{"id":773,"date":"2020-07-06T15:47:00","date_gmt":"2020-07-06T15:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/classicalconversations.com\/blog\/how-i-customize-classical-conversations-essentials-program\/"},"modified":"2025-05-01T22:59:33","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T22:59:33","slug":"how-i-customize-classical-conversations-essentials-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalconversations.com\/blog\/how-i-customize-classical-conversations-essentials-program\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Customize the Essentials Program"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"bsf_rt_marker\"><\/div><p><em>In this blog, updated for 2020, a homeschool mom provides insight into how to customize the Classical Conversations Essentials program, which is designed for parents homeschooling children ages 9-12. Link to the original post is at the bottom.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">My daughter and I love language, so we both expected to love Essentials. Eventually, we did\u2014<\/span><b>with modifications<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. While reading came easily for her at a young age, writing did not, and it<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> was extremely difficult during her first tour of Essentials. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She had begun to live in dread of copying the mastery charts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>How Do I Customize Classical Conversations&#8217; Essentials Program?<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><b>Quick Tips:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Try working through charts verbally, in a conversational manner.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Incorporate physical playtime into the review process.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ask your student questions about the connections between the charts.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Have your student experiment by giving verbal examples of the grammar concepts that they cover.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Engage in wordplay with your student by joining them in coming up with silly example sentences that use the grammar they are learning.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>My experience:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I knew one of the primary reasons my daughter loves language is the value she places on relationships and conversation. One afternoon when we were both tired and really didn\u2019t want to work on charts, I challenged her with, \u201cI bet you can\u2019t tell me Chart A while I\u2019m tickling you!\u201d It turned out that, through peals of laughter, she could. After that, we began working through the charts verbally, conversationally, and playfully. Essentials never felt so good!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over the next two years, her ease with writing has increased. She is now perfectly capable of quickly copying the charts, but still, we often choose to recite them instead. It provides a perfect opportunity for me to pose questions about connections between charts or ask her to give me examples of the grammar concept covered; even better, it offers an opportunity for great, relationship-building conversations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another favorite activity has been creating fun example sentences and discussing them in the car as we run errands. It was during one of these free-flowing conversations that, inspired by an interrogative sentence inquiring whether pearls come from clams or oysters, she gave our wonderful partnership a name. We are the Grammar Clams. Since then she has given me cards with slogans like, \u201cGrammar Clams Forever!\u201d and the two of us depicted as little clams chatting through text bubbles. What a reward for tailoring her work to better fit her needs and aptitudes!<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Tailoring Presentations<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><b>Consider your goals:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To gain discipline: having your student choose from set topics can exercise the ability to follow directions and speak engagingly on topics that don&#8217;t necessarily excite them.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To gain creativity and independence: having your student choose their own topics encourages them to explore their passions and make decisions.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>My experience:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Presentations are another area where we have made some adjustments to suit our varying needs. One year I required her to follow the suggested topics offered by her tutor because at the time we were working hard on following instructions. I believe it\u2019s important for her to be able to speak engagingly and well even on topics that don\u2019t necessarily excite her.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This year, with other areas becoming more regimented in preparation for Challenge, I have given her free reign with her presentation topics and they have provided a wonderful incentive to explore interests and share passions with her class. Interestingly, two presentations this year have been inspired by her copy work from the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/classicalconversationsbooks.com\/products\/3s035\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Classical Conversations poetry PreScripts book<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. One presentation, suggested by the &#8220;General Prologue&#8221; to <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Canterbury Tales<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, discussed the death of Thomas Becket and his relationship to King Henry II, husband to Eleanor of Aquitaine and father of Richard the Lionhearted and King John who signed the Magna Carta. The other, inspired by George Herbert\u2019s \u201cEaster,\u201d featured shaped poems, and she even chose to write her own shaped poem to share with the class.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>Customize the Essentials program, all with the accountability of community! <\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What a gift Classical Conversations has given us\u2014both a pattern to follow and the freedom to tailor it as needed. How beautiful to model academic excellence, yet to properly value character and relationships over academic achievements. I treasure this freedom to adjust our approach, our focus, and specific assignments to best fit my daughter and our family.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To learn more about how you can take advantage of both the structure and freedom of a Classical Conversations education, click to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/classicalconversations.com\/community-search\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">get connected to your local community<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h6>This article was updated and adapted by Sarah Iddings from &#8220;<a href=\"\/blog\/the-grammar-clams-or-fashioning-the-perfect-fit\/\">The Grammar Clams or Fashioning the Perfect Fit<\/a>&#8221; by Rachel Brown.<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0Tailoring Classical Conversations Essentials<br \/>\n\u00a0Quick Tips:<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Try working through charts verbally, in a conversational manner.<\/p>\n<p>Incorporate physical playtime into the review process.<br \/>\nAsk your student questions about the connections between the charts.<br \/>\nHave your student experiment by giving verbal examples of the grammar concepts that they cover.<br \/>\nEngage in wordplay with your student by joining them in coming up with silly example sentences that use the grammar they are learning.<br \/>\nMy experience&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[3262,3263],"class_list":["post-773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-classical-conversations-programs","tag-rachel-brown","tag-sarah-iddings"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How Can I Customize the Essentials Program? 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