We are 75% done with our cycle 3 semester for Classical Conversations. One of my daughters is shooting for memory master. It’s our first time on this journey. We are going from learning the material good enough to true mastery. And it’s tough!
I’ve also noticed my third grader (not the memory master) has quite a few gaps in her understanding. That’s why conversation is SO important! (My video about this can be found at the end of the post!)
Here are some ways we are reviewing & making connections:
Pull out the map and talk about it. Yes, sometimes this means just quizzing and doing the show me, tell me method. Does your child know the rivers? the mountains? the states and capitals.
But sometimes its about having CONVERSATION and making deeper connections. For example, my daughter noticed that the Mississippi River does not cut across states, but it serves as the border for the states. Then we talked about the Louisiana Purchase and how the Mississippi River was the border of our country before and the territory west is what was purchased.
Another example – noting that Washington D.C. is near the Chesapeake Bay. My daughter was like, “There’s a capital of the whole country?? Not just each state.” Until two weeks ago my daughter thought Trump was the president of Texas and he was stationed in our capital Austin. (These conversations definitely help me see where the gaps are!)
Another example – my daughter was confused about the location of Mexico and Alaska. Easy to see how she got there – Alaska is rarely placed correctly on these maps. She thought that it was south of Texas so that was not where Mexico was.
So, pull out the maps. Point out things. Draw the maps. Talk about the maps and the history, geography connection.
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Review Latin in several different ways.
Singing the Latin (with them looking at the words if they are older students). Our community has learned it by songs, but there are a few spots that my kids haven’t truly mastered the words, partly because they haven’t been reading the words as they sing.
Writing the Latin and English
Translating the Latin. This means printing out the Latin and then letting the students write the English word above each Latin word so they can see how it translate. I think this will be an important step for us since my daughters have memorized it to song and haven’t “thought” much about the words and their translations.
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Review Science.
Make the atom models as a craft project or simply draw them out. Let them see what the numbers mean. Also, help them see where the memory work fits onto the periodic table.
Incorporate some scripture into the scientific discussion.We recently watched an episode about Mystery of Matter. It can be found on
youTube and Amazon Prime. -
Review English Grammar
Weeks 6-17 correlate to Chart D for Essentials. Check out my post on Why Should I Learn Irregular Verbs?
So, just do as much from memory as possible – listing them out (practicing memory work and spelling at the same time).
Or, make deeper connections by putting these word lists into sentences. More advanced students can certainly make up their own, but I have worksheets that help this process and I will be having my own daughter work on some of these today. (You may find them by subscribing. If you have already subscribed, check your email.)
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