What Exactly is Classical Conversations?

You might have heard your friends talking about Classical Conversations (or CC for short) and wondered what this program actually is. Here’s a quick look at what Classical Conversations is and what it can offer for your family.

A Christian-Based Classical Homeschool Program

CC follows a Biblical method of education that centers on one goal: To know God and to make Him know. Students move from knowledge to understanding to wisdom in three distinct phases of their education. In the Foundations years, children are memorizing all the important information they will need when they reach middle and high school years (we call that Challenge in CC). The Foundations program is for students age 4 to 11 and meets one day per week. Students spend the day learning in a classroom of peers with a trained tutor to lead the class. They work on learning history, science, Latin, English grammar, math, geography, and fine arts.

What Does a Day at CC Look Like?

Families join together for opening assembly at 9:10 in the morning. We open with prayer, say the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag and the Bible, and the Director makes announcements. Each week, one family shares a short presentation with the group. This is a fun time when everyone is together, getting pumped up to start the day.

After assembly, students move to their classes where they meet from 9:30 until noon. There are no more than 8 children per class and a trained tutor works with each group throughout the morning. Parents join their children in the classes and they learn how to teach the week’s memory work by watching the tutor.

The CC class is divided into 5 segments, with each lasting 30 minutes:

New Memory Work – During the first 30 minutes, the tutor will introduce new memory work in all 7 subject areas. This is a fast-paced fun half hour where students soak up lots of new information and parents gain some important tools to use during the week as they continue working on the new concepts at home. Tutors use a variety of techniques to help students learn the memory work: singing, shouting, chanting, marching, dancing… there’s never a dull moment!

Presentations – Each child has an opportunity to give a short three minute presentation each week. The tutor may assign topics ahead of time or allow the students to share something they worked on at home during the previous week. The students work to develop important skills for public speaking like eye contact, speaking with confidence, and using appropriate volume.

Science – The class will spend 30 minutes completing a science project and learning the scientific method. This is hands on time where students get to explore important concepts in more detail. Projects range from growing salt crystals to making life size models of the human body.

Fine Arts – Another half hour is spent focused on fine arts. For six weeks of the school year, students work on mastering basic drawing skills. The next six weeks focuses on learning music theory and playing the tin whistle. During the second half of the school year, students study famous artists and experiment with various techniques. During the final six weeks, they study orchestra and various composers.

Review – The final 30 minutes is spent reviewing all the memory work the students have learned in the previous six weeks. This is commonly known as “game time” in the CC world. Students enjoy musical chairs, jeopardy, board games, and lots of other fun games to reinforce all the memory work they have been studying at home.

The Core of Your Curriculum

The Foundations program is a complete curriculum that provides everything your students will need for Science, History, Geography, Fine Arts, Latin and History. The only additional curriculum you will need is a math and phonics/reading program. Once students reach 4^th grade, they can participate in Essentials in the afternoons and that will become their full language arts program and parents only need to add a Math curriculum to the work at CC.

What About the Rest of the Week?

The CC day is the kick off to your homeschooling week. On the other days, you spend time working on the memory work using techniques you learned during community day. CC also provides a lot of great songs and resources. On a busy day, you can have your children do their math and reading, then just pop in the memory work CD in the car and let them sing along while you run errands.

Time to Play

No CC day would be complete without some play time. At noon, classes dismiss and kids get to eat lunch all together. Everyone brings their own lunches. At 12:30, kids head outside for recess with rotating parents supervising the play time each week. At 1:00, the younger kids get the head home for the day while the 4^th through 6^th graders head to their Essentials class to study Grammar and Writing until 3:00.

It’s a fun day for everyone, including the parents. Best of all, it gets you on track for the week and you leave fully equipped with everything you need to continue teaching your children at home.

Want to Know More?

Do you have more questions about Classical Conversations? Just email Amber, Hickory’s CC director by clicking here.