Essentials of the English Language

While I taught PE at our homeschooling co-op this year, the kids took co-op classes. Our son took three classes: grammar, math/science class, and PE with me.  Our daughter took what many consider to be Classical Conversation's best course, Essentials of the English Language.  I spent numerous hours this past summer just compiling all the different texts for this course into three large 3" notebooks. Parents were required to attend several training sessions before the classes began, and we were supposed to attend all the classes although I could only attend the first 30 minutes before I had to excuse myself to go teach PE.

The material is very comprehensive and also includes the popular writing program, Institute of Excellence in Writing. The daily homework was critical to learning (not merely busy work), but it proved to be too much in addition to her four days of schooling, so by the end of the year, we were both quite weary.  I wish we could have gotten more out of it, but since our kids go to private school four days a week, there just wasn't enough time in the evenings with all their extracurricular activities to give the Essentials work the time and attention required.  I'm thankful the kids' private school has a no-homework policy, but oh, how I miss the flexibility homeschooling provides!  Her Essentials teacher was very enthusiastic and effective in her class facilitation and presentation of material, and the students progressed tremendously in their grammar, math speed, and writing skills, despite our family's lackluster home effort.  Other presentations that day included King Tut, Joan of Ark, and Cleopatra.

At the end of the year, each student presented a typed research paper from the time period of study in Classical Conversations Cycle 1 to the teacher and a costumed presentation to the class.  Our daughter chose Queen Victoria as her research topic.