Where, oh where has the time gone, and when did this little girl get so big? Though we’ve been doing school at home for several weeks now, we officially started our homeschool group Classical Conversations Monday. Leah was so excited—she had so many questions leading up to the big day about what school would be like. Her class had 8 four-and-five-year-olds in it. Andrew & Abigail went to the nursery, where I was later told they were some of the easiest kids in there—Andrew found a train to play with when we first walked in and didn’t even tell me goodbye. Abigail was giggling when I picked her up, so I was happy to know that I could easily focus on Leah & what she was learning for the few hours we were there.
The first thing they did (after a short whole-group assembly for announcements & the Pledge) was a couple quick, easy science experiments. Then they came inside and did new grammar. Each week they learn a short sentence or “list” from 7 different subjects: geography (this week was the 7 continents, and they spent some time identifying them on a big map), history & timeline events (they go through a timeline of something like 170 events from history each year—they memorize the event & a short sentence about what happened), Latin, math (skip counting), English grammar (the 8 parts of speech this week), and science (this year is ecology & astronomy).
I was really worried that she would never be able to memorize so much. However, it is amazing what they can learn at that age, plus, there are songs for everything. Leah learns very well through music and is already singing some of the songs she learned. They did little games for each subject—for example, here they used a fly swatter to hit the numbers as they called them out as a group. So by the time each of the kids had a turn, they’d said them 8 times. The tutor is also very lenient with them at this age, and I don’t think they’re expected to be able to say every fact from memory on their own—she helped them quite a bit with everything.
After new grammar, they got a snack and did presentations. Usually this will be like show and tell. This week the tutor just asked a few quick questions to help them get comfortable standing in front of the class. Leah had no problem with this and in fact seemed to be the least shy out of the whole class. She is a little chatterbox and not afraid to speak up during class. She also gets very upset if she doesn’t get a turn to do something as quickly as she wants—which is why doing a class like this will be great for her.
They also did a short art lesson—this week was drawing different shapes, and then they reviewed again. They were up and moving almost the whole class—no worksheets or sitting still long amounts of time. Afterward, we have a picnic lunch with all the classes together (goes up to 6th grade). Leah said she had a lot of fun and I think she is looking forward to going back again!
Later in the day Monday she had her first dance class of the year. She’s going to the same studio she went to last year, and I think she even has the same teacher and many of the same classmates, so it wasn’t really a new adventure, but it was still a first, and made for a long, busy day.
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