I have a copy of the Well Trained Mind. I was a little disappointed with how little curricula suggestions she had for 1st grade, but I'll look at it again. I feel like the more I read about Classical and CM the less I know! There's SO much to explore! I heard that the two approaches are very different so I should get a copy of Karen Glass' book too. I wish they had it at the library so I could preview it! This Forum has been such a blessing! It has really helped somewhat to calm my nerves and kinda opened the door to so much new information for me! :) I really appreciate everyone who took their time to write a reply to my question. THIS is community and it's FREE! After reading some comments I think I'm starting to lean more towards CM philosophy for the richness of literature and the idea of education as the science of relations (not to mention the "simplicity" of the AO curriculum), If I can find a Classical Education that can be gentle, rich and complementary to that approach I will score the jackpot! :D

I've heard great feedback on the self paced online History class. At what age can they start? I think my 6 year old might be too young for it!

Thank you so much!! That was great :D I think what makes moms (or at least me) anxious is the fact that CM philosophy takes time and we will see the results in the long run, whereas with memorization you get that immediate reward of "she's done it! she memorized it!" Waiting is one of the hardest thing for humans, I think! Nevertheless the more I hear about CM and AO the more interested I get!! I am going to do year 1. I am slowing buying some books and am considering getting a kindle for the free reads. This Forum has helped me SO much! It's been wonderful to read everyone's replies!!! I love getting a notification that someone replied to my question :laugh:. Thank you so much for thinking of me and taking the time to share this link! :001_tt1:

I agree with what you said about memorizing out of context! I don't understand that part, but my friend told me that the context come in the later years... I'll take a look in some of the curricula you mentioned! Thank you for your suggestions :)

:ohmy: Wow! That's crazy! I think they shouldn't market themselves as Christians. I doesn't make sense that they consider their material superior than the others AND they won't allow people to use it freely (as they wish) in a real community (not paid community) to help better educate the children. From most replies I read, community is just hanging out (socializing). So as a community of faith I don't think people should HAVE to pay to hang out. :confused1:

I've been searching for a Classical Education curriculum for my 6 year old (by the time we start she will be 7) and I'm feeling really discourage and very confused! I feel like there is a huge amount of resources out there, but whenever I look into them instead of finding answers I only find more questions and get more frustrated. My friend is doing Classical Conversations and she loves and brags about it! Her 5 year old knows all the states and capitals, can draw the map of the USA without copying, knows the presidents and knows so many facts about several subjects... It sounds pretty amazing! One thing that CC has that I haven't found in any other curriculum yet is the songs that include all the memory work for math, history, Latin, English grammar, geography, science and timeline!! That is impressive and super helpful to memorize things! My daughter learns a lot through songs. Also the curriculum is only 24 weeks and it has a weekly schedule instead of daily. We tried daily with Sonlight and it was miserable! I need a weekly or at least 4 day schedule.I work from home so I need flexibility in our schedule and I am not able to participate in a community. Otherwise I would join CC because it seems like they do a really good job in the early years preparing the foundation for later learning. The thing I don't understand about CC is WHY do you HAVE to be part of a community to be able to access their material? I read in a forum that at a certain level you can only purchase the material if you are enrolled in a community (Challenge, I think?). What if you are a missionary homeschooling where there isn't CC?! Or what if you simply work and are not capable of attending it? I haven't heard of any other curriculum that requires you to pay to do community to use their material :( and unfortunately it looks to me like they are the most complete with most resources for little ones. I would really appreciate to hear some honest feedback on an alternative or maybe a way to combine their songs with another program?!

I am looking for a Classical curriculum other than CC and The Well Trained Mind for my 6 year old with memory work to be done at home (we can't attend a community right now because I work from home). I would like something with lots of songs to help with memory work! I've read some great articles about Classical Education but I am having a hard time finding a curriculum! I like what I've heard about CC but I would prefer to have my daughter memorize facts about lessons that we are covering instead of just random facts (which is what a lot of moms say about CC). I purchased The Well Trained Mind book, but I was disappointed with how little options it had for the Grammar stage. Thank you so much!

I think it's just Phonics? This is the part in teaching English that I think it's overwhelming for a non native speaker. As I looked through English curricula, there's Language, Reading, Spelling, Phonics and Handwriting! :scared: And there's a program for each one of those! Since I am homeschooling in the US I'm doing it all in English. She is fluent in my native language, but we are not doing formal lessons yet. I think it will confuse her at this point. She also wants to learn Spanish so I got Rosetta Stone for her. Not sure when we'll start that. For music she plays the violin and don't really do anything for Arts yet. What does DS and DD mean (when referring to kids)? I see that a lot on Forums...

I am interested in Classical Education but I am having a hard time figuring it out which curriculum to use? Or do I even need now at this point? My child is 6 and we are using HWT, Explode the Code, First Language Lessons, MUS and Math Lessons for a Living Education. Do I need a reading curriculum as well? :confused1: English is not my first language and homeschooling while working as a single mother is definitely a bigger challenge but I'm doing everything I can to try to find the best education and best system/approach for us. Something that doesn't require a lot of prep work. I like what CM style sounds like and would like to try to combine it with Classical. My friend does Classical Conversations and it sounds pretty cool if you can attend the community part of it which I cannot at the moment. I would appreciate if you guys could lay out what your 1st grade curriculum looks like and why you chose it! Thank you!!!