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MaryM Board Moderator
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Posted: Aug 24 2011 at 5:38pm | IP Logged
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Any more updates, Becky or Trish? Some of the moms with youngers in our local group are looking to start a classical memory-based co-op and wondered about the materials from CCM. We've love to know more about them from those of you who have seen them.
__________________ Mary M. in Denver
Our Domestic Church
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Becky Parker Forum All-Star
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Posted: Aug 25 2011 at 5:58am | IP Logged
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Hi Mary,
We've been using CC Memory for about 2 weeks now and I can say I really like the materials! They came quickly after I ordered them which was good because there was quite a bit to read through. The Teacher's Guide not only includes the work to be memorized but explanations and suggested ways to teach it. The science section is particularly full, making some of the presentations a science lesson, imo.
My kids love it. We decided to do Memory Work first thing in the morning after prayer. I do it with the whole family and everyone recites the works to be memorized "in chorus" and individually. They think it's fun. Even my 4yo joins in.
For the "Great Words" section, some of the suggested poems have already been memorized by my dd in 7th, so I gave her a seperate poem to memorize. It's actually a portion of Shakespeare's "Henry V" as suggested by MODG. I like the way CC Memory has a "Great Words I" for the younger crowd, and a Great Words II" for the older kids though.
Even you have any specific questions, I'd be happy to try and answer them. Imo, it is worth the money.
__________________ Becky
Wife to Wes, Mom to 6 wonderful kids on Earth and 4 in Heaven!
Academy Of The Good Shepherd
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TxTrish Forum Pro
Joined: Oct 23 2005 Location: Pennsylvania
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Posted: Aug 25 2011 at 3:29pm | IP Logged
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Hey gals!
We ordered CCM and it took about 2 weeks to arrive. However, I am in a small town in PA things seem to take longer to arrive here.
The first 32 pages of the Teacher Guide is instructional to me. It is very good, and then the entire manual is filled with teaching notes for the entire year that goes with the specific weeks material.
We have been doing it for 1 week.
The kids love it, and we also do it first thing in the morning. I plan to spread it over the year, so we will do each 'week' for 2 weeks.
The songs that they use are familiar and the kids are singing them off an on through the day.
I did not originally order the timeline cards to make sure we were going to like doing it, but plan to now.
I have always stabbed at doing memory work with the kids, but floundered around and fell short of my imagined goals.
I really, REALLY like having it all pulled together in an organized manner - planned, set up, and presented for me. I rarely want to reinvent the wheel.
This program is super neat and we are enjoying it.
I will check back in later in the year and let you know how it is going, but right now 2 thumbs up for Classically Catholic Memory all the way!
(PS: we are doing alpha year, matches up perfect with our history science.)
SAG
Trish
__________________ +JMJ+
Gabrielle20, Deavon18, Elizabeth12, Mary10, Greg8
and a grandson!
My Blog
"Duty before everything, even something holy"
St.Padre Pio
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DianaC Forum Pro
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Posted: Aug 25 2011 at 3:47pm | IP Logged
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Gosh, I could almost copy and paste Trish's post because she expresses my thoughts exactly.
I just received the bulk of my materials yesterday, and we plan to begin on Monday. We plan to give 2 weeks to each week's lessons.
There does seem to be a little delay in shipping. I first ordered the TM and the owners emailed that they weren't currently shipping - it's in the Terms that they take a break around July 4. I liked the TM, so then I ordered the rest of the Alpha Year items. I received an email that the items would be shipped in about 10 days. They shipped a day earlier than stated, and arrived in 6 days, so a bit more than two weeks.
I look forward to seeing more updates and sharing ideas.
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Donna Marie Forum All-Star
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Posted: Aug 25 2011 at 4:09pm | IP Logged
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What materials do you feel are necessary..just the TM or the cd's too. I am in a quandary what to order...do you think the timeline is worth it?
Ok... ONE MORE question....
Is there anything regarding the timeline in the TM or is it really more of an independent exercise...
__________________ God love you!
Donna Marie from NJ
hs momma to 9dc!!
Finding Elegant Simplicity
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TxTrish Forum Pro
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Posted: Aug 25 2011 at 4:28pm | IP Logged
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The Timeline is covered in the TM.
There are ideas for what to do with the cards, a few games to play and so on. Both for groups and individual students. There are like 8 "cards" per week.
Here is an example week:
Council of Chalcedon
Western Roman Empire Falls: 476AD
Saint Benedict
Justinian and the Byzantine Empire
Mohammed Founds Islam
Battle of Poitiers
Charlemagne Becomes Holy Roman Emperor
King Alfred of England
There is no reason you could not make your own timeline cards. I do plan to buy them. One less thing for me to get wrapped up in researching, pulling together, printing out - oh, you get the idea.
I purchased the Teachers Manual, Student Text, CD and maps and stickers. My children like having a student manual, no biggie for me. I purchased only one for them to share. They copy the information into their own notebooks.
- and I would consider the CD very important. The memory work is recited, sung, presented...
by someone else,
who can sing,
who already did all the work,
and put it together,
in one place, in order,
and is willing to go over it on demand whenever my little angels would like.
PRICELESS
__________________ +JMJ+
Gabrielle20, Deavon18, Elizabeth12, Mary10, Greg8
and a grandson!
My Blog
"Duty before everything, even something holy"
St.Padre Pio
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Becky Parker Forum All-Star
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Posted: Aug 26 2011 at 4:16am | IP Logged
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I just want to add that the timeline cards are very nicely done. They are larger than must cards that I've seen and they are in full color.
I have the cd, but I've never used it. I guess that's just my family. I need to let my kids hear the songs though. That might make memorizing the history a little easier.
__________________ Becky
Wife to Wes, Mom to 6 wonderful kids on Earth and 4 in Heaven!
Academy Of The Good Shepherd
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MaryM Board Moderator
Joined: Feb 11 2005 Location: Colorado
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Posted: Aug 27 2011 at 1:56am | IP Logged
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Thanks ladies, this is all great info. I've been sharing with our group and I think they are going to go for it to try with a co-op.
__________________ Mary M. in Denver
Our Domestic Church
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brabec7 Forum Newbie
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Posted: Aug 27 2011 at 5:16pm | IP Logged
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I wonder if any of you all have marked the cards according to time periods. I think I might be missing something because my cards seem to be color coded by BC and AD. I am hoping one of you wonderful ladies will correct me. I am trying to decide how to mark the time periods in order to create memory pegs for my kids. But really I just would rather find out that I missed something on the cards.
Thanks,
Lisa
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Martha Forum All-Star
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Posted: Feb 04 2012 at 4:13pm | IP Logged
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Bumping to see if there is any further feedback from anyone else or more info from previous posters now tgey've been using it longer?
__________________ Martha
mama to 7 boys & 4 girls
Yes, they're all ours!
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TxTrish Forum Pro
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Posted: Feb 04 2012 at 6:56pm | IP Logged
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Hi there all;
We have been using CCM for a few months now and my children and I love it.
They really enjoy it, listen to the CD off and on when they wish to practice the dfferent memory sections and have done very well with the program.
We take 2 weeks per 'week' and all the children are learning very well with it.
My youngest (son-8) memorizes very easily. I didn't know that until we started this. The format (all worked out and done for me) has been great for our family.
We got year one to match up with our history.
This has really pulled a lot of things together for us.
Memory work of course, we are actually keeping our book of the centuries consistently this year, and our wall timeline. All the topics covered have kind of kept our momentum going forward in those subjects. Might just be this is the year, whatever it is - I am just happy to have a year that feels like it is working pretty good!
So, two thumbs up from our family. An excellent investment that I plan to follow up with year 2 in the fall.
And, I did purchase the cards.
__________________ +JMJ+
Gabrielle20, Deavon18, Elizabeth12, Mary10, Greg8
and a grandson!
My Blog
"Duty before everything, even something holy"
St.Padre Pio
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KackyK Forum All-Star
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Posted: Feb 05 2012 at 10:43pm | IP Logged
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Great bump and update! Thanks!
__________________ KackyK
Mom to 8 - 3 dd, 5ds & 4 babes in heaven
Beginning With the Assumption
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Becky Parker Forum All-Star
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Posted: Feb 06 2012 at 5:00am | IP Logged
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We're loving it here too. I've never had a year that we were able to keep up with memory work until now.
I don't use the cd. My kids just don't like to listen to it. I would say that is the one component I bought that I don't use. I guess I didn't really need the student book either, but that's because I choose to write it all out on a big chart tablet and we go over it each day from that.
I love the science. There's a lot more to it than just memory work.
I've just started using the history phrases as part of our notebooking. I use it for copywork and then the kids illustrate it. We will do this about every two weeks when we start the new lesson.
__________________ Becky
Wife to Wes, Mom to 6 wonderful kids on Earth and 4 in Heaven!
Academy Of The Good Shepherd
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Martha Forum All-Star
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Posted: Feb 06 2012 at 10:17am | IP Logged
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What levels did you purchase (any of you)?
I think I'm going to buy the gamma level... Any one have experience on it?
Is it designed to have all grades memorizing the same thing in each subject? Or does it give subject memorization for a few levels?
Am I correct that only the No 2 Baltimore catechism is used for all the levels? (which makes sense I suppose bc 18 memory sections is not enough to memorize even that one in two years?)
The maps. It says they are a set of 5 - does that mean one set is enou for up to 5 kids? Or are the 5 in the set all different, meaning I need multiple sets?
Is there pronunciation help for the Latin?
I think that is all my questions for the moment. :)
Thanks!
__________________ Martha
mama to 7 boys & 4 girls
Yes, they're all ours!
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cvbmom Forum All-Star
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Posted: Feb 06 2012 at 1:11pm | IP Logged
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We don't use the CD either, but we're still keeping up with the memory work (we take 2 weeks per their "week"). It's such a small time commitment for the benefits we've seen. I also give it
God bless,
Christine
__________________ Wife to dh - 18 years!
Mom to dd (16), ds (15), dd, (12), dd (11), ds (9), dd (8), dd (7), ds (5), dd (3), ds (2), and ds (1)
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cvbmom Forum All-Star
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Posted: Feb 06 2012 at 1:16pm | IP Logged
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Martha,
We didn't purchase the maps. It seemed like a lot of money for our budget. I find a printable map of whatever we're studying online and use that instead.
The map sets seemed to me to be for use by one child and the set of 5 means, I believe, that there are 5 maps per level for one student included. Maybe someone else ordered them and can give more detail.
God bless,
Christine
__________________ Wife to dh - 18 years!
Mom to dd (16), ds (15), dd, (12), dd (11), ds (9), dd (8), dd (7), ds (5), dd (3), ds (2), and ds (1)
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gamcynth Forum Newbie
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Posted: Feb 06 2012 at 3:52pm | IP Logged
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Hi there, I see I am late to the game posting on this topic, but I just found the thread. We are in a small co-op of 3 families and are LOVING CCM. There are 8 1/2 kids currently participating ranging in age from 3(yes he is the 1/2) to 9. - 2 3rd graders, three second graders, one 1st grader and two in kinder. We are having a blast. Each mom teaches a few subjects and we meet the 1st and 3rd Friday for about 3 1/2 hours. We have established a schedule for what order we do the subjects in and have 2 breaks for playing and snacks. We are using a different pacing for the timeline topic - we are keeping pace with the History topic (plus they only have to learn 4-5 timeline cards a week instead of 8)also, since our kids are younger they don't have as much "background knowledge" regarding the history covered in the timeline, so we are learning the timeline as we learn history.
Some of the ways we teach or reinforce the different topics are as follows: We are using hands on materials by making little graphic organizers (Dinah Zike style) for science and compiling a booklet, adding the new topic each meeting. I am making a color page with images depicting the scenes from the history topic and we do a color page for the poem. They can color while we listen to the topic about 10 times. We have incorporated hand movements to remember the timeline cards, etc. It's fun! I would encourage any of you to try it. The materials are beautiful and it is authentically catholic!
Blessings,
Cynthia in Texas
mom to four
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SusanMc Forum Pro
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Posted: Feb 06 2012 at 4:54pm | IP Logged
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Thanks for such a helpful bump, and you too Cynthia for your first post! Our co-op is planning to use this next year for our older kids (kindergarten to 4th grade) and use Catholic ABCs for the preschoolers. I'm glad to hear that it works well with that range.
__________________ Mom to two dear sons, '07 and '08.
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Becky Parker Forum All-Star
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Posted: Feb 07 2012 at 5:35am | IP Logged
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cvbmom wrote:
We didn't purchase the maps. It seemed like a lot of money for our budget. I find a printable map of whatever we're studying online and use that instead.
The map sets seemed to me to be for use by one child and the set of 5 means, I believe, that there are 5 maps per level for one student included. God bless,
Christine |
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The maps are quite nice. They are laminated in a very heavy plastic and are in color. One side is for labeling with the enclosed stick on labels (you have to cut them apart) and the other side is for tracing.
As Christine says, they were designed to be used by one child, but we just have one set that the kids share and that works pretty well. In a coop situation where there are more children I think sharing would be more difficult.
__________________ Becky
Wife to Wes, Mom to 6 wonderful kids on Earth and 4 in Heaven!
Academy Of The Good Shepherd
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cvbmom Forum All-Star
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Posted: Feb 07 2012 at 12:11pm | IP Logged
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One thing's for sure, all the CCM products I've seen have been of excellent quality. Their books are full color and durably bound, yet still reasonably priced. I would imagine the maps to be equally well done.
God bless,
Christine
__________________ Wife to dh - 18 years!
Mom to dd (16), ds (15), dd, (12), dd (11), ds (9), dd (8), dd (7), ds (5), dd (3), ds (2), and ds (1)
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