Classical Conversations......what is it exactly???

[8FillTheHeart]

I know it has been discussed before, but I didn't pay attention b/c there wasn't anything like this near us. Apparently there is one here where we moved b/c I just received this in my email.......

"Do you believe the classical approach is right for your family but
would feel more comfortable with some outside support?

We are a classical, Christian, homeschool support group which meets
once a week to participate in classes covering history, science, art,
music, oral presentations, Latin and more. This is a program for K 4
through highschool"

Is this a program that you do in addition to your own regular school work as a supplement or is it designed to be your course work for the yr and you do work at home that corresponds to the classes?

This is not something I would normally even consider, but it is meeting about 5 mins from our home and wonder if it might be a good way for my older kids to start meeting other homeschooled teens and for me to meet other moms. But I don't even want to consider it if it going to be something that simply takes up more time without valuable output.

[Marie in Oh]

There are some here who actually participate in a group and can answer better. I have investigated it, and have decided not to do it.

It is a co-op group of sorts that meets once a week. There are 3 (I believe) sequences in the foundations program. You memorize history events and dates in chronological order via VP History Cards, you memorize geograpy facts, Latin Vocab, some science stuff, math facts and theorums, etc, and grammar lists. They do recommend curriculum for their participants to use, Saxon Math, etc. but the core of the program is memorizatoin. You could do a group and just have it supplement your own curriculum. You could change to all their stuff. The groups meet half day or full day depending on the age of the kids. During the time you work on the memory stuff and there is a bit of art and science experiments.

To be part of a group, it is $400 per student. That was the kicker for us. We wouldn't want to abandon what we are doing, so it would be $1200 in addition to what we already spend. Plus we would lose a day a week. I think ou can get a discount if you help teach.

That is what I know. I am sure there are many who know much more. One of my good friends is the Oregon State Director so I have talked to her in length. But, my experience is not first hand.

[Cadam]

One is starting near me here in OR. I just had a lengthy conversation about it last night.

With the younger kids it is defiantly a supplement. They work on memorizing all kinds of things in 3 hours one day a week. The rest of the week you do you own thing.

As the kids get bigger CC takes over more of the main academics so that once you have high schoolers they are in class one whole day (6-7 hours) and then come home with all of their assignments for the week. This will cover all of your core subjects.

They use a lot of Veratas Press stuff, but tweek it a bit.

I was told that if you teach a class you will get paid enough to afford to have 3 kids in CC.

I might consider it for one of my kids, if I could teach, because we can't afford it at all! My other kid would hate it. I don't know about the upper grades, it feels to confining to me because I don't use the same curriculum they do. I would probably feel better about it if I already used the same curriculum choices kwim?

[Laura K (NC)]

The CC owner used to be heavily involved in our county's homeschool support group. She promoted it heavily and almost every year I looked it over and then rejected it. I think the program would be very good for parents who don't want to choose their own curricula and really want to hand over the whole education of their children to someone else. The owner puts a lot of effort into programs for parents who need quite a bit of hand-holding. I didn't agree with some of her textbooks or methods, and if I was going to hand over my kid's education and make as many concessions as I would have to make to put them in CC, I would just send them to public school.

WTM is more thorough in scope, more adaptable, more flexible, and potentially more challenging. Unfortunately, it's also more work for the parent.

[yvonne]

Momof7, Check the Classical Conversations website and see if there's a "Parent Practicum" near you anytime soon. I just attended a three day CC/IEW practicum (free!!) in SoCal & it was worth the drive for me. I've poked around their website and bought the Foundations book (used) a while ago, but it wasn't until the practicum that I finally put it together.

Have to start our day, but I'll try and post what I took out of it later tonight.
yvonne

[Carolfoasia]

There are some here who actually participate in a group and can answer better. I have investigated it, and have decided not to do it.



That is what I know. I am sure there are many who know much more. One of my good friends is the Oregon State Director so I have talked to her in length. But, my experience is not first hand.

They have been recruiting heavily to get me to join the Salem group, but I am not going to drive an hour one day a week when I can gather a group of kids here and do it for free! LOL! Doesn't sound like my cup of tea from what you describe. THANK YOU! I have never really understood what they are all about until you explained it.

[Carolfoasia]

I didn't agree with some of her textbooks or methods, and if I was going to hand over my kid's education and make as many concessions as I would have to make to put them in CC, I would just send them to public school.

WTM is more thorough in scope, more adaptable, more flexible, and potentially more challenging. Unfortunately, it's also more work for the parent.

Thank you. I have made a thorough decision to NOT do this now! You put it well. Why would I home educated if I am handing over my education to them?

[Krista in LA]

I went to the free 3 day practicum which does not push you in anyway to sign up for CC. I had actually talked to a couple of homeschooling moms I know who do it and they are the ones that talked me into it. At the practicum, they stress over and over that you are still the homeschool mom. You decided exactly how much of what to do with your child. If you don't like something they use or a particular assignment, then don't do it. They do not want to take anything away from you as the homeschool mom. That was a big selling point for me. Most of what I know about refers to the challenge levels (7-12 grade) as that is what I was looking at for my dd. They pretty much cover enough to be a complete curriculum should you choose to follow everything in the guide, but it isn't so much that you can't add other things to it too. This was another plus for me. My dd is also to the point that she wants to be around other kids her age. I love how they discuss literature, have a mock trial/debates, and have other interactions that are really good for the dialectic and rhetoric stages. My dd was actually thinking about going to jr. high next year, so I think this will be a good way for her to have those interactions while still homeschooling. I'll let you know how it goes after our first semester.

[Another Lynn]

This is how I responded on the curriculum board to someone else's question about CC. We participated this past year for the first time. We will not participate again, except for my oldest ds. It works out that my dh can take him and I can stay home with everyone else:

"Let me preface my thoughts by saying that I've also had a difficult pregnancy this year (severe morning sickness and an appetite that has yet to return) and I tutored through all that. So that had an impact on our school year as well. Take the rest with a grain of salt

My older ds (9) loved it. He made some great friends and is begging to do it again next year. He previously had several solid years of history and rich literature at home. I think he already had a lot of connections made so what he heard at CC didn't seem like so many disconnected pieces of info. (BTW, as much as he loved it, he was not all that self-motivated to review the memory work)

My 2nd ds turned 6 during the year (so by ps standards he was "K"). He is not old enough to have the background in history (and so forth) that my older does. He is a typical young boy and thought it seemed like a long morning! He hated it. I regret throwing all these isolated facts at him and expecting him to make something of it. At home his reading and math skills improved as expected during the year, but I (and this part is mainly due to the pregnancy and using so much of my energy for one day a week at CC) did not stimulate or engage his mind as much as he needed. (My fault, not CC's!!!)

My advice to someone considering CC now is 1) to look at it very carefully in relation to what you were already doing at home. 2) Consider changing what you're doing at home to fit around CC.

Now I know people say you don't have to do that. But trying to tack CC on as just a few minutes of memory work a day and then continue with a full (and different) curriculum the other 4 days (no matter what curriculum it is) was just not feasible for us. On the other hand, if we had used our "science time" at home to read more about CC's question of the week (and make more connections on *that* topic) I think it would have been more fulfilling. If we had chosen a biography of a person from the history sentence to read during the week - how much more that sentence would have meant to us. Etc.

In the end to finally answer your questions... I have come to feel that when connections are made (ala Charlotte Mason) - they are remembered better and longer than when memory work is drilled in heavy quantity. I would rather spend memory time on scripture and poetry.

Now, CC lovers please don't come down too hard on me. I think CC is a great program and works great for some - it just didn't mesh with my other curriculum plans or with my teaching style. I don't consider myself a "natural teacher" at all! I will also confess that my oldest will particpate again, but my dh will take him so I can keep everyone else at home and read them great stories (Please remember that a rough pregnancy effected everything for us this year as well)

I loved our director, other tutors, Moms and kids. I couldn't have survived tutoring during this pregnancy without them. I have been very honest, but at the same time would never want to say anything to hurt the CC program. I think I just underestimated the commitment it would be.

Feel free to pm me if you have other questions.

ETA: CC lovers, please feel free to share how CC did work successfully in your homeschool to rebut my experience and to show another perspective!!!!!"

End of the quote.

The short version? It was more like filling buckets than lighting fires for us.

As another poster said, at the older ages it really would become their entire school, although I think you *can* choose certain subjects to participate in and not others. But if they are close to full they will give priority to those students signed up for the entire day. I know someone who would have considered putting one of her olders in challenge A the first year it came to her city, but he had already just read all the literature they were going to cover.

[Oak Knoll Mom]

I've heard over and over in this thread how people have decided not to do CC because they don't want to hand over their students' educations to someone else. I certainly haven't handed my kids' education over to anyone, and no one in my group has done so either. Actually, one of the more frequent topics of conversations among my CC friends is which curriculum to use for various subjects.

You, as the mom, can integrate CC into your school as much or as little as you want. Seriously, I spend maybe 20 minutes a day on CC. The do the map work as part of their independent work (about 5 minutes), we all go over the time line at the beginning of our Sonlight read-alouds, and we listen to the memory work cd during lunch and sometimes (if I remember) in the van a couple of times a week. The boys can choose to review their memory work using the power point cd during their "productive free time," but that doesn't happen very often. (Productive free time is an idea I got from someone on this board.) I also encourage them to pick up books at the library on the people and events we cover in CC, but I don't require it.

Of course, you *can* make CC a bigger part of your school, but you don't have to!

(As far as taking a day out of the week for class, that is a non-issue for me because my kids and I need the fellowship and interaction with other like minded moms. We'd do some other group if CC wasn't available to us.)

Hope this helps someone who is on the fence!

[Magnolia]

Is this a program that you do in addition to your own regular school work as a supplement or is it designed to be your course work for the yr and you do work at home that corresponds to the classes?


The foundations program (k-6th) is just a memorization program with oral presentations, science experiments, and music or art projects thrown in. You do this in addition to your regular school work.

Essentials (3rd-6th) or Challenge (7th-12th) may replace some of your subjects.

I sent you an email with more details. :)

[Einen]

We're signed up to start Classical Conversations this fall. The two things that really excite me about the program are the fellowship and the emphasis on oral presentations.

DD is shy so I want to get her comfortable speaking in front of groups (and individuals!) ASAP.

[Alice]

I looked into it but decided not to do it for a variety of reasons.

Momof7, for me it was very helpful to go and visit one day at an Open House. I didn't do the Practicum that others have mentioned but the CC's up here in NOVA were very gracious about letting people come and just spend a day participating and watching what they do. My ds was able to fully participate that day and I was able to observe and see what it was like. You might check and see if any of the ones around you will let you do that. I had thought it was something we wanted to do until we did the Open House and that helped me make the decision. (I should say that the people were really nice and helpful and I could see how it could be a great program it just wasn't for us right now.)