Going to visit a Classical Conversations group

[Tess in the Burbs]

Ok, I visited one years ago and I was so overwhelmed by the groups/noise we skipped out of the afternoon session. My kids begged to join but I just couldn't afford it at the time and I became an introvert that very day!

 

But now they are asking for more outside group stuff. We are doing 1 class this spring with a co-op. It's ok but I hate to miss a day of school for fluffy stuff.

 

I am going to visit Classical Conversations b/c it seems like extra academic stuff to me but won't drive our schooling. So not a complete waste of a day b/c of the writing class in the afternoon. But is it just really expensive to just be extra academic stuff? I truly am interested in the writing class part in the afternoons. I got the impression we have to do the mornings to do the afternoons.

 

What's the feeling about CC these days? This is a fairly new group....it's their first year.

 

Just hoping to get opinions on CC, thanks!

[Jess4879]

Here's a post I recently made that might help: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/455457-classical-conversations/

 

We were trying to decide about putting our 9 and 7 year old in this. I decided not to for this year, because it would eat up our budget for pretty much the entire year. The cost was just way too high, IMO. It sounds interesting and I may still attend an info session at one point....but I think if we were going to do it, I'd want to use it across the board in our homeschool and I'm not prepared to do that right now.

[Brenda in FL]

I would base my decision on if I would be interested in continuing with the Challenge program. It looks like your oldest would be ready for Ch A after next year. If you are interested in pursuing Challenge, then starting with Foundations and Essentials will complement your academics. My youngest has 3 years left in Foundations (including this one). He loves it.

 

I started CC for social and academic reasons when my oldest ones were in 5th and 7th grades. They are both in Challenge now. We have had a very positive experience. After 7 years of homeschooling I started to appreciate the benefits of memory work (even out of context). The writing instruction came at a good time for us. And I value the presentation time in Foundations and the art and science portions (because that never got done at home!)

 

Even though we had not made Foundations the basis of our homeschool I still feel it has only added to our academics and not detracted from it. And we have gained a circle of friends that share the same educational philosophy.

[Tess in the Burbs]

thanks for the link to the other conversation....still on the fence about it all. Guess I will just have to see how I feel about the group.

 

We are open to continuing with Challenge...I am hoping being included in something like that Ds will strive harder in his academics. He isn't very motivated on his own but I notice in groups he wants to be in the top. So yes, the Challenge is something we want to do if this works for us.

[OK Family]

I have a 5 1/2, 6 1/2 and 9 1/2 yr olds. We had done CC for 2 1/2 yrs. This our first year not attending CC and do miss it at times. I love the memorizing all the facts. It was great for us, however this year I would have not only had 3 in foundations, but would have 1 in essentials and the other 2 would be in paid child care. In other words very expensive for me. We did a loose version of CC at home this year. We still work on memorizing the Veritas Press Cards for timeline and the geography. I also added in Poetry memorization. It has worked out great, but I wish we would have just spent the time memorizing all the CC.

 

We started doing a latin course at home 2 years ago and IEW. It just became too much to do in addition to CC. We invested a year in both subjects and didnt think it would be wise to drop them, So I decided to scale back the amount of CC memorizing and continued with our Latin course and IEW. I feel like I am able to now keep a good balance between CC, Essentials (IEW) and other homeschool academics. I am trying to prepare my son for Challenge A as best as I can without out sending him to Foundations and Essentials.

 

I do recommend CC, I just can't afford it for my family , so doing my own version of CC at home. Hope this helps!

[Jess4879]

I have a 5 1/2, 6 1/2 and 9 1/2 yr olds. We had done CC for 2 1/2 yrs. This our first year not attending CC and do miss it at times. I love the memorizing all the facts. It was great for us, however this year I would have not only had 3 in foundations, but would have 1 in essentials and the other 2 would be in paid child care. In other words very expensive for me. We did a loose version of CC at home this year. We still work on memorizing the Veritas Press Cards for timeline and the geography. I also added in Poetry memorization. It has worked out great, but I wish we would have just spent the time memorizing all the CC.

 

We started doing a latin course at home 2 years ago and IEW. It just became too much to do. So I decided to scale back the amount of CC memorizing and continued with out Latin course and IEW. I feel like I am able to now keep a good balance between CC, Essentials (IEW) and other homeschool academics. I am trying to prepare my son for Challenge A as best as I can without out sending him to Foundations and Essentials.

 

I do recommend CC, I just can't afford it for my family , so doing my own version of CC at home. Hope this helps!

 

Do you purchase the CC materials to use at home, or do you use something else? I can definitely see the benefits of the CC method and could see implementing them at home.

[Staceyshoe]

If you are only interested in the afternoon session, then I would talk with the Director about just doing that part of it. I have a local friend who did this with her son.

[OK Family]

We went through all the cycles at CC so yes I purchased the materials. I highly recommend the CDs. We played them at home, in the car. It really helped them memorize.

 

I am very visual so I needed the memory cards to go along with the CDs.

 

I also purchased the Veritas press timeline cards. CC now has their own version of timeline cards they sell.

 

We never did successfully memorize the VP timeline cards, so we still use those. I didn't want to switch to the CC timeline cards.

 

I had all of the black line maps for geography already, but now they sell the black line maps. I like those, however, I don't know if they were updated and may not go with the version of cds/cards I have, so I didn't purchase those.

 

I hope this helps. I'm on my phone so unable to see your question while I type this. If you have any questions or want to know how our cc is done at home just let me know I'd be more than happy to help.

[QuirkyKidAcademy]

My son is in Foundations this year (our first). Next year he will do only Essentials. I can't afford both, so we are going with the older program.

[Jess4879]

We went through all the cycles at CC so yes I purchased the materials. I highly recommend the CDs. We played them at home, in the car. It really helped them memorize.

 

I am very visual so I needed the memory cards to go along with the CDs.

 

I also purchased the Veritas press timeline cards. CC now has their own version of timeline cards they sell.

 

We never did successfully memorize the VP timeline cards, so we still use those. I didn't want to switch to the CC timeline cards.

 

I had all of the black line maps for geography already, but now they sell the black line maps. I like those, however, I don't know if they were updated and may not go with the version of cds/cards I have, so I didn't purchase those.

 

I hope this helps. I'm on my phone so unable to see your question while I type this. If you have any questions or want to know how our cc is done at home just let me know I'd be more than happy to help.

 

 

When you get a chance I'd love to know how you implement this at home. (Sorry to the OP for the post hijack!)