Intro to Our Homeschool!

I have previously talked about the 'co-op' that we have been a part of. I didn't like that title because it sorely minimized the value of what we were actually doing but I didn't really have a succinct way to describe it. However, in the last few days, I have been learning just exactly how far removed we really are from a co-op! I will explain what we do.

Classical Conversations is a Christian Classical Learning Community. We have a 6 fold goal in our program.

1. To Know God and Make Him Known. We are not affiliated with any certain denomination, but the statement of faith aligns us with the protestant beliefs. There are people from many churches in our community.

2. Biblical Worldview. This means that we look for God's hand in all that we learn.

3. Classical Subjects: Latin, Literature, Rhetoric, Logic

4. The Trivium: that learning happens in 3 stages. Grammar, Logic/Dialectic, and Rhetoric.

5. How to Learn: Foster the Love of Learning

6. How to Think: Integration of Subjects

We pay a tuition, nothing like we used to pay at a private school, but enough. Our communities are made up of 3 sections: Foundations (K4-6th Grammar stage), Essentials (4th - 6th Writing Seminars) and Challenge (7th-12th Seminars). We have trained tutors who present the information in a 2 1/2 hour session once a week. They lay the groundwork for the families to take home and reinforce and expound what they desire to work on. Each class has one tutor, no more than 8 students, and parents stay on site and assist in all the classes.

Our year is made up of four, six-week sessions, divided in half by the Christmas holiday. Each day is broken up into 30 minute sessions. The first session we cover new Grammar, introducing information on 7 subjects: a History Timeline (Bible and world together), History Sentences, Latin, Geography, Math Concepts, English Grammar Concepts, and Science. The second session is a Grammar Review, where we review the information covered that week as well as the previous 6 weeks. The third session we do a science experiment. The fourth session is done differently in each 6 weeks: 1 - Drawing, 2 - Tin Whistle, 3 - Great Artists, 4 - Orchestra. And the 5th session is Presentations. All students bring in something to share with their class. The goal of this session is to teach students how to stand in front of a class, how to present what they have brought, and how to be a good audience.

Ok - that is a lot of information! I will expound on it more in another post, but feel free to ask me questions...