We have only done one year of CC at the younger level (Foundations) and have just started with our older ones. I am anticipating it will be a great fit for our family as we were already pursuing a classical method of education. One thing I LOVE about CC for my struggling learners is that the parent is in charge of setting standards, deciding how much of the homework to require, assigning final grades, etc. They get the benefit of interacting with other students and the sense of reporting to another teacher (the tutor who leads their classes once a week) yet I can modify their workload as much as I need to. This is a great combination for us, since my dyslexic 15 year old enjoys a co op type of setting and that environment is very motivational for him, but it would be very difficult for him to do EVERYTHING that is assigned. We can make some modifications (for example, at the high school level the majority of the books and texts are available in audio format, which is a huge benefit to the classical model–it relies on CLASSICS, which are typically available as audios)…I can scale his work (shorten the length of a paper, for example), I can modify the load (I can decide if he will write every paper assigned or just some of them), etc. I think this will be great for us, giving us the benefit of a rigorous program at the high school level, rich with lots of class discussion, while still allowing me to customize it as needed. Since I am in charge of the grading (tutor gives input but parent decides the final grade) I can set the expectations (I can say “it is enough for me if you give your speech using note cards–I am not requiring you to present it from memory”). For my younger son who is being tested for learning disabilities, it has also been a good fit. The classroom time for the younger kids (PreK4-6th grade) they have some hands on activities (an art or music activity–this rotates throughout the year), a science experiment, a presentation (this is chosen by parent/student and can range from show and tell to reading a paper they wrote, telling about vacation, etc.), and the rest is mainly focused on memory work. Parent can decide if they want the child to work on the memory work at home or if it will be an exposure time. You need to add phonics/language arts and math at home. There is also an option for grammar/creative writing (IEW method)/extra math drill games in the afternoon for 4th-6th grades. We will be doing that this year for the first time and it will be a jump for my struggling 5th grader–but again, I can decide we will only write a paper every OTHER week instead of every week if I want to, etc. I can decide if he will memorize just the information about nouns this semester, or if this will be exposure only, or if we will go for it and really focus on memorizing all the grammar presented, etc. My kids love it, and the families in our community are really supportive. For us, it has been a stimulating and encouraging community that has really enriched our homeschool time. I wish I had found it when my older kids were younger. Many of the things my PreK4 and 5th grader are learning would have been beneficial to their 3 older brothers to learn earlier on. For example, my 15 year old has to memorize all the presidents for his history class. My 4 yo already knows them all from being in CC last year, so she is helping him wink emoticon
CC and learning disability
August 17, 2015 by ·