Once a week, our Classical Conversations Community comes together for Community Day. We look forward to Community Day! Here is what a typical Community Day looks like.

Opening Assembly

Opening assembly begins a little after 9:00. We have Morning Announcements and then a family gives a presentation. The whole family (or all members present) go to the stage and share a little bit about their family. Then, the family leads everyone in the Pledge of Allegiance and the Pledge to the Bible. After that, two children are usually called up to compete on some Memory Work. Our director asks them a question and whoever knows the answer gets to take a toy robot home for the week! This week the director also had the oldest class come up to sing the Bible Memory work. Morning Assembly is 15-20 minutes long and then we are all dismissed to our classes.

I alternate which class I attend each week since the girls are in separate classes. This is something I love about CC. Parents are involved. This is not a drop-off program. Parents are in class with their Foundations students and the tutor of the class teaches the students and the parents. The parents can then go home and continue teaching the material to their children throughout the week. I will share how I do this in a later post.

Presentations

This week was Week 8 (of 24) and I was in Little Bug’s class. Tutors structure their classes how they wish, but all of these components are in every Foundations class each week. We began with Presentations. Each student comes to class prepared to speak about something for 2-3 minutes. In these younger classes, it is very much like “Show and Tell”, but these children are learning Public Speaking skills beginning at 4 years old! What a valuable skill to possess, even as a child!

New Memory Work

After Presentations, we moved right in to learning the new Memory Work for the week. This includes Memory Work for the Timeline, History, Science, Geography, English, Math and Latin. The Memory Work can seem overwhelming at first, but I have been floored with how much my girls are actually memorizing (especially Little Bug as she is 6 years old and even Sweet Pea at 4 years old has learned more than I expected). Put to songs, hand motions and chants, the Memory Work sticks in their little minds more than I ever thought possible!

This is Week 8’s Memory Work.

Timeline: Council of Nicea, Augustine of Hippo, Jerome Completes the Vulgate, Visigoths Sack Rome, The Middle Ages, Council of Chalcedon, Western Roman Empire Falls to Barbarians

History Sentence: Tell me about the Age of Imperialism. During the Age of Imperialism, the British established rule over India in 1858, and Queen Victoria was declared the Empress of India in 1877. Before his assassination in 1948, Mohandas Gandhi led the passive resistance movement, which helped win India’s independence.

Geography: China: Huang He River (Yellow), Chang Jiang River (Long), An-Yang

Math: 14s (up to 14x14): 14, 28, 42, 56, 70, 84, 98,112, 126,140, 154, 168, 182, 196

English: Prepositions: of, off, on, onto, out

Science: What are some types of seed plants? Monocot, Dicot, Conifer

Latin: Noun Endings 3rd Declension (not typing all that out!)

During Geography, watching these little children navigate a map is so beautiful! This is a lost skill among children today, but not if you are a CC kid!

Snack Time

After the new Memory Work is introduced, it is snack time!

Art/Music

The first 6 weeks of CC the children learned basic art skills for drawing. Now they are learning basic music skills using a tin whistle!

Science Experiment

There is a science experiment each week. This week they got to dissect owl pellets!

Review Games

The last 15 minutes or so of class is devoted to Review Games so the children can review past Memory Work.

Lunch

After class lets out at noon, the community gathers for lunch. The moms get to talk and the children get to play together for about an hour!

The Community Day is structured in an excellent way. The children are always engaged, the activities are varied and the 3 hours goes by so quickly! Our CC Community Day counts as school for that day. We don’t do any of our structured learning on CC day. It is a nice break in the normal routines!

- Elaine