CC: verify, then trust

There are over 1200 posts on this little blog of mine, but the one that’s garnered the most attention is my review of Classical Conversations, a homeschool “school” of sorts. Two years after it was first published, I continue to receive emails from other moms who have also had negative interactions with their individual CC group or corporate CC.

Since the post is almost three years old, I thought I should give it another look to make sure it was as even-handed as possible. I also thought I’d see if any of the tutors who caused us heartburn are still working at our local CC.

Good news: my review is not spiteful. Trust me; this is a major accomplishment after what we went through. Other good news: the state CC director has stepped down. I have no idea who took her place, but knowing she is no longer in that position is a good thing.

Bad news: the Lansing CC director who caused us such grief is still there. (I realize there are two Lansing campuses now – to be clear, I am not referring to the one that meets at the Free Methodist Church.) I do not know if Amy’s tutor, the one who was so woefully unqualified, is still there. I certainly hope not, but wouldn’t be surprised if she is, considering how all the cries to local, state and national CC leaders fell on deaf ears.

Some may wonder why I’m bringing this up. It’s been several years – shouldn’t I just let it go? I would absolutely drop the subject, except I keep getting emails from other parents harmed by CC. It’s important for those parents to know they aren’t alone. Trust me: when you complain about CC in the CC community, you are treated like you have leprosy. I want others who have been hurt by CC to know they are not the only ones.

And more importantly, I want to implore those looking at CC to really, really LOOK at CC. Interview the campus director as well as the teacher/director. Open up the Latin book and make sure the teacher can actually pronounce the words. See if he/she can explain anything from the logic book. Ask questions. Verify, then trust.

To those having a successful time with CC I say good for you. I have two dear friends who are enjoying their year with CC; I am very happy for them. The beauty of homeschooling is finding what works for your family and doing it. If you explore the concept and materials of CC (they have some of the best books on the market) and decide CC is for you, I simply wish to let you know that finding a well-qualified tutor is not as easy as CC makes it seem. Do your homework before asking your kids to do theirs.



Here's a link to my original post: To CC or not to CC You can read a post I wrote in the heat of the moment here. 

Homeschooling Preschoolers

Today I’m continuing my periodic review of what worked and what didn't in our homeschool journey. Last week I looked at something that didn't work (Classical Conversations); this week let's look at a few things that did.

When friends are considering homeschooling their little ones they’ll sometimes ask me, “What should I do with my four year old to get him ready for school?”  My response is always, “Play a lot. Build with blocks and paint with water colors and squish Play-Doh. And read, read, read.”

Often, though, parents don’t like my answer. They want to do something, something that feels more like, well, school. That makes me a little sad because four year olds have the rest of their lives to do school and I fear parents don’t understand the importance of play and giving a child the room to create and the time to simply imagine. Take it from a mom whose kids do school for many, many hours a day – let them play while they can!

While we felt giving our kids the freedom to play as four year olds was important, we did incorporate some more formal learning when they were kindergarten-aged, around five years old. And there were three books I really enjoyed using.

First, Five in a Row. Its weekly lessons are drawn from one classic children’s book.  You read one book five days in a row (thus the title) and do a different activity each day, from art to geography to history. It's amazing all the different things the kids pick up when you read the book five days in a row. Mine never got bored, even by the fifth day. I still remember how much we loved Ping, Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel, and Lentil. You can see the full list of books in the Five in a Row series here. And as an aside, I was shocked to see how the program has grown! There’s an on-line program and even a Bible study supplement now. I guess it has been a while since I had a kindergartener…

A second book I found helpful was Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. It really was easy. One of my children was reading after 20 lessons; the other two took quite a bit longer. But after going through the entire book each child was reading. The directions are easy to follow and my kiddos found it enjoyable to do. The guide says each lesson takes 20 minutes, but we found some were more like five and others that included writing took longer. But do remember it is best to introduce this book when your child shows some interest in reading. Goodness knows you don’t want to frustrate your kid and have him decide he doesn’t like reading!  

My third suggestion isn’t one book but an actual reading program, Sing, Spell, Read and Write. We loved this program! I loved the singing and the way it put phonics rules in songs. I remember stuff so much better when it’s put to music, and since I wasn’t taught phonics I learned right along with the kids. It is a comprehensive phonics program that uses songs and games and rewards to encourage reading. And now I’m singing the phonics song. A, a, a, a, apple, b, b, b, b ball, c, c, c, c cat and d, d, d ,d doll.…

I still hold that play, self-directed and organized, is very important in the early years. But if your child shows signs that he’s ready to read, I hope you find these resources as helpful as we did.

To CC or not to CC

You can read a more current CC review here. I hope you find these posts helpful as you explore the right avenues for your homeschooling adventure.
-Christy
December 4, 2013

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We’re well into March, and all home schooling moms know what that means: time to think about next year.  It matters not that we have three months left in this school year; inevitably, thoughts, dreams, plans for 2011 – 2012 will begin rolling around in lots of home schooling moms’ minds.

In my eight years as a home school mom I’ve tried a lot of different curricula, co-ops, tutors and one day a week “schools” that cater to the home school family.  Some have been great successes; others, not so much.  And while I would never dare say what worked for us will work for another family, in the next few weeks I would like to make a few suggestions for my homeschooling friends.

Today, I’ll start with one that didn’t work: Classical Conversations.  I’ve made myself wait a year before writing this; if I’d written last year it wouldn’t have been a helpful review.  Thankfully, my 40 years have taught me that sometimes it’s best to sleep on what you’ve written; I slept lots on this one, and feel enough time has passed that I can write an honest, mostly-unemotional review.

First, the good: CC’s materials are excellent.  You cannot go wrong with the majority of their books, and the history cards are excellent for the younger set.

The bad: It’s a lot of rote memorization in the early years, K – 6.  That’s not inherently wrong, but after paying what you’re going to pay, I expected some integration with other materials. Yes, someone’s going to say CC offers lots of books that go along with whatever cycle you’re on. True. But I expected the tutor (who is paid) to select some appropriate materials for the entire class to read and discuss together. This did not happen because CC only focuses on the memorization at this stage.

The ugly: Classical Conversations likes to claim it has “trained tutors,” but this is simply not true.  I guess technically, it is, because each tutor attends a three day training seminar. But three days to understand the high-level math, science and literature is simply not enough time. Oh, and did I mention that each tutor also teaches Latin and logic? Three days would hardly be enough for one of those subjects, let alone all of them. We were fortunate with Michael’s tutor; he was, indeed, excellent, but he would have been excellent without the three day training. Amy’s “tutor” was a disaster.

Amy’s tutor did not understand the logic program or the Latin pronunciations. She also failed to bring her materials to class not once, but three times in a row.  I thought Amy was exaggerating until I sat in the class with her. If anything, Amy soft-pedaled the situation. The woman was hardly fit to teach her own child, much less anyone else’s.

And this is where CC gets sticky: each tutor in grades 7 – 12 is her own “director.” If you have a problem with her, your only recourse is the state CC director. And our state director was completely unmoved by the pleas of the parents in Amy’s class until someone threatened to sue to get her money back. Then, and only then, did we get some action from her.

I won’t go in to the gory details of what happened to us last year, but suffice it to say the Michigan Classical Conversations State Director was more concerned with money than helping homeschool families. Y’all, I am a capitalist and want people to make money. But we’re talking about a Christian homeschool association – I thought, when presented with the fact that she installed an incompetent tutor, she would be concerned for the students. Trust me when I say she was not. And trust me when I say the on-site Lansing CC director (who is still there) cared more about rules than helping students, even when CC didn’t do what it said it would, which is provide a trained tutor.

I realize this is a specific situation and cannot be extrapolated to the whole of CC. But I hope our misadventure will encourage anyone who’s investigating CC to proceed with caution. Carefully interview the tutor. Ask her to actually pronounce a few Latin words. See if he really understands the basics of the logic material. And interview the campus director in addition to the tutor; she is the one who sets the tone for the group. You don’t want one with a stick up her butt. Trust me on this one.

It’s your money, and CC requires quite a bit of it; spend it wisely! Goodness knows if I’d taken these steps instead of trusting the organization to give us what they said they would, we could have avoided an unfortunate year of our homeschool adventure.

You can read a post I wrote in the heat of the moment here. And if you’d like further information on our experience, feel free to shoot me an email.

What does 'ladylike' look like, anyway?

Men with strong personalities are go-getters. Women with strong personalities are bitches. This disparity ticks me off because (and this will shock only those who haven’t met me) I have a bit of a strong personality. Don’t get me wrong – I’m Southern and can “Bless your heart” as well as the next belle. But I have no problem telling you what I think. I’m not a fade-into-the-background kind of girl. I enjoy good conversation and have never shied away from controversy. I don’t speak unkindly but I do speak plainly and some folks find that kind of talk disconcerting coming from a woman (normally I’d say, “coming from someone without a penis” but I’m trying to be more demure).

My no-nonsense approach applies to people I hire as well. If I contract someone to do something I expect the work to be done. And if it isn’t, the worker either needs to make it right or pay me back. This is not a problem as long as I’m working with a man. If I’m working with a woman, however, things get a little tricky.

A woman who is in business for herself needs to understand that while she may build relationships with her clients she is ultimately responsible to provide the service for which she was hired. For example, if you advertise that you know Latin, have a grasp of literature and science and understand current events and I hire you to teach my daughter, you dang well better teach my daughter.

And if you don't, do not tell me you’ve had some family problems that kept you from preparing your lesson plans.

Do not tell me you’re going to do better when you’ve already been given three weeks on top of the entire summer to get your act together.

Do not tell me you’re hurting financially.

I completely understand how difficult it can be to get the bases covered when your family life is imploding. I know there’s a steep learning curve any time a new task is begun. And I have great compassion for anyone who’s hurting in this economy. But if I hired you to teach my daughter then you better teach my daughter.

And if you don’t, please don’t act all shocked when I fire you.

I found myself in that exact situation recently and even though I handled myself respectfully, I was firm, which equaled bitch in the eyes of the two women with whom I was dealing.

I don’t understand that. Do. Not. Understand.

All my life I’ve struggled with issues of femininity. In my mind a feminine woman is soft-spoken, quiet, reserved, and size 4. Needless to say, I don’t fit that stereotype. I’m often loud, have never been afraid to speak my mind and the last time I was a size 4 I was probably four. Is the image in my head self-imposed? Probably. But it’s there for a reason. Soft-spoken women are lauded as lady-like. Loud, confident types aren’t.

So when I was called, “hostile” for demanding the service for which I’d paid (and no small amount I might add) I couldn’t believe how quickly I thought, “See, Christy, you’re not a lady.”

But just as quickly as the thought entered my mind, out it flew because truth wins. I knew I’d been honest and fair. I knew I’d been kind even in the process of telling someone she was unqualified teach. I knew I’d followed the biblical model of conflict resolution.

And I knew I’d protected Amy from a year of inadequate instruction. That may not make me a lady, but it sure as hell makes me a mom who does what it takes to protect and provide for her daughter.

I’ll take that over demure any day.

Where did the summer go?

I cannot believe that school starts tomorrow. I am not a happy camper. I think I’m more upset than the kids.

We’re attending a new one day a week home school school this year called Classical Conversations. Several friends in Georgia attend one and we’ve heard nothing but rave reviews. When we found out one was starting here we jumped at the chance to attend. The kids aren’t wild about the change – who likes change? – but they’re trying to make the best of it.

My biggest concern is the Latin. I do not know Latin. If I am to help them, as a good homeschooling mom should, I’m going to have to study right along with them. I would like to think I’d be excited about this opportunity to expand my horizons, but seeing as I am lazy beyond belief I am not looking forward to this.

Quite honestly, nothing has shown my lazy side more than homeschooling. Here’s what I’ve learned from homeschooling my precious kiddos: I am lazy and selfish. I really don’t want to work too hard and I want what I want when I want it and kids generally get in the way of me getting what I want when I want it.

Recently I heard a friend tell someone that she wouldn’t be homeschooling if she didn’t feel called to teach them this way. She was hoping to disabuse the person of the notion that all homeschool families sit around the kitchen table taking turns reading aloud (after eating a nutritious, hot breakfast), all while the scent of freshly baked bread wafts from the oven and dinner simmers in the crock pot...

Oh, pardon me! I just cracked myself up!

Honey, we’re doing good to shove some cereal in our faces before racing to the car to head wherever it is this supposed “home” school family is going that day. Fresh baked bread comes from bakeries. And the local pizza place is on my cell phone speed dial.

I should probably put a sweet spin on this, something like, “Yes, homeschooling is difficult but I love it! My children are enthralled with the prospect of spending every waking moment with me, and I with them. How wonderful! How precious!’’

Actually, I do think it’s wonderful. And I wouldn’t want to miss a precious moment. But it is hard and it’s not always fun. Even so, it is always worth it. Even if the bread’s store-bought and dinner’s cold cereal. Again.

And to Julie, my dear friend in Georgia who teaches Latin, please know I'm adding your number to my speed dial. Right next to Domino's.