Homeschooling to traditional private school to afterschooling?

[ohmommatxca]

I am in a unique situation. Either in December or in the beginning of the year we will be placing our four children, grades k-7th in a traditional Christian school. I have been homeschooling since the beginning, mostly following the Classical Conversations track along with a smattering of Sonlight, Tapestry of Grace and Veritas Press online courses and their self-paced Omnibus course. Most of these curriculums use living books. My kids have Memory Mastered multiple times and my 7^th grader is really doing well this year in Challenge A.

 

Since we have been following a CC model it will be a huge pedagogical switch for me to place my kids in a school that is very traditional in curriculum and methodology.

 

The curriculum they are using mostly is Bob Jones and Abeka for Science and history. What I want to know is multi-facted:

 

1) How did your kids adjust to a pedagogical difference in teaching?

2) Has anyone afterschooled with Classical Conversations, on all three levels, Foundations, Essentials and Challenge? If so, how did you schedule your afterschooling days?

3) Are there things I should be aware of in regards to the curriculum?

 

I am excited for my kids and the path the Lord has provided for them in regards to being able to go to a quality school. However, I love the CC model and what the classical model of education is all about. I have known for a while that we would follow the model of the trivium that classical education lays out. I am mostly concerned with my oldest who is entering the dialectic stage and will have no one who has been studying like he has been.

 

I have previewed some of their curriculum and I find it lacking in some ways, but in other ways I can see how it will only enhance what we have all ready have done.

 

I would love some insight here of those of you who have gone before.

 

Thanks!

[AprilMayJune75]

I wanted to reply and encourage you as you go through this transition, but I am afraid I don't have answers to your specific questions. In the spring, my then 6-year old DD transitioned from homeschooling (preschool, K, half of first grade) to public schooling. It was drastically different in both teaching style and content. (I had used a a blend of CM and Ruth Beechick approaches in homeschooling. We used Memoria Press copybooks for handwriting.) DD did alright with the social transition, but she was bored, academically. I found myself answering a lot of questions about why she had to do the busywork, and how this connected to that, etc. Silently, I agreed with her about the futility of it all, but we didn't have a choice about this transition (marital separation, me working full-time outside the home), so I explained that we had to make the best of it and I supplemented at home when time allowed.

 

A few weeks into school this fall, I was offered a new position in a small town about an hour away, one that has a private Christian school that embraces the philosophy of a Biblical, Classical education. The kids have the basic disciplines of the three Rs, plus Spanish twice a week, and then a framework of Classical Conversations content for the remainder of their day. I had been looking at transitioning to Classical Conversations had I continued homeschooling, so I was thrilled to find this school. Honestly, the main reason I accepted the job offer was simply to enroll her there, LOL! DD absolutely loves the school and the content, which both interests and challenges her.

 

This school does use some Abeka, such as their readers for the kids' individual reading time, and a math workbook for the days they aren't in the computer lab or using Math U See. I had a friend who transitioned to Bob Jones for her kids' homeschooling, and within a year, was back to her original curriculum; she said it was very dry.  Abeka is definitely different than the classical method, and if you can keep the Classical Conversations going at home, it will do a lot to enrich your children's education.

 

Hopefully someone can give you some ideas as to how to schedule your after-school time to incorporate Classical Conversations. I work until 5:30 one week, 6:30 the next, so we only take about 15 minutes a night, maybe an hour on weekends for supplemental work. I know what you are needing requires more time than that!

 

April