Classical Conversations and Chronological History

[Guest Kristy Beam]

I am new to the classical approach to education. We have chosen to use Classical Conversations for our study guide for next year. Our son is 8...will be in "3rd" grade next year. I am planning and getting familiar with the curriculum for next year, and have hit a bump in the road. I am really looking forward to studying history chronologically, so I was very dissapointed to see that the weekly history sentences and study topics are not in chronological order. While the history memory work with the veritas press history cards are in chronological order, I would prefer our studies to be the same. I understand that the sentences and study topics stay within the "first half" of history for the first cycle, the "second half" of history for the second cycle, and American history for the third cycle, but they are not chronological. Does anyone know the reasoning behind this? We are also going to go through Story of the World Vol. 1, and I have the Veritas Press Old Testament/Ancient Egypt and New Testament/Greece and Rome manuals to go with the history cards. I am trying to decide which rescource I should emphisise in our actualy history study. Should I just follow the guide the way it is written, or re-arrange it in choronological order? Should I use Story of the World for the weekly emphasis and topic, or should I use the Veritas Press Manuals along with the History Memory cards as the emphasis? Maybe if I knew why classical conversations designed the guide this way, it would help me make a decision. I welcome all wisdom, experience and opinions please! Thank you everyone!

 

Please help! :)

[Chris in VA]

I would do history with SOTW, keeping the chronological order. CC is intended to teach the memory work we all think is a pain (oops, I think is a pain! hee hee). Think of the grocery store analogy--You can walk into any grocery store and find what you are looking for out of 10,000 items, simply because you know the basic organization of the place. CC allows you to organize the vast amounts of information contained in history, science, and language. It gives you those pegs on which to hang the details, as you've probably heard a hundred times.

A friend in CC explained that it's like in the story, Carry on Mr.Bowditch, where the character teaches himself Latin, with just his knowledge of grammar and the Bible--he knew how to organize his own language, and he knew the passages in the Scripture--so he could look at the Latin Bible and figure out what the verses said (knew them already in English) based on previous knowledge. He had the pegs of organization, the structure. He could fill in the details.

 

It takes about 2-3 years to make Memory Master (where you have memorized ALL the foundations material). Don't worry about teaching the stuff you haven't gotten to yet. When you hit logic stage and begin applying all those facts and formulas, you will be freed from having to teach them--so you can go right to the application.

 

Does that make any sense?

[G5052]

First off, keep in mind that chronological history does not equal neoclassical education. There are other approaches to homeschooling that follow chronological history, and not all neoclassical homeschoolers follow chronological history.

 

Classical Conversation's emphasis is on a body of grammar-stage memory work as part of the classical model of education called the trivium, not on a strict chronological approach to history. The history sentences are intended to be highlights, not strict chronological divisions for the year.

 

Some people in the program do "hang" their studies around the memory manual, but some do not and just plod along with their favorite book or program. I'm one of those :).

 

HTH!