I could use some help

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  • CCCAT
    Junior Member
    • Feb 2019
    • 3

    I could use some help

    Hello
    I'm new to the forums, and possibly to Memoria Press. I need some insight though, and I am hoping someone here could guide me. Here is my situation. I have 5 kids, 10th grade down to being to young for school. Currently we do Classical Conversations. We've done it for four years. My oldest two are in their challenge levels and I will have three in challenge next year.

    I will be honest, these last four years have been incredibly frustrating for me, as I feel our life revolves around nothing but school. My oldest two are quite independent, and still have a hard time getting everything done. My kids have learned a lot, but I'm feeling stretched quite thin trying to cover everything for every different aged child.

    My question is, does any one have experience transferring from CC to Memoria Press? What levels of composition would you put a child who has done 4 years of Lost Tools of Writing Level 1? The Latin will transfer quite well, as they both use Henle, and CC uses MP logic.

    Does anyone use Memoria Press for multiple grades? Next year, the grades I will have are 11th, 10th 7th and 3rd. Is this even possible to do?
  • pickandgrin
    Senior Member
    • Jun 2012
    • 5407

    #2
    Welcome, CCCAT! Firstly, yes, there are many families who do multiple cores in their home. I commend to you the "Homeschooling with Multiple Cores" video from last year's Sodalitas Gathering (scroll down a few to see it): https://www.memoriapress.com/streami...l2R1-kbEotoU6A

    Next, it would be helpful to know what area youyou in (if you can share), to see it any cottage school or co-op resources for MP families already exist around you.

    Lastly, it's important to note that by high school Memoria Press students are not generally working out of one "core" box. Rather, parents are using the model put forward by Memoria Press to assemble a variety of available resources to create a robust high school plan. There are more resources available than can be sanely completed during the high school years (that's good news-variety). If you will look at a 9th grade package it will give you a good idea of the balance of time invested in different subjects. You will have to look at your state's graduation requirements and then back out what you can use from Memoria Press in what spot. For example, in my state I can count my oldest child's Cicero course as a government class.

    Since Classical Conversations delays Homer and Virgil until late High School, you may be able to do your oldest three students through 2 years of ancient Greece, Homer, ancient Rome, and Virgil together. The pattern for literature that we use at our cottage school is two novels, 1 Shakespeare, and one poetry book each year. Your two high school students could easily be combined into the same set of books for this. If you wanted to require deeper work from your 11th grader you could assign additional essays.

    Your third and seventh grader can go pretty easily into core packages with a few substitutions on cumulative subjects. For your high schoolers there are very good Online Academy options for accelerating through the Classical Composition program (www.memoriapressacademy.com). Mr. Piland can help with placement on that. That may also be a resource for math and science if help is needed there as well.

    Most importantly, you don't need to try and do everything a longtime MP student would do in high school. You can rest in the confidence that you can put together a very good and beautiful few years of high school to wrap up your oldest two and put your younger students on a more typical MP path. Everyone wins; it's not a contest.

    Ok, truly the last thing. Each summer Memoria Press hosts a homeschool teacher training in July. If you decide to take this plunge, I cannot tell you how helpful these few days would be for you. https://www.memoriapress.com/curricu...-registration/

    Yes, you could do this. There are loads of us here to help with practical advice and encouragement. High school should be years of flourishing and not of withering. I look forward to others' responses. Again, welcome and thanks for asking for questions.
    Festina lentē,
    Jessica P

    '23-'24 • 14th year HSing • 12th year MP
    DS Hillsdale '26, English Major/Classics Minor
    DD 12th • HLN, Latin online, DE, Hillsdale '28
    DD 9th • HLN, Latin online, & Home
    DS 6th • HLN & Home
    Me • Lukeion Latin 3 online

    Teaching Third Form Latin and co-directing @
    Highlands Latin Nashville Cottage School, est. 2016

    "Most people overestimate what they can accomplish in one year and underestimate what they can accomplish in five." -Mrs. Cheryl Lowe

    Comment

    • pickandgrin
      Senior Member
      • Jun 2012
      • 5407

      #3
      Hello! I wrote you a long post earlier, but it's under moderation because I edited it one too many times. Mea culpa. Standby...
      Festina lentē,
      Jessica P

      '23-'24 • 14th year HSing • 12th year MP
      DS Hillsdale '26, English Major/Classics Minor
      DD 12th • HLN, Latin online, DE, Hillsdale '28
      DD 9th • HLN, Latin online, & Home
      DS 6th • HLN & Home
      Me • Lukeion Latin 3 online

      Teaching Third Form Latin and co-directing @
      Highlands Latin Nashville Cottage School, est. 2016

      "Most people overestimate what they can accomplish in one year and underestimate what they can accomplish in five." -Mrs. Cheryl Lowe

      Comment

      • Michael
        Senior Member
        • Feb 2012
        • 2824

        #4
        Originally posted by pickandgrin
        Hello! I wrote you a long post earlier, but it's under moderation because I edited it one too many times. Mea culpa. Standby...
        Jessica, everything looks visible now and nothing is moderated. Whatever happened, you're good to go!

        P.S. Welcome CCCAT!

        Comment

        • Mom2mthj
          Senior Member
          • Apr 2014
          • 2094

          #5
          Originally posted by pickandgrin

          Lastly, it's important to note that by high school Memoria Press students are not generally working out of one "core" box. Rather, parents are using the model put forward by Memoria Press to assemble a variety of available resources to create a robust high school plan. There are more resources available than can be sanely completed during the high school years (that's good news-variety). If you will look at a 9th grade package it will give you a good idea of the balance of time invested in different subjects. You will have to look at your state's graduation requirements and then back out what you can use from Memoria Press in what spot. For example, in my state I can count my oldest child's Cicero course as a government class

          Your third and seventh grader can go pretty easily into core packages with a few substitutions on cumulative subjects. For your high schoolers there are very good Online Academy options for accelerating through the Classical Composition program (www.memoriapressacademy.com). Mr. Piland can help with placement on that. That may also be a resource for math and science if help is needed there as well.

          Yes, you could do this. There are loads of us here to help with practical advice and encouragement. High school should be years of flourishing and not of withering. I look forward to others' responses. Again, welcome and thanks for asking for questions.
          Jessica, Is your oldest doing Cicero independently or with your cottage school? Which books are you counting for government? So much cool stuff to learn, so little time....

          CCCAT, Welcome. I have never used Classical Conversations, but I can speak to being very happy with the online writing classes at MPOA. My oldest two have both taken composition and Latin through the online academy and have been very happy with the experience. I also have 4 kids from K-10th. It is a lot of work, but doable.
          Dorinda

          Plans for 2023-2024
          17th year homeschooling, 14th year with Memoria Press
          DD College Junior
          DS Senior - Lukeion Greek, AP Calculus and Physics with me, MA Medieval History and Tolkien/Lewis
          DS Sophomore - Vita Beata Aeneid, MA Short Story
          DS 5th grade - 5A with Right Start G, AAS 6

          Comment

          • pickandgrin
            Senior Member
            • Jun 2012
            • 5407

            #6
            Dorinda,
            At cottage school, thank goodness! We're doing Obligations, Laws, & Republic. Civics might be the actual designation for our state. I can't remember. I use an umbrella program and they are very good about getting the courses I want my son to take to satisfy the state requirements. Do you two use an umbrella, CCCAT and Dorinda?
            Festina lentē,
            Jessica P

            '23-'24 • 14th year HSing • 12th year MP
            DS Hillsdale '26, English Major/Classics Minor
            DD 12th • HLN, Latin online, DE, Hillsdale '28
            DD 9th • HLN, Latin online, & Home
            DS 6th • HLN & Home
            Me • Lukeion Latin 3 online

            Teaching Third Form Latin and co-directing @
            Highlands Latin Nashville Cottage School, est. 2016

            "Most people overestimate what they can accomplish in one year and underestimate what they can accomplish in five." -Mrs. Cheryl Lowe

            Comment

            • Mom2mthj
              Senior Member
              • Apr 2014
              • 2094

              #7
              We do not use an umbrella as Michigan has no real rules. Public school kids take a semester of government so I figured she should as well.
              Dorinda

              Plans for 2023-2024
              17th year homeschooling, 14th year with Memoria Press
              DD College Junior
              DS Senior - Lukeion Greek, AP Calculus and Physics with me, MA Medieval History and Tolkien/Lewis
              DS Sophomore - Vita Beata Aeneid, MA Short Story
              DS 5th grade - 5A with Right Start G, AAS 6

              Comment

              • CCCAT
                Junior Member
                • Feb 2019
                • 3

                #8
                Hello again. Sorry for the delay. Life keeps happening haha

                We do not have a Highland school anywhere in our state sadly, however I think I've worked out a plan. My 10th grader will do Henle 2 (hopefully online), history of the Early Church, Composition III, Material Logic (this will be his third year doing logic), the Osestein trilogy, the concise history of the American republic vol 1 and the 9th grade lit with my 9th grade student. We have a wonderful outlet for science classes locally, so I think we will send the older three there for science, as it can then be more hands on.
                My 9th grader is doing all the 9th grade core, except for Latin. She is currently working on on first form, so second form makes the most sense.

                I do have a few more questions. How easy is it to change the daily plans to match the changes I'm having to make (my 6th grader needs help in Language so I'm dropping her down to 1 in that) and also, how many hours do your children do school in high school? Just in general? Thanks again so much for all your help!

                Comment

                • Michael
                  Senior Member
                  • Feb 2012
                  • 2824

                  #9
                  Originally posted by CCCAT
                  I do have a few more questions. How easy is it to change the daily plans to match the changes I'm having to make (my 6th grader needs help in Language so I'm dropping her down to 1 in that) and also, how many hours do your children do school in high school? Just in general? Thanks again so much for all your help!
                  Good afternoon,

                  Whenever you swap a subject within a package, we give you a free download of the lesson plans for the swapped subject. You can then refer to these separate plans via opening the PDF or printing them off, or you could copy the plans onto blank labels and then stick those labels over the default plans in the curriculum manual.

                  I'm sure other moms on here will chime in soon with how many hours per day/week their high-school students spend on schoolwork. I believe a safe estimate would be 4-6 hours per day depending on the number and difficulty of the student's subjects.

                  HTH!

                  Comment

                  • CatherineS
                    Senior Member
                    • May 2016
                    • 449

                    #10
                    Originally posted by CCCAT
                    Hello again. Sorry for the delay. Life keeps happening haha

                    We do not have a Highland school anywhere in our state sadly, however I think I've worked out a plan. My 10th grader will do Henle 2 (hopefully online), history of the Early Church, Composition III, Material Logic (this will be his third year doing logic), the Osestein trilogy, the concise history of the American republic vol 1 and the 9th grade lit with my 9th grade student. We have a wonderful outlet for science classes locally, so I think we will send the older three there for science, as it can then be more hands on.
                    My 9th grader is doing all the 9th grade core, except for Latin. She is currently working on on first form, so second form makes the most sense.

                    I do have a few more questions. How easy is it to change the daily plans to match the changes I'm having to make (my 6th grader needs help in Language so I'm dropping her down to 1 in that) and also, how many hours do your children do school in high school? Just in general? Thanks again so much for all your help!
                    Hi CCCAT

                    I have a 9th grader. Four days a week, he does a typical school day, around 8am-3:30pm with breaks for exercise and lunch. On the 5th day he takes a couple outside classes and spends an hour or so studying. He also spends one evening a week doing some studying for the outside classes. He has some special needs that require that structure, but I think around 6 hours a day with one possibly lighter day is probably typical for most high schoolers.
                    Catherine

                    2022-23
                    14th year homeschooling
                    7th year with MP

                    DS19, college freshman
                    DS16, 10th
                    DS & DD14, 9th
                    DS10, 4th
                    DD7, 2nd
                    DS4, JrK
                    DS & DS, 1yr old

                    Comment

                    • KF2000
                      Senior Member
                      • Dec 2012
                      • 4234

                      #11
                      Have to agree on the six hours a day.

                      Figure at least an hour for Math, and another for Latin. Then you still have Literature, which will vary by how fast of a reader and/or writer you have - but that can be up to another 45 min to an hour, or as short as a half hour, depending on the day. Then you have history, which is dense reading, and classical studies - I.e. more reading! - and then science and composition. Yep, close to six is definitely safe.

                      AMDG,
                      Sarah
                      2020-2021
                      16th Year HSing; 10th Year with MP
                      DD, 19, Homeschool grad; college sophomore
                      DS, 17
                      DD, 15
                      DD, 13
                      DD, 11
                      DD, 9
                      DD, 7
                      +DS+
                      DS, 2

                      Comment

                      • pickandgrin
                        Senior Member
                        • Jun 2012
                        • 5407

                        #12
                        I agree on up to six hours. Ours varies for days with essays to write, or classes online or at tutorial.
                        Festina lentē,
                        Jessica P

                        '23-'24 • 14th year HSing • 12th year MP
                        DS Hillsdale '26, English Major/Classics Minor
                        DD 12th • HLN, Latin online, DE, Hillsdale '28
                        DD 9th • HLN, Latin online, & Home
                        DS 6th • HLN & Home
                        Me • Lukeion Latin 3 online

                        Teaching Third Form Latin and co-directing @
                        Highlands Latin Nashville Cottage School, est. 2016

                        "Most people overestimate what they can accomplish in one year and underestimate what they can accomplish in five." -Mrs. Cheryl Lowe

                        Comment

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