Friday, August 10, 2012

Classical Conversations Dice on Mod Podge


I am the proud mother of a first grader! Woohooo! For all of you who have never had a first grader, here are some of the joys of first grade:
  1. She is big enough to use the bathroom on her own, but still needs to be reminded to wipe, flush and wash. And please do it in that order! 
  2. First graders can do chores, but still need mom to remind her when, where and how.
  3. My first grader can read pretty much anything that is put in front of her (Thanks Abeka Phonics!), but that doesn't mean that she will fully understand it. 
  4. She doesn't like to give hugs and kisses when we part company, but still needs cuddles at home. 
We had a great time homeschooling last year, but there were some areas of her education that I felt were lacking.  For example, when you are homeschooling one child, it is really easy to get off schedule. It is so easy to forget to do the fun stuff or to swing the opposite direction and do too much fun stuff. I really wanted accountability this year, so we decided to look into Classical Conversations. We talked to some moms that were already doing it and attended an open house day. When we left the open house, my little princess asked, "When can we do that again?" I knew that I had to make this happen for my child.

I am not one to just step into something and see if it is right for us. No, I jump in with both feet! Not only am I enrolling my child in Classical Conversations (CC), I am going to be a tutor! Which brings me to the dice.... CC is big on memorization. Yes, I can hear the collective groan of the education world, and I was once one of those folks who groaned about how boring memorizing stuff is. But CC has a reason and a method of teaching that is time tested and has been proven. If you want more information on that, watch this video.

One of the tools that CC moms use are reciting the grammar in different voices. Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood created these nifty dice that suggest different voices, subjects and weeks to review. She made them so they can be printed, folded and glued into a cube shape which is really cool! The only problem is that with kids, I don't see the card stock dice holding up for a whole school year. I have been searching for other options. I found some really cool foam blocks online, but the cost was $5 and up for a set of two! I contemplated a trip to the craft store or even Home Depot for wood blocks, but with gas prices on the rise, I have to have a really good reason to drive across town. Yesterday, I was in my local Dollar Tree picking up some athlete's foot cream. I decided to look in the school supplies and see if I could find some dice. No, dice! How about wood blocks in the toys? Nope, but I found these great foam dice! A set of two for $1! WooHoo! I went home, printed the dice pattern, cut them out and Mod Podged them on the dice! They are perfect! The Mod Podge is a little flexible, so if the corners get crushed a the foam will pop back into place without cracking the Mod Podge. I love them so much, I am thinking about making some photo cubes out of the extra set for Christmas gifts!
 

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