Usually I get this post done in July or early August, but life happened and here it is, the end of the first full day of school and I'm whipping it out now.
Hannah is out of those light pre-k & kindy years and is a first grader. She's had a hard time adjusting to the routine today and complained and whined a lot, I think part of a futile attempt to get me to cave and let her go off and play in her room or color. But Mom doesn't cave so she got her work done. Here's what Hannah is up to in her core subjects this year:
Joey is in 5th grade now, working out of these books for his core subjects:
For the first time, I'm purposing to have "Morning Time" together as a family at the start of our school day. I found inexpensive plans tailored for Cycle 1 Classical Conversations families at http://www.quiettimesforkids.com/store/ I haven't really printed anything out yet but that's on my agenda this week!
Finally, there's Ben. 7th grade (or age 12) is a big year for a Classical Conversations student, as it means leaving Foundations and Essentials behind and moving up into the incredible Challenge program. Ben is in Challenge A. Here's what he is studying this year:
Hannah is out of those light pre-k & kindy years and is a first grader. She's had a hard time adjusting to the routine today and complained and whined a lot, I think part of a futile attempt to get me to cave and let her go off and play in her room or color. But Mom doesn't cave so she got her work done. Here's what Hannah is up to in her core subjects this year:
- Saxon 2 for math
- All About Spelling Level 1
- First Language Lessons Level 1 for grammar
- Literature selections from the 1000 Good Books List
Joey is in 5th grade now, working out of these books for his core subjects:
- Saxon 6/5 for math - since we never stop math, he's actually in the last third of this text.
- All About Spelling Level 5
- CC's Essentials program for grammar and writing - this year writing is based on ancient history.
- Literature selections from the 1000 Good Books List
For the first time, I'm purposing to have "Morning Time" together as a family at the start of our school day. I found inexpensive plans tailored for Cycle 1 Classical Conversations families at http://www.quiettimesforkids.com/store/ I haven't really printed anything out yet but that's on my agenda this week!
Finally, there's Ben. 7th grade (or age 12) is a big year for a Classical Conversations student, as it means leaving Foundations and Essentials behind and moving up into the incredible Challenge program. Ben is in Challenge A. Here's what he is studying this year:
- Debate: The debate strand is actually Cartography. Civilization is shaped by the debate over geographical boundaries, and war is the ugliest form of debate. As they continue to learn about conflicts in history and in current events, they will have a solid geographical point of reference. The goal of this strand is to draw the entire world from memory, being able to name each country and its capital, and to identify major geographical features on each continent.
- Logic: this is math. He continues in his own math curriculum (Saxon 7/6) at home and will lead discussion on 2 math problems he brings to class each week.
- Research: this is science. The first 10 weeks are spent researching topics in the natural sciences and presenting each week in class. The next 10 weeks are spent on a science fair project. Aside from conducting the experiment according to the scientific method, he will be writing a formal lab report, research paper, and presenting to judges and guests at our class science fair. The last 10 weeks is studying major systems of human body and being able to draw and label from memory things like the human heart, eye, ear, and systems like respiratory and digestive.
- Exposition: this is literature and writing. They read from 10 Newbery Award winners and then use the curriculum The Lost Tools of Writing to brainstorm, outline, and write persuasive essays based on the novels. While the literature selections may be a little below the 7th/8th grade reading level, the focus is not on reading level, but on discussion and being able to take issues from the novels and turn them into persuasive arguments.
- Reasoning: this includes subjects like Christian apologetics and formal logic study. In the fall and part of the spring he reads It Couldn't Just Happen, and in the late spring, the book The Fallacy Detective helps students spot logical fallacies in the world and better equips them to stand up to illogical arguments.
- Grammar: this is Latin. Using Henle 1, students are translating and diagramming complete sentences in the first week. It's intensive but they can do it!
- A huge part of Challenge A is discussion. Students are learning to pull apart ideas and concepts using the Five Common Topics of Invention (which is the first canon out of the Five Canons of Rhetoric). I'm still learning how to use these tools but I can tell you they are super old and super classical. Ha! Seriously though, it's the start of something pretty amazing. I've been waiting a long time for one of my kids to get into Challenge and it's here!! I'm so excited!!
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