Our love for Classical Conversations

It's that time of year again when we homeschool families start questioning every curriculum choice we've ever made and looking at what everyone else is doing to see if perhaps they are doing something better.

At least, that was me.  And every year I would come to this point, or earlier, and know that what we were doing was clearly not working for us.  Or for me.

And it was in that spirit that this time 2 1/2 years ago I found myself sitting in an information meeting for parents about Classical Conversations.  I had some basic understanding of classical education and believed in it.   All I really knew about CC was that it involved a lot of memorization, there was a science experiment every week, and my friend Kristen loved it.    But I was desperate, so I went to the meeting (and for an introvert like me to do that at that stage of my life was huge).  To my horror, I was one of only two parents who came.  Thankfully the other mom carried the conversation, but unfortunately I came away with a catalog, a feeling like I would never be as smart as their kids were, and only a slightly deeper understanding of the program.

Yet God, and my friend Kristen, persisted, so I decided at the very least that we would visit a class and I could get it out of my system.  Then I'd be able to move on.  I took my girls with me, of course, so I could get their perspective as well.  Sarah went off with her potential age group, and Bethany and I went off with ours.  And I sat there the whole time watching Bethany and thinking, "I know they hate this.  This is awful.  It's boring; it's horrible; this was a total waste of time.  Ok God, this clearly wasn't the answer.  Next..."

At the end of the morning, Bethany and I thanked the tutor, went to pick up Sarah, and as the three of us were walking into the parking lot, I said, "So, what did you think?"  They both squealed, "I wish we could do this every week!  That was so much fun!!"  Talk about whiplash.  I was completely stunned.  Completely not what I was expecting.  But totally what God had planned for our family.

Since then, we have come to love CC and completely embrace it.  I often find myself thinking, "I wonder what would have been different if I had done this with John or if I had done this with Sarah earlier."  But I know that one can never know what might have been, to roughly quote our family's favorite Narnian Lion. So I have to content myself with the fact that we are doing this now and just go forward.

So, why do I love Classical Conversations?

So far, we've only worked in the Foundations stage, which is the elementary stage.  We move into the writing class next year, which I'm tutoring and I'm SOOOOOOO excited about (grammar nerd).  But, based on our experience, here's a short list:

* Accountability - every week, someone will be know if my kids have done anything the week before.  They may not be testing them on it or be expecting them to turn anything in, but I know in my heart that my girls' tutors will know if we went over our memory work and that helps to keep me on track.

* Science experiments ~ I am the worst at doing science.  Other than visits to the children's science museum, I am a total fail at science.

* Fine arts focus ~ See above only replace children's science museum with children's theater.

* The timeline - I have enjoyed putting historical events in perspective based on when they occurred.

* Presentations - Supposedly public speaking is the second most frightening thing for most people.  So I think it's a pretty effective way to prevent those fears from ever taking hold by making kids comfortable speaking in front of other people early on.

* And then there's all that memory work.  What Andrew Kern of the Circe Institute calls "memorizing by heart."  I'm looking forward to seeing how having those memory pegs in place helps as we move into the next stage of learning, the dialectic stage.

After 6 1/2 years of homeschooling, it is such a relief to have found that "thing" that fits our family.  Of course, I'm still looking for the perfect fit for our oldest, but that's another story.



Linked up with List it Tuesday at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers and Many Little Blessings

The labels we give ourselves

Image courtesy of Clare Bloomfield / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I've been thinking lately about what type of homeschool family we are.  What philosophy we mostly follow.  Because it does matter, you know.  Apparently you must choose a philosophy and stay there forever and ever and never lean or sway.

At least, that's the feeling I've been getting off of some folks lately.  And I know that people really just want you to validate their own decisions.  They just want you to tell them that what they are doing is right.  But what you are doing may not be right for me.

I had written before about who we are.  So I think I have finally figured out what we are.

We are a classical, Charlotte Mason, unschooling family.

How do you like that?  I'm pretty sure I managed to swing from both ends of the pendulum with that one.   But I decided that I have to stop beating myself up for not neatly fitting into some preset mold that just doesn't work for us.  There are three very different children in my house.  We started out with a classical model with my oldest (though we didn't know that's what it was at the time), and  he really struggled with it.  In the past two years, we've participated in a Classical Conversations community, and my middle daughter is thriving.  The youngest goes through the motions, but enjoys the fine arts parts the best.

I was berating myself the other day about not being stricter with my oldest, not forcing a more classical model on him, when he walked into my room and announced, "Mom, I have a complaint about one of the CC history sentences."  He went on to tell me that he thought it was not sufficient for the battle of Midway to get a mere mention in a sentence because it played such an important role in the success of the US during World War II.  And he continued by giving me all the specifics I didn't want to know.  :-)  Hmmm, crazy thing but he's learning on his own because he's following up on his own interests.  A little unschooling if you please.

Then there's the youngest who is still struggling to learn to read on her own, but has an phenomenal comprehension and vocabulary because she loves nothing more than to sit and be read to.  It doesn't matter what the book is.  Charlotte Mason, anyone?

Isn't it a wonderful thing, though, that we don't have to fit into one mold.  I mean, sure it would be much easier if you could cookie cutter everything and make everything fit everyone, but I am so glad that my children are all so different.  Because it's their differences that make them who they are.  J with his wisdom and knowledge of self, S with her mercy and grace, B with her joy and flexibility.  They each play such an important role in our family and in my life.