Classical Conversations

*NOTE*

For the school year 2014-2015, we are not doing Classical Conversations Foundations or Essentials. My oldest child is participating in their Challenge 1 program. I still LOVE CC, so I am going to leave this page up to help anyone wanting info on it. You can read the blog post on July 23, 2014 to understand our change this year. We hope to return to CC with a community next year after our sabbatical :)





A BIT ABOUT CLASSICAL CONVERSATIONS

     I have been homeschooling for 8 years, and I am still alive. All my kids are too. They are all able to hold conversations with their peers and appear "socialized". They are a bit weird, as am I, but I wouldn't have it any other way. There are some awesome days, where learning truly takes place and I feel for a minute I have succeeded a bit. There are other days that I look longingly at that yellow bus that passes and wonder with jealousy if the moms who just popped their kids on it are napping in their quiet houses. 
    Why do I do it?  I used to be a public school teacher myself, and have a degree in Music Education. I always wanted to home school my own kiddos when the time came, because I love "teaching". It's who I am. I used to play "school" with my sisters as a kid. I did not start home schooling as a statement against Public Education. (Although now.....that's another story).
    People always ask, "How do you home school so many kids?!?" This is another reason that some think I am supermom. The "how" and the "why" all have so many answers, actually. Sometimes I feel I only do it so I don't have to get tons of kids ready to go early every morning. I think moms who do that every day are a little "super" :) But, honestly, my reasons are much deeper. I do believe that the family is the only God given institution perfectly suited for learning. I really enjoy being the primary teacher for my children. I also want to educate them a little differently than the "norm". I want to instill a Biblical worldview, where they see all subjects connected and all relating to God. 
    We participate in a program called Classical Conversations. (No, we do not sit around having 'conversations" about Mozart and Bach, as I assumed before I joined. How boring does THAT sound? ) It is a national program, with groups that meet in more places each year. We base our curriculum on what we do with that group. I will be posting from time to time about that on this blog.  What "CC" is all about is a return to the classical model of education, and a very easy and exciting way to implement it. If you do research on the classical method, you will learn that it is very much the way people used to be taught. (When results were much better) You will learn that there are 3 stages of learning: the Grammar Stage, the Dialectic Stage, and the Rhetoric Stage.  Right now, I have 3 in the Grammar stage.  This is when they are young and able to memorize massive amounts of information quite easily.  So we fill their brains with losts of facts (grammar) in the subjects of History, Math, Science, Bible, English Grammar, Latin, Geography, and Fine Arts.  They memorize and recite this information over and over until it is truly mastered.  They may not understand what they are memorizing, but later that information will be there when they need to apply it. Much like a 2 year old doesn't understand the alphabet when they learn the alphabet song.  Eventually, they will put meaning to that memorized information.  
   The Dialectic Stage is the middle school age, where my oldest currently is. This is when kids start to put some understanding behind their knowledge, and ask lots of questions about things. They like to see how things fit together, and talk out (argue) about concepts. Everyone who knows a middle schooler knows what I mean by that! CC has the Challenge program for kids in this stage, and my daughter is currently in Challenge B. Last year (in Challenge A) she learned to draw the entire world from memory!  Amazing. This year, she is continuing to impress me every day. They are working on Science Fair projects, and preparing for a mock trial competition in the spring. Her study this year of current events and Logic, has given us many opportunities to wrestle with tough issues together. Love that!
     In CC, we meet once weekly with a large group of other CC'ers.  The kids are divided up into classes of close age, about 8 kids in a group. There a trained CC tutor, (of which I am one) presents the new memory work for the week from each subject.  It is presented in fun ways for easy memorization - songs, motions, mnemonics, etc... Then the kids do a science experiment, a fine arts segment, and paly review games.  Each child must also give a 2-3 minute speech each week, to promote public speaking skills.  My kids LOVE CC day.  The rest of the week at home, I work with them on memorizing and reviewing all information.  I love it because all of the kids are learning the SAME information.  That makes my job a lot easier.  Of course, the older they are, more background and activity is added to the work.

     WHAT OUR DAY LOOKS LIKE:
(The following schedule is only for my grade schoolers. My middle schooler is on her own now in her room, working on her CC Challenge material.)

     9:30 AM Bible time together. We are starting two new Bible studies in January. One is from "Answers In Genesis" and the other is 

             After our Bible lesson, we work on some Bible memorization and handwriting copywork of our memorization passages. This year with CC, we are memorizing Ephesians 6:1-24. (see the Heritage Makers/CC page to see a poster I made to help!)
     
    10:00 - 11:00 MATH time : Everyone starts their Math work, and I help as needed. If you finish your math, you get to read your 20 minutes, and then take a break :)
    11:00 - 12:00 Grammar/Writing/Spelling, etc....  Again, everyone starts their work in these subjects, pulled from their workboxes. (See below)

    WORKBOX TIME. (see above) I use a system of organization called the workbox system.  Each child has a set of numbered boxes that I fill with their schoolwork each day.  This allows me to know that they are doing all they need to do.  If I organize and fill them correctly, and they complete them each day, we know all subjects have been covered.  They work independantly through their boxes, and grab me for help when needed.  They know that if I am helping someone else, they must skip that box and come back to it.  I also put other reminders in the boxes such as "clean your room", "practice piano", etc...   If it weren't for the workboxes, I would never be able to keep everyone's "stuff" straight.    We also come together at some point to recite our memory work from CC.  We also listen to review CD's of our memory work while driving around town.