Regional Information Meetings

Fuquay, Holly Springs, Garner and Cary Joint Info Meetings

Are you curious about the classical model of learning? Are you interested in the classical model, but have found yourself overwhelmed trying to execute it? Do you want your children to know God and be able to make Him known to others? Does homeschooling through high school seem like a daunting task? Are you looking for support and accountability among other like-minded homeschooling families?

Wherever you are on the homeschool journey, please consider joining us at an Information Meeting to see if Classical Conversations is what you are looking for. 

We will have representatives from the Holly Springs, Garner and Cary campuses of CC to talk about the Foundations, Essentials and Challenge programs on Thursday, January 26 from 7-9 pm at Swift Creek Baptist Church on Penny Road and on Saturday, February 25th from 9-11am at Colonial Baptist Church on Tryon Road.  Details are below.

January Meeting - 

Date and Time:  Thursday, January 26, 2012 from 7-9 pm

Location: Swift Creek Baptist Church, 9300 Penny Road, Raleigh, NC  27606

Contact: Lora Mays, loramays@nc.rr.com 

February Meeting - 
Date and Time:  Saturday, February 25, 2012 from 9-11 am

Location: Colonial Baptist Church, 6051 Tryon Road, Cary, NC  27518

Contact: Rebecca Carter,  chbcary@yahoo.com   

Even if you are part of a CC Foundations/Essentials community, these informational meetings are helpful to get more information about the Challenge programs. 

What Does My Day Look Like?

Here is a slide of my excel document with my children's schedule on it.

I will cut out each child's schedule, laminate it and have them check it off.

"CC Extension Work" is when we go into more depth about the CC subjects, such as Science or History.
This is also when my children work on their presentations.

This schedule is tweaked throughout the year, but the order of the day stays the same, for the most part.  I believe the consistency helps the children.  
Even if I never got out of bed, my children know exactly what they are supposed to do every day. 

Now, would they do it?
Let's hope so.

(If you want the excel document, please email me)

Homeschooling Through Highschool... Need Help?

Homeschooling for the Long Term

 

Do friends and family ask you, "How long are you going to homeschool?"  Are you asking yourself the same question?  Does the thought of homeschooling for the long term (through high school) excite you?  Terrify you?  Exhaust you?  Would you like some practical information on how to successfully navigate the high school years with your children?

 

If so, please join us on Saturday, January 28, 2012 from 9am to noon at Open Door Baptist Church (9801 Durant Road, Raleigh, NC  27614) for a free seminar on "Homeschooling for the Long Term."  Our speaker will be Lisa Bailey, a homeschooling mom of two high school students.  Lisa's oldest daughter will graduate in Spring, 2012 and her younger daughter is in 9^th grade.  Lisa and her husband, David have homeschooled their girls from the beginning.  They are in it for the long term. For the past 8 years, their family has been a part of a Classical Conversations (CC) community, and Lisa will share how the CC Challenge programs for middle school and high school students have benefited her family.

 

Please email Rebecca Carter at rebecca@3carters.com to RSVP or ask any questions.  The seminar is open to everyone, however we ask that you RSVP so that we can prepare appropriately.

 

Thank you.

Dessert Social Details

Our Dessert Social/Parent Night will be next Tuesday, August 30th @ 7 pm. 

We will have a brief meeting first so please arrive at 6:45ish so you will have time to set up your dessert and drink. 

If you want to know more details about the actual meeting, please see the blog post before this one.

This social is for your entire family and the meeting will be as brief as we can make it.  Please bring a dessert or appetizer, if you wish and a drink to share. 

Dessert Social

On Tuesday, August 30th we will have our annual parent meeting and dessert social for our Fuquay CC Families.

The brief meeting will start at 7 pm.

We will go over some key housekeeping items for our group.

Some things to be considering and praying about {so no one is caught like a deer in headlights}:

Field Trip Coordinator- it's pretty self explanatory, but you would be in charge of finding things in the area to do and organizing the events or arranging another mom to help you.

Social Coordinator- is hospitality your gift? are you willing to organize a few parent's night out? game night? pedicures? service projects?

Historian- we would love it if someone would take photos along the way so that at the end of the year we could have a cute photoshow on a cd for each family

See you all soon!

F-U-L-L !

Thanks be to the Lord!

At the end of last year, our group was down to the bare bones because several students had aged out of Foundations or chosen another option for their families.

Considering I was now the new director, I was really hoping that we would grow at least a little bit.

Well, we did! The Lord has brought together several wonderful families for our group next year. We have three classes and they are all full!

Obviously, we can have up to 64 students and we only have 24, but our current classes are full, so that is all that matters to me.

I'm looking forward to this year and what the Lord has planned for us.

Filling Up...

I just finished my last formal informational meeting of the summer and was encouraged by the moms that I met with tonight.

The Lord has really provided for our group and we are filling up very nicely for next year. I'm thankful for several new families that are signed up and looking forward to the new friendships that will develop between the children and parents.

If you are interested in joining our CC Fuquay group please get in touch with me before it's too late. We might actually have a waiting list soon... Can you imagine??

CC Video Snippet

Parent Practicums

I'm at the last day of the three day parent practicum for Classical Conversations, and when I find time, I will blog more about what I learned this week.

I am so thrilled that it has been great this year!

Teaching the Trivium

I've been reading Teaching the Trivium and I have thoroughly enjoyed the first four chapters.  Honestly, I feel like I could blog about something every page.  However, I will just write this for tonight.

"We first instruct the child in Knowledge or Grammar; then we guide the child in Understanding or Logic; and finally we challenge the child in Wisdom or Rhetoric." (emphasis added)

If you are interested in learning more about Classical Education and the reasons why you should homeschool, I would strongly urge you to read Teaching the Trivium and have your husbands read it as well, if they are willing.

Why?

Why Follow a Classical Model and Method?

 Teaching the Trivium (pg. 41)

Academics

Results

Methodology

Academics. Certainly, some parents choose a classical style of schooling because they are attracted by the academic achievement. They want their children to achieve high academic goals in classical languages, in logic, and in communication skills. They want them to study a very high level of material. Perhaps some of this is driven by a sort of academic snobbery, but much of it is driven by a sincere desire to see their children challenged and excel for the glory of God." (Page 41)

Results. The classical Trivium-Grammar, Logic and Rhetoric-is a very effective means to prepare to serve God in the world.  By mastering these basic tools of learning, the classical method creates self-teaching students who are able to move forward and master any area of learning on their own.  Whatever our goals may be, the classical approach lays the broadest and most solid foundation for achieving them. 

Methodology. The best reason for choosing the classical style of schooling is simply because this is actually the Biblical model written into reality.  So what if the pagans stole it? We simply take it back and clean it up and put it to our own use. The classical style has been successful for millennia because it matches reality.  If we ever learned anything, then we learned it by the Trivium method- whether we knew it or not.

School at Home or Homeschool?

There is so much that I could say about this photo that is in the book, Teaching the Trivium, however it's late and I do not have the time right now.  Honestly, the photo might just say it all... Do you school at home or do you homeschool?

"The great advantage of tutoring your own children at home is that much of what goes on in classroom schooling is rendered completely unnecessary."
Teaching the Trivium

Dayspring Used Curriculum Sale

I'll be at the Dayspring Used Curriculum Sale tomorrow. 

Come to White Plains UMC in Cary from 10 am to 1 pm to find some curriculum and visit me at the Classical Conversations table! 

I think that this quote nicely sums up the Grammar stage of learning...

"What that material is, is only of secondary importance; but it is as well that anything and everything which can be usefully committed to memory should be memorized at this period, whether it is immediately intelligible or not. The modern tendency is to try and force rational explanations on a child's mind at too early an age. Intelligent questions, spontaneously asked, should, of course, receive an immediate and rational answer; but it is a great mistake to suppose that a child cannot readily enjoy and remember things that are beyond his power to analyze--particularly if those things have a strong imaginative appeal (as, for example, "Kubla Kahn"), an attractive jingle (like some of the memory-rhymes for Latin genders), or an abundance of rich, resounding polysyllables (like the Quicunque vult)."

A quote from Dorothy Sayers' The Lost Tools of Learning ...

Big Sale for Cycle 3

Most of you are probably on the CC email list, but for those of you who are not, they are having a sale on the materials that you need for Cycle 3 that starts in September.

If you are going to do Essentials, they have the guide on sale for next year as well.  It's a one time purchase for the entire time in Essentials.  They have updated it to make it more user friendly, so if you are starting next year you are in luck!

I will probably get the new one since I have four other children that will use it.  I need things to be as 'user friendly' as I can get them!


http://www.classicalconversationsbooks.com/ is the website.  Check out the sale.  If you have any questions about what to order, send me an email. 

A Few Questions About Challenge

So, during our two recent informational meetings there were questions about Challenge.  Since I didn't know the answers, I could not give definitive answers.  We are embarking on uncharted territory for Michele and I, so we will learn this right along with you.

I'm sure that Michele will hold Challenge A informational meetings soon and will be able to answer any additional questions that you may have as well.

Question: Can children take subjects on more than one level of Challenge in the same year?

Answer: Children can go to whichever of the Saxon maths that are provided that best meets his/her needs, but all other subjects need to be taken within the child's group.  

Now, I would love to speak with you in more depth if you need more information about this answer.  However, I thought it would be nice for other interested parents to get a glimpse of questions.

Parent Night 2011

Parent Night will be Friday, April 1st at 7 pm!

Each class will give a presentation.  Essentials students will read papers. Memory Master Awards will be presented. Dessert will be eaten.  Fellowship will be shared by all. 

CC members please invite family members to come watch your children shine!  Bring a dessert or something salty, if you would rather. 

CC prospects, please come watch our children strut their stuff and enjoy our dessert and fellowship!

Parent Practicums

Today at the Director Training we were told the dates of the upcoming parent practicums in North Carolina.  There might be a few additional dates that are going to be released, but I'll go ahead and share these so that you can mark your calendars for the one you would like to attend.

May 10-12 Burlington 

May 17-19 Wilson

June 1-3 Jacksonville

June 6-8 Boone

June 7-9 Cary

June 27-29 Asheville

June 28-30 Wilmington

July 6-8 Waxhaw

The Parent Practicums are free for parents!  Camps are offered for the children for $30 per child for the three days.  More information is provided on the CC link on the upper right hand corner of this blog, so I won't rewrite it here.  The camps fill up very quickly, as in minutes!  So, if you are planning on coming, keep checking the website and register your children as soon as you see it's open. 

Classical Conversations' Parent Practicum are designed to share more about classically educating yourself and your children.  The topics covered are more 'big picture' and visionary.  The parent practicums are not the place to learn more about the day to day of the Classical Conversations Communities.  If you have any questions about those topics, please email me or post a comment with your email address. 

The Parent Practicums are also where the tutors are trained each year.  Each afternoon after lunch the parents who will be tutoring for their groups go to tutor training and the remaining parents have informational sessions on topics that will support their endeavors in classically home educating their children. The tutor training provides so many great ideas.  I wish that all parents went to tutor training or something just like it. However, our tutors do 'train' each week in class, so it's all good!

Normally, in order to go to tutor training you have to already be hired as a tutor for your community.  However, I learned today that I can have two parents come as 'substitute tutors' that can be trained in the afternoons at the parent practicums, even though they have not been hired as tutors.  So, if you are interested in this let me know, but first you will need to register your family and join our group!

Director Training

Today I spent the entire day in Cary at Director Training for Classical Conversations.  I came away with gobs of new information and my head is swimming with all of it.  Instead of inundating our current community members and prospects with emails, I thought the best solution would be to blog about the things that I learned.  Anyone who needs to reference the material can just come back here and read it again.

Lisa Bailey, the NC state director who led the training, did a wonderful job of mixing the tedious 'business' side of directing with the 'inspirational' side of classically homeschooling our children within our communities. 

Lots of notes were taken and questions were answered that have been asked at our informational meetings.  The next few blog posts will be used to break that information up into topics so that each post isn't too involved or too lengthy.  

CC Parents' Night

 

 If you click on the title on the actual video clip, it will open in youtube. 

This video was taken by my husband, so it features my children more often, but it shows a little bit of other things to give you a snapshot of learning.