Not using MTC for lack of time! Please advice!

[IanSebast]

We have 4 dc in our family, and my dh has very demanding shifts at the hospital, leaving me as a single mother of 4 most of the time :0. I LOVED the idea of the MCT program for language arts, and it worked great for a while, but as more children have been born into our family I'm finding it more and more difficult to find the time to do it with him. I was so desperate that I got him a different curriculum to use and boxed up MCT, however, I don't think he's getting as much out of the first new one as he did from MCT. I want to go back to it for my oldest, and start my youngest in future years on it as well, but I just can't figure out how to do it!

Do you have any advice on how to implement the program without being super involved as a parent?
How did you manage to use all the components?
Did you use MCT as your only language arts program?
Do you think a child can use it independently? If so, how?
Did you give it up? If so, how to do feel about it? What did you turn to?

Thank you for your help!

 

Children ages are 12, 5, 3 and 10 months old!  My 12 oldest is an accelerated reader.

[idnib]

I don't really have much helpful to you, but I can say I'm using the components according to MCT's presentation on how they work together. Have you seen it?

 

ETA: How old is DS? Are you looking for elementary, middle, high school?

[Miss Marple]

I don't see the ages of your kids, but will tell you that from my experience with 4 close in age that it's sometimes necessary to do a "just get it done" program once in a while.  We discovered MCT when my oldest 2 were already in high school and the younger two were just entering junior high.  We loved it!  But I was only doing it with 2.  There were times in our homeschool journey when we had to put away the "best" and do the "pretty good".  It's OK.  Come back to it later.  Honestly the breaks were good in that they inspired new enthusiasm for a new program.  So English wasn't just English again...there was a different twist.  I think that's why we really loved MCT when we discovered it.  It was a different approach to the same subject (sort of like AoPS for math).  

[Alte Veste Academy]

I moved MCTLA (and Life of Fred and a few other supplements) to the summer. There are only so many hours in a day, and I couldn't get to everything I deemed important with three kids, so I just rearranged. MCTLA is too well-loved here to ditch entirely, but something had to give August-May. Now we have what I call Seasonal Curricula. :lol: Maybe I'll start a trend. :tongue_smilie:

[IanSebast]

so, my kids are 12, 5, 3 and 10 months! I agree, MCT is just too good to ditch entirely, so any help will be greatly appreciated!

[skeeterbug]

I moved MCTLA (and Life of Fred and a few other supplements) to the summer. There are only so many hours in a day, and I couldn't get to everything I deemed important with three kids, so I just rearranged. MCTLA is too well-loved here to ditch entirely, but something had to give August-May. Now we have what I call Seasonal Curricula. :lol: Maybe I'll start a trend. :tongue_smilie:

Wow! I love this idea! Really, really love this! I have several things we never get to and I feel guilty about it. I'm definitely going to do some variation of this. Such a simple thing that seems totally obvious now that I've read your idea.

 

See? Trendy already! :D

[fourisenough]

I use other things for LA during school time, but have read through most if the Island level of MCT as bedtime read-alouds with my DD 3, who is 9. Sometimes I'm too tired to read, so she actually reads it to me then we discuss. Haven't seen the later levels yet, but might this work for you? I think it is a curriculum that works best on a couch or bed with much shared reflection, so I see no way to make it work independently.

[MinivanMom]

This is probably sacrilegious to say, but I let dd10 do MCT completely independently. It sounds cozy to read beautiful language arts books aloud, but really my 10-yr-old can read them to herself. She is not at a point where she needs or wants that kind of spoon-feeding, and I have 4 younger children who do need me sitting beside them. I would rather use my one-on-one time with her to discuss literature and big ideas. Some of those will be the beautiful ideas from MCT, but we can discuss those ideas without me having to read the ideas to her first.

 

This works in part, because dd started Island at the recommended age of 9 (4th grade) rather than at the younger ages that are popular on this board. She just works through the components in the order MCT recommends: grammar, then a practice sentence daily as she works through vocabulary, then writing, and finally poetry. I prefer to have her only working in one book at a time. We do the writing and extension activities very sparingly, because she does an additional writing block daily. I do assign most of the poetry writing assignments, because I feel like the poetry component is uniquely strong and I will assign her to make vocabulary flashcards and things like that. I just put her assignment on her daily checklist, she reads from the teacher's manual, she does her practice sentence or any other written work, and then we discuss it when I check all her work mid-morning. I usually just ask her what she learned and she orally narrates it to me. This gives me a chance to discuss big ideas about language with her. It's working so far. This approach seems to be meeting her need for beautiful, challenging language arts while also meeting her need for more independence. HTH

[Lisa in the UP of MI]

I'm teaching 3 (4th, 2nd, and K), plus have a tag along 4yo and almost 2yo, and am due in April.  Luckily, my kids play together pretty well, so that allows me to spend most of my day working one-on-one with the kids.  Oldest dd does do some independent work in the morning while I start a few things with the second grader and do a few morning chores, but otherwise I do everything with the younger two and much of oldest dd's work with her, too.  Though she is an excellent reader, she is an extrovert and she just gets more out of her work if I read with her, discuss, etc.  For MCT specifically, we followed the schedule recommended.  We had one main book going at a time (grammar, then writing, then poetry) 3 days a week, vocabulary started partway through the grammar book and was done once a week until completed, and after completing the grammar book we did one sentence in the practice book a day.  It is only one chunk of time a day for me and maybe only 10-15 minutes.  We also do a separate writing curriculum.

[CamilleBethany]

Forgive me, what is MTC? You all speak so highly of it, I'd love to check it out! 

[MinivanMom]

Forgive me, what is MTC? You all speak so highly of it, I'd love to check it out! 

 

MCT is the language arts program by Michael Clay Thompson from Royal Fireworks Press. www.rfwp.com/pages/michael-clay-thompson/

 

[Soror]

I use MCT as our primary grammar program, we've done some of the writing but primarily I use WR and WWE3 for writing. About 3 days a week I read from the Grammar Book (first Grammar Island, then Sentence Island and now Grammar Town) and then we do a sentence or two in PI. We do some grammar in our spelling program (LoE Essentials) when it seems beneficial and some in WR as well. MCT only takes about 15ish minutes a day though. Ds learns extemely well via narrative and very poorly w/ memorization so it is a great fit for him and worth the effort. I'm not really looking for independent as that isn't the best for him as a student.

[cmac]

I keep thinking of looking for another program when it gets hard, but so far it is working out.  We are behind, but I think that works out better for us.  We stopped Grammar Town since it was frustrating for us.  We just picked it up again and it is much better and easier for both of us.  I don't think he was ready at the beginning of the year.  Currently, we don't do the whole program at once.  Just one book at one time.