Classical Conversations Essentials transition to Memoria Press

[Rachael]

Hi Everyone, this is my first year homeschooling my almost 10 year old daughter. (She will be 10 in a week.) She is supposed to be in 4th grade but her teachers at public school told me she was behind in reading and math so I decided to hold her back a year. When we started our year I got the MP 3rd grade package with Prima Latin since she had never had Latin before. The first 2 months were torture trying to teach her, she couldn't handle the amount of reading or writing, it was like she completely forgot all the math she ever learned. So I put a pause on using Memoria so that I could try to catch her up to where the curriculum was at. I then spent a month using other programs trying to help her remember her how to do addition and subtraction, her math facts, and her phonics. She complained that all of that was too easy. So I thought that maybe she just needed to be around other kids to be motivated. So I put her in Classical Conversations Foundations and Essentials. She loves being around friends. She is doing well with it but I still feel like Memoria is a better fit for our family and how I'd like to educate her. So I have started to add parts of Memoria's curriculum back into our day. She is doing much better than she did at first. (I now think that at first she was forgetting everything simply from having not done anything all summer.)

Next year I want to exclusively use Memoria Press, but I am curious how different it will be for her coming from Essentials. I want the best for all my children and I really feel like that is Memoria Press but I am feeling really lost on how to implement it when you didn't start from the very beginning with Memoria. I would appreciate any advice anyone can offer.

[tanya]

Hello.

The main difference between CC and MP is the rigor of our work. Whereas CC is memorizing the same Latin grammar forms that MP students are memorizing, we put an actual written curriculum alongside that. We sell a lot of books to CC families who want that extra background and reinforcement for what their students are memorizing in CC, so I think making the switch will not be difficult, especially since you are already using some MP. It sounds like your daughter may be ready for Prima Latina, Greek Myths, Christian Studies, etc. You did a good job backing up to meet her where she was and giving her the foundation she needed before moving forward.

Tanya