Classical Conversations

The search began in the spring for a homeschool group or co-op to join for the coming fall. My church hosts one, but it meets in the afternoon. The afternoon is not my preference due to my morning napper, but I thought I would go to a meeting before deciding.

Before trying the group at church, I learned about a new group coming to my area in the fall, Classical Conversations. I had never heard of this group, but have always been attracted to the principles of a Classical Education, so I went to the informational meeting.

I loved it. Everything about the group suited me perfectly!

1. AM meetings. The group would meet in the AM, one morning a week for the younger grades.

2. Kindergarten. This was the first classical education group I found that began in Kindergarten. In fact, they began with K4, so T could join in too!

3. Diverse. The group was amazingly diverse! Yes, they were diverse in ethnicity, but they were also diverse in their curriculum choices and their implementation of the classical model. I was particularly excited about this. These women pulled from a variety of rescources, NOT just classical, to enhance their child's education. I was excited about the idea of a classical education framework, yet a diverse set of moms implementing it!

4. Mom's in charge. This group doesn't assign required homework or assignments. They introduce a "framework" of memory work each week. As the mom, you can determine how to implement the learning in your own home. You can do a lot with the memory work, or very little. The fine arts and sciences would be covered each week by the tutor, which was a nice bonus.

I came home SO excited, but we had to pause. The money was a bit more than we had planned and we weren't sure.

I visited the group at my church and it was also a GREAT group. But my husband could certainly tell that I didn't come home with the same enthusiasm. I knew we'd have a great time, but I still felt the Classical Conversations group was the right "fit" for us.

After some thought and prayer, we signed up, feeling that it was the right direction for our family. We knew we could cut back in some other areas and trust God's leading on this one.

A few days after registering, a thought occured to me: What about signing up as a tutor for CC? I wonder what that involves...

More on that next post...