rush to get there! There are many good ways to build a foundation that will prepare your child well for using MCT later. I was hesitant to start MCT this year because I wasn't sure if my daughter would be ready for Town when we finish Island. We are still working through the writing activities in SI and we still have lots of PI sentences left to do; so, we're going to keep working on those then reassess if it's time to go there. If not, then I will likely use Building sentences in the interim.

 

I guess my point (after all that rambling) is that there is no reason to rush, and I think that waiting until your daughter is older (about 3rd-grade-ish) will have more benefit than doing the program with a 1st grader - even if the 1st grader can understand the story.

[Hedgehogs4]

This is very good info. Thanks for the very well-thought-out posts. I have a rising (articulate, literary, artistic) 3rd grader and I am considering this for her next year. I may even wait a year...but even so, this was very helpful.

[alisha]

Thank you all so much! I do so hate to go on just samples to pick things out, but it seems that this is the only way to do it for MCT. That and others' opinions. So thanks everyone for your insight. I will wait until 3rd.

[Crimson Wife]

There are very big jumps between MCT levels, especially in the writing. "Island" is do-able by a bright 1st grader but then the child probably will not be able to continue right on the following year to "town". Same goes for "town". It is do-able by a bright 3rd grader but then he/she will likely not be able to continue right on the following year to "voyage".

 

I personally like to alternate Don Killgallon's applied grammar/sentence writing materials in between levels of MCT.

[Kathryn]

Question: I have Island on the way. I'm fine waiting another year to use it, but am not sure. DS is technically going into second because of a November birthday and September cutoff. He is working a grade level above though. So, he's going into the third level of everything (and reading at a much higher level). Would you recommend doing it this coming year or waiting another year?

[km123175]

Kathryn,

 

In response to your question - my daughter was similar to yours. She turned 8 in November; so, technically 2nd this year and 3rd next year. In LA things she's what I consider a year ahead. I started MCT around November. We've completed reading GI and SI. We're now working on the writing activities with SI (my daughter hated to write back then; she's come around a bit). We're most of the way through BL and about 1/4 through PI. We sometimes do the sentences in PI Killgallon style - where we do all of the analysis and then she creates her own sentence with the same structure.

 

So, I don't know what you should do, but we went ahead with it. I don't expect us to start the town level until at least early fall. I think she needs a bit more practice building good sentences before we move on to paragraphs. So, we'll be using some of the Killgallon ideas/types of activities with her as we finish up PI over the summer. I might then start grammar town with her and do additional work with sentence level stuff before moving on to the other parts of the set for Town level.

 

Hope that helps you. :)

[LMD]

Kathryn, we were in a similar position. DD would be in 2nd if she were at school, but doing 3rd at home. We started MCT island at 3rd (7.5 yrs) and she's doing fine. In fact, she has sentence island on her lap right now... That said, I don't think it would have worked if she were younger. I'm glad we waited until then to start.

[Kathryn]

Thank you both!

[Kathryn]

I'm very interested in MCT Island, but have a few questions. I first found out about it here from some rave reviews.

 

But, on the website, the samples seem simple enough, so why does it start at 3rd grade? (I have a soon to be 1st grader). Does it get harder past the point where the samples are shown?

 

It seems to be just a story-does it need supplements? Or is it enough on it's own? (I would do Grammar, sentence and practice; maybe vocab)

 

Thanks for your insights.

 

 

Just wanted to come back to this as mine arrived today. I, too, thought it looked rather simple given the samples on their website. Having it in hand though, I definitely see what people are talking about with how deep it goes. Still trying to decide whether to do it this coming school year or wait until next year, mostly because I was already done planning and scheduling everything, so I need to decide if I want to redo my schedule and drop something I had planned or just add it inn.