What is Classical Conversations?

From first to seventh grade, I participated in Classical Conversations (CC). CC is a classical, Christian organization that aims to aid parents in their homeschool journey. CC covers preK-12th grade and has some dual enrollment options.  

How does it operate?  

CC consists of local communities around the globe. Each community has a director and tutors who are trained by Classical Conversations. The number of tutors varies between communities and depends on the number of students enrolled. Each community meets once per week for either 24 or 30 weeks depending on the level. There are three programs within CC: Foundations, Essentials, and Challenge. Foundations covers preK-6th grade and Essentials is an extra program for 4th-6th grade. Challenge has 6 levels: A, B, I, II, III, and IV, corresponding to grade levels (7th– 12th grade).  

Foundations 

Foundations meets for 24 weeks, once per week. In Foundations students focus on memory work. There are seven subjects: Timeline, History, Latin, English, Math, Science, and Geography. There are also three cycles: Ancient, Medieval, and Modern that focus on different times in history. Each cycle lasts for the whole year and moves to the next chronological cycle in the next year. Every CC community is on the same cycle each year.  

• Timeline: Over the course of the year, students memorize 161 historical events. Each week, there are seven cards to memorize, and each week immediately follows the last. There is one song that goes through all 161 cards that students learn. The timeline is the same each cycle.  

• History: Students memorize 24 history sentences. History sentences are short blurbs about different historical events, corresponding to the current cycle. Each sentence is set to a song that students use to aid in memorization.  

• Latin: Cycle 1 Latin has students memorize six tenses of Latin 1st conjugation verbs. Since there are only six, students have two weeks each semester to learn them. In cycle 2, students memorize 5 Latin declensions and the noun cases, again learning each for two weeks each semester. Cycle 3 memorizes John 1:1-7 in Latin and English, as well as all the words used in the passage.  

• English: English memory work consists of English grammar rules. Students learn one rule per week.  

• Math: Math is the same through all three cycles. Students learn to skip count through the 15s, as well as memorize the perfect squares and cubes through 15. After this is finished, students learn the rules for area and conversions.  

• Science: Throughout the three cycles, students memorize a variety of scientific laws and facts. Some examples are the first twelve elements in the periodic table, the laws of thermodynamics, and the parts of the respiratory system.  

• Geography: In geography, students use a map from CC and learn to find and name locations on a black-and-white outline. Each cycle focuses on different areas. In cycles 1 and 2, students learn world geography, while in cycle 3 students memorize all the states and capitals.  

Essentials 

Essentials is an afternoon program for 4th –6th-grade students. It consists of learning English grammar, playing math games, and writing using the Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) curriculum. The English grammar portion is CC’s own curriculum which teaches students to do sentence confirmation and diagramming. Math games reinforce the times tables learned in Foundations and aim to help students be able to quickly recall and apply them. IEW walks students through essay writing, and CC uses the history-based curriculum to go along with the current cycle. Each Essentials year culminates in Faces of History where students choose a historical character to research. They write a five-paragraph paper about that character and dress up as that person at the end of the year, giving a presentation about their topic to family and friends in the community.  

Dressed up for Faces of History

Challenge 

As previously mentioned, Challenge has six levels for middle and high schoolers. Challenge has six strands: Logic (Math), Reasoning, Grammar (Latin), Research (Science), Exposition, and Debate. Challenge runs for thirty weeks, and each level has its own focus. In seventh grade (Challenge A) the big event is Science Fair. Challenge B has mock trial. Challenge 1 has different debates, Challenge 2 has Protocol, Challenge 3’s title is Poetry Café, and Challenge 4 is entitled Senior Thesis. The Challenge program also offers the opportunity to earn college credit through CC Plus.  

Science Fair in Challenge A

My family and I participated in Classical Conversations for seven years, and it was a great experience. CC opened the opportunity to meet other classically homeschooled families around us and make friends who had chosen the same journey we had. Although I no longer participate in CC, the material I memorized when I was younger still helps me today, and I enjoyed the years I spent in the program.