Classical Conversations with a good local community. You have to be 4 to enroll in Foundations. The CC program was developed by Leigh Bortins, an engineer, so it has a system level design feel and will take you from kindergarten to college credit. It’s been incredible for us.
Discussion
Thanks! We have some cousin’s kids that are using Classical Conversations and I didn’t really like (or maybe understand) the amount of just rote memorization! However, I talked to another family who said that when they traveled to Boston to learn about Revolutionary War, it was amazing to see the memorization work as the kids started connecting everything that they had memorized. He said it was really cool to see.
So if we go that route, we’d probably do the memorization but also try to incorporate it into life experiences early on too.
We are going to a convention on homeschooling in May to hopefully learn more about all of this
At first, I didn’t understand it either. A Foundations classroom with 8 students chanting/singing/repeating 7 strands of grammar 7 times didn’t look like learning to me when mine were 4 years old. However, now that we’ve put in the time and the proof of work, I see how the Foundations program builds a foundation (get it?) for the Essentials program, which prepares them for the Challenge program. Classical Christian education is totally the best option for our family.
Think of our brains as hardware and classical ed being the best software OS you can install on it. I didn’t think about it at first, but when we homeschool our kids classically, we can educate our families two generations at a time. Many parent teachers in the CC program wish we would have been classically educated, rather than put on the modern education conveyor belt.
Enjoy the convention in May! Gather as much information about as many options as you and your wife can, and then make the best decision for your family! Oh, and always remember different seasons of life may require different approaches for your family, but that’s a one reason we homeschool: for the flexibility.