Presentation Schedule, 4th Quarter

We strive to develop oral communication skills at a young age in an ever-increasing digital world. We know that equipping our children to be confident communicators will prepare them for adulthood and most importantly, bring glory to God as they are able to make Him known in the world.

The final quarter of presentations will incorporate all 3 of our previous quarterly focuses:

• Connecting with the audience
• Articulation
• Style and expression

Week 19 (March 23): "Tell us about your name." Does it have a meaning? Why did your parents choose that name for you? What is its origin? Do you have any nicknames, and who calls you by them?

Week 20 (March 30): "How To." Tell us how to do something assuming that the audience doesn't know the most basic steps. Organize into 4 main steps. It can be any topic. Examples: "How to plant a seed", "How to build a lego tower", "How to check out a library book", "How to set the table." If applicable, feel free to bring items that help demonstrate while still using strong verbs to explain, i.e., "Stack the blocks one on top of the other" vs. "Do this, then that"

Week 21 (April 6): "Show and Tell a Piece of Art" (either famous work or homemade). Tell what period it is from (or resembles). Who is the artist? What techniques and materials were used? What is the subject? What was the artist's motivation? 

Week 22 (April 13): "Instrument of the Orchestra" Choose an instrument from the orchestra that you'd like to learn more about or that you'd like to play. What is its name? What group does it belong to? (brass, strings, woodwinds, or percussion). What sound does it make? How do you play it? Feel free to bring visual and audio aids--draw a picture, find a picture in a book, find a song featuring the instrument and play a piece of it, or even bring the instrument itself if you have access to that.

Week 23 (April 20): "Favorite part of CC" Tell us what you like about CC. It can be several things from any of the elements: Christian, Classical, Community. Is there a favorite Fine Arts or Science focus? Favorite piece of memory work?

Week 24 (April 27): "Summer Plans" Tell us some things that you're looking forward to about the summer. Going on a trip? Playing outside? Swim lessons? Family reunion? Give us a glimpse of your summer months.

Informational Meeting Sat. Jan. 21

CC Newtown Square will host an informational meeting for interested families on

Saturday, January 21, 

11AM-noon 

at the Panera in West Chester Town Center.

We will have a brief overview, explanation, and time for questions.
All are welcome!

No commitments are expected or required--please come to explore classical home education with built-in community, accountability, and a flexible plan!

Join us at Parent Practicum in West Chester

Details

Aug. 2-5, 2016 at Goshen Baptist Church, West Chester.

• Meet the community
• Learn the classical education model
• Shop the bookstore
• Practical helps
• Biblical insight
• Vision and encouragement for the future
• Always free!

email keri.armentrout@cru.org for more information

To Know God, and to Make Him Known

Unashamedly, our purpose! 

Read the recent post at ClassicalConversations.com

Structured for Families

After homeschooling solo for the first year, I knew I needed two things--structure and a plan. And my desire was for me to not have to invent that all by myself.

A friend invited me to a CC meeting, and I discovered that it had a well structured curriculum for 7 subjects, and yet it was the only one I had looked into that was designed to not only work easily for teaching multiple aged kids at the same time, but also having tremendous flexibility in how we expanded upon each topic.

Many of the other homeschool curriculums I had looked into had large box sets, lots of pre-reading for the teacher, too many pages to complete each day. I asked friends who used such sets, and they frequently talked about feeling "weighed down" by "trying to get it all done." And if they were schooling more than one child, that workload doubled.

This was not my style. I was more appealed by the Charlotte Mason homeschool style--reading good books aloud together, exploring nature together through outdoor play, etc. Yet I was firmly against the idea of "unschooling" in the sense of not having a plan and hoping that my kids learned to read and do math simply by taking them to the grocery store. 

Surely there was a balanced option somewhere?!

Yes, it is here with Classical Conversations! 

Each week there is a learning objective in each main subject; Here's the genius--It's the same basic objective for Pre-K-6th grade, and you, the parent, have full freedom how much you want to expand on each subject each week. 

For example, in Science, the weekly objective is to learn the 3 types of animal consumers: Carnivore, Herbivore, Omnivore. Your kindergartner can color a picture and simply know that a lion is a carnivore, a giraffe is a herbivore, and a bear is an omnivore. Your 3rd grader could make a collage of different animals in each category, while your 5th grader reads a chapter book and writes a 2 page report. 

Here's why this system is so functional and fruitful:

• You, as parent-teacher, don't have to read a textbook about animal consumers before you begin.
• You, as parent-teacher, don't have to create 24 science objectives on your own.
• You, as parent-teacher, can tailor your weekly projects to your children's learning needs and your personal teaching style. 
• CC Connected (our online community for sharing resources) has posts from other parents doing the same learning objectives--many of them have already created crafts, worksheets, journal ideas etc. for the weekly objectives and you can download for free. If you wanted to, you could even get together with friends from the community and do a science project together because everyone is working the same objective!
• Your 4 year old can study the same thing as your 10 year old and you'll have richer conversations as a family as you're all learning the same topic at the same time.
• CC provides a writing program for 4th-6th graders (it's called Essentials, and you can hear more about it in another post), and it lines up with the learning objectives in other subjects. So you, parent-teacher, don't have to go searching for upper-level challenges for your upper- elementary kid.
• You get to decide if you expand on the weekly objective at all. You can say, "You know what? The fact that my 6 year old knows what 3 types of animal consumers are is good enough. Science = done! We need to spend more time on math this week anyway!"

I can't possibly explain all the benefits to such a system in one blog post, so if you're left wondering more, please attend one of our info meetings.

Inspirational Academics

Classical Conversations Science Fair, 2014

When my daughter was 8, she wanted to participate in a Science Fair (and let me tell you that science isn't my forte). Her desire was sincere, (and I'm the "lead learner," right?) so I registered her at the last minute, and for two weeks, we studied sound waves together and assembled this elementary board.

I had no expectations when we arrived on the day of the science fair, but I should have. I should've known that anything coordinated by Classical Conversations would be stellar. This fair had kids of all ages from multiple campuses, and each child was truly remarkable.

We toured the displays of the Challenge program (7th-12th grade). I was blown away by these kids--they were articulate, creative, poised yet warm, knowledgeable and able to teach that knowledge, and most strikingly--confident yet humble. These were not the kids of homeschool stereotypes--there was nothing awkward about them. These were future leaders and world changers, and I was so excited for my little girl to look at them as role models.

She won 3rd prize in her age group, but the greatest prize of the day was the vision for the future. It IS possible to homeschool without compromising academics or socialization. In fact, both prove to be exceptional with this program!

I love the balance that Classical Conversations brings our family. It gives us a high quality, classical schooling approach while giving us the flexibility and time for the kids to be kids.