It's Monday...

and in our house Monday means Classical Conversations.  We're part of a Classical Conversations community that meets once a week and works on memory work, science projects, public speaking and Bible together.

Classical Conversations is a place where the parents are still the final teachers and the classical model of education is presented in a way to empower and equip parents to go home and continue giving their children the tools to learn for a lifetime because we believe that the purpose of education is to know God and make Him known.

I read on another blog today that the back of the t-shirts their children wear on field trips reads “Non shcolae sed vitea discimus.” We learn not for school, but for life.   I LOVE that!!!  (oh, did I mention that my 4 year old knows about five different latin verb tenses?  I'm a big fan of latin.)

So, what's a typical CC (Classical Conversations) class day look like?

We arrive a little before 9 and drop the littles off in the nursery (children must be at least 4 to be part of a CC classroom.)  However my almost 3 year old wanted to stay with us today and I must say he did quite well in class!

At 9 we kick things off with our scripture memory work.  This year we're memorizing Ephesians 6:1-24 (one verse a week for 24 weeks.)
Then one family does a presentation on anything they want, from a family vacation, to pets, to favorite books, and then prays for us before we head for the classroom.

Once we're in our classroom we start with new grammar (and by grammar, I mean the foundational information we're learning about 6 different subjects including english grammar.)
Our subjects are
math
science
english grammar
geography
history
latin

and we also go over our timeline cards at this point.

Once all our new grammar is complete we have a small break for snack and potty time.  Then we start in with our public speaking.  We go over a new public speaking "rule" each week to try and work on (such at articulation, the 3 second rule, gestures, etc) and then each child gives a short presentation on an assigned subject (next week they're supposed to bring and talk about their favorite stuffed animal.)

Next up are science and either music or art.  And at the very end we play some sort of review game to help them remember everything we're learning.

Finally...and I'm sure this is the kids favorite part!...we all eat lunch together and then the kids run around and scream like the crazy people they really are.

Sorry this was such a long post with no pictures to break up the monotony, but hopefully I'll have a few videos in the future to help you get a better visual of the things we're learning!  :)  Props if you made it this far!!!