MP with Classical Conversations

[sabrina_cody]

Has anyone out there ever done MP Complete Curriculum while doing CC? It will be our first year next year @ CC & I'm looking into the Kindergarten Curriculum. I'm wondering if it will be too much, and if the MP stuff at all complements the CC stuff?

[Kami]

We did CC for a couple of years independently. When we discovered MP we switched over. My children continued with some the CC History questions, just because they enjoy the songs and like rattling off the answers. Other than than we haven't really overlapped much. Here's a couple of my thoughts, for what it's worth.

I would only do one of recitation work (MP or CC), rather than trying to implement both. At any rate you will need the phonics and math work that MP provides (unless CC offers that now) and it's all planned out for you in those wonderful Curriculum Guides that they have. CC has added a couple of items since we used it just a year or two ago and when we were doing CC they didn't have the phonics and they recommended Saxon (which I didn't want to use at the time).

The more into the MP curriculum we are getting the more I am seeing an overlap, though not necessarily in the same order. CC wasn't available in our area, which was one deciding factor in our switching over. Another factor was that CC was too difficult to implement independently (without being a part of a CC Community). Eventually, you will want to go with one or the other, but I think you could swing MP Kinder while participating in a CC Community.

Hope that helps.

Blessings!
Kami

[sabrina_cody]

bump -- anyone else?

[The Autumn Oak]

I have never done it...It sounds like too much to me unless you cut out some of MP work...I think Kami gave great input, and I agree with her...

[Kami]

Another thought...

Hey Sabrina,

I was thinking about this again, after seeing it had bumped up today. If your oldest is in Kinder next year, I'm not sure that you really need to do both programs. That being said, if it were me choosing between the two for a Kinder child I would opt for Memoria for the following reasons:

1. Cost - When I was looking into CC, the materials were very reasonably priced, but the tuition for the CC Community pushed the program into another price range.
2. Order/Organization - MP has the daily lesson plans that CC did not offer at that grade level. I go through the lesson plans and write in the date on each week, so I can always know if I'm behind, ahead, or right where I want to be.
3. Academic Socialization - I'm not convinced that Kindergartners need to participate in a classroom setting. Teach them the basics and take some nature walks and go to the park. Get together with some family friends every once in awhile and PLAY.

Kami

[sabrina_cody]

I actually already enrolled in a CC community, so we're definately doing that at least this year. And I already bought the MP K Teacher's Manual (used, so it was cheaper), so really I guess at this point I HAVE to make it work. I will probably just use the Language Arts & the Enrichment part of MP and use CC just for the memory work & a base for science & history.

[ksullivan87]

We are planning CC this year too

Hey Sabrina!
We are planning to do both this year for my second grader. At this point my plan is to do the CC memory work but also to look through the MP recitation. Since we are spending a great deal of time on CC(possibly even tutoring to help pay tuition) it makes sense to use it as our base and then add in anything from MP that is missing. So far some of it from the 2nd grade recitation does overlap with the CC memory work such as the continents, some of the grammar rules, science facts, etc.
Like you I had already signed up for CC when I found MP. I am super excited to being doing both next year. For me, CC will be a huge help on the history end where I am the weakest. Even if we choose to do it only next year, the overview of the history timeline will do me a world of good even if my kids don't get it all.
Keep in mind that the memory work is only a portion of CC too. You have the presentations each week, the science projects, geography and not to mention the time with other homeschooling families. Even if you chose not to do the CC memory work and focus on MP recitation instead there are still many benefits to being part of a CC community. This is coming from someone in her 3rd year of homeschooling with little outside support besides my amazing husband. The community aspect alone is worth it for me.
Hope you are encouraged! I wish I had found MP and a CC community when my daughter was in K. It sounds like you have a great year planned!
Katie

[Raichel]

How did your year go?

Hi, I was searching for information on doing CC and MP together and stumbled upon your post. I was just wondering how your year went. I am in the same boat as you are. I have a DD in 2nd grade next year and thinking of doing tuition to cover the cost. Please advise me. Thank you.

Raichel

Hey Sabrina!
We are planning to do both this year for my second grader. At this point my plan is to do the CC memory work but also to look through the MP recitation. Since we are spending a great deal of time on CC(possibly even tutoring to help pay tuition) it makes sense to use it as our base and then add in anything from MP that is missing. So far some of it from the 2nd grade recitation does overlap with the CC memory work such as the continents, some of the grammar rules, science facts, etc.
Like you I had already signed up for CC when I found MP. I am super excited to being doing both next year. For me, CC will be a huge help on the history end where I am the weakest. Even if we choose to do it only next year, the overview of the history timeline will do me a world of good even if my kids don't get it all.
Keep in mind that the memory work is only a portion of CC too. You have the presentations each week, the science projects, geography and not to mention the time with other homeschooling families. Even if you chose not to do the CC memory work and focus on MP recitation instead there are still many benefits to being part of a CC community. This is coming from someone in her 3rd year of homeschooling with little outside support besides my amazing husband. The community aspect alone is worth it for me.
Hope you are encouraged! I wish I had found MP and a CC community when my daughter was in K. It sounds like you have a great year planned!
Katie

[ksullivan87]

Hi Raichel!

We had a wonderful year! CC was a perfect fit for us and everything we used from MP (Latin, literature, phonics, copy work and handwriting) correlated very well. My daughter loved learning English grammar and Latin at CC, especially when she saw it again in Prima Latina. We are planning to do it again this year with third grade. We won't do everything in third grade plans but we'll use a lot of it. I love having it already planned out! I found it very easy to condense 2 days together in the 2nd grade lesson plans to make up for our CC day. I hope that helps!

~Katie

[Raichel]

Thank you Katie. Did u tutor as well? How did that go for you? How much preparation/ time is needed during the week to tutor?

[ksullivan87]

Thank you Katie. Did u tutor as well? How did that go for you? How much preparation/ time is needed during the week to tutor?

I really enjoyed tutoring by the end of the year. It was a bit of a learning curve since I was new to CC. My time was also spread very thin with starting a new curriculum.... And I added in my son with Kindergarten. Ideally you should only be spending 1-2 hours in prep for tutoring because you are only introducing basic concepts and new grammar, not teaching. At the beginning I was spending more like 2-3 because my brain was learning to memorize information again and also some of the fine arts was new to me. Your tutor meeting should help with that and understanding the science experiments, but you do have to review that each week. A great director will go a long way in helping you in that area! Just be sure before you leave that meeting you ask all your questions and don't be shy because that is the point of that meeting.

Next year I will be directing our community because our director is moving. If I would have tutored again it would have A LOT easier because I already know the timeline and math which never changes in the grammar. And my brain has been trained to retain again. I am thankful I had that experience though as I have a couple of new to CC tutors and I know how to help them this first year. What I am telling them is to work toward learning the first half of timeline and the first 6 weeks of history sentences over the summer. Last summer I only worked on the timeline and I found myself taking too long to learn the history sentence each week. During summer tutor training you work on the first six weeks of grammar as a group so between the training and listening ahead your first six weeks should go smoother. Also they will be looking over the experiments before they come to our tutor meeting so that they are ready to talk about it and work through questions.

It can be done your first year! I would pray about it. Though the pay usually does cover tuition for about 2 kids- depends on the size of your campus, it's not something you do for the money, but more as a ministry to the moms and students in your class.

Let me know if you have any other questions!
Katie

[Raichel]

Thank you Katie for explaining everything. I think I will just focus on MP this year and will think about CC maybe next year.

[thenightbeforechristmas]

First & Last Days of School

For those of you who have done Memoria Press and Classical Conversations, what was your first day and last day of school?

I am trying to get a sense of how long a homeschool year would be doing Memoria Press and Classical Conversations as well as accounting for sickness, holidays and travel.

Any more tips on how to do both well would be great! We need Classical Conversations for the social/community aspect as well as our daughter learning how to follow academic instruction from someone other than mom.

Thanks!

[pickandgrin]

Depending on which MP core you are using there is usually 33 or 34 weeks scheduled. Others can speak to CC...
We have to do 180 days in TN so I count days for three additional weeks--usually the last week of school after curriculum is done and a week "off curriculum" both in the fall and spring in which we do lots of fun learning things...hikes, travel, museums, etc.