We started our home education journey in 2013 when our son finished pre-school. He had flourished and been loved by his teachers. As we looked at school options, we were not convinced we could find a similar setting that would be the best place for him. He was five and so young. Would he benefit from more outdoor playtime, learning experiences, us his parents nurturing his interests? Should we delay his start from a year? We then came across Charlotte Mason curriculum and realised it would be more suitable to him as a first step in our home education journey. As we started and met more parents who were experts (in our eyes) in teaching/growing organically as a family, we wanted to reproduce this at home as well. As a mum, I wondered how we could continue in raising a healthy and happy family in nourishing a clear bond with each child? This is not the experience most parents go through in the current education system. We kept our ears opened to different educational approaches and came across Classical conversations in 2014.

After meeting the director and understanding the classical approach, we went to an open day and their annual conference. We were blown away by the friendly welcome from the tutors, parents and children. We loved the class environment, the small number of children and the quality of the teachings. Our son felt home instantly. At lunchtime, all children played together, and we loved seeing all ages interacting and caring for each other. The conference designed to support the parents was very informative; we heard more about the method and parents experience. Our home-education journey had been so far quite relaxed, but I was concerned that we needed something more structured for the coming years which would lead our son to college or university and accommodate my part-time job as well. I saw that in Classical Conversations, I could lean on an established curriculum, benefit from other parents experience and be part of an active Christian community based on biblical foundations.

We signed up for the following term in January 2015 and have not looked back since. I had a baby girl in February, and it was no problem to bring her along to the class. Our son has made wonderful friends who enjoy their learning together. They clearly demonstrate support and joy towards each other, not only the subjects but also their personality growth with Christian values. Parents attend the class as well, and we have so many memories of their joy of learning. Our son loves especially the 3 minutes presentation the children have to prepare for each class day. Each child chooses a subject and presents it to his class, who then ask questions. It gives them the opportunity to develop presentation and leadership skills. During the week at home, we review the memory work we learnt, the bible song, the geography map and science experiment and then prepare for the following week. The children show so much enthusiasm. We can go back to some of the subject more in depth as we wish because the parents are responsible for the learning with Classical Conversations. We work alongside with the tutors. As a mum, I look forward to seeing other parents and children every week.

I would recommend anyone to consider Classical Conversations as an option.

-Laurence