Reviewing The CC Memory Work During Christmas Break
Monday, December 9, 2013 at 5:00AM
Classical Conversations has been a HUGE blessing to our homeschool.
After an extremely productive 12 weeks in Foundations, we are spending our long break reviewing all of the memory work.
I love how CC packs so much information into 12 weeks and then your family gets a nice long break before gearing up for the next 12 weeks. We finished our community meetings two weeks before Thanksgiving and won't go back until the middle of January.
This still gives us time to do some interest led learning, holiday schooling, and {gasp} NOTHING.
Since I've been spending a lot of time preparing for my trip to Ecuador, the CC review has been simple - but I think very effective.
It requires no planning from me, just having a few quality resources available for my son's use.
*This post is not sponsored by Classical Conversations. I just love these resources and want to share them with you! This post does contain affiliate links.
{If you're wondering about Anna, my Challenge A student, she is in her last week before break and is preparing for her midterm this Tuesday. I'll need to share with you the blessing that is the Challenge program in another post!}
CC Review Resources
PreScripts:
Grant enjoyed the math and history books immensely! Built into the history PreScripts are several review exercises. This is a great way to keep up with handwriting and review those history sentences.
I reviewed this resource for The Curriculum Choice if you want to know more. Two thumbs up from me!
Cycle 2 iPad App:
Don't let the $15 price tag on the Cycle 2 App deter you. It is worth every penny.
Each day Grant sits with this app on our iPad and reviews each and every piece of memory work. If you have a kid that loves technology, this is a good way to review the memory work.
Cycle 2 Audio CD:
This CD is played in our van repeatedly! I love that it contains the timeline song and also all of the weekly memory work.
Someone told me before we started CC that if we just purchased this CD and the Foundations Guide and Tin Whistle we would be set.
I believe it.
Tracing Maps:
My son has a slight obsession with map tracing. I simply made a folder for him with the CC maps from weeks 1-12, and he is tracing a few each day.
I detailed this approach to geography in A Simple Way To Learn Geography.
NERF Memory Work Review Game
I'm stealing this idea from Grant's CC tutor - she played this with the class and they loved it!
You can read more about this game at Review Game Ideas For Classical Conversations.
Grant just had a birthday and received a couple of new NERF guns - I plan to set up our large white board in the garage and play this game with him A LOT! (The most simple of NERF guns works very well for this game.)
"Strewing" Resources Around the House
To keep Grant in the school frame of mind during the holidays, I strew some of our favorite resources around the house. I find that just making them available to him, on his own terms, is the best thing I can do.
These resources include:
The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia
The Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia
It brings him so much joy to pick up one of these books and KNOW the information inside - it's a confirmation that the memory work matters - it has context in real life!
Memory Work Flip Chart:
Image courtesy Andherewegomama.com
I have come to love Melody's Blog, And Here We Go! Early on in the semester we printed the Memory Work Flip Chart and use this resource daily.
Grant also enjoyed the tin whistle and art concepts during the first 12 weeks, so I'm providing Christmas music for the tin whistle (from CC Connected) and letting him do drawing tutorials from Art For Kids.
Our days in December consist of a Saxon math lesson and then Grant's memory review work of choice. Add in some Christmas read alouds and crafts and we're having a relaxed - yet very productive - month.
I'm curious - do you continue reviewing memory work while on your break from CC? What do you do for that review?
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