Michael Clay Thompson, A Language Arts Review....

I've mentioned Michael Clay Thompson's Language Arts program in the past, but now that we're going into our second year of use, I thought I'd share a review.  Royal Fireworks Press publishes the Language Arts Curriculum by Michael Clay Thompson.  There are currently six levels/years worth of instruction.  The program was originally designed for gifted and talented children.  Although, we're just using it as a regular old language arts curricula.   

Last year, RileyAnn completed the Town Level.  You can see the books in this level pictured above: Grammar Town, Paragraph Town, Caesar's English I, Practice Town, and Building Poems.  There is also a literature component that we did not use.  The program is a bit pricey, but I was fortunate enough to borrow the teacher's editions and literature set pictured below so I only purchased the student books.   

This year, in 6th grade, Riley will be working through the Voyage Level, which is also pictured below.  It includes: Grammar Voyage, Essay Voyage, Caesar's English II, Practice Voyage, and A World of Poetry. 

MCT is a full language arts curricula which includes grammar, composition, vocabulary, poetry, practice, and literature.  It is touted as a classical education curricula.  However, Michael Clay Thompson "understands the relationship of ideas to presentation", which makes the program a perfect fit with a Charlotte Mason education.  This article offers a wonderful description of MCT's design and appearance. 

Grammar is taught through four level analysis: (1) parts of speech, (2) parts of sentences, (3) phrases, and (4) clauses.  By breaking it down, Thompson has made grammar clear, concise, and easy to grasp.

Basic composition is taught in the first three years of MCT.  For example, Island Level 1 teaches sentence structure, Town Level 2 teaches paragraph writing, and Voyage Level 3 teaches essay composition.  The final three levels extend this knowledge to focus on higher academic writing.

The vocabulary component is based on the Latin stems and lists of Nonfiction Words made from the stems as well as lists of Advanced Words and Classic Words.  There are Caesar’s Analogies, Caesar’s Synonyms, and Caesar’s Antonyms.  And there is Caesar’s Word Search. Vocabulary is loaded into all the activities and there are new vocabulary terms added to the stem lessons: five new words in each lesson. (Quoted from website description of Caesar's English I)

The poetry books are truly beautiful and like none I've ever seen.  The writing is two color with black and white images.  Students are taught in increasing detail about the elements of poems, including patterns of sound, meter, stanza, figures of speech, poetic techniques, and meaning.  Thompson also shows how poetry is crafted.  Sample poetry is included in each level from such poets as Emily Dickinson, Robert Burns, William Shakespeare, Thomas Hardy, John Keats, William Wordsworth, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Lewis Carroll, TS Eliot, William Blake, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Robet Louis Stevenson, Edward Lear, Walt Whitman, Lord Byron, Robert Frost, Christina Rosetti, Edgar Allen Poe, W B Yeats, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Henry Longfellow.

As noted above, we have not used the literature component of MCT.  However, you can read more about it here.

Overall, I think Michael Clay Thompson's Language Arts program is wonderful!  Riley is able to use it fairly independently and has learned a great deal.  She actually enjoys it and I see her making connections from her language arts study to other academic areas on a regular basis.  Because each language arts component has a different book, scheduling can be a bit confusing for first time users.  However, I highly recommend the Yahoo Group for support and suggested schedules as well as this slide presentation on the elementary tier (first three years) of MCT.  I do not have any experience with the upper three levels of MCT so I'm not at liberty to comment on them.

Term Two Review - Including Book List 2014-2015

It's hard to believe we're two-thirds of the way through our school year!  We took a little time off from our book studies this week.  However, the kids were still busy with enrichment activities including LEGO Club, Knitting Club, Keepers of the Faith, Choir, Art, and Piano Lessons.  They did continue math throughout the break and I had a read aloud going.   Speaking of which, here is our list of Term 2 2014-2015 History Read Alouds...

Abe Lincoln Grows Up by Carl Sandburg
Jed Smith: Trailblazer & Trapper by Frank Latham
The Story of John J. Audubon by Joan Howard - We read the first five chapters and decided to stop and read the following book instead.
The Boy Who Drew Birds: A Story of John James Audubon by Jacqueline Davies
The Seasons Sewn: A Year in Patchwork by Ann Whitford Paul 
The Erie Canal by Peter Spier
The Amazing Impossible Erie Canal by Cheryl Harness
Trail of Apple Blossoms by Irene Hunt
The Story of the Santa Fe Trail by Judy Alter
Along the Santa Fe Trail by Marian Russell & Ginger Wadsworth
Young John Quincy by Cheryl Harness
Andrew Jackson by Clara Ingram Judson
Who Let Muddy Boots Into the White House by Robert Quackenbush
Trail of Tears by Joseph Bruchac
Kit Carson Mountain Man by Margaret Bell
Quit Pulling My Leg: A Story of Davy Crockett by Robert Quackenbush
Susanna of the Alamo by John Jakes
Amistad Rising: A Story of Freedom by Veronica Chambers
Nettie's Trip South by Ann Turner
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell
Zia by Scott O'Dell
Jessie Benton Fremont: California Pioneer by Marguerite Higgins
Patty Reed's Doll by Rachel K. Laurgaard
Song of the Swallows by Leo Politi

Overall it was a good term.  I did switch a few things up that weren't working from our original 2014-2015 curriculum.   With mixed feelings on my part, Riley dropped Latina Christiana I.  She was struggling with this course and is also using Michael Clay Thompson's Town Level, which includes Caesar's English, a study of Latin stems.  I do want her to have some exposure to Latin, but maybe both programs at one time were too much.  She also dropped Logic of English Essentials and went back to All About Spelling.  And, I'm afraid we've grown lax in our Plutarch study, but I aim to get back at it soon.

I'm still using Bible Study Guide for All Ages, however, I changed the way I'm using it.  It just felt too classroom oriented.  I now simply read the recommended passages, the kids narrate, and we discuss.  Occasionally, they complete map work or an activity, but I'm not requiring all the busy work.

After finishing God's Design for Heaven and Earth, Our Planet Earth first term, we were scheduled for Our Universe second term.  However, rather than read it from start to finish, I chose various sections to study, supplementing with Master Books New Astronomy Book by Danny Faulkner.  The full color photos and more up to date information was pleasing. 

Ruben started a new online math program.  ST Math is currently running a pilot for homeschoolers and he was able to sign on for the second semester.  ST (spatial-temporal) Math is game based instruction designed to boost math comprehension and proficiency through visual learning.  It was created from neuroscience research.  I was sold after watching ST Math's TED talk by creator, Matthew Peterson. 

Ruben has also started cursive writing using Logic of English's Rhythm of Handwriting.  Here again, I'm not using the program as written.  I've modified it to meet Ruben's needs.  We've been working through it slow and steady.  If he can give me 2-3 samples of his best writing of 3-4 different letters per day, I call it good.   After learning some new letters, we build words, writing on the chalk board, using the letters he's learned.  For example, after learning how to write "the swing letters", i, t, u, s, j, p, r, and w, we put the letters together, forming and writing words such as it, sit, pit, us, just, etc.  From this approach, he's starting to take note of cursive when he sees it.  The other day, Ruben read a cursive word on the back of a semi while I was driving on the highway.  It's very exciting to see the kids apply concepts they're learning to every day life.  This is one of the many blessings of homeschooling!!

As mentioned above, we've picked up choir, art and piano lessons the last couple of weeks of second term.  These enrichment activities will continue into third term.  We are blessed to have wonderful, organized, extra curricular homeschool activities in our area. The kids are enjoying it and I look forward to time spent with other like minded moms while we wait for our kiddos :)  It's a win, win!

How's your school year going?  I love comments!  Feel free to leave kind words below...

Language Arts Connection...

Today, Riley and I made connections in language arts.  I just love that!  First we did Logic of English, in which we finished up lesson 4.  We've been spreading each lesson over 3 days.  Day one introduces/teaches any new concepts.  Day two we study spelling words and day three is spent on grammar.  Today was grammar day and we learned about three articles, "A", "An", and "The".  This also happened to be our first week using Michael Clay Thompson's Language Arts.  Riley is studying the Town Level, in which today she learned about the three articles listed above.  It was ironic that both programs covered this in the same day. 

One of the assignments in MCTLA was "Write a statement of twenty words, with as many nouns as possible.  Then write one of twenty words with as few nouns as possible.  Discuss the difference."  At first, I thought about skipping this, but I am so glad we didn't!!  Here is what Riley wrote on the white board...

The cat climbed the tree. The lamb said baa.  The cow said moo.  The pig laughed.  The cat did too.  

The fuzzy black cat ran up the big leafy tree.  The wooly white lamb jumped up and down saying baa. 

Next, I asked her which statement she liked best.  Initially she said she liked the first one because it was funny, rhymed, and mentioned more animals.  Then I had her close her eyes and I read the first sentence of each while she visualized the scene, then the second sentence of each, again while she visualized the scene.  She quickly changed her mind and decided the second statement was much better because it was more descriptive and helped you develop an image in your mind. 

It then occurred to me that in order to use many nouns, we had created short choppy sentences.  This prompted me to think of an exercise we did in our Charlotte Mason Study Group while watching the SCM Learning and Living DVD series.  On DVD number two, Sonya Shafer teaches about living books and narration.  She mentioned avoiding "twaddle" and how to tell it apart from a good book.  She talked about being careful to avoid books with short choppy sentences that are dumbed down.

The MCTLA exercise also made me think of Levi and the way he learned to talk.  When he first began speaking, he spoke primarily in nouns, naming things....cup, water, mommy, daddy, Riley, Ruben, tractor, kitty, etc.  He then progressed to adding a verb....drink water, play Riley, drive tractor, etc.  Eventually he added pronouns and some adjectives...I take you, I thirsty, I want tractor, etc.  This made me realize that short choppy sentences are really primitive.  They show up in early speech and again in early composition.

The point of all this being, it really solidifies the importance of staying away from "twaddle" with "short choppy sentences" and reinforces the idea of filling our children's mind, especially young children, with rich and interesting language, so that when they learn to speak and start composition, they have a rich vocabulary to draw from.  Hence creating much more interesting speech and composition. 

All this to say, so far I'm liking MCTLA and Logic of English.  And of course, I LOVE Charlotte Mason's methods!!  I'm pleased with the connections we are making :))