Homeschooling with Classical Conversations
I was a reluctant homeschool mom. When my oldest was born, I was counting the days until he would go off to kindergarten. I had a job I loved (teaching horseback riding lessons and training horses), and couldn’t wait to get back to it full time. However, God has a sense of humor and a few year later, it became clear that we would be entering the burgeoning ranks of homeschoolers.
I dipped my toes in the water with a little phonics and reading and started to gain a little confidence. If nothing else, he would know how to read and count. But as I started to look down the road, I would become quickly overwhelmed and intimidated by the needs of the kids in their older years. I was terrified that I would miss something big and that my son would suffer for it.
In that season of wrestling, a dear friend introduced us to a program called Classical Conversations. She met a couple of high schoolers at a homeschool convention, and they impressed her more than any other student she met there. These students were articulate and confident. They could carry on a conversation with an adult, and cared about a wider variety of topics than your typical teenager. She jumped into the program with her kids, and we kept poking our heads into her schoolroom to see how it was going.
We decided to give CC a try in Super D’s kindergarten year, and we fell in love! Super D had a great time on community day, and he was learning a LOT!
This quick video is after his first week of CC, as a 5 year old. Isn’t he cute?? 🙂 🙂
This one is of Sweetheart, as a 3 year old, singing the timeline song she’s picked up just from listening to her big brother:
Participating in CC has greatly SIMPLIFIED my life. Instead of having a long list of subjects we do every day, we focus on reading, math, and reviewing our CC memory work. Our actual schoolwork doesn’t take us very long every day, leaving room for lots of other fun things! (I’m currently eyeing the Lego robotics program, since I picked up the curriculum for free on a Lego special a few weeks ago). Now that Super D is a little older, I’m adding in spelling and some foreign language, but that’s optional!
In the young years, through age 12, all the kids learn the same thing in CC. The classes, on community day, are divided up by age, and the tutor presents the memory work in an age appropriate manner. Then we review it together at home! Even our Amazonian toddler is getting into it – his version of the timeline song starts with “40 A.D., 40 A.D.!”, sung at the top of his lungs lol.
I also love that CC goes all the way through high school, and their grads have GREAT track records. They are accepted to top colleges, receiving grants, and already changing the world! In the high school years, the CC curriculum is complete. Yes, COMPLETE. I won’t have to piece meal their curriculum together!!
I am SO thankful we found CC – it has given me the confidence I need to know that, by the grace of God, I can homeschool my kids and give them a great education. They will be prepared to go out into the world to do whatever it is that God is calling them to do, and they will know how to learn. When they need to learn a new concept or skill, they will have the tools to be able to jump in and learn them.
This video, produced by Classical Conversations, gives a great overview of the program:
Classical Conversations has communities literally all over the world. Open houses are going on now and enrollment for the fall is currently open. If you’d like to find out more about joining a community near you, go to Classical Conversations. Feel free to email me with any questions!
Sarah Falk graduated from Baylor with a major in bioinformatics and is currently pursuing her Naturopathic Doctor’s degree from the Trinity School of Natural Medicine. She is a homeschooling mom to 3 and blogs at Renaissance Mama. She loves to escape to the barn for a few hours to recharge, or to sit near the lake with a chai tea latte and a good book.
