If you've been around the blog long, you'll know that I like to be prepared. So while some of my Classical Conversations mom friends don't really worry about preparing their children for Essentials until the time comes (which seems to work for them), I'm concerned with how I can best set-up my child for success in the program. If you're the chill type, carry on! If you're like me, you'll want to keep reading to find out how you can set up an "Essentials, Jr." class in your own home. But first...

What is Essentials?

Essentials is the Classical Conversations program intended for children around grades 4-6. The children do Foundations in the morning as they have done in previous years, but now they stick around after lunch/fellowship time to do some dialectic work in the afternoon.

Essentials classes meet from 1:00-3:00 PM. As always in CC, the "teacher" figure is actually called the "tutor." The students' moms (or dads!) are their true teachers and have the final say in educational matters. In my class, we work on English grammar for the first 45 minutes, using CC's Essentials of the English Language (EEL) curriculum as a guide. (This guide is only available to families who are registered for Essentials in a CC community.) For the next half-hour, we hone our math skills primarily by playing a game called National Number Knockout (N2K) and other fun math games. For the remaining 45 minutes, we work on writing using the Institute of Excellence in Writing's (IEW) program, which is tailor-made to complement each cycle of CC's history sentences. How cool is that?!

To sum up:

45 minutes - English grammar
30 minutes - math
45 minutes - writing

What does Classical Conversations recommend?

Page 10 of the Foundations Guide (5th edition) states: "Outside of the Foundations memory work, all you will need to add are language arts and math programs that suit your family. Foundations students in fourth grade and up can take advantage of the Classical Conversations (R) Essentials program to hone the "three Rs" (reading, writing, and arithmetic) in community each week."

Basically, CC recommends that we prepare our children by working on the Foundations memory work and adding math and language arts curricula that are a good fit for your family.

Preparing for the English grammar portion:

Although I know some people who choose not to go beyond the Foundations English grammar memory work in grades 4K-3, I am a total rule follower and start my children in a formal language arts program in first grade. (The rule-following trait is true in many respects, but I think all homeschoolers have a touch of rebelliousness, yes?)

For grades 1-3, I adore First Language Lessons, which is authored by Jessie Wise, the mother who homeschooled Susan Wise Bauer. (You know, the woman behind The Well-Trained Mind and the Story of the World series.) First Language Lessons provides quick scripted lessons that usually do not require any advanced preparation. (If preparation is required, it is simple and minimal.) To tweak the curriculum so that it complements our work in Foundations, I downloaded a bookmark on CC Connected that lists CC's English definitions of the eight parts of speech: noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, conjunction, interjection, preposition, and adjective.

For example, First Language Lessons' definition of a noun is as follows:
A noun is the name of a person, place, thing, or idea.

CC's definition of a noun is:
A noun names a person, place, thing, activity, or idea.

It's a subtle but important difference, especially if you're concerned about consistency or if your child is aspiring to be a Memory Master. Whenever I approach a definition like this in the script, I simply swap FLL's definition for our CC definition.

When linking verbs are introduced in First Language Lessons, I sing our linking verb song that we learn in Foundations (to the tune of "The Ants Go Marching"). When helping verbs are introduced, I sing our Foundations helping verb song (sung to the tune of "This Old Man"). When we chant the "state of being verbs" I use the format for our Foundations work (cycle 3), which also appears on one of the EEL charts. I'll say the infinitive, "to be," and my student and I will chant together, "am, are, is, [clap] was, were, [clap] being [clap] been [clap, clap]. If you haven't been in Classical Conversations for long and don't know where to make the tweaks, don't sweat it. I didn't either with my first son, and his malleable brain adapted easily.

I usually skip the Enrichment Activity at the end of the lesson, as it lengthens the lesson, and I typically don't find it necessary.

But here's what I love the most about First Language Lessons: the built-in poetry memorization! There are many linguistic and cultural benefits to memorizing poetry, and there are few things that fill my heart with more joy than hearing my children recite excellent poetry from memory. (Last year, Shane, Conner, and Logan memorized a poem called A Christmas Carol by G. K. Chesterton and performed it for their grandparents at Christmastime. Oh my word, my heart nearly BURST out of my chest as my three-year-old concluded,

"And all the flowers looked up at Him,
And all the stars looked down."

Poetry memorization is built into First Language Lessons. The first-grade curriculum includes the following poems: "The Caterpillar," "Work," "Heart Are Like Doors," and more. When my oldest son was in third grade, he learned partial and entire poems by American greats including Emily Dickinson and Edgar Alan Poe. (He learned "The Bells," and it wasn't creepy or dark.)

I love First Language Lessons so much, I had a difficult time letting go of it when my oldest was in fourth grade and beginning the Essentials program. I even bought the fourth-grade curriculum with the intention of using some of it, but I found our days were just too jam-packed to squeeze it in.

Having used First Language Lessons for grades 1-3, my son was very well prepared for the English-grammar portion of the Essentials program. Not only did he already know and understand the eight parts of speech, but he had also already begun work in diagramming. His tutor even commented that he had a Challenge-level understanding of the subject! (For you non-CC-ers, Challenge is grades 7-12.)

Probably the best review I can give of this curriculum is a conversation between Shane and my second-oldest, Conner. When Conner was beginning First Language Lessons in first grade, I overheard Shane say to him, "I know it seems like extra work right now, but you're going to be really glad you did this when you get to Essentials."

Although I (obviously) love First Language Lessons, I know a lot of other CC moms who rave about the Shurley English program. I've never personally used it, but I know many families find success with it.

In sum, be diligent with your Foundations memory work and use a language arts curriculum that is a good fit for your family.

Preparing for the math portion:

To prepare for the math portion, you should be diligent with your Foundations memory work and utilize a good math curriculum that fits your family's needs. If you use a program such as Saxon that has plenty of built-in drill-work, you might be good to go with your math facts. Our family uses Math-U-See and, while I really like this program, I felt like supplementation with math facts would benefit my students.

A good old-fashioned set of flashcards should do the trick! (Although, when you choose your flashcards, be aware that CC now encourages children to know all the way up to 15x15 for their multiplication tables.) You can easily make your own just the way you want them with some notecards and a Sharpie. You can also enjoy a plethora of great math games with your children. Here are a few of our favorites:

Addition:

• Pop for Addition and Subtraction
• Super Genius Addition
• Mobi
• Zeus on the Loose (Bonus! This one includes work with multiples of 10, rounding, and goes great with the cycle 1 history sentence.)

Multiplication:

• Mobi
• Multiplication and Division BINGO Game
• Learning Wrap-Ups Multiplication Keys

If you're a busy mom who doesn't mind taking occasional help from screens [raises own hand], I love the website Xtra Math for drilling addition and multiplication. (My kids are always excited for their "computer time," too!) I also let them play the free app Math Slicer on our (very old) iPad.

If you're interested in National Number Knockout (N2K), you can follow them on Facebook. Honestly, though, I would save this one for the Essentials program. A little mystery and novelty can be fun and exciting!

In sum, be diligent with your Foundations memory work and use a math curriculum that is a good fit for your family. If necessary, supplement with math facts with drills and games.

Preparing for the writing portion:

Before entering the Essentials program, I was quite content with the 1-2-punch of First Language Lessons and Writing With Ease (FLL's companion curriculum that focuses on writing). Writing With Ease complements First Language Lessons beautifully, and this curriculum introduced my son to a plethora of interesting and high-quality literature. Often, my son would read an excerpt from a book in WWE and would request the full version from the library. I have to admit, though, that I did question the curriculum a bit when my son was in third grade and it was still exclusively focusing on summarizing narratives. 

When my son started using the Institute of Excellence in Writing (IEW) program in Essentials, I did not feel like Writing With Ease had adequately prepared him. I would say that it was like he was being thrown into the deep end of a pool, except IEW does a gorgeous job of introducing students to new concepts in a gradual (and fun!) way. However, the Key World Outlines, Story Sequence Charts, and stylistic techniques were all brand new to him. (In retrospect, I think this was a good thing for this particular child to whom most things come very easily. He had lots of new concepts to learn and had to work hard!)

I decided to do something different for my second-oldest child, however. This year, I started my second grade student on IEW's Bible Heroes curriculum. I am in looooooove. Bible Heroes is like the "junior" version of what the older children do in Essentials. As I tell the moms in my Essentials class, you cannot help your child too much. (OK, this is technically not true. If you're making KWOs by yourself while your child is out playing football with his buddies and has no clue what you're doing, that would classify as doing too much.) Together, Conner and I have fun "making codes" in his Key Word Outlines and inventing new symbols. I do a lot of modeling and make plenty of suggestions. When his KWO is complete, he dictates his paragraph to me, and I type it on the computer. We edit it using IEW's checklist, so it ends up looking quite a bit like his big brother's!

Not only does Bible Heroes prepare for my child for his writing in Essentials, but I also love how it introduces him to heroes from the Bible. In the first lesson, my son learned about Enoch, and the following two lessons focused on Noah. (Bonus! You can have your child present about these Bible heroes by reading from his KWO for his Foundations presentation. Done and done!) As if this weren't enough, Bible Heroes also reinforces our learning in English grammar through fun and simple games. In lesson two, we were provided with instructions for creating a game that gave my son practice in using adjectives. We were able to create the game in a matter of minutes from things we had around the house (a file folder and a die). My son loved the game and played it with his brothers later in the day, so even my four-year-old had practice in using adjectives! So much goodness.

Once I made the decision to add a subject to my son's daily workload, I had to decide whether or not to drop Writing With Ease. After much deliberating, I decided to keep working with WWE. As I mentioned before, it complements First Language Lessons beautifully, introduces my child to great literature, focuses on summarizing narrative stories, and gives my son practice in both copywork and dictation. It doesn't take us long to do WWE (I'd say 10 minutes, tops), so it doesn't really add much to the length of our day. That said, if I had to choose between WWE and Bible Heroes (which I'm glad I don't have to do!), I would continue to use Bible Heroes.

I also believe there is a strong correlation between reading and writing. I read aloud to my very young children every. single. day. When almost two-year-old Theo wakes up in the morning, we spend about a half-hour snuggling and reading his favorite board books (over and over). For my preschooler, I use Sarah Mackenzie's monthly picture book lists, and I read at least two of these to my son every day. My second-grader and I read together, and he reads independently. He loves listening to audiobooks. My fifth-grader reads independently, and he also participates in family read-alouds. Read, read, read. And then read some more.

In sum, use a language arts curriculum that is a good fit for your family. Read, read, read.

Let's wrap this up!

To create an "Essentials, Jr." class in your home and to prepare your child for the Classical Conversations Essentials program:

1. Be diligent with the Foundations memory work.
2. Use a language arts program that suits your family. (I love First Language Lessons, Writing With Ease, and IEW's Bible Stories.)
3. Use a math program that suits your family.
4. If you feel like your child could use extra practice with math facts, supplement with drills and games.
5. Read, read, read.

For more details about the curricula we are using this year, check out these links:

2nd Grade Curriculum Choices

5th Grade Curriculum Choices