I am looking into MBTP curriculum and I was wondering if you are still using it? My dd is 11 – been home schooling since let November.

Thank you for any input,

Jay

 

Dear Jay,

Congratulations on starting your homeschooling journey! And thank you for contacting me with your questions. I’m happy to help fellow homeschoolers any way I can 🙂

I’m still using MBTP, although we’ve reduced it quite significantly. Basically, we did 4 concepts in a row, and then took a rather long break, and are now doing a 5th concept. We have also just purchased a 6th one (our first 7-9 literature unit) to do as soon as we’re finished with the current one. So in short, we are now using MBTP as a supplement rather than as our main/core curriculum.

Since your daughter is 11, you would need either their 9-11, 10-12, or 11-13 package, which I haven’t yet used since my son is 7. We’ve only done 5-7 and 6-8 so far, (the 7-9 lit unit is on our queue) and MBTP changes the structure of their concepts beginning 7-9. So I can’t entirely guide you on the higher levels. I do know from other folks using those higher levels, however, that overall, the higher the level, the longer it takes to complete the daily lessons. There is *a lot* of writing involved even in the younger levels, and of course it progresses to more so –or much more so– in the higher ones. At first, I thought I needed to have my son do everything: all the activities with all the writing and all. It would take way too long sometimes, and then we would end up all burned out. So I started to modify. I now feel free to just pick and choose the activities or modify them, if needed, rather than to follow them blindly (as we did at the beginning). If a particular activity requires long writing, I have him dictate to me so he can concentrate on producing his own ideas. I’d rather he come up with his own viewpoints and conclusions, than worry about the actual writing of them. Often, by the time he’d learn how to write a word, he’d lose all his inspiration. The idea is to make the learning fun, not a chore, as it was becoming. We’re comfortable with this pick/choose/ modify-if-needed approach, and my son is thriving! We do use a different curriculum for writing and spelling, so he can learn the mechanics of writing then.

Overall, I do like MBTP, the activities are mostly well thought out, and it’s usually very well put together. I also love the books and literature they’ve chosen, albeit not enough, in my opinion. (That’s just because I *love* literature-rich learning.) And while I do not think we will use it as our main/core curriculum anymore, it will continue to be part of our overall learning resources.

I do suggest you join the Facebook group just for MBTP users and ask the specific questions about the package you’re considering there. The group is very friendly and always willing to offer help and guidance. Also, you can always buy just one concept, try it out, and go from there.

Hope this helps your decision. And I wish you the very best with homeschooling. It’s such a joy to homeschool, IMO 🙂

Warm regards,