Hi, 

I love your blog and it is so nicely put together!  I am considering MBTP and also Sonlight.  Do you think MBTP could stand alone as it’s own curriculum?  I also just bought AAS and will be starting right start math Level B.  My son can read at 2nd-3rd grade so I do want something challenging and academically rigorous.  Also, i wondering how you feel about MBTP’s Language arts?  Thanks so much!

Nancy 

 

Hi Nancy,

Thank you so much for your lovely words. I’m so happy you’ve found my blog useful, and so appreciate you letting me know 🙂

I do think MBTP can stand alone on its own, provided you add the Math to your lessons (which you are, and by the way, we *love* RightStart Math too).  That would make it pretty much well rounded.  Having said that, though, I do add some other things to supplement our learning with MBTP as our main spine.   For language arts, for example, we’ve added AAS (just like you), WriteShop and Handwriting Without Tears.  We haven’t done all of these at once, but sort of take turns with them.

We first did WriteShop Level A for a while, because my son was not much into writing at the very beginning back in the fall. WriteShop helped him to become more at ease with the whole idea of writing. We’ve put WriteShop on hold for now, but he often asks for it again, so we’ll restart with it sometime, hopefully soon. UPDATE: We did resume WriteShop and finished level A. Read my review of WriteShop here.

We are also doing AAS like you and love it. We plan to continue using it because it’s really made a difference in his willingness to write now that he feels more confident about it.  We don’t’ do it every day, but maybe every other day or even 2 days per week.  That’s the beauty of homeschooling –just do whatever feels good and whenever/however you can work it in.

We also started with HWT fairly recently because with all that writing (MBTP demands lots of writing), it was clear we needed to work on his handwriting before we fell into not so good habits…  This is so easy to do really. You could literally do a page or two a day or a week or whatever you feel like and it’d still work wonders.  So we love it and also will continue on with it.

We do MBTP daily and as you can see, are loose about the others.  So, that’s it as far as language arts for now, which I feel is plenty good.    I can see how much my son’s learning has progressed with the MBTP and the supplements.

I know that once you get to MBTP 7-9, the curriculum divides into 2 distinct units: 1.  Sciences & Social Sciences, and 2. Language Arts. You can use them both simultaneously, or you can just choose one and use the other from a different curriculum.  From the closed Facebook group available to current MBTP users, however, I’ve learned that the Language Arts units are really good and that kids love them –mostly.  (Yes, there are a few exceptions here and there.)

So yes, I think it’s definitely a challenging and academically-rich curriculum. It doesn’t just go through the motions. I believe, it often makes the child think more deeply, requiring him to make his own assumptions and reasonings and asking him to draw his own interpretations and conclusions. I like that.  I also appreciate the beautiful books they’ve chosen to illustrate and elaborate on the topic at hand.   In short, MBTP is an excellent, well-structured, well thought-out  curriculum (although a handful of lessons might make an exception to this statement 😉 ).

My son has enjoyed MBTP so far, and pretty much looks forward to it consistently. I think 6-8 would be a very good fit for your son if he’s in 2nd-3rd grade-level reading.

So, we plan to stick to MBTP indefinitely since it’s working very well for us now.  Although, I’m always open, specially for whatever draws  my son’s interests and works with his learning style.  I believe homeschooling should be fun, I strive to make learning a joyful, ‘let’s-have-fun’ moment.   And for the most part, MBTP has delivered that for us so far.

Sorry I don’t know much about Sonlight, except a friend of mine uses it and she does like it.  However, if you choose MBTP, I doubt you’ll have much time left for any other core curriculum.

Hope this helps you and your son. And if you have more questions, feel free to ask me. I’d be happy to reply them if I know the answer.

Best to you,

Patricia

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