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happymama
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| Posted: March 03 2010 at 5:07pm | IP Logged
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So...
I love, love Montessori for 6 & under, and can take the wisdom of that philosophy into the older years...
For 6 on up, I love, love the "classical" approach.
And I love, love the simplicity of Classical Conversations.
I know CC has not been around long, and not many others I know of are using it at home, so this thread may not be of interest to anyone... But after our 1st year of using it as a "spine" here, I am definitely going to stick with it through 5th grade if all goes as planned. (lol.)
BUT, the history part has always bothered me, it seemed to jump around too much and leave certain things out. So recently I've put in a lot of work ADDING what is considered "essential" in the Well Trained Mind to it. I figure, between these two programs, I should have all my bases covered! CC history must also be supplemented with a Bible history component.
And, I'm heavily researching a "living" science and a "living" history book to go with each set of materials. (There are 24 weeks of material for each of 3 cycles - you go through one cycle per year, then repeat all three. We will probably go through slightly more than one cycle per year here.) We still have our Homeschool in the Woods images and timeline, and these are being distributed to all the weeks.
We love the "fine arts" component of CC, also. Very much.
Here, we are doing most character, virtue, catechesis and liturgical activities first thing in the morning "circle time" or whatever you call it. (I call it First Things First!) Add in a Montessori environment, math, handwriting, phonics, as much outdoor time as we can, nature journaling, violin and PE classes, and nightly read-alouds.
It feels like it's all finally coming together!
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HeatherS
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| Posted: March 03 2010 at 7:37pm | IP Logged
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We are finishing up our second year of Classical Conversations with a truly wonderful group of families here in Central IL. It is safe to say that we all love it!
I'd like to write more, and will come back later - I am trying to nurse & type... I am interested in what you might find for history & science. Those are two that I have been researching for over a year now & compiling lists. Some material we have already incorporated. Two things I have done are "stickered" addendums onto the back of a few of the questionable-for-Catholics VERITAS cards in case my girls ask for more info on them. I've also made up a few of our own Catholic & other timeline cards (done in Word, printed & laminated) & put them in their correct historical place in the timeline card deck.
Need to run for the moment...
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Heather
wife to Matt since '02, mom to Margaret '03, Jessica '04, Catherine '06, Elizabeth '07 and Susanna '09
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Natalia
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| Posted: March 03 2010 at 9:41pm | IP Logged
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Happymama,
We are on our third year of CC and I love the simplicity of it too, as well as its flexibility.
The history for Cycle 1 jumps around a lot more, I think than other cycles mostly because they want to cover the Ancients in both the "Old World" and the New World. I think that Cycles 2 (Middle Ages and Renaissance) and Cycle 3 (American History) have less of a jumping around factor.
To complement history I mostly rely on living books. I just find books on whatever topic we are covering. At first I was trying to match up our reading to the weekly topic but it never quite work so, now I don't worry about matching it up. I just build our reading around CC's main topics. I has really simplified my planning!
Heather,
could you share your files for "questionable-for-Catholics Veritas cards? Last week I had to do some researching because, reading about St.Catherine of Siena, the topic of the Great Papal Schism came up, my 7yo remember the event from the card so I had to do some googling to supply accurate information.
In another thread Jenn shared this First Timeline for Hedgeschool is a very simple, Catholic timeline for 1st graders. I haven't seen it but I am wondering if it would be a complement to the Veritas cards.
One resource I have found useful to find living booksPaula's Archives
Macbeth's Opinion
I also go here Homeschool Share
For the music part Classicsforkids has some shows on the different music periods we are studying now in Cycle 1.
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Natalia
http://pannuestrodecadadia.blogspot.com
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HeatherS
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| Posted: March 03 2010 at 11:47pm | IP Logged
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I agree with Natalia that Cycle 1 History does seem to jump around more than the other 2 Cycles. For history we are reading through, chapter by chapter, the Story of the World vol. 1. Although this history program is intriguing to me & one which I've referenced for my booklists. I also use the lit. suggestions in the SOTW activity book, look them up on amazon & keep a wish list for history & science as well. I also use this site occasionally for my own background reading.
For science I have our girls illustrate & label whatever our science memory work is for that week in a simple notebook. Then we go to the online Kids Encyclopedia Britannica to look up more info on that topic. It's one of those subscriptions that we've built in to our budget & is almost as treasured as our library card. I've found the DK books & those by Gail Gibbons to be really great too, as well as Lori's Montessori for Everyone 3-part cards.
One area that I weave in Montessori are the Montessori R & D Geography Manuals & will be ordering Montessori for Everyone geography advanced land & water cards.
I agree that the Classics for Kids website is a good reference & seems to keep getting better! Also check out the DSO Kids website.
Natalia - I'll PM you a sample of what I've come up with for the add-ons to the timeline cards as well as a few of our own that I've made. They're really super simple.
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Heather
wife to Matt since '02, mom to Margaret '03, Jessica '04, Catherine '06, Elizabeth '07 and Susanna '09
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Angel
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| Posted: March 04 2010 at 6:07am | IP Logged
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Can you provide a link to Classical Conversations? I googled it, but I'm not sure I came up with the right thing. Of course it is very early in the morning for me... 
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Angela
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Three Plus Two
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HeatherS
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| Posted: March 04 2010 at 6:26am | IP Logged
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Angela -
Here it is: Classical Conversations
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Heather
wife to Matt since '02, mom to Margaret '03, Jessica '04, Catherine '06, Elizabeth '07 and Susanna '09
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Angel
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| Posted: March 04 2010 at 7:14am | IP Logged
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Ok, thanks! 
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Angela
Mom to 9, 7 boys and 2 girls
Three Plus Two
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happymama
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| Posted: March 04 2010 at 10:21am | IP Logged
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Heather,
I wish I had known you were already researching "living" books for the topics - maybe would have saved me some searching! lol.
If our family was attending a CC group, I don't think I'd be working so hard on this - but we don't have one here, so I'm trying to make it into a spine for us - talk about tweaking! Yes, Cycle 1 jumps around more (that's when I first started struggling with it!), but also some of the topics mentioned in the WTM were not included.
As an example of what I'm doing: The only mention of China is cycle 1, week 9 - "tell me about Confucius." To this week I am adding study of Lao-tse and the Great Wall. (with books.) Another example: there's no mention of the Great Depression, so I'll add a brief study of that into cycle 3 (American History) chronologically. And we will definitely spend more than one week on any topic that strikes our fancy.
I would be willing, over the next week or two, to start up a thread here, or to start up a blogger blog where we could all contribute our ideas for "living" books for each week, if anyone is interested.Greenleaf Press has so many good ideas! Also the history timeline at Bethlehem Books. (And of course all the good ideas here at 4Real.)
In a couple months, the CEO of CC is releasing a book specifically for moms using this program at home; I should have written it myself and made some money, ha!
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HeatherS
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| Posted: March 06 2010 at 8:52am | IP Logged
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I'd be interested in the week-by-week list. We're on week 21 at the CC we attend, but the lists would be helpful for the next time around...maybe include Cycle 2 as well? What I did last year for Cycle 3 & again this year is keep a list of, roughly, one book per topic per week so that we weren't overwhelmed w/books from the library that we never got a chance to read.
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Heather
wife to Matt since '02, mom to Margaret '03, Jessica '04, Catherine '06, Elizabeth '07 and Susanna '09
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Natalia
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| Posted: March 06 2010 at 9:30am | IP Logged
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Heather,
Our CC group circulated a week to week list of books at the beginning of the year. I think it came from the CC3 site. Are you a member?
The first year we did CC I tried to keep up with the weekly subjects but found it too hard. So what I do now is to have a list of broad topics, for example:
Science:Animal Classification/ Plant life/ Earth/ Volcanoes,etc Then I go to the list I posted about (Paula's Archives) and look under that heading. Sometimes I might do a lapbook from Homeschool Share. Our group got a subscription to United Streaming. Are you familiar with that? it has some great videos to complement all sorts of topics.
Just an aside, yesterday I really saw the benefit of memorizing the timeline cards. We were reading about Latin American and how it got its name. My son asked about Roman Empire. I pulled a map. He asked: "Did they ruled the Greeks?"I reminded him of the timeline cards and what came first (the Greeks) then we talked about "Alexander the Great" and "Alexander the Great conquers Egypt". Then "Egypt falls to Rome". Then we looked at the historical Atlas again and so how big the Roman Empire was. Then I reminded him of "The Split of the Roman Empire" and we moved to "The End of the Roman Empire" passing through the "Barbarian Huns" (from the songs) and contrasting them to the Barbarians in Asterix (nothing to do with CC :-) ) and ending with the "Fall of Constantinople to Mohamed the II. It was a great teaching moment and it was made a lot easier because of the Timeline Cards. Just thought I shared.
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Natalia
http://pannuestrodecadadia.blogspot.com
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Angi
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| Posted: March 07 2010 at 11:08pm | IP Logged
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Heather,
I would love to see the other cards you have made, I will be at the Bloomington Practicum in May. If you are going to that one, could you bring them :)?
I love the fact that with CC, as long we get Math and some reading done each day, I feel successful. The kids listen to the memory work in the van on our many 100 mile (one way) trips to Peoria for doc appts. Though I wish I could get some of the songs out of MY head LOL
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4Real Forums : Philosophy of Education
Topic: CC, WTM, & living books... my house!
