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Friday, June 5, 2009

Classical Conversations Cycle 1 and Tapestry of Grace

Do you attend Classical Conversations? Do you use Tapestry of Grace to "flesh out" your studies a bit? I do, too! Last year, I created a document that detailed how to combine the two for CC's Cycle 3. There was a lot of interest, and as requested I'm sharing my document for this year's CC Cycle 1.

Some things have changed since last year, though.
  • First, I have only listed the corresponding TOG weeks with the CC week and some activity suggestions (from Tapestry and my own ideas). I have not included my teaching points. Since families emphasize different things, I decided not to knock myself out to get this done by the end of May (new baby and all). I do plan on doing it slowly over the summer and will happily share my teaching points with anyone interested. I'll announce those on the blog when they are ready (end of July at the latest).
  • Second, the second semester of this year's CC cycle does not lend itself to a strictly historical matching with Tapestry. Some of the weeks cover wide swathes of history. These weeks would be better suited treated as a geographical study and thus have not been matched with TOG weeks. I do have activity suggestions for those weeks, though!
  • Third, I am just starting work on a document that will match up CC weeks with Story of the World. I'll let you know when that is completed - should be just a matter of a couple of weeks at the most.

To access the CC/TOG combination document please use this link: Classical Conversations Cycle 1 and Tapestry of Grace Combined. You should be able to download this directly from Google Docs to your computer.

If you download, please leave a comment. So that I might know how helpful (or not) this document is, please refer anyone interested in the document to this page rather than just passing along the document. Thank you!

And if you blog, perhaps consider a link back to this page. I'd be grateful!


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31 comments:

Chrissie Love said...

Yay! Thank you :) I have been waiting for this :) This will be our first year with CC, though we do not use TOG, and I was so excited to find your plans for Cycle 3.
I can't access this document though ??

Kerry said...

I've updated the link. You should be able to directly access it without having to request an invitation. If it still doesn't work, let me know!

Unknown said...

I am so excited to see this. Thank you so much for sharing it with us. I will be watching the the SOTW one too and then decide which to use for our family. This is our first year for CC too. Do you prefer TOG or SOTW for younger kids (4th, 1st, and K4)?

Kerry said...

Hi, Leslie! Well, I use SOTW as my history spine with TOG/CC. Definitely great for your 4th grader, and maybe for your 1st grader. I'd suggest Children's History of the World for the 1st and K4, though.

That seems like a lot of reading, but you could get SOTW audio and let your 4th grader read along with the audio, or if he/she is a good reader let them read it independently and narrate what they learned (just to make sure they are getting the material).

Really, I refer to TOG's reader and literature suggestions and activity ideas as a supplemental to CC memory work. The teacher background info in TOG is what I use for my own knowledge (my "teaching points").

If you own TOG, it will have wonderful readers and literature suggestions, beyond the history spine, for younger all the way through high school. But if you don't own it, you can always use SOTW or CHOW and CC's suggested readers (your director should be able to share this file with you).

Does that answer your question? I feel like I just went around my elbow to get to my nose in that answer! :)

Spender Sally to Saver Sue said...

Thanks so much for this! I am looking forward to SOTW, too. We finished our first year of CC last year, and loved it on so many levels. I am so thrilled God directed us to Christian Classical education.

Thanks for sharing!! Julie

Sara said...

Thank you so much! I have been checking your blog and (im)patiently waiting for your lesson plans. You are so generous to share your hard work. I look forward to your SOTW plans. CHOW is on my shelf and maybe this is the best year to bring it out. My 4 kids are ages 3-8.

I am excited to try a year using CC as our spine. I have hopes it will help simplify our days. One can always hope :)

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much! You seem so on top of it, and with your experience with cc, TOG & SOTW, I'm hoping you might find time to indulge my lengthy questions.
My almost 8 yr old, 5 yr old, and I are still "newbees" at homeschooling with one year of cc under our belts. It was a great year thanks to cc and I even plan to tutor next year...BUT with more knowledge of homeschooling and wanting to do a better job this year I've gone and confused myself at a state conference. :-)
Besides cc, last year I just bought each child a different book off the shelf for each subject... But now I'm trying to figure out how I can streamline and mix cc with a unit study approach or ?? I got so bogged down in the book work our day seemed to go on forever.
Having looked at TOG and SOTW I can see how they each could fit in with cc, but do you have a suggestion for adding language arts, etc from a unit study approach??
To make matters more confusing, I've also considered "Heart of Dakota" or "My Father's World" to simplify and have cc as a supplement...but I'm struggling with the thought that cc is covering ancient history while "Heart of Dakota" is covering American History again. My brain is so overwhelmed trying to sort through "methods" of homeschooling vs "curriculum choices." I know I will stick with cc but all these other resources are still up in the air. Any insight would be appreciated...and I hope there are others in this boat with me that would benefit from your time.
Thanks! Kerry
P.S. Does TOG tell you how to make those project suggestions you listed in your document??

Stephanie Burris said...

Wow! Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing your CC/TOG combination document! After having seen the one you did for cycle 3, I couldn't wait to see your work for cycle one. You have blessed my family so much by it. I'd really, really like to see your teaching points that go with this cycle too when they're available!

Thanks,
Stephanie

Michelle said...

Thank you for sharing your CC plans. I have not used TOG, but it still will be helpful. We are doing SOTW.
Thank you again, and have a blessed summer.
Michelle

Kerry said...

Jules, Sara, Stephanie and Michelle - so glad this will be of help to you!

Anonymous (so sorry I don't have your name!) - WHEW! Lots of questions, but I'm happy to give you my thoughts. Ok - LOL, step away from the curriculum table. :) It ALL looks so good, doesn't it? You sound so much like me!

Now, I'm going to give you my thoughts and you just take them or leave them, OK?

If you are tutoring next year it would be best to focus on just doing CC memory work with some science projects/activities and history reading/activities (maybe a "unit"-type study of time periods or science areas?)...and of course math and language arts.

Or you can do unit studies during CC "off" times (Christmas break, before CC starts/after CC ends or during summer).

Tutoring is a big time investment and you are still a newish homeschooler working out your ideas about educational philosophy. That is JUST AS IT SHOULD BE! :) TOG is a big money investment and you might be disappointed to have made it if in a year you find it doesn't fit your educational goals. Then again, sometimes you have to use the curricula to know whether or not it is a fit.

SOTW would be great to read along with CC history weeks. Then add in some picture books or readers to flesh out the time period a bit.

I find that I often plan WAY too much and then feel a bit defeated when we don't accomplish it. Instead I'm trying to plan just the basics and keep a list of "extras" in case we have time to do more.

Have I answered your questions a bit? If you'd like to email me - we might be able to talk more about it! kerrysblogs@gmail.com

Tracey said...

Thank you for sharing your ideas with us of how to combine TOG and CC. I actually don't own TOG, but I do own SOTW and would love to get that document when you are finished. This is our third year in CC and we enjoy it. I am definitely going to use it as my springboard for science and history for my kids since I don't have time to do an individual curriculum for each of them. Thanks for your help in accomplishing that!

Unknown said...

You definitely answered my question. I am sorry I am just getting back on to check :) Thank you!

cm said...

Looking forward to the plans for Cycle 1 and SOTW. Please let me know when it is completed. I am also looking for a suggested list of reading material to correlate with the history.

wendy said...

Wow---how in the world did I end up finding this awesome post?? What a relief that the Lord has led me here! I am going to homeschool my 4 kids (K, 2nd, 5th and 7th grade) for the first time this year, and my head is spinning! I am going to do CC with them, and I'm struggling to figure out how to cover History and Science with ALL of them without losing my sanity!
Just curious if you've done any type of comparison with Sonlight's history with CC?
I am very interested in your teaching points for Tapestry, as well as second semester activity suggestions. Also, the SOTW/CC plans for Cycle 1---it's all so overwhelming to me. I looked at a friend's Tapestry Guide and it looks awesome (combining all 4 kids), but very overwhelming.
Also, do you do any type of Science plans that work with a bunch of kids at once?? Sorry for all the questions!
Wendy

cm said...

Exploring creation /Apologia is a wonderful science for several children together. I am thinking about using the Botany for cycle 1

cm said...

I am also interested in the cycle 1 SOTW lessons. Can anyone send those to me?

Kerry said...

CM - if you contact your CC director, she will be able to get CC/SOTW plan from the Director's Portal on the CC website. (The file has information proprietary to CC, so it can't be shared outside a CC community. Otherwise it would be like getting the history and science portion of the Foundations Guide free.)

Kerry said...

CM - if you contact your CC director, she will be able to get CC/SOTW plan from the Director's Portal on the CC website. (The file has information proprietary to CC, so it can't be shared outside a CC community. Otherwise it would be like getting the history and science portion of the Foundations Guide free.)

Unknown said...

Thank you so much for your hard work! I have been wanting to do something like this, but lack in the organizational area so my follow through takes a long time. Now my kids will have the benefit of all your hard work. We use SOTW so I can't wait to see what you do with it!

Kerry said...

Hi, Sarah! I'm glad you can use the file. I didn't end up doing the SOTW because CC has already done it. Your CC director can provide you with a file that has CC week and SOTW chapters all matched up.

I did recently add the teaching points and some discussion questions for semester 1. Do a search on my blog (or look in the archives - it was posted in the last week or two) for that.

Anonymous said...

Dear Sir,
I am interested in using Classical conversations' Cycle 1 but prefer to buy used ! Do you know anyone who can sell to me?

Thank you , God bless, Jean

Kerry said...

Jean - the best I can suggest is VegSource.

Jennifer said...

Kerry-

I'm likely jumping the gun, but I've just returned from convention and I'm ready to plan! Will you be doing your comparison of TOG and CC for cycle 2? I hope so! Your hard work is much appreciated in our home! I'm not sure I'm organized or knowledgeable enough to do it on my own!

Kerry said...

Hi, Jennifer! Unfortunately, no, I'm not doing a TOG/CC list for Cycle 2. We are not participating in CC this year. My eldest is going to a small Charlotte Mason-based high school and in order to afford that tuition, CC had to go.

I am using TOG, but we are going to do ancients again since that is what my eldest will be doing at the private school. (Fridays are home-learning days, so if we are on the same history, we can do some fun projects/trips together.)

Unknown said...

Kerri,
I have been using TOG for 3 years but recognized it was not as purely classical as I would prefer. CC was just introduced to me, but b/c of our investment in and the many things we enjoy about TOG we have decided not to switch to CC. Could you recommend a way to introduce the trivium to TOG (especially the LG and UG levels) without the cost of joining CC?

Kerry said...

Crystal, I'd love to talk a little with you, would you email me? kerrysblogs@gmail.com

Unknown said...

Kerry,
I enjoyed reading your section on memory work from the summer of '09 but was hoping for some more structure. I did e-mail you but never heard back...hoping you are on some wonderful vacation. Here is my personal e-mail address: seekhim4ever@gmail.com

Anonymous said...

I am considering both TOG and Classical Conversations next year (beginning fall of 2011), so this post was very helpful. Thank you!

Whitney in TX

Stephanie said...

Thanks for sharing! I'll look forward to hearing about your SOTW plans!

mamazee said...

Thank you! We've used TOG for five years now, and i was so excited to have found something i could use all the way through homeschooling a gifted high schooler. However, my two oldest children want to do a more online/correspondence courses to get a regular diploma, so i am looking at doing CC next year with my other children in grades 8,6,4,2, and K (and bringing baby along? And tutoring?). This gives me a little idea of how i could mesh TOG with CC (we'd be doing yr one next year), but may i ask what else you fit in? Science, math - did you find you needed to supplement the language arts portion of CC? Or did you use some of TOG's writing assignments? I would love to hear more about how it worked out for you! I'll poke around your blog and see if i can dig more up :). But thanks so much for making this available!

Kelly said...

Just downloaded! Thank you!!
Kelly K
believingin1.blogspot.com