seven weeks in: our experience with classical conversations.

We’ve been in school for seven weeks so I figure now is as good a time as any to write about our first “real” homeschooling experience. This post will be mainly about Classical Conversations, and I’ll write later about the rest of our week and our daily school schedule. I apologize in advance for another lengthy post — it’s for those you of who’ve been asking for the full scoop.

Can I just say this first of all?

I love homeschooling so far. I mean, I love it.

I feel like after all the research and the questions, all the anxiety about school in general, we’ve actually settled down and found our place. And life is going on. And I’m at peace. More than at peace — I’m happy!

So, Classical Conversations.

I don’t want to go into a lot of detail here about what the classical model of education is or even the details of what we do with Classical Conversations (CC). Here’s a good article if you want to know more.

I know that some of you are even now researching homeschooling methods and curriculum and asking the question, “Is this for me?” So I’ll say to you what a hundred people told me last year (and which I largely ignored): There is a ton of information out there and it is overwhelming. Very overwhelming. You just need to choose something to the best of your ability and be at peace and not worry about what you’re missing out on.

I’m no expert certainly but I have done a large amount of research and reading, and I tell you what I refused to believe a year ago: There is no one right way to educate children. There just isn’t. Wouldn’t life be boring if homeschooling was for everyone or public school was for everyone or private school was for everyone or Governor’s School was for everyone?

So let go of the need to find the perfect homeschooling curriculum. Don’t worry about finding “the best.” Just ask people you trust for their recommendations, browse websites that catch your eye, and in the end go with your heart (and in many cases your wallet because that stuff can get expensive). If you don’t, you’ll lose all of the joy that comes from the experience.

Classical education wasn’t my first choice for my kids: based on my research, the Charlotte Mason model was. But I was sitting in a seminar at a homeschooling convention (yep, I went to one of those), and a lady stood on stage and said, “This isn’t all about you. You may find the perfect curriculum or the one method that you love, but if it doesn’t fit who your kids are and who your family is, it will be a constant source of struggle and tension. And that’s opposite of the kind of environment that homeschooling is meant to create.”

I knew right then that the educational model I preferred wasn’t going to work for my kids. They need more structure than that. Now, a few weeks in, I can see clearly that I need more structure than that. And interestingly enough, a couple years ago when David read about the classical education model he was hooked, so thus far it’s a win-win for all of us.

Enter Classical Conversations.  As far as homeschooling curriculums go I’d say it strikes a great balance between structure and freedom. With CC there is a plan, there is material provided every week that your kids are required to learn — in fact, there’s a whole course of material for them to learn from K-12. But in the early years the way you learn it and the depth you choose to go with it is up to you.

I like that. Sonlight was a little too structured for me. And the Charlotte Mason curriculums I looked into weren’t structured enough. But this feels like the perfect balance.

I’ve realized that I’m one hundred percent a big picture person; therefore I need to know that there’s a plan for next year, and the year after that, should we choose to keep homeschooling. I like research, but I don’t want to sit down every summer and try to answer the question, “What should we study next year?”

I think there are five or so CC locations in the Columbia area, and while there’s one closer to where we live, we chose ours because it’s the location we visited and we loved the people we met that very first day. I’m not good at estimating but I’d say there are 50-75 kids in K4-middle school at our campus.

As for how Judah and Amie are doing, really in the past couple weeks I’ve really seen them settle into Monday mornings at “school” and know what to expect. At first they were in separate classes (of 8-10 kids each), but Amie was struggling week after week with missing me, so Judah’s teacher (called a tutor) offered for her to join his class. That’s another thing I love about our CC group — people care about the kids as individuals and cheer them on, rather than act like there’s one mold everyone should fit. So Amie got to switch classes, and even though she gets bored and tired some weeks, she’s much happier.

I love that my kids have a weekly classroom experience: are learning to listen to instructions from someone other than me, walk in a line, be quiet in the hall, take turns, etc., etc. I love the positive peer pressure that comes from looking around the room and seeing other kids their age who are learning the exact same things, from wanting to guess the right answer when they’re called on. I even love when they’re corrected by people other than me (why do they always respond so much better?).

The kids are learning an incredible amount already, because I believe the method really works. They have weekly presentations in front of their class which as you can imagine is positively heart-melting with a group of five-and-six-year-olds. Both of them love this part of the morning, mostly because they usually get to give their presentations about a favorite toy.

I believe our very favorite part of our co-op though is the community we’ve found. To be honest, I didn’t join for the friendships. I have a lot of friends in Columbia. I’m pretty busy. And my cousin Liz started this year as well so I knew I’d get to see her and our kids would get to play together (Eliana is in the photo above with Amie). So beyond that I thought, “This co-op is just for accountability and for Judah and Amie to have a weekly classroom experience.”

But in seven short weeks I’ve begun to make such sweet friends. I can’t speak highly enough of our CC campus, how welcoming and friendly and eager to help everyone is, how there’s a spirit of encouragement rather than competition that leaves me feeling refreshed and energized every single Monday afternoon.

Our campus meets at a church, and we have the option of bringing our lunch on Mondays. After school we all eat outside at picnic tables, then the kids play together on a huge playground for a couple of hours and the moms sit and chat. That is our favorite part of Mondays. I love watching Judah and Amie make new friends, interact with kids of all different ages, and just have time to roam outside. And I love the built-in time for me to have grown-up talk with other women. We rarely even talk about homeschooling: just about life and food and motherhood.

So while, like anything else, Classical Conversations isn’t perfect and while I’d love to borrow ideas from Charlotte Mason and Sonlight from time to time (nature study! literature-based learning!), I’m very happy with the choice we’ve made.