Well, it's hard to believe, but my youngest child is completing her last year of Foundations and Essentials in Classical Conversations. This means that she is ending her elementary school years or "grammar school" years and will be moving up to the Challenge program for junior high and high school students.
I have a swirling mix of emotions right now! I am thankful for all of the knowledge that both of our children learned through the grammar years through our studies at home and with the Classical Conversations program community days. We have all learned so much information through the grammar memory work in several subjects. We have enjoyed memorizing history sentences in song, a huge timeline song of events throughout history, science facts, English terms, Latin words, scripture, math facts, and geographical locations. We all have a better understanding of the world around us.
While we have participated for four years of Foundations and Essentials, I have enjoyed serving our home school community in a variety of ways. Our first year with CC, I tutored my daughter's Foundations class when she was afraid to be in the class any parent other than me! Then, I tutored Essentials with both of my children in my class for two years. This year, I have been a Director of F/E and have been able to sit in on my daughter's classes and to visit my son's Challenge A class. Now, my children are happy to have someone else as a tutor, since I work with them at home the rest of the week!
I am a bit sad as I see the younger years slipping away. My children are not "little" anymore, but they are a "tween" and a teen! At times, I do miss short school days, tons of field trips and read aloud books, play doh, and hands-on activities! Yet, I am blessed that I have no regrets. My dear husband has given me the gift of being with our children and teaching them all of this time. Not every day has been easy, some have made me yell or want to pull my hair out, but I have always been thankful that he has allowed me to be at home with them.
I am also proud and excited to see all that these two have accomplished! Our son has become a more independent learner in Challenge A. He has learned to study, research, write persuasively, recognize fallacies in others arguments, and to think well. He has developed an interest and passion for sports and loves to play basketball. We have enjoyed some great discussions about some fantastic children's literature and the issues that the characters in those books dealt with. We have laughed at some of the fallacies in The Fallacy Detective and we have tackled loads of Latin vocabulary, grammar, and translation together. Our daughter has mastered the English grammar charts for Essentials and we have spent time working on crafting her writing assignments. We have enjoyed memorizing the grammar each week with fun songs and games. Over the past four years, she has grown from a shy 8 year old to a much more confident 12 year old who presents papers and demonstrations in her classes. She even played her ukelele for her class yesterday with a beautiful version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". She has also completed testing for Memory Master for the second time! She cried when she tested her memory work with someone else for the first time, two years ago. This spring, she confidently completed her testing without a single tear shed and shaved off about 45 minutes from her first proof by the time her third one rolled around.
Both of our children still have many more books to read and papers to write in the coming years, but I want to stop and reflect today on what I have witnessed. I have seen my little preschoolers grow into a young man and a young lady who are growing in ways that are measured and those that are not. Their minds are growing, but their hearts are growing, too, and my heart is thankful!
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