Class Tuesday the 28th has been cancelled

Hi all, CC will be cancelled this Tuesday due to the impending storm. When we return we will continue with week 3's information. We will make up the day at the end of this semester. I will be praying for all the families and please be safe. I will see everyone next Tuesday. Thanks!

Week 1 Notes & Welcome!!

Hi Foundations Parents!

I'm so excited about our 2012-2013 school year in Classical Conversations!  Our first week was amazing!  I am very proud of all of your students!  I definitely feel it was a success!  As the year goes by, they will get more and more comfortable and participate more willingly (from my experience with my daughter).

First, I'd like to give you all a little of my background.  My husband's name is Brandon Peterson.  He manages a marketing/sales team in New Orleans for a company called Monterey Marketing.  He is also a worship leader at our church, Vineyard of New Orleans, where I also teach a 4 year old children's church class.  I am also a discussion group leader for our MOPS group (Mothers of Pre-Schoolers) at Vineyard.  We have 2 children - Makenzie is 6, and Ethan will be 3 in December.  Makenzie is in her 3rd year of Foundations, and is involved in dance, art, guitar lessons, and will be starting piano lessons soon, and both Makenzie & Ethan will be starting swim lessons soon as well. We also have Buddy, our miniature dachshund, and Hermie, our hermit crab.  Needless to say, we are a busy family. :)

A majority of you were given a welcome letter on Tuesday, but for those of you who didn't receive it, or weren't in my class for week 1, please email me and I will make sure you get one.  I ask that everyone makes sure to read it thoroughly, as it is somewhat of an outline of what is expected of both students and parents during class time.  There are a few other things that the letter does not cover:  

• Since we only have 2 1/2 hours together, and it's a pretty fast paced class, having the parents help out is vital for the flow and enjoyment of our time together.  During our first 30 minutes of class, we have 7 subjects and only 4 minutes for each subject, so each week I will be asking a parent to time me using either my iPod or phone.  This will help us move through each subject smoothly.  

• One thing I did not cover in the letter is cell phone usage.  CC discourages the use of cell phones in class because it is a distraction to everyone - parents, students, & tutors.  If you have a call that you must take, please step out into the hall.  I understand we all have other family members/friends that will need something from time to time, or just contact us in general.  Just be mindful, and refer to the handbook for guidelines on the topic.

• If you are interested in a copy of the presentation schedule, history sentence hand motions, & timeline hand motions, send me an email and I'll get that to you.  The timeline information is copyrighted, so in order to send those out, I need to see that you own the cards.  Just bring a card with you to class, and that will give me the "ok" to send you that information.

• Most of you were asking where I found the songs & handouts for class on Tuesday.  A lot were from CC Connected.  If you haven't yet signed up, or you are still having trouble logging on, you can let either me or Simone know.  I believe it is $6 a month, and totally worth it.  There are hundreds of printables and songs at your disposal.  It's incredible.   If I use things from cc connected, I will post the file name here, to give you the opportunity to download it to use at home.

Ok, now I want to give a little recap of what we learned during week 1:

• History: Timeline cards 1-7, Commandments 1-5
• Geography: Fertile Crescent
• English Grammar: Preposition definition
• Latin: Noun Cases
• Math: Skip Counting 1's & 2's
• Science: Classification of Living Things

Our science project was called "Baby Bean", and in Fine Arts we studies the 5 basic shapes of drawing - OiLS.  


SCIENCE:  The sentence was "KING PHYLLUM called CLASS to ORDER so the FAMILY GENiUS could learn the SPECIES."  I also found a really neat file on CC Connected that you can print and let them put the classifications in order, and it also has that sentence that they put in order as well.  It's called CC_C1-W1_Class_LivingThings.pdf.  We will use it at some point during the next 5 weeks for Review.

Next week's presentation is "Tell us your favorite short story."  Please have your students practice presenting their short story to you a few times between now and Tuesday.  It makes a world of difference when they are prepared.  The story should be roughly 2 minutes.

Don't forget to review 3x through the week and let your students color in a spot for each time you review!  Reviewing is extremely important...especially if any of you are going to go for memory master!  You'll be surprised at what these little ones are capable of retaining!

Thanks so much for reading!  Let me know if you have any questions.  See you next week! :)