lisabees Posted September 14, 2016 Share Posted September 14, 2016 I really want it! Any reviews? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runningmom80 Posted September 28, 2016 Share Posted September 28, 2016 Bumping on the off chance someone has used this, because I am interested too. :) 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slache Posted September 29, 2016 Share Posted September 29, 2016 http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/545334-ignore-this-thread/?p=7206928 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMD Posted September 29, 2016 Share Posted September 29, 2016 My friend, a year 12 English teacher by trade (and an excellent one), ordered this based solely on the title, having no idea of the suggested grade level. She worked through it herself, was challenged and inspired. When I explained the mct sequence, she was shocked. She had assumed that it was a high school level text (at least) and immediately jumped in to island level with her 3rd grade daughter. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nansk Posted September 30, 2016 Share Posted September 30, 2016 My friend, a year 12 English teacher by trade (and an excellent one), ordered this based solely on the title, having no idea of the suggested grade level. She worked through it herself, was challenged and inspired. When I explained the mct sequence, she was shocked. She had assumed that it was a high school level text (at least) and immediately jumped in to island level with her 3rd grade daughter. Which trilogy did she buy? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clemsondana Posted September 30, 2016 Share Posted September 30, 2016 (edited) I'd love to hear more, too. I just looked at it and am interested, but not sure where to start my child. It has recommendations for where to begin for different ages/grades, but I'm a little concerned about missing some of the poetry and literature ideas that are introduced in the early levels. I have a younger child who can use it later, so I'm debating getting the first series and letting my older child start with it even though it's a few levels below where he is, grade-wise. He's not a great writing - he understands grammar well, can diagram sentences, and has a big vocabulary, but really struggles to write paragraphs. Is this the kind of thing that we could move through a little more quickly in the beginning if we start at a lower level? Edited - after more reading on the site and looking at the samples, it looks like the grammar at early levels (and even at his level) would have a lot of review. I know that one of the benefits is that the strands are integrated, but does anybody have experience with using parts of it (writing and poetry, for instance) but not all of it? When I asked my son to take a look today, he didn't want to change grammar, but was interested in looking into the other sections. He's already taking Latin and we do Vocab with Classical Roots, so he's getting a lot of that material in a format that he really enjoys, so he was dubious about adding more. I'm debating buying an early writing book so that we an test it out and then incorporate more if we like it. Thoughts? Edited September 30, 2016 by ClemsonDana 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathleen. Posted October 7, 2016 Share Posted October 7, 2016 Listening in... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clemsondana Posted October 7, 2016 Share Posted October 7, 2016 I decided to get the whole introductory level and try it out - it came today, so I'll check it out and hopefully can start working with it next week. I'll post an update once we've gotten started. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AimeeM Posted October 7, 2016 Share Posted October 7, 2016 I have the Time Trilogy and the Vocabulary of Literature (from Level 4). I didn't go with the writing or grammar component since we haven't used this program in the past, and I've not heard great reviews on MCT's writing. I love the Time Trilogy. I ordered a second literature set so that we could buddy-read. The parent manual is small but amazing - it includes implementation of the literature program, words to know, discussion questions, essay questions and so much more (all in a tiny, short little book!). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMD Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 Which trilogy did she buy? She got the mud trilogy to go with island for her dd. She didn't do a trilogy for herself, though she is generally quite well read and familiar with most of the titles - as I said, she's a very good English teacher! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMD Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 Good luck clemson, hope you enjoy it as much as we have! I have done mud trilogy, Alice/Peter/Mole trilogy and am partway through the search trilogy with dd - we had already done treasure island, she read call of the wild this year but hasn't done invisible man yet. I read through the parent manual for my own information but rarely do assignments. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lisabees Posted October 8, 2016 Author Share Posted October 8, 2016 Thanks for the bump! For those of you who have the series in hand...are the teacher AND students books necessary? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AimeeM Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 (edited) Thanks for the bump! For those of you who have the series in hand...are the teacher AND students books necessary? For the TIME trilogy, yes - the student versions of the literature have no assignments in them; just the book, some vocabulary explained and some grammar illustrations - it's the parent manual that has all discussion questions, etc, but the parent manual does not have the full text. ETA: If you have read the books in the TIME trilogy, you would need to either read along with your child or read ahead. I ordered a second set of the actual literature books (they offer additional sets at a discounted price) because you have to have read to them to implement any of the discussion questions. For the vocabulary book, I'm not sure how you could do it without both. The teacher's manual has all the answers, but they are IN the activities, so it isn't like you can copy it out without the answers. The TM also has the quizzes and tests. Edited October 9, 2016 by AimeeM 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lisabees Posted October 8, 2016 Author Share Posted October 8, 2016 Thank you, Aimee! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clemsondana Posted October 9, 2016 Share Posted October 9, 2016 I got the complete homeschool package for the Island level in the mail on Friday (yay, new book!). I've had a chance to look over everything and do a little with the first book, Grammar Island, so here's the promised write-up. For most of the books, the difference between the teacher guide and student book is that teacher books have blocks with tips and questions to use as your students read. I like that the pages match up - your page 15 looks like their page 15, plus a little box with a tip or question. We actually started with Grammar Island while on a road trip Friday, and my kids passed the student book back and forth to read out loud while I could follow along in the front seat with the teacher guide and ask questions (don't worry, my husband was driving). My MIL, a retired 3rd grade teacher, looked at it and said that she thought that it did a great job of explaining how the parts of speech work. We've been using Growing with Grammar, and I'll probably keep using it, too (it takes us 10 min or less, 3x per week) because I think that my kids need the practice at capitalization and punctuation, but MCT really makes the parts of speech and how they're used (direct objects, linking verbs, etc) clear. In books that ask questions, the answers are in the teacher's guide in the lesson - there might be a work-around, but it wouldn't be simple to let the student work from the guide. There are also extra activities and explanations at the end. I think that I would probably know enough to get through it without the teacher guide, but I there are points that I wouldn't recognize, so we wouldn't get the full benefit from it. The language book frequently shows Latin roots and then shows both the English and Spanish words that derive from the root; this may be really cool for my family, since one child takes Latin and the other takes Spanish at co-op. I also think that I will learn from the poetry book - I did well in English in school, including poetry, but I don't think that most of the concepts were explained so thoroughly. I also like that he takes poetry from lots of different classical sources and point out lots of different details - meter, alliteration, types of rhyme - and also incorporates occasional art/photography that fits the poems. I don't think that I could pull this together on my own, but it feels like what I try to do with my high school students, pulling in interesting ideas from lots of other places because I want them to think that biology is as cool as I do. I'll have to see how this works with my actual children, but I'm cautiously optimistic that it might help my kids to see language as something more than a utilitarian way of communicating. My son, especially, is great at 'technical writing' like step-by-step directions but doesn't see the point of descriptive writing. I'll try to remember to post again once we're through the grammar and into the more interesting parts...and if this is popular, I'll be interested in checking out the trilogies and some of the other books offered by RFP... the dangers of getting a catalog from a company that you've never used before! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbutton Posted October 9, 2016 Share Posted October 9, 2016 I am late to the discussion because we hadn't really gotten much of the literature level under our belt when the topic was posted. For grammar, the literature level is mostly a review of concepts in the Voyage level, but it applies those concepts to looking at the writing of recognizable authors. I think it has a few new concepts (particularly an additional model for looking at the sentence which is sort of like diagramming but not exactly), but I don't think there are a lot of additions grammar-wise. We have not yet used the other components of the literature level because we are mixing and matching some of the other components (we're behind two levels with poetry, for instance). My son is enjoying it, and he's not a big LA fan. He's good at conceptual grammar a la MCT, but he's not one to do literary stuff just for fun. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runningmom80 Posted May 28, 2017 Share Posted May 28, 2017 I'm again asking if anyone has any reviews. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMD Posted May 28, 2017 Share Posted May 28, 2017 (edited) I am about to buy most of the lit level for dd... I'm looking forward to it! sorry not helpful. Edited May 28, 2017 by LMD 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runningmom80 Posted June 2, 2017 Share Posted June 2, 2017 I am about to buy most of the lit level for dd... I'm looking forward to it! sorry not helpful. I'm just going to buy it as well. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LMD Posted June 3, 2017 Share Posted June 3, 2017 I'm just going to buy it as well. I hope you enjoy it! You'll get yours before me, it takes a while (& $$$) for them to arrive down under! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clemsondana Posted June 3, 2017 Share Posted June 3, 2017 I looked to read this and saw that I had posted a lot last fall, so I thought I'd update. Because it was a little young for my 5th grader, we moved quickly through the island last year. We then started on town, and finished everything except the last of the poetry. We will be starting Voyage this fall. I was a little dubious when we started - the format is unusual - but this program has really helped my reluctant writer. The exercises in Grammar Town seemed to help him understand what I had thought I was explaining - order matters, word choice matters, flow is important... Writing is still not a favorite, but it has improved dramatically. The vocabulary in Caesar's English was wildly popular with my history-loving kid. Poetry has been a big help - my STEM self was always willing to read poetry, but I could not have explained it as he does. I've also been reading through Treasure Island from one of the trilogies - we'll be doing that in the fall, too. I like the way that he uses footnotes to define archaic words and includes occasional boxes with notes about alliteration or rhythm - they are instructive without being disruptive. So, we're still not to the literature level, but this was the first year that we enjoyed any part of writing or grammar. This is a quirky curriculum, but with the right student it is amazing. I hope that it works for those of you who ordered it! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
domestic_engineer Posted December 15, 2017 Share Posted December 15, 2017 Bumping .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ikslo Posted December 15, 2017 Share Posted December 15, 2017 I think AMJ is using it this year. Maybe she’ll chime in. It’s on my list for next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ikslo Posted December 15, 2017 Share Posted December 15, 2017 (edited) Here's a post from AMJ from September 2016 with some info on the Lit level:http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/545334-ignore-this-thread/page-1260?do=findComment&comment=7206928 Edited December 15, 2017 by ikslo 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMJ Posted December 26, 2017 Share Posted December 26, 2017 The Literature level of MCT LA is fairly new, having first come out last school year (which is when we ordered and used it). It falls between the lower levels (Town, Voyage, etc.) and the upper levels (more high-school-ish) in MCT's plan, but it could be done later, too. My girls and I really liked it and had a lot of fun focusing more on Literature for a year. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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