Sync or not sync Classical Conversations with curriculum?

[Staceyshoe]

I've been reading threads about how some view CC as a separate "memory work" subject and others try to plan their curriculum around CC topics. We are strongly considering starting CC next year, but I had intended to try to coordinate the memory work with our curriculum as best I could.

 

Well, I'm really struggling with this since CC is doing Cycle 2 next year. It seems like it would be easier to start in a Cycle 1 or Cycle 3 year. I'm just concerned about ds's retention of the memory work over time. If he is memorizing random facts, people, events, etc that he truly knows nothing about, will he remember it in 2 years when we finally get around to learning about those topics? I am hesitant to spend the time and money on something that seems like it might not stick.

 

If I'm wrong and there's a reasonably easy way to sync up the history and science for Cycle 2, please share! That would be my ideal.

[Hen]

we did CC this year for the first time, and I was a tutor.

 

I did not sync, because we are doing Sonlight, so we used CC as a supplement. Frankly, I think that the CC timeline and history sentences move too fast to build a year school program around. It might be nice to start with an overall theme, such as Ancient History for cycle 1...but there isn't really any way to keep aligned, in my opinion.

 

It was really nice when we came to a card the kids had already studied, and they made the connection, and then the other way around, when we studied something and they had already memorized the sentence...but it was icing on the cake for me.

 

just my 2 cents...

[meet me in paris]

Is this for your K-er? At that age, it's very easy! If you have the VP timeline cards, that can be your history spine. Choose a card or two during the week to get a couple of library books about. Read all the cards together (one or two per day?) do the memory sentence, and that's plenty of history for early elementary.

 

Same with science. Replicate the experiment at home, do diagram labeling, etc. It's very easy to flesh out the science sentence and science classwork.

 

Unless you're really connected to another curriculum, I'd just go with the CC schedule and make it easy on myself. :)

[monalisa]

I think that the CC timeline and history sentences move too fast to build a year school program around. It might be nice to start with an overall theme, such as Ancient History for cycle 1...but there isn't really any way to keep aligned, in my opinion.

 

It was really nice when we came to a card the kids had already studied, and they made the connection, and then the other way around, when we studied something and they had already memorized the sentence...but it was icing on the cake for me.

 

:iagree:We did CC for the first time, and also are doing SOTW Vol. 1 (Ancients). It is cool when there is a connection from the timeline or history (my dd loves it). But we are so.far.behind where CC is now (i.e. we're just now doing Greece and Rome in SOTW, the CC history sentences are on the history ofCanada). It would be VERY difficult to keep up, because they are purposely going quickly, AND jumping all over geographically in order to cover things like Canada, China etc. I personally wouldn't worry about synching them. A friend of mine did CC for the first time last year (US History in CC) and did SOTW Vol. 1 at home because she wanted to start at the beginning. You'll be surprised at how much info your kids retain & how quickly they pick it up. If you are inclined to create your own curriculum by checking out library books, go for it. But if you want to just pick a SOTW Volume or do Sonlight for example, I wouldn't worry about it not exactly matching CC.

[delaney]

I am doing Middle Ages which is what they will do next year as well. From what I understand yes they do indeed remember lots of the memory work from year to year. Other than that I have yet to look at the curriculum guide to see where I could even begin to sync.

[lindsrae]

Don't let the Cycles hang you up. As everyone has mentioned, CC deliberately covers a vast amount of material in a short time. For a K'er, I think it would be easy to expand on what CC is covering that week, or just go with what your curriculum spine is doing and see the light bulbs come on when things do line up.

[Pster]

This was our first year doing CC too. Actually, I think it really 'saved' us in our hsing endeavor.

 

Now...it took some time for me to work this all out but here is what we do:

I started using workboxes too about a month ago so that has allowed me to cover even more topics. I have 2 independent readers and 1 that still needs to work with mom. I structure their workboxes so the independent ones can do their work first in their boxes while I work with the younger 1.

 

That said - I cover whatever work is reviewed during our CC week. We review the geography countries, oceans, rivers etc with them so they are familiar with them (they listen to the cd or use the maps or a printed card game from the website). We review the science topic (I'll give them other books to read on the topic or have them copy / draw / label a diagram of it or we do a project related to it) (last week we made a volcano). We go over the history sentence (I'll give them the history highlights page from CC website or books to read or to listen to our audio cd of the corresponding SOTW vol & chapters or our Usborne I-L Encyl of WH to read). I've even found some coordinated History Pockets that were on Ancient Civilizations and that was perfect for their workboxes. I also am starting to add activities from the SOTW activity books that correlate to what we are studying in CC. Beyond their learning of just the subject areas of science, history, geography - the girls review the timeline cards, CC subject cards, and math fact cards either by reading the actual cards or listening to the CC audio cd. (Repetition helps!) We'll add in reading or something about the artists we studied and soon the composers & there will be music to listen to.

 

Beyond that I do math with each of them and phonics / reading and prob some other stuff I'm forgetting. My oldest daughter is in Essentials so she also has writing work and grammar charts to review / memorize.

 

I think that covers everything. I tried to cover things differently in the beginning and it just didn't work. This new schedule has been great - the girls are covering so much more and learning so much! They are enjoying it too. The repetition of covering, say the history topic each day but in different ways has helped too. One day they listen to SOTW, the next day they are reading the history highlights page, the next day reading our lib bks, the next day a history activity from SOTW.

 

So in a nutshell - use what CC offers you and then maybe study it a little deeper (depending on the age of your child) is a great way to go (at least it was for us). CC gives you a great framework of "what" to study....

[elfinbaby]

Cycle 3 - American History - is so easy to sync but Cycle 1 hasn't been. I saw the difficulties and just decided to let it be. We do library books on the subjects when we can but this cycle has been an impossible task.

[G5052]

I looked the first year and decided that was WAAAY too much work, besides missing a lot of good history in between. So we used the Sonlight Core that approximated the CC Cycle, and it worked just fine. They really do fit it together over time, especially if you stick with it. As they get older, they also are able to review things themselves, so your role in reviewing will change.

[yvonne]

We're doing CC for the first time this year. Someone once told me it was like trying to drink from a fire hose, and indeed it is.

 

It would not have been possible for me to sync history at home with CC's history, especially not for my 7 year old. CC moves too fast and covers way too much ground. We're on the Middle Ages this year, so we just continued our regular history study at home and did the CC history memorization (ancient history & the VP cards Creation-Modern America) as a supplement. I agree with the other posters... The history is not sync'd up, but when they come to something in CC that we've studied on our own, it's a neat review and when we come to something in our own history study that they've memorized from CC, they make connections. I'm beginning to think that not sync'ing everything is actually a good thing. They come at the same events from different angles and at different points in their studies. It's more reinforcing than sync'ing everything up.

 

While I would not even try to sync up history, I do try to sync up science in a general way. The past 6 weeks or so of CC has been about earth science. We went to the library and checked out a bunch of books on the CC related earth science topics. (The kids are really into volcanoes, gemstones, and minerals at the moment, thanks to CC!) We keep all the science books in two baskets. The kids have 20-30 minutes per day scheduled for "science reading." It's not structured. They just pick a book and read it. Some are adult level books with great pictures and blurbs that they flip through to read the interesting bits. I've been surprised how well this has worked. They've each found rabbit trails of their own that they're interested in and they tend to pursue the trails by looking for information in the other books. Since they're young, I'm not worried about doing a science curriculum, yet. They're getting so much more out of this free, independent, interest-led reading than they did out of the science curriculum the boys did last year! This is what I had hoped home schooling would look like!

 

Just some thoughts...

yvonne

Edited March 2, 2010 by yvonne