Royal Fireworks Press News & Blog
A New Book by Michael Clay Thompson
Introducing a new book by Michael Clay Thompson! It is an introduction to the parts of speech for young children, who get to meet a chicken named Poodle, a beagle named What?, and Sidney, the world’s fastest snail. It’s all in verse, it’s wonderfully illustrated, and it’s delightfully silly. We expect it to become available […]
Another Honor for the MCT Language Arts Curriculum
The readers of Practical Homeschooling magazine have voted Michael Clay Thompson’s language arts curriculum the best for online instruction. The MCT curriculum is available in three forms online. First and foremost, it is taught in many online classes from many different sources. The luckiest children are those who are instructed by Michael Clay Thompson himself […]
Why Take an Online Course from Royal Fireworks Press?
Because there is no better way of learning language arts than from the master himself. Michael Clay Thompson has been teaching his language arts curriculum online for Royal Fireworks Press for the last few years. Students receive more than just the information in the textbooks; they receive Michael’s professional instruction and personalized feedback. Here is a recent comment […]
Doing four-level grammar analysis is like practicing your piano
Why do students have to keep doing four-level analyses in every level of the MCT curriculum, in the grammar and practice and writing books, once they know how to do it? If a student has already done level one or two, is it not better to skip the practice book or the four-levels in the writing book? This is a good question. Why should a student have to keep doing it? Am I not opposed to students having to prove and prove and prove that they know something? Yes, I am opposed to that, but this is different. Four-level analysis is different…Four-level analysis is in part a logic of sentence construction. With each example you see more clearly how and why to make a verb agree with its subject, how to structure a good introductory participial phrase, how to punctuate a complex sentence, how to edit out junky modifiers, how to do the ten thousand things that writers want to do.
Two New MCT Trilogies
As Michael Clay Thompson notes, “It is by loving to read that children become literate.” And of course, it matters what they read. A child cannot become literate by reading a few modern pieces of short fiction or a few excerpts in an anthology. Becoming literate means reading the great classics, which are great classics […]
Michael Clay Thompson teaching full-year, online courses.
We are pleased to announce that Michael Clay Thompson is teaching the first five levels of his English language arts curriculum in full-year, online courses, starting in the autumn.
A New Literature Trilogy from MCT and Reading Therapy
A Martian invasion, a Civil War classic, and adventure in bonny Scotland Michael Clay Thompson has added another trilogy of classic, masterpiece novels to his literature component of the language arts curriculum: The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, and Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson. He has called […]
A Letter to Michael Clay Thompson from Grateful Parents
Our thanks to the family for this letter and for permission to publish it with the names changed. Dear Michael, I wanted to take a moment to tell you how grateful Hazel’s father and I are to you for being such a wonderful teacher to our daughter last semester. Your Mud Trilogy, which she read […]
