If your child is in Classical Conversations Essentials program...

[TurnipGreen]

If your child is in a Classical Conversations Essentials program, please share your experience.    

 

I recently attended a Foundations program and think it would be a great fit for my son (he's 10), thus we plan to register for it.   After I'd returned home that attending Foundations, I called the Director with some additional questions; she asked if I had considered the Essentials program.  I'd never heard of Essentials.   She told me about it, and I plan to attend an Essentials class this upcoming Monday.     

 

Please share your experience of Essentials.   What do you like/dislike about it?    Did you like your tutor?  What do you like/not like about the way your tutor conducts the class? (I read online that the "tutor is key" in Essentials, but I want to know what traits to look for in a good Essentials tutor as I'm clueless as to what to expect), and this course is expensive so I want to make a good decision for our family.  

 

First time to post, (!)  
TurnipGreen

 

 

 

 

[IfIOnly]

Subbing

 

I'm considering essentials for two of my children next year. I'm attending a class at the end of the month, so that will be helpful too.

[IfIOnly]

BTW, here's the most helpful video I've come across regarding CC Essentials.

 

Edited March 25, 2016 by ifIonlyhadabrain

[cowboyjunki]

We are just finishing our first year of Essentials and Foundations.  Essentials has been great for my son, and our tutor is fantastic.  She is so smart and loves writing and grammar, which I think have been key.  I know she spent tons of time learning the program, as this is her first year tutoring.  The program uses Institute For Excellence in Writing (IEW) and Essentials of the English Language (EEL).  

 

The first 45 minutes were spent on EEL, with the tutor introducing the new sentence pattern, parts of speech, chart for the week.  There are numerous charts that your child should be able to memorize over the course of the 3 years they are in Essentials, if they started at age 9.  We will only be doing one year as my son is 11, and honestly, we have not focused enough on learning the charts.  Learning them will lay a strong framework for you child if they move into the Challenge stage for middle school.  The students also participate in diagramming sentences during this portion. 

 

After EEL, they spend about 30 minutes playing math games.  A favorite is board slam (google it if you are unfamiliar with the game).  My son loves the math portion!  

 

The final 45 minutes are spent on writing.  The students will take turns reading the paper or paragraphs completed at home and then the tutor will introduce the new concepts they are learning for the week.  Often they do a practice writing exercise as well.  

 

I love the writing program...it has improved my son's writing greatly.  The mistake I made was not being present enough while he was writing his papers at home.  I think I should have spent more time with him as he wrote.  

 

Things I don't like...honestly, it is fairly boring to sit in the class as an adult while your child participates.  After a morning of foundations, I find it hard to focus from 1-3 for Essentials!  Also, the way the writing workbook is laid out can be confusing at times.  Just ask a lot of questions of the tutor to make sure you are doing the correct lesson for the week, as it was not always sequential.

 

Hope that helps!

Edited March 25, 2016 by cowboyjunki

[bethben]

It depends upon the tutor.  We had an awesome tutor and it made the program fun and very worthwhile.  A bad tutor could make a large mess of that program easily.

[TX Pilgrim]

We have been a part of CC Foundations for 3 years.  One reason we are not returning is because I don't want to put my oldest in Essentials.  My friends who really enjoy pattern writing, formulas and a lot of grammar up front have enjoyed Essentials - as long as you understand that it is a layering process.  You are expected to spend 3 years in the program and just improve your skills and understanding over time.  You will feel like you are sinking if you try to master everything in one year.  Here is CC's PDF about the program and it shows how you cover all the material but are only expected to master parts each year.  Also, some of the memorization (like linking verbs, prepositions, etc.) is included in Foundations - so if he hasn't had that and doesn't have those memorized it might help him to cover these over the summer.  

 

I prefer a different approach to writing and grammar (more CM) so this just doesn't fit with my personality and what I think will be best for my kids.  It is a personal decision though.  Those who have gone through the program that I know feel it is equipping their children well.  It also prepares them to handle Latin well - if that is a goal for you.

 

I personally have decided to get to know Latin better myself so that I can use it to teach some of the English grammar that is covered in EEL.  Instead of drilling and killing English grammar I want to use Latin to help them understand how verbs work, the different functions of a noun, etc.  I also personally feel that dissecting the language this way - at this age - is not the most helpful way to encourage good writing.  I think listening to and reading good writing will develop patterns of more complicated sentences in their brain.  We do a bit of diagramming at home just so they know the parts of speech.  But at this point my son doesn't connect a diagrammed sentence and sentence patterns with improving his own writing.  He copies sentence structures he has heard in stories - without naming or analyzing them - to express his ideas. When they are in high school we might start dissecting sentences this way.  For me, it is analysis too soon. Again - personal opinion.  

 

The blogger at half a hundred acre wood is sort of an unofficial voice for CC and here are her thoughts about surviving essentials.  

 

 

Visiting a class will give you a much better idea of whether it is a good fit for you and your son.  

[TurnipGreen]

My thanks to you all        

 

 : - )

[Momto4inSoCal]

We are in Essentials this year. It's our first year doing CC. I have mixed feelings about the entire program but I love the EEL. We did Jr Analytical Grammar last year (4th and 3rd grader) since we had finished the rod and staff books early. I feel like that gave us a really good intro to the program. We are using Analytical Grammar on our weeks off of CC which fits in great since Analytical Grammar is meant to be a 3 year program used for only 12 weeks. We haven't focused on the charts too much but my kids have learned so much grammar. They understand clauses, all the patterns, diagramming (which they hate but can do). Between the two programs they have gone beyond what I thought they would grasp this year. EEL gives them depth by fully taking apart one sentence a day and AG gives them practice parsing and diagram a multitude of sentences. IEW is a great program but you don't need CC to use it. The math portion is probably the only downside. There's too big of a gap between 4th and 6th graders to really accomplish any learning. CC stresses that the purpose is to work on math facts but most kids learn their math facts by 3rd or 4th grade. I wish there was some additional learning in math that they could work on.

[GAPeachie]

It depends upon the tutor.  We had an awesome tutor and it made the program fun and very worthwhile.  A bad tutor could make a large mess of that program easily.

 

 

This.  Twenty times over.  Our tutor couldn't keep adjectives and adverbs straight.  Class time basically became a place to showcase her writing.  

 

Fantastically huge waste of time and money.  Never again. 

Edited March 26, 2016 by GAPeachie

[kristin0713]

This is our second year in Foundations.

 

This year my 10yo DD started Essentials and I pulled her out for the second half of the year. I found the grammar portion of Essentials extremely overwhelming and hard to teach at home. (I had never before diagrammed sentences and had not done much formal grammar with my kids yet.) Our tutor was tutoring for the first time and it was clear that she was trying hard but my DD was not getting it and, quite frankly, neither was I. I actually really liked the IEW writing portion, but I was frustrated that the Essentials class was using a 32 week program and cramming it into 24 weeks to fit into our schedule for the year. (Another mom in our group who has a lot of experience with IEW said that it was like IEW on steroids). For perspective, my DD has always been a strong reader and writer. But this class was taking a toll on both of us. She was crying over the assignments and saying that she hated writing and grammar. I felt it was in her best interest to pull her out, continue the IEW program at our own pace and start a FOURTH grade level grammar program as opposed to what I think is a college level grammar program.

 

I am so happy that we went in this direction. We started Growing with Grammar and that has been fabulous! If I had started that with my DD last year or done some sort of introduction to sentence diagramming previously, we may have had a different outcome. I am going to start my DS in Growing with Grammar next year, hold off another year on Essentials for both of them, and then put them both in it the following year when they are 12 and 10. By then, my DD will have had two years of grammar, DS will have had one and I will know what I am doing (hopefully!)

[IfIOnly]

This is our second year in Foundations.

 

This year my 10yo DD started Essentials and I pulled her out for the second half of the year. I found the grammar portion of Essentials extremely overwhelming and hard to teach at home. (I had never before diagrammed sentences and had not done much formal grammar with my kids yet.) Our tutor was tutoring for the first time and it was clear that she was trying hard but my DD was not getting it and, quite frankly, neither was I. I actually really liked the IEW writing portion, but I was frustrated that the Essentials class was using a 32 week program and cramming it into 24 weeks to fit into our schedule for the year. (Another mom in our group who has a lot of experience with IEW said that it was like IEW on steroids). For perspective, my DD has always been a strong reader and writer. But this class was taking a toll on both of us. She was crying over the assignments and saying that she hated writing and grammar. I felt it was in her best interest to pull her out, continue the IEW program at our own pace and start a FOURTH grade level grammar program as opposed to what I think is a college level grammar program.

 

I am so happy that we went in this direction. We started Growing with Grammar and that has been fabulous! If I had started that with my DD last year or done some sort of introduction to sentence diagramming previously, we may have had a different outcome. I am going to start my DS in Growing with Grammar next year, hold off another year on Essentials for both of them, and then put them both in it the following year when they are 12 and 10. By then, my DD will have had two years of grammar, DS will have had one and I will know what I am doing (hopefully!)

 

Thank you for the review!

 

Regarding the bolded, from what I understand, kids 12 and older can't do Essentials but are encouraged to do Challenge. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

[kristin0713]

You're right. I was thinking in two years but my DD just turned ten. She was nine at the start of the school year. So skipping next year, she will be 11 when we give it another go and then turning 12 in February