Ohdanigirl Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 For those of you using Michael Clay Thompson books for LA, do you purchase the full hs pack? Do you need both teacher manuals and student books, or can you just as easily do it with just one or the other? Basically what do you find neccesary to use the books to your best advantage? I don't mind buying everything if it really provides an advantage, but I hate getting the tm and finding it was a waste of $. what about the other books that come in the packs, such as music, poetry, ceasars english? Do these fit in well, or do may of you not use them? I have had mixed comments from people about the music and poetry. Thanks in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaurieinCA Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 We are using MCT for Language Arts. What level are you considering? I like the Grammar/Sentence Island and Grammar/Paragraph Town series more than the Grammar/Essay Voyage series so far, maybe because my kids preferred the "duck" theme to the "ship" theme. We love Caesar's English, and how all the books are interrelated - it is fun finding the word you learned in Caesar's English in your Grammar book! You only need the Teacher's Manual for all the books - it is a copy of the Student Manual with the addition of the answers. I just cover the answers with a piece of paper as we do the exercises orally. Caesar's English has tests at the back. I do own A World of Poetry, Essay Voyage, and Practice Voyage, but we have not used them much yet. We just finished Grammar Voyage and will probably start these books within the month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohdanigirl Posted March 18, 2009 Author Share Posted March 18, 2009 I was considering buying the first level and allowing my son to work as fast as he feels comfortable. Every LA curriculum I get is too easy and he could literaly do three years worth of work in one. I heard about MCT and am thinking of buying it this week. I had heard that the poetry book was confusing though and of no real value, but I wanted more imput. I like your idea for the tm's. We could start in the second level too because my son has gone through FLL and WWE, but I wasn't sure if we would miss anything that wasn't covered in these, plus I have two other ds's behind him so I figured it wouldn't be a waste of our money. i hope this is the LA for us since we have gone through R&s and WS as well. My sons only sticking point is Spelling. He is a horrible speller despite the fact that he reads like a mad man. In this area we do lots of study and rep. That reminds me, would we still need a spelling curriculum or is it within MCT. Thanks for the imput. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
violin69 Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 (edited) I heard similiar thoughts about the poetry books being confusing but I found the them very clear and insightful. After only a few lessons of Music of the Hemispheres, dd turned to dh the other night and started to tell him all about onomatopoeia. She has already learned that there's more to poetry than rhyme, that there are various ways of using words to paint verbal pictures or show emotion and that poetry is enjoyable. We've also read through some of Paragraph Town and dd keeps asking for more. (We'll read it again and go into more depth this coming year.) For me, the most impressive part of MCT's curriculum is that he includes his own poetry and writing which IMHO is an outstanding example of good literture. I started by buying Ceasar's English and ended up buying Grammar Town, Paragraph Town, Music of the Hemispheres, and Building Poems. After tasting MCTLA now, I am not regretting my purchases at all. Edited March 19, 2009 by violin69 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohdanigirl Posted March 19, 2009 Author Share Posted March 19, 2009 I heard similiar thoughts about the poetry books being confusing but I found the them very clear and insightful. After only a few lessons of Music of the Hemispheres, dd turned to dh the other night and started to tell him all about onomatopoeia. She has already learned that there's more to poetry than rhyme, that there are various ways of using words to paint verbal pictures or show emotion and that poetry is enjoyable. We've also read through some of Paragraph Town and dd keeps asking for more. (We'll read it again and go into more depth this coming year.) For me, the most impressive part of MCT's curriculum is that he includes his own poetry and writing which IMHO is an outstanding example of good literture. I started by buying Ceasar's English and ended up buying Grammar Town, Paragraph Town, Music of the Hemispheres, and Building Poems. After tasting MCTLA now, I am not regretting my purchases at all. Great! It sounds like what we need. Did you buy the student edition and the TM? For the poetry and music, was it neccesary to buy both? I think I'll end up with the whole package just to be safe, but we'll see. Thank you so much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matryoshka Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 This is a reassuring thread. I just ordered the whole Town level - but just the Basic hs package, that just has Teacher's Manuals except for the Practice books. I'm actually really looking forward to the poetry and vocab books - I really liked the samples I saw online. That reminds me, would we still need a spelling curriculum or is it within MCT. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there's any spelling in the books? I'm planning on sticking with what we're using for spelling. To LaurieinCA and violin69 - did you use Paragraph Town for writing assignments, or just to talk about writing structure? Could the assignments in there be a year's worth of writing, or should I be planning to supplement? This is the piece that I'm fuzziest on what the actual implementation looks like... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
violin69 Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 I bought the TM only but that's bc I live overseas and shipping is so expensive. After looking through the books, I sometimes wish I had the student books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
violin69 Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 To LaurieinCA and ******** - did you use Paragraph Town for writing assignments, or just to talk about writing structure? Could the assignments in there be a year's worth of writing, or should I be planning to supplement? This is the piece that I'm fuzziest on what the actual implementation looks like... I think the implementation of the writing assignments depends what each individual child can handle. Some can handle the concepts but not the physical writing. Some may not be ready for either. The labs are written for 20 weeks/once a week so there are 16 extra weeks. Some assignments can be stretched over a week or 2. For dd, I've been organizing her writing lessons centered around the writing process. Some assignments involve more physical writing on her part than others. Each week: Monday- Brainstorming or freewriting for 10 minutes. Tuesday- Drafting/Structure. I've included Paragraph Town labs for this but most of these we'll be doing together (partner projects). Wednesday-Revision. Each week we will look at a way in which she can revise her writing. For each way, she'll write a question on an idex card and save it in her "Writer's Tool Box" for use when she needs to revise a report... Thursday- Editing (Didax) Friday- Writing poetry or letters. As far as spelling, I inherited Spelling Power from a collegue so I use the placement tests to check dd's progress. She's a natural speller so I see no need for formal spelling. If there's a pattern of error, I stop and work on it with her. Also, we'll be using Didax's Editing which includes finding incorrectly spelled words that she needs to correct. For ds, who's not ready for MCTLA yet, I use All About Spelling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohdanigirl Posted March 19, 2009 Author Share Posted March 19, 2009 I bought the TM only but that's bc I live overseas and shipping is so expensive. After looking through the books, I sometimes wish I had the student books. I know what you mean, we're in Mexico. My way around this is having things shipped to my mother, but this requires me to be organized about when I order, where from, and what. The things we do for out kids...LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joannqn Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 For the island and town levels, I haven't found any need to have the student manuals (I buy TM only) except with the practice book. I like having both for the practice book. Usdgal - There's no spelling in MCT. I'm going through the town level right now with my DD and haven't found anything in the island series that isn't repeated and expanded upon in the town series. The island level grammar covers all 8 parts of speech, the 5 parts of a sentence, prepositional phrases, and independent clauses. Sentence Island covers parts of a sentence. I didn't care for Music of the Hemispheres. Building words was pretty basic; my dd didn't really learn anything from it. Caesar's English I is a huge step up from it though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohdanigirl Posted March 20, 2009 Author Share Posted March 20, 2009 Thanks,all your info has been great. I think I know what to buy now...YAY:D Danielle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colleen in SEVA Posted March 20, 2009 Share Posted March 20, 2009 Quote from MCT, after a question about his LA program's assignments and which books where necessary. Greetings to everyone. I thought I would contribute some clarificationabout the assignments in these programs. In Sentence Island, for example, there are extensive writing assignments and activities in the teacher manual, at the back of the book in the teacher section. There are also lots of informative sidebars with suggestions for discussion throughout the book. The books do have stories as the contexts for exploration of concepts, but they also have elaborate academic assignments that are integral to the experience. Although the teacher book does contain the pages of the student book, the two books are extremely different, with neither one being appropriate for the other user. The students need the student book because the answers to the questions are not indicated in theirs. The teachers need the teacher book because of the answer keys, the sidebars, and the teacher section in the back with all of the supplementary content and the assignments. In all of my programs I provide the student version and the teacher version. I hope that this makes the design clearer. Best to all, MCT Basically -- the teacher's manuals are necessary, the student books are nice to have if you have room in your budget. I buy both -- that way I can assign him reading on his own (we haven't ever done this, but I could in theory), I have two books in case I want to go through it with two of my younger kids at the same time, and they have good resale value. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohdanigirl Posted March 20, 2009 Author Share Posted March 20, 2009 Quote from MCT, after a question about his LA program's assignments and which books where necessary. Basically -- the teacher's manuals are necessary, the student books are nice to have if you have room in your budget. I buy both -- that way I can assign him reading on his own (we haven't ever done this, but I could in theory), I have two books in case I want to go through it with two of my younger kids at the same time, and they have good resale value. Well I've decided to get both. I have three boys, so I can reuse what ever I need, and I really don't want to make a lot of copies. After we are done with them, I think they will be to old for resale, but I will have gotten my monies worth. I just wanted to make sure the TM's were needed, and it seem that they are. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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