We're expanding to Challenge B!

We're in the midst of an exciting year for 2016-17, and looking forward to the upcoming year. We are excited to announce that for 2017-18, we will be adding Challenge B to our existing offerings of Challenge A, Foundations, and Essentials. Challenge A & B are for the 7th and 8th grade years (older students who are new to Classical Conversations may also participate). We expect to continue to expand the Challenge program in future years.

For more information about the Challenge A & B program, please look at the CC web site. For more information about signing up, please contact Challenge Director Lori Emr.

We are just about full for our Foundations program (K4-6th grade) for next year; Essentials (4th-6th grade) still has space available. There is a possibility of a new Foundations campus opening in the Lehigh Valley area; if you contact us, we'll put you in touch with others who are interested. We will have the Push The Rock recreational/sports/gym program on Tuesday afternoons again next year; all homeschoolers are welcome to participate in that (primarily intended for ages 4-3rd grade, as it runs at the same time as Essentials).

Filling up!

If you're thinking about participating in Classical Conversations at our Coopersburg campus, don't wait to sign up! We've expanded our number of Foundations classes from 3 last year to the maximum of 6 for this coming year, and only a few slots are left. A few spaces are also available for the Essentials afternoon program for 4th-6th graders. We are also accepting applications for Challenge A (7th grade; 8th graders also accepted), but decisions must be made very soon for that. Classes will start August 30, and run on Tuesdays throughout the school year.

Childcare will be available for children who are too young to participate in CC classes, with professional caregivers and a fun program of Bible stories and songs as well as both structured and free play.

For more information, please contact us at at cclehighvalley@yahoo.com for Foundations & Essentials, or via the CC website for Challenge.

Push The Rock in the afternoons

We are delighted to announce a partnership with Push The Rock, a Christian sports ministry. This coming school year, PTR will operate a sports & activity program each afternoon of our community days (24 weeks through the year), in the new gym at our new home, Locust Valley Chapel in Coopersburg. This will run 1-3 PM, during the time that Essentials (CC's extended program for 4th-6th grades) meets. PTR is available for younger siblings of Essentials students, for other Foundations kids who want the activity and extended time with their CC friends, and for other homeschooling children who simply want an exercise program.

We look forward  to Push The Rock joining with our program to minster to the whole person of our students.

Challenge A (middle school) program starting!

We are delighted to announce the beginning of CC's Challenge program for middle and high school students this coming fall. We will offer Challenge A this year, which is intended for students approximately 12-13 years old. There are several spaces open for new students; we also have space in Foundations and Essentials for younger siblings, but those spaces are limited, so please don't wait if you're interested.

Challenge is CC's 6-year capstone program for building students into devoted followers of Christ and leaders of people, building on the foundation of learning in Foundations and Essentials to explore and think about the world God has placed us in. It is a 30-week, once a week full day program that covers a full range of subjects in a highly participatory seminar setting. It does not require parents to be present, though they are involved through the week in guiding and supporting students in home assignments.

Our plan is to keep building Challenge classes in coming years, so that students who start this year with Challenge A will be able to go through the entire A, B, I, II, III, IV sequence over the next 6 years. However, we won't necessarily offer every class every year (we may group two years of students together to have a better-sized class and properly staff the program).

For more information about the Challenge A program, please look at the CC web site. For more information about signing up, please contact Challenge Director Lori Emr.

Last chance for visit this school year!

We're rapidly approaching the end of the 24-week program year for Foundations and Essentials. Our final open house for 2015-16 will be Tuesday, April 12. You'll get a lot more out of the visit if you first attend an information meeting where we can tell you more of what CC is about and how it operates. We will have an information meeting this coming Saturday, April 2, 9-11 AM in the cafe at Wegman's, 5000 Wegmans Drive, Bethlehem, PA 18017. Please contact us at cclehighvalley@yahoo.com to reserve a space (limited availability!) at the open house and let us know you're coming to the information meeting.We look forward to helping you discern whether CC is a good fit for you and your children for the coming year.

Bigger and better for 2016-17!

We are excited to announce that our community is moving to a new location for 2016-17. We've maxed out the space at our current location, and we're growing. We are deeply grateful that Locust Valley Chapel of Coopersburg (map) has agreed to host CC next year. Locust Valley has more classroom space, and we expect to expand from three to five classes of Foundations. They also are building a gym, which should be available to use by fall. We look forward to having that available for recess and afternoon activity times.

Even though we're adding two new classes, spaces are quickly filling up! (We had to turn people away this year.) If you're interested in joining either the Foundations or the Essentials programs, please don't wait. We've started the last quarter (last community day is April 19), so if you would like to see CC in action, please email us at cclehighvalley@yahoo.com to arrange a time to visit. If you know that you're ready to register, please fill out CC's registration form and send us an email to get the postal address to send the registration form and fee.

Thinking about next year?

Are you interested in learning more about Classical Conversations for the next school year? CC Lehigh Valley is hosting an open house this coming Tuesday, February 2, 9 am-noon for Foundations (age 4 to 6th grade) and 1-3 PM for Essentials (4th-6th grades). Join us for a regular community day; you can see what goes into a day together, and your child(ren) are welcome to participate as well. Feel free to bring a sack lunch so we can talk together over a meal.

If you plan on coming, please send a note to cclehighvalley@yahoo.com so we can be expecting you and have materials ready.

Window on Challenge for middle and high school
On Friday, Feb. 5, 2-4 PM, we will be hosting Doylestown Challenge tutor Heather Zloty, who will explain how Challenge, Classical Conversations' program for middle and high schoolers, works. We do not yet have a Challenge program in place, but are seeking to initiate it in either 2016-17 or at latest 2017-18. Challenge is an all-day (once a week) program with a full range of subjects, designed to help students master the academic material and develop leadership and maturity. Again, if you plan on coming, please send a note to cclehighvalley@yahoo.com.

2015-16 school year underway!

We're off to a great start this fall. We have nearly full classes for Foundations, but we can still accommodate one child in each of the Apprentice (grades 1-2) and Journeymen (grades 3-6) classes. We also have space in the Essentials program (grades 4-6, afternoon) for several students. If you are interested in visiting and/or joining, or just learning more about CC, please contact us at cclehighvalley@yahoo.com.

June information meeting

For many parents, an evening meeting isn't an ideal time. So Saturday, June 27, we're going to hold an information meeting, 8-10 AM, at Wegmans Supermarket (upstairs in the cafe area), 5000 Wegmans Drive, Bethlehem, PA 18017 (just north of the Rt. 512/Center St. exit from US-22).

We will discuss what it means to teach classically from a Christian worldview, how CC embodies that model and how it encourages students and supports parents in learning this way at home.  We will share about the Foundations (K4-6th), Essentials (3rd-6th), and Challenge (7th-12th) programs and take your questions.

Classical Conversations exists to help students to "know God and to make him known."  Come learn the details about what makes our homeschool community different.

To RSVP, please email cclehighvalley@yahoo.com or call (610) 807-9842.

Information meeting - what is CC about?

Classical Conversations of the Lehigh Valley is hosting an informational meeting on Thursday, March 5, 7:30-9:00 PM, to share what is happening on our campus. We will be discussing what it means to teach classically from a Christian worldview, how CC embodies that model and how it encourages students and supports parents in learning this way at home. We will hear from the directors of our programs about how our community day runs and one of our moms will share how she plans for and directs the program in her home. Resources will be available for you to view.

Classical Conversations exists to help students to "know God and to make him known". Come learn the details about what makes our homeschool community different.

If you are interested in coming to our meeting (at the home of one of our community members) in Bethlehem, please email cclehighvalley@yahoo.com or call (610) 807-9842 to RSVP and get location information. We look forward to seeing you.

New open houses announced

Want to know more about Classical Conversations? Want to see us in action? Come on any of the following dates (all Tuesdays):

January 20, 2015
February 10, 2015

Foundations, for ages 4-12, runs 9 am-noon. Essentials, for grades 3-6 (yes, the ages overlap), is 1-3 pm.

Please contact the director at cclehighvalley@yahoo.com to let us know you're coming. You are welcome to bring your child(ren) with you, and they can participate in the program as well. You'll have time both to see what the classes are doing, and to talk individually with members of the community about the program. We look forward to seeing you!

A day in the life

What happens in a typical day at Classical Conversations here in the Lehigh Valley? One part of every session is presentations: from K-4 on up, each student makes a 2-3 minute presentation. It might be "My favorite Christmas present," "A historical person I admire," "Something I did this summer," or a host of other topics.

We want our students to be comfortable formally speaking to people, conveying information, asking and answering questions.

Art is a part of each week: Sometimes we're studying artists, other times we're making art, either visual or musical. All students learn to play the tin whistle (similar to a recorder). At other times of the year, we may listen to classical music, discuss a painting, or experiment with various ways of creating art.

We review our memory work for the week: our timeline of the world, a history sentence giving a snapshot of a period or event, grammar rules, science facts, "skip counting" (math multiples), geography, and the like. Most memory work is on a three-year cycle, so a child who enters Foundations in kindergarten will eventually repeat all the memory work at least twice. There is time for hands-on learning and review about geography, such as marking rivers, states, and continents on a map. Science experiments teach the scientific method and bring concepts to life.

OPEN HOUSE

Come join us for an open house, Tuesday, October 28, at 9:00 am, to watch our regular weekly program in action. Our Foundations program for ages 4-12 runs from 9:00 am to noon. In the afternoon, Essentials for 3rd-6th graders runs from 1:00 to 3:00 pm. You may come with or without your children; children who come will have the opportunity to participate in the program.

For more information or to RSVP, please contact cclehighvalley@yahoo.com.

INFORMATIONAL MEETING

Want to learn more about Classical Conversations? Thinking of homeschooling for 2015-16, or do you need to make a midyear change? Join us on Thursday, November 13, 7:30-9:30 PM at the home of homeschooling mom Kelly Stewart in Bethlehem. For more information or to RSVP, contact cclehighvalley@yahoo.com.

You can get general information about CC and the classical style of education at the Classical Conversations national web site.