Is there a reason that Classical Conversations doesn't have kids memorize its history

[mazakaal]

... sentences in chronological order? I bought the guide and want to have the kids memorize the timeliness, science, and history sentences, but I can't figure out why the sentences aren't memorized chronologically. I'm probably going to go through them all and put them in order, but I'm kind of annoyed that I paid all that money for the guide and now I have to do all this work to tweak it.

[staceyobu]

I believe their cycle 3 is all American history... so cycle 2 will go to the end of world history and cycle 3 picks up at the beginning of American. Is this what you have noticed?

[bethben]

It annoys me to no end. I love that their history sentences are easy to memorize and put to music, but they have a completely different order. There is a reason for it, but it would have been SOOOO much better to have put them in order. Here's the breakdown:

 

cycle 1 (world history) ancients to Napoleon - 1822

 

Cycle 2 (world- pre-reformation to modern) 800 AD - 1994

 

Cycle 3 (American history) 1492 - 2011

 

I am placing the history sentences into my TOG sequence. For year one TOG (creation to Rome), I wound up placing 11 sentences into the sequence. As I go through the years, there will be sentences from all the cycles just to get it sequential. Basically it boils down to - if you want your kids to memorize history sequentially with CC songs, you literally have to buy all 3 cycles.

 

Also, to muddy things up a bit more, if you try to put the science sentences into a certain subject, you will have the same situation. I have sentences from two different cycles to bring together my astronomy memory sentences. I was told when I first started a CC community that if you memorized three cycles of history, they would have a running story of history from creation to the present. What they didn't say was that a child would have to order those sentences better in order to get the full story.

 

Beth

Edited September 24, 2012 by bethben

[mazakaal]

Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks it's a bit weird. I guess I'll just have to put in the time re-ordering them. Yuck.

[SonshineLearner]

Hey Beth (bethben:))

Would you want to share the order you put them in? I've mulled over what I think might be worth it to learn. Seriously, I can pop them in my car and he can learn them with no problem... Just don't know what I think about their worthiness and accuracy :) Are you doing the new Timeline??

[bethben]

I haven't put all of them in order since I'm just coordinating them with TOG. I will probably not use them all. We are memorizing the new timeline. My ds#3 finds it fun. It's really easy to do with the song.

Beth

[Aloha2U]

It annoys me to no end. I love that their history sentences are easy to memorize and put to music, but they have a completely different order. There is a reason for it, but it would have been SOOOO much better to have put them in order.

 

:iagree: Same story for science.

 

Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks it's a bit weird. I guess I'll just have to put in the time re-ordering them. Yuck.

 

You're definitely not the only one. Count me in, too. :) I've thought about attempting that task, but if you, or anyone else for that matter, would like to share your efforts, then I would be a happy recipient. :D

[SonshineLearner]

I would love to know if anyone with say... a Doctorate in Science, History etc... (or similar experience) has gone through the sentences finding what they believe is pertinent to the subject. Some of the sentences aren't balanced and some aren't accurate. I'd love to have a "skinny list" of what I should use to be most accurate. I'm thinking of doing a cd for my son for our van rides :)

[Aloha2U]

I would love to know if anyone with say... a Doctorate in Science, History etc... (or similar experience) has gone through the sentences finding what they believe is pertinent to the subject. Some of the sentences aren't balanced and some aren't accurate. I'd love to have a "skinny list" of what I should use to be most accurate. I'm thinking of doing a cd for my son for our van rides :)

 

I've wondered about this as well. Would you be willing to share any particular inaccuracies that you've found? You're welcome to send me a private message or email.

[Paula in MS]

In the past, I was reluctant to join Classical Conversations because it did not follow the 4 year history cycle. Even as late as this summer, I was trying to plan out our second run through the ancients (5th grade) using Usborne, SOTW 1, and the Classical Conversations history cards. (I was also going to coordinate the Veritas Press cards for good measure.). This was working fine until I added in the SOTW tests. When I did that, I needed to do SOTW in order and not with the encyclopedia. I have found that I really like using the different resources that don't match up. This is particularly true with CC. It is nice to come to a history sentence in CC and refer back to one of the other sources. It actually seems to help improve memory. Last week in CC we went over the geography of ancient Egypt. We had covered this already with Usborne and SOTW, and it was great as a refresher. Doing it this way, a topic will come up more than once during the year, serving as a review.

 

 

Also, the history sentences are referenced in the timeline, so you will know them in chronological order even if you don't learn them that way.

[mazakaal]

I've wondered about this as well. Would you be willing to share any particular inaccuracies that you've found? You're welcome to send me a private message or email.

 

:iagree: I'd be interested to know what inaccuracies you've found as well. :bigear:

[sltress]

This is an old thread but maybe someone needs this info.

I just put the dates that are in the sentences in order. If there was more than one date I used the first one—when the event/civilization began. If there is a general date, like the 1400’s, I just put it in the beginning of the 1400 area unless it said “late 1400’sâ€. There may be events that are in the same year but one happened earlier in the year than the other but I did not look at those details. I just put them randomly after one another. I don’t claim this to be error free. 

The first number is the cycle and the numbers that follow are the week(s) the sentence is presented.

 

1-13

1-1/2/3

1-7

1-16

1-18/19

1-4/5

1-11

1-6

1-9

1-12

2-1

2-10

2-2/3/4/5/6

1-14/15

2-8/9

3-1

2-7

1-17

3-2

1-21

2-13

3-3/4

2-11

3-23/24

3-5/6

1-23

2-12

3-7/8

3-16

1-24

3-9

1-10

3-10

1-8

3-11/12/13/14/15

1-20

2-14/15

3-17

2-16/17

3-18

2-18

3-19

2-19

3-20

2-20

3-21

2-21

1-22

2-22

2-23/24

3-22

[SparrowsNest]

I have stressed over this as well.  I really wish CC had a traditional 4 year sequence, and that the sentences just... made more sense.  Shakespeare, DaVinci, Copernicus, and Michelangelo in ONE WEEK?  Ain't no way!  That said, I don't have any problem using CC as a supplement and working on memory work out of context IF I feel sure we will get to it/have covered it.  

 

Which is why I also concluded that I should put the sentences into chronological order as a starting point.  There is probably going to be some variation with that because some of the sentences cover a span of history.  At any rate, I grouped them in a way that made sense to me, then added a few memory sentences, either taken from CC's Bible memory work, Classically Catholic or even sentences I wrote myself (for example, for our state's history, I consulted with my father, who taught our state's history to middle school history for about a decade) for things I felt were lacking in CC.

 

Then I added in cultural (art, music, and literature) memory sentences I had written last year.  I then went through and correlated every history resource (SOTW, MOH, Famous Men of..., etc.) we own.  That was fun. (Not!)  So, what we have now is basically my own history curriculum. :)  We will work through it about 3 years, but it won't line up perfectly with what we're doing in CC.  During memory work time, we'll recite the sentence for the CC week and that's about it.  During history, we'll have a quick recitation of the relevant memory sentence accompanied by a reading and/or an age-appropriate activity (coloring page, burn a King Alfred cake, whatever).  My older homeschoolers (3rd & 5th) will do related independent reading. 

 

I hope this works!

[mazakaal]

This is great! I actually ended up re-ordering all the sentences, rewriting a few of them, dropping a couple, adding a few (wanted to add a bit more British history as we were living there).

[Momto4inSoCal]

I've read they group them by regions and go through that way rather than go in chronological order. I thought veritas press did chronological order though. From what I understand they used veritas press cards originally and would mix them up and put them by region rather than the order veritas press used. I can see the use of both ways. We did american history the past two years (explorer-modern) and if we had covered what was going on in every single region we couldn't have finished in two years. Is SOTW chronological? I've read complaints that it jumps around quite a bit, maybe that's why CC changed to region? We are doing VP SP old testament/ ancients egypt. I don't know how that will line up. VP is on a 5 year history cycle.

[mazakaal]

They used to use the Veritas Press cards for their timeline. Then a couple of years ago they came out with their own cards. I don't know why or what the difference was between the cards, but I'm pretty sure they were all pretty much in chronological order. It's their history sentences that were completely out of order. And yes, it did have something to do with keeping all the American history cards together for cycle 3, but even disregarding that, the sentences in cycles one and two were completely out of order. There was sometimes a geographical connection, but even that doesn't seem well organized. In cycle 1, weeks 5-14, the topics are the split of the Roman Empire, the fall of Rome, Hinduism, Age of Imperialism, Confucius, the Heian Empire of Japan and Matthew Perry, the Byzantine Empire, the Muslim Empire, the Kush, the Songhai of Africa. Why on earth did Age of Imperialism and Matthew Perry get thrown in there? I don't know. I thought it was pretty crazy.

 

SOTW is chronological. And I've heard the complaints about how it jumps around, but I still found that to be more organized and logical than the CC history sentences.

 

I'm actually kind of annoyed with myself because I put a lot of time into reorganizing the CC history sentences, and now that this thread was resurrected I tried to find my list to use next year. But we moved last summer and now I can't find the list. I'm gutted.

[Guest Momof3inVT]

I feel so relieved to know I am not the only one out there who is completely annoyed by this! Thanks for making me feel sane, ladies! :)

 

I have matched up SOTW and MOH but had not thought of of breaking down the CC cycles to fit also. (The "rule" follower in me is slow to break free sometimes! Ha!) Thanks for the great idea.