Classical Conversations of Allamakee accepting new enrollments for 2017-18

Classical Conversations (CC) of Allamakee is now accepting new enrollments and registrations for the 2017-2018 school year. CC of Allamakee is a Classical Christian Community that will be starting in the Waukon area at the New Life Christian Church Tuesdays, beginning September 5 of this year.

Lisa Hagen, director of the CC community in Waukon, stated, "I am really excited about having this educational opportunity for children in Waukon and the surrounding area. This has been God's vision all along for this area and He is using us in leadership to carry out that vision.  This educational opportunity will be in the middle of traditional homeschooling and public school. The parents will be able to teach their kids their values using a classical curriculum but also allowing for classroom experience with other students. We are looking forward to being an academic ministry to many families."

On the typical classroom day, Devotions will start right away at 9:15 a.m., and then at 9:30 a.m. Foundations will begin. Foundations is the grammar-stage program for children ages four through 12 and their parents. Using creative activities, games and lots of enthusiasm, Foundations tutors make memorization fun. Tutors use techniques such as drawing to teach geography, singing to teach Latin, mnemonics in science, singing and rebuses for history, visual pegs to teach timeline, and movements to teach English grammar.

Local organizers suggest that what could be perceived as fun shouldn't fool people, as students are gleaning a large amount of information from a variety of academic subjects. In addition to the memory work, students also participate weekly in public speaking, science projects or experiments, and either an art or music activity, building a firm foundation for a rich education. The Foundations program meets for two semesters of 12 weeks each.

Parents and students participate in a group assembly and then separate into classes of up to eight to 12 students for an academically-charged learning experience. Parents participate in classes to learn how to teach classically at home. Students inspire and encourage each other, and parents appreciate the support and encouragement they find in joining with other like-minded parents.

The Essentials program meets in the afternoons from 1-3 p.m. This power-packed course guides fourth through sixth grade students and their parents through the foundational principles of language structure and analysis, the structure and style of writing, and arithmetic speed and accuracy. The classroom dynamic in Essentials is comparable to the one-room schoolhouse. Children will enjoy the process of parsing and diagramming sentences and learning the correct usage of words through sentence and paragraph building while gleaning information from their peers and wrestling with concepts through a tutor-led dialectic discussion.

For enrollment and registration information for the local CC of Allamakee program, contact Lisa Hagen at 563-535-7507 (home) or 563-568-9913 (mobile).