Classical Conversations questions

[Dmmetler]

My 6 yr old did Stanford Testing with the local CC group this week, and really liked some of the kids she got to play with, and in talking to the moms, it sounds like they'll be on about the same cycle we are, since we're moving into Sonlight core 3 and they're starting American History. And it was really, really nice to talk to other parents who were a little more academic. DD and I have a fun local group that does great field trips and the like, but between the unschoolers and the parents who have children who struggled academically in PS, sometimes I really feel like the odd man out with a child who WANTS to learn Latin and Greek and is currently devouring Padric Collum's version of The Odyssey.

 

But, I do have a few concerns, especially as expensive as CC is.

 

1) Is it reasonable to do CC in addition to a Sonlight History Core and other curriculum (you can see what we're currently doing/moving towards in my .sig), or would that be too much? Right now, we school for about 1-2 hours a day, plus some read aloud time before bed and some independent reading, and do a lot of listening in the car. If it would be, what would I have to change if we wanted to do CC?

 

2) How compatible is CC with Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod doctrine? Is the bible just scripture memorization, or is there actually discussion that might get into doctrinal differences? I don't mind stopping and having discussion points when we're reading at home, but a class situation is a little different.

 

3) How age-structured is CC? DD is 6, and has the maturity of a typical 6 yr old, but academically she's pretty accelerated, and she doesn't suffer fools, or repetition, graciously. She does very, very well if she can be with older children in a multi-age setting, but any age-grouped academic class we've tried has not ended well. DD ends up either being a know it all who spends the entire time talking to the adults, bored out of her skull and acting out, or both.

 

I don't want to commit to this if it's not going to be worth it and a good experience.

[Staceyshoe]

We just finished our first year of CC with a child who is academically accelerated and CRAVES learning, so I'll answer what questions I can. I have no experience with Sonlight, though I suspect that you may make some adjustments in your at-home curriculum based on CC. We had to feel our way through that this year.

 

You can use CC as a major or minor focus of academics. If you want her to remember and fully understand everything learned, it does take some time. CC focuses on memorization, and much of the comprehension is the job of the parent. Some parents (esp in the early years) have a "whatever they take away from it is great" attitude and others really want their child to memorize the material. Your approach will greatly determine how much time is spent at home on it.

 

I would strongly suspect that you wouldn't have any doctrinal issues. On our campus, people come from many differing church backgrounds (mostly Protestant).

 

You brought up the cost in your post, and I just wanted to mention that hour-for-hour, CC was much less expensive than most other homeschool co-ops local to me. It is an expense, for sure, but I felt that we really got a lot for our money.

 

Since your daughter is very bright, you may be interested in my past post to the Accelerate Learner forum about why CC was such a great fit for us: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=259920

[grace'smom]

My DD (turned 6 in March) just finished her first year of CC. Not every CC is the same, but I can tell you in our CC there was no discussion of the scripture passages in class other than to review them. You can see every single thing they will teach in advance by reviewing the Foundations guide. We are Catholic, and we haven't had any problem in our group as far as religious issues. I did see some offensive material within the text of the Veritas Press cards but I got over it. I don't know that I would have purchased those cards had I seen the text in advance, because I was really upset by one of them, but I got out my black magic marker and made it all better, LOL. I didn't want the cards to get in the way of a good experience. Anyway, I hear that CC is coming out with their own text cards in a few years and I will be glad when that happens.

 

As far as your daughter's personality, there is a great deal of repetition within the CC curriculum. It's a memory work co op, so you repeat things in (hopefully) fun ways until you memorize them. The kids in our co op were all pretty academic, but I guess that could vary depending on where you go. I don't think there is enough substantive discussion of the material for any kids to end up seeming like a "know it all," and the pace is too fast for anyone to really act out. There's a lot of material to review in one day so it goes by quickly. I think most of the grades are studying the same things, but the different age classes might approach it in various ways.

I think it would be fine for your daughter to be in a same age class, but you could always discuss it with the director and request that she try to ensure the best fit for you child when assigning her teacher. My director is particularly adept at placing the kids in the right classes for the best fit. My daughter was placed in a class with children who were older than her this year. At first I was worried, since most of them could read and she was just starting kindergarten, but it all worked out. After a few weeks of seeing how the personalities in her class fit together I realized that our director knew exactly what she was doing when she placed my shy child in that particular class. It was a perfect fit for her between the kind, nurturing teacher and the more mature, caring classmates. We had a great first year.

 

However, all that being said each CC is different and you'll have to feel out the policies in the one you are interested in...