The Homeschool How To
I don't claim to know anything about homeschooling, so I set out on a journey to ask the people who do! Join me as I chat with homeschoolers to discuss; "why are people homeschooling," "what are all the ways people are using to homeschool today," and ultimately, "should I homeschool my kids?"
The Homeschool How To
Curriculum Series: Michael Clay Thompson- Language Arts
Unlock the potential of your homeschooling journey with insights from Katie Berry, a seasoned homeschooler and curriculum expert. Curious about creating a more comprehensive language arts experience for your children? Let Katie guide you through the Michael Clay Thompson Language Arts program, exploring its unique strands of grammar, vocabulary, writing, poetry, and literature. This episode unpacks the flexibility of the program, offering both veteran homeschoolers and newcomers alike a treasure trove of resources and strategies to elevate their educational approach beyond the basics of reading.
In this enlightening conversation, discover the benefits of a curriculum that grows with your child, from elementary levels right through to high school. We'll share our personal experiences with the program, including how it has become a favorite with our children and how the gentle introduction of the Poodle Series can be a perfect start for younger learners. With 30-minute daily sessions, this program not only enriches language arts learning but also presents exciting opportunities for early college credits, offering a pathway to both academic success and cost savings. Whether you're exploring homeschooling options or looking to enhance your current curriculum, this episode promises valuable insights you won't want to miss.
Michael Clay Thompson Language Arts
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Welcome to the Homeschool How-To Find my Curriculum, a series where we talk all about curriculum. I've been interviewing homeschooling families for over a year now on my main podcast, the Homeschool How-To, but I really wanted to zero in on curriculum. There's so much out there. How do I know what would work best for me and my child? How do I know what works for one child would work for the other? I might like the curriculum I'm using now, but how do I know there's not a better one out there, especially if I don't know all the curriculums? And what about supplemental curriculum? Should I be using that too? This series is to help you decide just that. I'm going to interview parents who are using all the curriculums so that you can decide the absolute best way to unfold your homeschooling journey. The absolute best way to unfold your homeschooling journey.
Speaker 2:Welcome back with us on our curriculum series is Katie Berry Katie thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's always a pleasure, cheryl. Oh, I always love having you on my curriculum expert. I refer to you as, and now you have a whole page on Instagram about book recommendations. Is that for parents or kids, or both?
Speaker 2:It's just my Instagram page where I share books and homeschooling content and just kind of some lifestyle stuff too. It's my public Instagram that I just feel like I can share more of my homeschooling resources. But I changed it to um Katie Berry's book recs because I felt like just homeschooling. I also wanted to kind of reflect me as a person and I like to share lots of book recommendations, and so now it's kind of a hybrid of book recommendations for um all ages, and then homeschooling content and a little bit of lifestyle that's awesome.
Speaker 1:What I plan to read at some point in my life, you know, like for myself, for enjoyment. So I will be going back to that page when that day comes. But as for right now, with the little kids, if I open a book I just fall asleep and but I was reading. You know what I'm reading right now? The Tuttle Twins, true Conspiracies. I love this book but okay enough about that, because I promote them all the time but it is. It is so eye-opening about just like, oh, that war, that's how that really started. It's. I love it my eighth grader just finished that book.
Speaker 1:I do have the IQ of an eighth grader, probably so that that makes sense as an adult, as an adult.
Speaker 2:I think you know, I think it was CS Lewis that basically said a good book is good for all ages yeah, right, like if it's a good book, it's a good book. Um so no, I'm not saying that at all, but no, I'm, oh, I'm joking.
Speaker 1:I always make fun, but no, yeah, like I, I it. It is for kids, like teens and stuff, because they'll like understand it as they're learning history especially, but for adults to read it and be like, oh my gosh, I never knew that about the war, that's how that started, that's really how it started. Or, you know, agent Orange, all that stuff um that they don't tell you in school. It's super cool, all right. So we're going to talk today about Michael Clay Thompson's language arts, right? Yes, I've never heard of this one and I honestly don't even know really what, like language arts is. Like I know I took language arts in school. Probably I can't, I don't know the difference between language arts and reading or writing or English, you know. So if you could break that down, that'd be awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so language arts is basically anything to do with reading, spelling, writing, grammar, vocabulary, research. All of that is all encompassing on language arts. So, michael Clay Thompson, language Arts has five strands, is what they call it. So they have grammar, vocabulary, writing, poetry and literature. If you use the whole program, you can use because they come in individual books. So you can use one strand, like you can. A lot of people just use the grammar, but you can use the grammar and vocabulary. You could use the grammar and poetics, or you can do the whole program, but you can just do one strand or you can do all five strands. One thing to note is if you buy a bundle, like a year-long bundle with all those strands, it does come with a pacing guide for the year where, if you're buying them individually, there is no pacing guide. So that's one thing.
Speaker 1:What do you mean by pacing guide?
Speaker 2:So it just tells you, like in a traditional 30-week school year, 36-week school year excuse me, these are the pages in each book that you'll do you know each day or per week. And so it tells you because, like, for example, um, the way they structure their language arts is you start out with grammar because you use grammar in your writing, and so you start out with grammar and then you add in vocabulary and then the writing comes in later in the year. You don't do all of them at once, and so if you order the whole package, it comes with a pacing guide telling you when to start each book and how long to spend on each book in a 36-week school year.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's interesting because I I mean my son's only six, so we're just kind of like letters, the sounds and when, to you know, to blending them and that sort of thing. So I haven't like gotten to that point where, like, wow, it encompasses so much. As you get older, I think when your kids are young, you just think like, oh, we just have to get them to read, and then you're good. But it's like no, there's grammar, like I don't even know the difference between grammar and vocabulary. To me that's like that's the same thing.
Speaker 2:Can you explain that? Yeah, so first of all, michael Clay Thompson. Usually don't start that until you have a child that is reading independently. So third, fourth grade is usually when most kids start. It is labeled as a gifted curricula. However, I don't believe that it's most. Curricula that's labeled as gifted would work fine for any student as long but it just really depends on the age they started and their maturity level. So like, for example, my own kids, I would say they're bright, but I don't have gifted kids, like I don't have kids that would qualify for Mensa, right Um, in the traditional gifted way. But I do have bright kids and we use Michael Click Thompson just fine. So that's one thing to know is that it is labeled and kind of promoted as a gifted curricula for language arts, but any regular learner um can use it.
Speaker 1:But which is funny because I feel like the term gifted can go both ways. Like people will be like what's wrong with that kid? Well, he's gifted, you know. So it's like well, do you mean it in the literal sense, or yeah?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So, um, yeah, I think that the, the, the labels we put on kids I think are funny, but, um, and I think maybe there's a selling point there, right like oh, my kids gifted, so yeah anyway um our school gets more funding if we have, you know, more or less gifted kids so what would a day or?
Speaker 1:a year. Look like with this, like are you doing all the books at once? Are they overlapping some?
Speaker 2:There is a little bit of overlap, but you do not do all five books at once. Like I said, you start with grammar. You usually add in vocabulary about six weeks into grammar and then they start adding in writing a little bit later into vocabulary and then poetics and literature kind of weave in there. So you're not doing all five books at once.
Speaker 2:One thing is that the grammar um there there's a grammar book where it's teaching them the grammar, and then there's a practice book where they actually practice diagramming sentences, and so what they do is every there's a hundred sentences in the book they do um one a day and it has a sentence, and the first diagramming is they actually label the parts of speech. And then they label the subject, predicate, direct objects, and then they label um the phrases, like a verbal phrase, infinitive phrase, a positive phrase, and then the fourth level is labeling the clauses. So independent clause, dependent clause, um, you know. And then what type of sense, since it is? So if it's declarative interrogative, I can't remember what the last one is right now I don't know that I ever learned that stuff in school.
Speaker 1:Where was?
Speaker 2:I, I know. Well, it's funny because as an adult I knew a little bit about parts of speech but I did not know anything about like clauses or phrases or anything like that. So it is a very high-level grammar but it is very accessible in the way it's taught, because it's taught in kind of a story format. So they have the book they read and it takes them anywhere from six to eight weeks to read the book at the beginning of the year and then they're done with that book and they just do one sentence a day of diagramming while they're also doing vocabulary and writing and the other things diagramming while they're also doing vocabulary and writing and the other things. So, um, so you teach the vocabulary upfront sorry, the grammar and vocabulary upfront, so that you can use that in your writing.
Speaker 1:So that's kind of how that's structured. So you said, start around, you know third, fourth grade levels, and how does? How long does that go for?
Speaker 2:Like fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth ninth, 10th high school.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so there are seven levels total Like fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, high school. Yeah, so there are seven levels total. They have the first level is called the island level, and then they have the town level and then voyage and then they have level four, just called level four. I think that was one that was kind of created after they had done the first six levels and found it they needed a bridge. So there's level four and then they go into magic lens one, magic lens two, magic lens three, and so, um, you just progress there. So there's seven levels. So if you start around third grade, fourth grade, it's going to take you up into high school, but not all the way through graduation. But one thing to note is that if they make it through all seven levels they're going to be like post-collegiate level in language arts. It's a very high level. My son that's in eighth grade is in voyage, which is the third level, and, um, he's learning stuff that I never even learned in college.
Speaker 1:So, um, so they go through all seven levels.
Speaker 2:Right, if you finish all seven levels, you don't really have to keep going with language arts, other than to fulfill whatever you have to report to your school district with language arts other than to fulfill whatever you have to report to your school district, right Well, in Idaho, what I would do, because we don't have any sort of reporting that we have to do, so I would just put him in college classes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, beautiful. Thank you for that recommendation. Yes, I had an episode a while back with Jill where she talked about that. Like why would you pay for college level classes in college when you can get it for so much cheaper in high school and they're ready for it.
Speaker 2:You know it's like why do you?
Speaker 1:double the work and pay more.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I would probably. If my son gets to that level and still is at home and not ready to graduate and go off to college, I would enroll him in some community college classes, um to for language arts and let him get some credits that way.
Speaker 1:Awesome, okay, so does each year start out with that same kind of like teaching the grammar and vocabulary and then build on that Like you're just going up the level? That's cool. So you have a little bit of something that you know. Do your kids like it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we've tried a couple different language arts programs and my eighth grader in particular. I asked him this year, would you like to do this program or Michael Clay Thompson? And he chose Michael Clay Thompson and my fifth grader started it for the first time this year and he's in the town level, which is the first level, and he's really the town level, which is the first level, and he's really really enjoying it as well, and so I feel like all around it's been good. One thing to note is they he did come out with a series called the Poodle Series and that is for kids that aren't ready to start the full seven levels and it's just parts of speech. From what I understand, they might also have a little bit of poetry in there.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure, but the poodle series is for the youngest kids. So, like for second grade, they can do the poodle series or, like in my case, if they're not ready to start the first level in third or fourth grade, you could do the poodle series in third or fourth as well. So the poodle series is more of a gentle introduction and it's kind of silly and funny, um, and then they can start the level one, or town level, I guess is what they'd call it okay, and then how long a day does this program take?
Speaker 2:it sounds like a lot, but it might actually be different once you're doing it um, honestly, I think I'll be honest and say I've never done all five strands of Michael Clay Thompson. We just use the grammar and vocabulary. I think that next year I might try all five strands, but this year it takes us 30 minutes a day to do grammar and vocabulary.
Speaker 1:Okay, and that's five days a week and taking off the normal breaks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, four days a week is what we do, and then, once we get through the grammar book, the practice book my kids can do independently when they're diagramming the sentences, and that should only take them five to 10 minutes a day once they get through reading the instructional book.
Speaker 1:Anything else about Michael Clay Thompson?
Speaker 2:I just think that this curricula would appeal to people who like learning through literature, because all the instruction comes in a storybook format, and so if you like learning language arts through reading, this might appeal to you. So I think there are Charlotte Mason homeschoolers that might like this, or, because it is such an in-depth curricula, classical homeschoolers might like this as well. But, like I said, don't be afraid of the gifted tag label on the curricula, because I think any child can learn it. It's just knowledge, right, it's not anything that's inaccessible.
Speaker 1:So, um, but yeah, I think pigeonholed themselves by putting that on it because, like, how many kids are there that are really gifted? Yeah?
Speaker 2:And I mean, I do understand, because if you had a, you know, a second grader using the curricula, they are going to be a very advanced student to be able to use it in second grade. So but, um, but yeah, like I said, it's just anybody can learn what a verbal phrase is or an infinitive phrases. You don't have to be gifted to learn that, and so that's why I think any student can do well with it. But yeah, if you have a student that struggles with reading, um, it might not be the right fit. Or if you had a student that struggles with reading, you could just, as a parent, be reading aloud to the instructional text to them, and so that's one thing. But yeah, I do think it would appeal to the people that like learning through story, and I think also those of you that place a high level of importance on language arts. It's going to appeal to you as well, because it is such a strong language arts curricula Awesome.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you so much for letting us know about Michael Clay Thompson and their language arts program.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and one thing to note is that Michael Clay Thompson's language arts, his company is called Royal Fireworks Press and so it's called Michael Clay Thompson Language Arts, but the company is sold through as Royal.
Speaker 1:Fireworks Press. Okay, I can put a link to that in the show's description as well. Yeah, perfect, perfect. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Thank you so much for listening. Please consider sharing this podcast or my main podcast, the Homeschool how To with friends, family, on Instagram or in your favorite homeschool group Facebook page. The more this podcast is shared, the longer we can keep it going and the more hope we have for the future. Thank you for your love of the next generation.