Classical Conversations

  People ask me alot what curriculum I use as I homeschool, and how I juggle teaching so many grades at once. The answer is "Classical Conversations." It does sound like we sit around and chat all day about Mozart and Bach, but that is not it at all. (obviously) 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, all my littles are 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.  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:
     9:30 AM Bible time together.  This year we are reading the New Testament, and Psalms.  We are memorizing Ephesians 6.
     9:45 AM History.  We are going throught "The Story of The World" series.  Currently we are on Volume 2, which is Middle Ages throught the Reformation.  The littles color a related picture while I read, then we all do some map work related to the topic.  The older kids may have a supplementary activity to do later as well.  The series offers a great Activity book that has the maps and fun projects for each chapter.
    10:15 Copywork/Handwriting. This year we copy a verse from Ephesians 6 everyday.

    10: 25 ish 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 work until lunchtime, then break for about an hour.  Usually the little ones are finished with all boxes by then, while my oldest has to finish up after lunch.  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.