MarigoldHS Posted October 26, 2013 Share Posted October 26, 2013 I'm doing MCT island with my 2nd grader and it has been perfect so far. i am worried, however, about doing town in 3rd. It sounds like MCT progresses very quickly. for those MCT users, do you recommend taking a year off and doing town in 4th grade? if so, what would you do for 3rd grade language arts? thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EKS Posted October 26, 2013 Share Posted October 26, 2013 The grammar part of MCT progresses slowly. So slowly that some of us have jumped ship somewhere around Voyage/ML1. The writing ramps up *very* fast. You might find that your child does ok with Town but Essay Voyage for a 4th grader would be...challenging. And Advance Academic Writing for a 5th grader--forget it (unless you have a *very* advanced student). The vocabulary has a big jump between Island and Town, but if your child is ok with that, there is not much of a jump between Town and Voyage. I have no opinion on the poetics books because I have not used them past Island level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farrar Posted October 26, 2013 Share Posted October 26, 2013 If you just wanted to keep up on the grammar piece, you could read Grammarland. In some ways it's more basic - it's more about parts of speech than parts of a sentence - but in other ways it's more advanced - it asks kids to analyze much longer sets of sentences and throws in some slightly more advanced concepts like words belonging to more than one part of speech. But it's more story style grammar and I think would appeal to the same sorts of kids. But then I'm not sure what you'd want to do for writing. It really depends. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted October 26, 2013 Share Posted October 26, 2013 My DS did "island" last year and this year is doing "Grammar Town", "Practice Town", and CE1. He isn't yet ready for "Paragraph Town" or "Building Poetry". He is supplementing with Evan-Moor's "Daily Language Review Grade 3" to cover mechanics and miscellaneous things not in MCT and will continue that. We do LA on a "loop" schedule. I hadn't originally planned on starting him on CE1 but he specifically requested it at the beginning of the summer and it has gone well (he just finished lesson 15). I am planning to have him continue on with CE2 and then switch to Sadlier-Oxford's "Vocabulary Workshop" series. I actually just got a copy of WWtW1 from our charter's lending library and he definitely wouldn't be ready for that any time soon. I might take a break from VW for my DD and have her do it. DS will continue using "Practice Town" until he's finished with that book. I haven't yet decided whether or not to buy "Practice Voyage" (the only part of the "voyage" level I currently own is CE2). I might skip him directly to 4Practice 1 since I got that from the lending library as well. The original plan was to finish up "Grammar Town", and then do books 3 & 4 of Singapore "Sentences to Paragraphs", which cover both grammar & writing. Then sometime either this spring or next fall depending on how long the Singapore books take him, I want him to do Killgallon's "Sentence Composing for Elementary". Now that I have Magic Lens 1 from the lending library, however, I might take both him and his big sister through that book. At some point before doing "Paragraph Town", I want to take DS through EPS' "The Paragraph Book" series, though I have to double-check which of those books might be redundant after the Singapore ones. I also want him to do Scholastic "Paragraph Writing Made Easy" and maybe the new Killgallon "Paragraphs for Middle School". I am really tempted by the new Classical Academic Press writing series but I need another writing book on my shelf like I need a hole in my head, KWIM? Sorry for the length of this response! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roadrunner Posted October 26, 2013 Share Posted October 26, 2013 . Now that I have Magic Lens 1 from the lending library, however, I might take both him and his big sister through that book.! Apparently there is no new material covered in Voyage level grammar versus Town. Can you tell us if Magic Lens is considerably more in depth (new material) than Town grammar? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted October 26, 2013 Share Posted October 26, 2013 Apparently there is no new material covered in Voyage level grammar versus Town. Can you tell us if Magic Lens is considerably more in depth (new material) than Town grammar? Yes, very much so. There is quite a bit in there that my oldest would benefit from. A lot of the topics that I had considered missing from MCT's grammar are actually in ML1. I don't know why he didn't include them in the elementary level books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
musicianmom Posted October 27, 2013 Share Posted October 27, 2013 Dd8 didn't have trouble transitioning from Island to Town. I was planning for the possibility of Town taking two years, but it looks like she's on track to finish this year. It doesn't hurt that she adores it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted October 27, 2013 Share Posted October 27, 2013 Yes, very much so. There is quite a bit in there that my oldest would benefit from. A lot of the topics that I had considered missing from MCT's grammar are actually in ML1. I don't know why he didn't include them in the elementary level books. Like what? I had decided not to do ML after being disappointed in the repetition between Grammar Town and Grammar Voyage. But if it has significant new material, I may need to rethink . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted October 27, 2013 Share Posted October 27, 2013 Verb tenses and moods, transitive and intransitive verbs, irregular verbs, pronoun-antecedent agreement, pronoun reference errors, parallel construction, punctuation, usage, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrysalis Academy Posted October 27, 2013 Share Posted October 27, 2013 Sweet! Thanks, Crimson Wife. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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