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Classical Conversations
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I am looking into Classical Conversations for our family next year and wondered if there were families here who have been able to combine CC with their Charlotte Mason school days. I really enjoy the rythmn that we have to our days and, after eight years of homeschooling, finally feel like we’ve settled in to a good routine with curriculum choices that work well for us, but my oldest will be in eight grade next year and I think he would very much enjoy the added challenge that CC would bring.
My concerns are that it would take over and our school days would be monopolized by our CC work. I am also concerned about the fact that my older kids (8th and 6th grades next year) don’t have the memory foundation that I would assume would be needed at that level of CC. We’ve done some memory work but definitely not at that level.
I would appreciate any insight that you ladies might have for me!
A friend of mind started a CC group this past school year and invited me to join, so I looked into in seriously. Many aspects of it seemed great, although much of it seemed anti-CM. Maybe someone who has actually done it will chime in to confirm or deny that.
Ultimately I decided against it because my kids would have had to go to two different locations to go to the level that they needed AND because, based on my research, it would have taken over our day at the upper levels. That is not necessarily a bad thing, just not the path I wanted us to follow at the time.
ETA: Perhaps I should explain my anti-CM accusation in the first paragraph….. I like the quote, “Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire.” To me, CM is the lighting of a fire and CC seemed very much like the ‘filling of a bucket.’
Yes, that is exactly why I haven’t pursued CC before now. I do like the idea of classical education though and we’ve settled on a CM version of it in our home, but it’s not quite as intense as CC seems to be.
I’m also seeing that the different levels might meet on different days in different places. THat would be hard to maintain for us, I think.
Mary at Homegrown Learners started CC this year with a 7th grader and one younger. From the workload her 7th grader is given as homework from CC each week I think it would be overwhelming to try to do both. She says her daughter spends around 5-6 hours doing CC homework every day. She’s got several posts about it under a tab on her blog. It works for them. I know it would not work for me. To each their own!
We’ve done CC this year. For me, it was a life saver as I was dealing with a new baby and serious PPD. It also met the need of friendship for our family. Homeschooling on our own was very isolating in our life situation.
For the foundations level, you can definitely combine CC with CM. For the older kids, I think it would be too much work to combine them.
Ok, what I’m putting together is that CC IS the curriculum and not just a suppliment. I think I was looking at it as a co-op of sorts, but really it’s everything. WE’ve used Tapestry of Grace for eight years and love it, so I’m very familiar with the classical style. But we’ve always used it in our own CM way, which I love, but it does take a LOT of time and prep for me. I think I’m understanding that CC would take the place of ToG? So it looks like that’s where my decision lies; whether or not I’m ready to give that up. I said I never would! : )
THank you for the direction the the HOme Grown Learners site, Tristan. I’m reading through it as I can this morning and it’s helping me understand it better.
I agree with jeaninpa. Many people think that because book lists and other resources are the same for CC and CM that the two must be compatible, but I disagree. The books may be similar, but the methods are WAY different. For us, I just do not see how the two can be successfully reconciled. I know missceegee has lots of good thoughts on this, and I hope she responds!
You can use CC as a supplement or as a curriculum. Review of the memorization should take about 1/2 hour a day.
At the Challenge level, CC IS NOT a supplement. It is the curriculum.
I was a Director/Tutor for a small Foundations/Essentials campus three years ago. Some parents relied solely on the Monday meeting day for Foundations memory work. Others combined it with at home practice. Others extended it with living books and lapbook/notebooking.
The memory work can fit in with various SCM modules, but you’ll need to determine your goals for it overall. It’s especially good for fellowship needs and some accountability issues. Only if you extend it will it be CM. The artist and composers aspects are quite CM.
Our family found that the 3rd edition Foundations guide’s skip counting songs were quite detrimental to math facts learning, FWIW. We found Essentials level resources to be rigorous, but rewarding and continue to use aspects of it in our 14yos’s studies.
You’ll need to determine what your child/family needs/goals are to determine if it’s a fit, or not. Overall, I’d say it’s much more classical than anything CM in nature. The Challenge levels do utilize some of the books that are on CM lists. Saxon is the math curriculum. You will have a Tutor for your child who will help you with accountability and will offer insight into areas that need work.
The Foundations level, which is fine arts, science lab, and the english/latin/math/history/geography/timeline/science memory work presented by a tutor in fun ways, is for 5 yr olds to about 12yr olds. Some families center their teaching for the week around the weekly memory work. Others, like myself, consider CC an extra and we just review the memory work but don’t go into much detail about what each thing means. I have my own curriculum that we do each day.
Once they reach 7th grade they go into Challenge A and then CC IS the curriculum as TaylorMade stated. A 7th grader can be in Foundations one more year if they are not ready for Challenge A (which IS a challenge).
They aren’t strict about a kid that’s 12-13 being in Foundations but your 8th grader may feel funny in a class with 9-12 yr olds.
Essentials is a grammar/writing program that is usually held after Foundations and is, again, for kids younger than 7th grade.
We’ve done 2 yrs of Foundations as an extra and I don’t regret it. When we are doing something in our own curriculum he may be reminded of the memory work he did in CC and he feels more connected to what we are learning b/c he has already heard it once, even if it was brief.
People can do the CC memory work using a Foundation Guide and the jingle CD on their own at home but, of course, you don’t get the co-op/community perk. 🙂
For me, I was overwhelmed trying to add all the things I wanted to do with my little ones on my own. CC does fine arts and music and scinece experiments. I don’t do much with it the rest of the week. We usually only really review the TimeLine and Geography.
So if I added reading and notebooking to go along with the time period they are studying and then their own math and spend time each day reviewing memory work, could I consider that a pretty solid curriculum for the Foundations/Essentials levels?
ANd then for the Challenge levels, CC would cover essentially everything? Thank you all for your advice and help!
And one more question if you’re not tired of me yet.. 🙂 For those of you who do or have done CC, does it feel like your family is still learning together? That would be the hardest thing for me to give up. I can see how it could still feel like we’re all on the same page but I just want to be sure. Thank you!
jkkyker–In Challenge CC does cover everything. You don’t see a particular history flow and here is the link to answer that question (among others):
https://www.classicalconversations.com/images/stories/FAQs/ChallengeFAQs.pdf
Some parents decide they want to add more science or more history and I heard that you can but not to add too much b/c the Challenge A,B students have a lot of work (we are not at Challenge level so I don’t know personally). Then in Challenge I-IV there is no time to add anything from what I have heard.
As far as Foundations I would do all that you said above. But I would also dig deeper concerning the science memory work (different than the lab) for that week. For example, this week was What are the 2 forms of energy? Kinetic and Potential. So maybe do a little explaining as to what that means. CC sells Timeline and science cards that flesh out the memory work for you a bit. The latin memory work will help prepare for latin in the Challenge years so you just need to review that.
Essentials will have its own memory work and writing assignments. Essentials is a separate program with a separate cost. It is for the Foundation aged kids and usually held in the afternoon after Foundations (depending on your community).
You can also sign up for CC Connected ($6/month I think) and have tons of suggestions from ther Moms as to how they flesh out the memory work each week and how they help their children memorize the memory work. It’s not a necessary component but nice.
For Foundations my opinion is that the “must have” items are the Foundations Manual, a Tin Whistle (for class), the Memory Work CD. “Nice to have” items are the Timeline and Science cards, and memory cards on a ring to take in the car.
I only have one child but those that have several are able to review the memory work together and can learn together when you flesh it out during the week.
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