Why We Chose Classical Conversations (With Some Confessions)
Monday, September 23, 2013 at 5:00AM
It's time to delve into our experiences with Classical Conversations.
I can sum it up very easily: Why did I wait so long to make this decision?
We've always homeschooled in a classically eclectic style (if that makes sense). Our constants have been The Story of The World, First Language Lessons, and Writing With Ease.
My children, however, also love to take off on interest led tangents and at times I've almost considered us almost completely Delight Directed learners.
This year I have two children in Classical Conversations - one in Foundations, and another in Challenge A. It's been a wonderful first 6 weeks of school, and I'm ready to blog about the reason why.
*This post contains affiliate links.
I love these words from Leigh Bortins (the founder of CC):
“Families are designed to nurture the minds, wills, and emotions of its members so that the barriers created by fear of the unknown can be replaced by the confidence that comes from knowing you are loved whether you succeed or fail.”
Why Classical Conversations?
It took my husband and I a full year to make the decision to enroll our children in CC. I think my husband knew all along it would be a good fit, but I wanted to make sure we could retain some of our "old" ways of schooling.
Three big reasons we joined Classical Conversations:
- Accountability and camaraderie for myself and my oldest (7th grade)
- Quality material with an emphasis on memorization
- "To Know God and Make Him Known" - the motto of Classical Conversations
Confession #1
Last year I was getting TIRED... tired of doing so much homeschool planning and tired of doing so much legwork.
I know - homeschool moms are supposed to be super heroes, right? I just couldn't keep up the pace of our interest led lifestyle and needed HELP.
Help came in the form of Classical Conversations.
Actually, I need to correct that. Help came in the form of my dear friend, Kim. She nudged me ever so gently towards CC. She sat with me one afternoon at the park and brought her curriculum guide and timeline cards. So Kim, THANK YOU!
I also believe that life (and our homeschool) was just CHANGING. Change is good, but it is HARD.
Accountability and Camaraderie in Classical Conversations
As my daughter got into the middle grades I knew we BOTH needed more accountability. There are certain things she NEEDS to know in order to be accepted into college. There are academic requirements to be met and a transcript to be made.
The Challenge program keeps us on track and HIGHLY challenged.
Anna's class consists of 8 children and 1 tutor. They meet each Tuesday from 8:30-3:30.
There is a lot to be said for positive peer pressure. These kids are all bright and inquisitive. When I've sat in on some discussions I've been so impressed with the level of discourse.
Anna also has a list of assignments to complete each week. The goal of the this Challenge A year is to help the children learn to manage their time, and I can see this happening little by little. We have had some interesting discussions about time management, but I think this is natural for this age.
I've heard from other parents and especially from our tutor:
"Let them fail. Failure is the best lesson."
Oh, that's hard for me to do, but I'm learning that this year, too.
I'm very grateful that my kids have a safe place to fail. I cannot imagine what life would look like in a public middle school right now.
I also love that my husband can be involved in this process. He's started to review her work with her on Sunday afternoons to make sure she has met the expectations for the week and review her flash cards, listen to her presentations, etc...
Confession #2:
Anna and I were butting heads over schoolwork last year, and being in the Challenge program has helped greatly. To know that there are other children doing this same work and to get together with them once a week has helped my social daughter in so many ways.
Confession #3:
At first I felt like I was almost "giving up" on this pure form of homeschool that I had in my mind, but now I see that God led us to something that is a good fit for my daughter at this point in time.
For my son, I love the schedule that Classical Conversations provides in the Foundations guide. The weekly memory work keeps us on track.
I can still be very creative in our at home work. We are in Cycle 2 now, and a simple internet search yields supplemental books, resources, experiments, and so much more for at home enrichment.
Our local community director assured us at our orientation that if you do NOTHING ELSE but a daily review of memory work and a solid math and reading program your child will get what they need. To be honest, I didn't really believe her.
Six weeks into the program and I agree with her 100%.
Classical Conversations is SO COMPREHENSIVE and SO BEAUTIFUL.
Quality Material and Memorization at Classical Conversations
Where to start?
I'm a sucker for beautiful curriculum.
One of our favorites is the Pre-Scripts. Each week, Grant copies and then writes the required history sentence in cursive. After doing this, a short picture and art lesson is presented, and then the student is invited to create their own artwork.
Last week my son copied the history sentence and learned about the foreground, middle ground, and background in a piece of art. He then created his own piece of art based on that lesson and example.
He informed me that art was his "favorite subject".
While he was drawing I also read to him from the Kingfisher History Encylopedia about the history surrounding the piece of art he had just studied. (And of course we are still notebooking our way through The Story of the World!)
Geography is one area of CC that has blown me away. My daughter has learned to draw (from memory) all of North America, Central America, and The Greater and Lesser Antilles. She knows capitals and major geographic features. She is memorizing large volumes of geography terms.
My son, in Foundations, is doing weekly map tracings. He LOVES these and begs me for them every day. I wonder how many adults could locate these European Rivers?
In class last week the tutor introduced the concept of abstract art to the children with a quick, simple activity with their names. I followed up at home with a book (Action Jackson) about Jackson Pollack (whose art we saw last year at the High Museum in Atlanta).
This is by a little boy in Grant's group - his name is Caleb. Can you see his name in his artwork?
All of the information to be memorized each week is just WORTHY and wonderful.
The timeline song itself is a huge gift - I can't tell you how many times we have referenced a section of the song. It is helping BOTH of my children to have all of those huge pegs on which to hang all other information.
Good stuff.
My son keeps a memory work binder and we put all supplemental activities he completes in this binder. He loves notebooking, and we use our Notebooking Pages membership frequently. They have notebooking pages for EVEYRYTHING under the sun, and if they aren't available you can create your own!
*Note: None of these internet links to the timeline song or other memory work are as good as buying the actual memory work CDs from Classical Conversations. We own them and it was a great investment.
Other memory work includes science, grammar, Latin, and math.
Confession #4:
I thought my son would find all of the songs a bit hokey -- nothing could be further from the truth. He loves them and loves that he can sing along be proud of his knowledge!
To Know God and Make Him Known in Classical Conversations
This is the motto of Classical Conversations.
As a community this year we are memorizing Ephesians 6 (We use this video to help us!).
There is an overriding sense that God is at the center of everything we do at CC - and at the center of our lives.
At practicum we were shown a diagram that had God at the center and the subject areas around the outside of that --- with arrows pointing back and forth between the subjects and God.
God is at the center of EVERYTHING. Theology is the mistress of all disciplines!
For my daughter, using books like It Couldn't Just Happen and Don't Check Your Brains at the Door, fuels their study of rhetoric. Learning to write, debate, and speak effectively will help our children to defend their faith.
I know I'm leaving a million little reasons out about why we love CC, but I hope I've explained to you in adequate terms why we feel like this was the best decision for our family.
And finally...
Confession #5
Last year I felt a bit like my old self was being sucked away - I had given SO MUCH to my children that there wasn't much left. This wasn't healthy and I wasn't happy.
Now that my kids are in CC, I have a bit more time to pursue some interests that have been on my radar. I've completed two volumes of SQUILT, and am starting to devote a little more time to my home and things like reading for pleasure!
The best thing is, I can REST in the knowledge that they are getting exactly what they need and it is of the highest quality.
It's so true - God hears our prayers and cares about us so deeply. I feel that CC has been an answer to prayer for our family.
In the coming weeks I will share each Monday about a different aspect of CC - blogs I love, favorite resources, and other things. I hope this will be helpful to CC-ers and just homeschoolers in general!
Are you a part of a CC Community? I'd love to hear about why YOU love CC!
Reader Comments (21)
Right now I am spending large amounts of time and energy on our homeschool. I feel it is so important to have something for yourself, to build up your store of energy, and nourish your mind and spirit. For me, that has been yoga and now the Bible Study class I am involved with. My knitting is my relaxation and my garden has given me fresh air and sunshine all summer. It is so easy to get so caught up in the kids and their lessons and programs that you lose sight of yourself. I am gad that you have found a balance that works for your family!
Thanks for info I too I'm in a tight spot right now, four kiddos now to school and I feel so drained...been looking into CC for a few weeks.
My 7th grader and I are not getting any where...my dyslexia child takes up ALL my time!
I think I would love the classical curriculum if we didn't have LD's that make memorizing so much impossible. There are a lot of beautiful things with that style.
So glad you found a good fit for your family! we LOVE CC and out community. This is our third year and we started when my daughter was 4. This is the first year I feel like we are getting in a groove, part of it is because I am no longer tutoring but directing and it is such a better fit for me!! I love hearing and seeing why others love CC. Thanks for sharing!
When we joined CC 4 years ago, it was very overwhelming to think about memorizing "ALL THAT MEMORY WORK." This is my 3rd year directing a campus and I've seen many different types of learners. Those with dyslexia can learn through the audio CDs and oral recitation. Most families play the audio CD as part of their review whether their children have LD's or not. I always try to tell my new families to give it 3 weeks and then they will be in the groove. I love how do-able CC is. The kids actually learn this stuff ALOT faster than us adults do. We are currently in our first time repeating a cycle and I'm surprised how quickly my daughter is remembering some of the things she learned in her first time through (as a 5 year old).
This is our first year in CC too. It took me yrs to be ready for it but it just seemed like it was time. I'm loving it too and I'm a tutor to help offset the costs.
Do you think there is any way that CC could work for my type of family: 8 kids, who will next year be ages 2 through 8th grade?
--Gena
Honest question Mary - how much does it cost? I always wonder but don't know anyone well enough to feel comfortable asking, until now. Does that cost include your math books, etc, or do you have to make purchases of other curricular materials too?
Do you stay with your kids during CC? When I visited ours they said I would stay with my younger son in foundations and my daughter could do it or she could watch little ones and then I would stay with my daughter for afternoon too since she would do essentials then...they had no challenge yet? I didn't know what to do with my daughter in the morning and my son in the afternoon so I was a little bummed about it. Ours is so small and there seem to be lots of younger kids but not many 3rd grade and older. Thanks for sharing about your experience. Maybe I should visit again next year.
We LOVE CC! We began our 3rd year with CC at the beginning of August. My son is in 5th grade: he struggles with reading. I have been able to find the balance we need for CC to work for us. That's one of the biggest benefits of participating in CC - I can schedule how much (or little) of it we use with our other curriculum. This is his first year in the Essentials class. I believe CC has helped both of us on our homeschool journey. I have a wonderful support system with the other families, the tutors, & our director. I love the field trips & events that we do together as a community! I have completed training to work as a substitute tutor for the Foundations level. That is a great way to learn how to be a better CC parent!!
Presented beautifully! So glad you decided to take the plunge and that it works so well for your family. We are starting our 4th year and I cannot believe the facts that our boys can pull up at a moment's notice. Two in Foundations and one of those now in Essentials, we are loving how CC is so well rounded and how it helps to keep us on the straight and narrow. We're lucky to have you in our community!
I love hearing about your experience with CC. I soooo wanted to do it this year, but this is our first year homeschooling ever, and it took us forever to make decisions over the summer. It was just a lot to process all at once. We still could have joined CC in time, but the informational meeting my husband and I went to left us with many questions and we just didn't feel peace about it. (Well, more realistically, I would have signed up that night...my husband had major reservations. And I knew it wasn't the right timing if we weren't both on the same page.) I'm now a little discouraged thinking that if we do join in the future, our son will be so far behind and will have lost out on the young foundational years (he's 7 now). I'm encouraged, though, hearing about Anna's success starting in middle school! Seriously, it gives me hope that if God wants us to go that route, He will provide a way and make it clear and give me peace, and I won't need to worry about "lost" or "wasted" years. At least that's my prayer. ;) Thanks for sharing! P.S. I'm jenriley99 on Instagram :)
This is our first year of CC and we LOVE it too. We are in Foundations and Essentials. My dysgraphic son has learned to write and he's so proud of his accomplishments as am I. He no longer feels like he can't do it. Our CC group is so supportive. I just love it and wish I had known about it earlier in our homeschool journey. We wouldn't have done anything else. Glad to hear someone else's positive experience.
Great post! Hearing about your older child's experience is so encouraging; I have a kindergartner, and this is our second year. Thanks for all you do!
I'm glad that you've found CC to be such a great fit, Mary! I've been torn about our decision to quit, but for right now that was definitely for the best. One of my hold-ups was giving up the curricula that has always worked so well for us; at this point, I just couldn't do it. What a blessing is this homeschool freedom we enjoy!
I am glad you found something that works Mary! I have wondered about CC many times. Keilee LOVES structure and she loves being challenged. But at 13 is it 'too late' to start?
It's so encouraging to hear your great experience joining a CC community this year. We began CC when my oldest son was four and he was an only child. This is our 7 th year, and he's in 5th grade while his brother is in Kindergarden. Our family LOVES CC! We used to drive to another town for our community, but this is my third year directing a new community in our town. My husband is our Challenge I tutor and my support manager, and he loves being able to interact with the older students.
For all of those who ae worried about jumping into CC later, it can definitely be done. The Challenge program was developed first, and then the others were created to help prepare the younger children for Challenge later. Most of our Challenge students on our campus have never had Foundations or Essentials. As an Essentials tutor, I also tell people that one year of Essentials is better than none at all because the more mature students will be able to learn. More in a year than they would have when they were in 4 th grade. For those with questions about cost, you can find the application packet on the web site that includes all the tuition and fees except the facility fee are listed on there. This does not include books and materials, but you don't need much for Foundations. Plus you use most of it for multiple children for multiple years.
I often tell people that the skeleton provided by CC in the Foundations years has given me the freedom to spend more time on the fun parts of our learning together, and I know it will layer beautifully with what my boys will do when they get older.
I love this! We started CC this year (my daughter is 6). I rave about it to everyone who will listen. We just can't get enough of it!! Praise God!
I love Classical Converstions. I have kids in Foundations, Essentials, and Challenge. However, I am learning that even though I love it it may not be a great fit for every child. My son did great in foundations and Essentials but he is not enjoying Challenge at all. I am not sure what it is about Challenge but he is just not thriving in it right now.I can't decide if it is just an stage of life issue (puberty) or if the curriculum is really just not a good fit for him. Praying about it and looking at other options for next year but we really haven't made a decision one way or another.
I just posted in response to your 'big kid' post and then read this. We are considering CC for middle school. Do you think it was social enough? Is once per week enough for the girls to develop friendships? I LOVE the model!! This article is beautiful and I think we are walking parallel paths. Thank you for sharing!!
WOW!! I could have writeen this blog. You have put into words and experienced the same thing I did with c.c. I entereed into c.c. for the same reasons but I have 3 boys. the oldest 12. We started him in foundation/essentials but it has kept us homeschoooling. This is exactly how I felt going in and Love it. It has saved our homeschool journey and look forward to Challenge A next year for my oldest. So, excited to read someone else feeling the same way going into it and loving C.C. thank you