OregonNative Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 I looked at the website, but can't quite get a clear picture of what classes are available. My son would fit into Foundations, but my DD would fit there and Essentials. I see Grammar is offered for Foundations, but then the book store sells curriculum for other subjects. I'm lost:001_huh: I'd like to also hear pros and cons of the program if you don't mind sharing:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QuirkyKapers Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 I think the other curriculum is for the Challenge classes. I know they have materials that help you take and use the Foundations/Essentials materials at home too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SonshineLearner Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 BTW, there are tons of threads on here about CC :) You can get a good idea about pros and cons from them. The program is pretty consistent from one area to another... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amselby81 Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 All children in grades pre-k through 6th fall in Foundations and would need the Foundations Guide, History Cards, and a tin whistle. They'd meet in the A.M. once a week. Children who are in grades 4th through 6th are also in Essentials, which covers Language Arts and some math. I'm not 100% clear on what's needed in Essentials, as my child isn't old enough for it yet. But I think the main book is Essentials of the English Language. I think you also need IEW's Teaching Writing Structure and style, Our Mother Tongue, and IEW's Ancient History Writing Lessons. That's at least what the catalog says, LOL. http://www.stallionpublishers.com/publication.aspx?pid=904&pkey=niqjtahfh Essentials students would stay for a few more hours after lunch on CC day. Our campus offers an art class for non essentials students, so they have something to do while their older siblings do Essentials. HTH's a little. It is really confusing at first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OregonNative Posted April 16, 2012 Author Share Posted April 16, 2012 All children in grades pre-k through 6th fall in Foundations and would need the Foundations Guide, History Cards, and a tin whistle. They'd meet in the A.M. once a week. Children who are in grades 4th through 6th are also in Essentials, which covers Language Arts and some math. I'm not 100% clear on what's needed in Essentials, as my child isn't old enough for it yet. But I think the main book is Essentials of the English Language. I think you also need IEW's Teaching Writing Structure and style, Our Mother Tongue, and IEW's Ancient History Writing Lessons. That's at least what the catalog says, LOL. http://www.stallionpublishers.com/publication.aspx?pid=904&pkey=niqjtahfh Essentials students would stay for a few more hours after lunch on CC day. Our campus offers an art class for non essentials students, so they have something to do while their older siblings do Essentials. HTH's a little. It is really confusing at first. Do parents stay during classes? And do your children have to do Essentials? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
QuirkyKapers Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 All children in grades pre-k through 6th fall in Foundations and would need the Foundations Guide, History Cards, and a tin whistle. They'd meet in the A.M. once a week. Children who are in grades 4th through 6th are also in Essentials, which covers Language Arts and some math. I'm not 100% clear on what's needed in Essentials, as my child isn't old enough for it yet. But I think the main book is Essentials of the English Language. I think you also need IEW's Teaching Writing Structure and style, Our Mother Tongue, and IEW's Ancient History Writing Lessons. That's at least what the catalog says, LOL. http://www.stallionpublishers.com/publication.aspx?pid=904&pkey=niqjtahfh Essentials students would stay for a few more hours after lunch on CC day. Our campus offers an art class for non essentials students, so they have something to do while their older siblings do Essentials. HTH's a little. It is really confusing at first. :D Oh yea- I forgot about these items being needed. It is confusing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OregonNative Posted April 16, 2012 Author Share Posted April 16, 2012 BTW, there are tons of threads on here about CC :) You can get a good idea about pros and cons from them. The program is pretty consistent from one area to another... Carrie, is the email in your signature yours? I was going to email you instead of PM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i.love.lucy Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 Yes, parents stay. CC is not a drop off program until the Challenge level (1 yrs old ~ 7th grade). For Foundations you cover memory work in 7 areas: timeline, history, english grammar, latin, math, science, geography. They also do a 30 minute fine arts, a 30 minute science project, and each child does a presentation each week. You need the Foundations guide and a tin whistle. You do not need to buy the history cards any more, the history timeline is now done by CC and is in the guide. Essentials is a grammar program (done in the afternoon) using the Essentials of the English Language book from CC, and IEW Ancient Writing. You don't have to buy the TWSS yet if you don't want to. And no, you don't have to enroll in Essentials! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy in TN Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 I have tutored both Foundations and Essentials. Foundations is for preK-6th grade and meets in the morning from 9:15 until 12 noon. Essentials meets in the afternoon from 1-3. The children who attend Essentials in are typically 4th-6th graders who attend Foundations in the morning. From 9:15 until about 9:30 you meet with all the children that attend your CC group. During this time there is a morning prayer, the group says the Pledge of Allegiance, and there is a family presentation. Your director will lead Bible memory work and make announcements. Our director also introduced the timeline and we sang the president song. From 9:30 until noon the children are broken down into smaller groups of no more than eight kids who are fairly close in age. There they are introduced to new memory work from the timeline, history, Latin, English grammar, Science, math, and geography. The children are asked to do a presentation. The younger ages often just do a show-and-tell. The older children may have specific topics or goals, but that is somewhat dependent upon the tutor. They also do a little hands-on science experiment or project. CC Foundations also does a 6 week fine arts rotation- weeks 1-6 drawing, weeks 7-12 music theory introduced with a tin whistle, weeks 13-18 art history through a famous artist and short art project, and weeks 19-24 composers. The end of this class period is spent doing review of memory work from previous weeks. After an hour lunch break Essentials begins. (Our group has several options for younger students who will be staying while an older sibling is in Essentials, but this is not true of all groups.) Essentials covers English grammar using Essentials of the English Language and composition using a themed Institute for Excellence in Writing book. They also do some math games. In order to participate in the presentation and the memory work review, a child in Foundations will need to do a little work at home. Beyond this, how much a family incorporates Foundations into their daily schedule is very much up to the family. Some families build their science and history work around the topics introduced in Foundations and some just show up. A child in Essentials will have assignments that need to be completed outside of class. EEL and IEW will need to be completed. If a family doesn’t stay on top of these assignments, I can’t imagine that they will get much out of Essentials. CC is not a drop off program. Parents are expected to stay on the premises. Of course, some families have more than one child and at our program it hasn’t been a problem to leave a child alone to be with another. The point is that you stay on the premises. You only need the Foundations guide and a tin whistle. The history cards are nice, but not necessary. For Essentials you need EEL and the IEW themed book required for that year. TWSS is nice to watch, but not necessary. HTH! Mandy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amselby81 Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 :iagree: What Lucy said. Foundations is memory work, and that's really it. You're just memorizing facts. No explanation is given b/c the philosophy of CC is that the facts are the foundation of knowledge, or they are like the "pegs" that you hang knowledge on. And from what I can see, Essentials looks like a really good writing program. And I think they play Math games, or something. They must not do a lot of math, since they don't require you to buy anything for math. And parents do have to stick around. Our campus has a rotating schedule of duties for all parents to do. Some weeks we help in the class, some weeks we help in the nursery, some weeks we clean the bathrooms, and some weeks we have recess duty. You don't have to do Essentials. I know families with essentials aged kids who leave after recess. I also know some families with older kids who only come in the afternoon for essentials, and not for foundations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mamachick2 Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 I've had my boys in Foundations and Essentials for 2 years and am getting ready to begin Challenge with one of them. Foundations is memory work, and it's excellent! I purchased the book, tin whistle, and history timeline cards. Essentials is an intensive language arts program that covers writing, as well as drilling in math through games (kids love it). For students enrolled in Foundations, you'll need to add a phonics/language arts curriculum and math. For students enrolled in Foundations AND Essentials, you need only add math. Challenge is a complete course of study. Hope this helps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SonshineLearner Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 I've had my boys in Foundations and Essentials for 2 years and am getting ready to begin Challenge with one of them. Where are you? Are you directing this year? Just curious. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mamachick2 Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 I forgot to mention, the memory work for Foundations covers the following (I'm pasting it directly from the "What We Learned" page in our guide) 160 events and people in a chronological timeline ✔ 24 history sentences to “put some flesh” on our timeline (including the Preamble to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights) ✔ 44 U.S. Presidents ✔ 120 locations and geographic features in North America (emphasis — the United States) ✔ 24 science facts (including the first 12 elements of the periodic table and the parts of 8 body systems) ✔ Latin rules and vocabulary, (including the text of John 1:1-7 in Latin and English) ✔ English Grammar facts (including the principal parts of 11 irregular verbs) ✔ Multiplication tables up to 15x15, common squares and cubes, as well as basic geometry formulas and unit conversions That’s over 400 pieces of information! Not to mention… • Exposure to drawing techniques • Music theory and tin whistle • 6 Great Artists and related projects • Introduction to orchestra and 3 classical composers • 12 science experiments, 12 science projects including probability labs and… • 24 oral presentations! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mamachick2 Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 Where are you? Are you directing this year? Just curious. I'm in Virginia. I'm not directing this coming year, but hope to direct one of the Challenge programs the following year. Planning DD's summer wedding gets in the way of focusing on training. :001_smile: I will, however, substitute for Foundations or Essentials if needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekster519 Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 If I wanted to use the program at home for Foundations (mainly memory work), what would I need to buy? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mamachick2 Posted May 5, 2012 Share Posted May 5, 2012 If I wanted to use the program at home for Foundations (mainly memory work), what would I need to buy? You'd need the Foundations Guide, and if you get the 3rd edition, you'll need the Veritas Press history timeline cards. Some tools that are helpful, but not necessary, are the audio CD's and the flash cards for the Cycle you plan to use. The book is broken down into 3 cycles; Ancient, Medieval, and US History. If you plan to do more than just memory work, you'll need some of the other resources in the CC catalog; such as the science book, the artists book, a tin whistle, and I think the Classical Music for Dummies book, depending on what you want to add. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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