New homeschool option now available for Charles City community

To The Press

A new homeschooling opportunity is now available in Charles City through Classical Conversations, a Christian classical homeschool program with 10 communities in the area.

Erin Whitty, the director of the new Classical Conversations community, moved to Charles City in 2015 when her husband, Adam, accepted the pastorate at Temple Baptist Church. They have three boys, aged 4, 3, and 1, and the oldest is a member of the new homeschooling group.

“We are so excited about the potential of this community,” Erin Whitty said. “We knew we wanted to homeschool our kids when they got old enough, but to have the opportunity to encourage and be encouraged by fellow homeschool families is a privilege!”

Many parents are being asked to make some tough decisions regarding their kids’ education this year, she noted. Parents who never thought of homeschooling have gotten a crash course because of COVID-19.

Classical Conversations has been equipping parents to homeschool their kids for over 20 years, so the group has it down to a science, Whitty said.

“Honestly, that’s my favorite part of the Classical Conversations program,” she said. “The one-room schoolhouse model simplifies the traditional subject areas down to a few core memory facts every week, and it frees parents and students up for deeper exploration as they learn together. It takes a lot of the overwhelm out of homeschooling, especially for parents with multiple kids.”

The community’s Foundations program for ages 4-11 is meeting on Tuesdays for the duration of this school year, and the community plans to add an Essentials program for ages 8-11 for the 2021-22 school year.

Each Foundations class is made up of eight students in approximately the same age group and is led by a trained parent tutor. Students and parents attend this class together.

From 9:30 a.m. to noon, the tutor leads the class in five 30-minute segments that cover new memory work, a science project, a fine arts activity, public speaking and memory work review time. The memory work includes history, Latin, science, English grammar, geography and math.

Essentials classes are two hours long and follow Foundations and lunch. They devote 45 minutes each to English grammar and writing and 30 minutes to math drills.

Essentials classes usually have about 12 students ages 9-11 who attend class with their parents. Parents watch a parent-tutor model the lesson so that they can continue it at home.

Parents who are interested in learning more about Classical Conversations and the new community in Charles City are invited to attend one of the upcoming information meetings on Feb. 9 and March 16. The community will also be hosting open houses for parents who would like to see Classical Conversations in action.

For more information, contact Erin Whitty at erinwhitty.cc@gmail.com or visit the Facebook page at facebook.com/charlescityclassical.

For more information about CC, visit www.classicalconversations.com.

Classical Conversations is a national program with more than 125,000 students enrolled in its tutoring programs, provided by 2,500 communities in all 50 states and 30 foreign countries.