Disclaimer: Memoria Press sent me curriculum to use with my three kids in exchange for some posts on my blog. You can trust that all opinions are my own and that my blog posts will be a true reflection of our experience.
Her eyes opened in disbelief. “You’re taking away my FAVOURITE SUBJECT?!?”
That was the reaction of my eleven-year-old when I told her that we’d be using a different Latin curriculum this year.
I get it. I mean, her old instructor was funny — I loved watching his videos too! It’s just that I had all these lingering doubts about the curriculum itself. I felt like the learning was … shallow, for lack of a better word. I guess I wanted something with more drills, more grammar, more review? Yeah, you can see why my daughter wasn’t excited by the news.
I kept looking at other Latin curriculums, wondering if they might be better. Mostly, I kept circling back to First Form Latin by Memoria Press. I’ve been impressed with every single book I’ve received from MP, so why would their Latin program be any different?
I downloaded a sample from their site and compared the contents to the curriculum that we were using at the time. The difference in depth was obvious, even from just reading the table of contents. So I bought it.
And you know what? Latin is still my daughter’s favourite subject! In fact, just the other week she told me that she feels like shes “really learning Latin now.” I’m happy with it too — the lessons aren’t too easy or too hard. The videos aren’t too long and the worksheets aren’t too tedious. We’ve found our Goldilocks of Latin curriculums.
In fact, “Goldilocks” is the perfect description for all of our Memoria Press books so far. River’s books are challenging without being overwhelming. Harbour’s books are charming but not condescending. And, Forest’s workbooks? Well, they’re way too advanced for him, but he happily colours wherever he wants and hasn’t let things like “the directions” hold him back. That was my fault for picking something he wasn’t ready for. I’m not discouraged though — he’s four, so I’m just happy to have books that he can work on whenever the “school mood” strikes him.
We’ve been using Memoria Press for three-ish solid months now, and I want to post an update on how it’s working out. It’s a bit of a long post, so
- Junior Kindergarten
- Grade One
- Grade Six
- Archive: read about how we came to use Memoria Press
- Archive: read about our first impressions of our new MP Books
- Archive: watch my first impressions on Facebook video
MEMORIA PRESS: JUNIOR KINDERGARTEN
You might remember that I’ve never really done a formal JK curriculum. Despite that, I decided to get the junior kindergarten program for Forest so he could do school with his sisters. I’m so glad that my days of frantically searching Pinterest for busywork are over — now I just have to pull out our JK books whenever he feels like doing worksheets.
Which turned out to not be very often. In a surprise plot twist, we ended up enrolling Forest in the local Waldorf kindergarten at the very last minute. I think that he was in the classroom before we officially finished the application process — that’s how last minute it was.
As crazy as that week was, I’m so thankful that we enrolled him. Kindergarten has made my life so much easier. Forest’s half-day of school is very un-academic, focusing instead on imaginative play, fairy tales, and time outdoors. It’s basically everything that I wish I had time to do with him, but I can’t because I’m busy sounding out H-O-T with Harbour or trying to find River’s math book.
But where does that leave him with his homeschooling? I’m still figuring that out, to be honest.
And oh, look at the calendar. January has come out of
Now I’m trying to decide how to work the books into our day. Memoria Press’ JK is split over two days (though a five-day curriculum is apparently in the works). How do I work a two-day program into our week? I briefly considered doing it on Fridays and Saturdays, but that is a bit too much for me. I need my Saturdays for cooking and cleaning!
A better option is to do the work in the afternoons when he’s finished school. This arrangement will work particularly well, I think, because Harbour has a hard time adjusting to her brother being home from school and in “her space”. Now, after lunch, I can send her to her room for a bit of “alone time” while Forest and I read the stories and do the workbooks on the couch.
If Forest had stayed home instead of going to Kindergarten, I believe I would have quickly purchased the Simply Classical Level C guide to replace the JK one that I have. I’ve read in the MP Facebook groups that the two levels cover the same material, but Level C is spread out over more days, creating a better daily rhythm.
In fact, I might have even downgraded to Level B, which is apparently a halfway point between the Preschool curriculum and the JK/Level C curriculum. That’s probably where Forest should have started, but I didn’t realize that at the time. He’s a September-born kid and JK is a bit too advanced for him.
That’s not to say that we’ve haven’t had fun with the books. He joyfully disregards my instructions to draw ONE cloud in the sky and ONE apple on the tree on the “one” page. The book says to colour the squirrel brown? “No, mommy, he wants to be purple.” Meh. I’m not going to say no — he’s still so little. There is still too much Charlotte Mason in me to make a four-year-old to sit down and do worksheets properly. As long as he’s having fun, I’m happy to keep pulling them out.
Links: view the Memoria Press Junior Kindergarten, Simply Classical Level B and Simply Classical Level C curriculums.
MEMORIA PRESS: GRADE ONE(ISH)
Oh, man. Where do I even begin with Harbour?
Memoria Press: First Start Reading
I had dearly hoped to finish up First Start Reading D by the end of August, but we literally finished Book B the week before Halloween. Yikes.
Despite that, I’m encouraged by our steady progress, as slow as it is. Harbour is getting so much better at reading her CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words. Site words are … well, we’re still working on those.
Books A and B covered the vowels A, I, and O, and I’m grateful that she hasn’t been pushed to go faster. Going too fast with other curriculums just left us both frustrated. Infinitely slow seems to suit us both better.
People, I cannot stress enough that we’re moving at the speed of molasses. But molasses is sweet and a good source of minerals and I’m sure there’s an analogy in there somewhere. Please feel free to share it with me, because I need the
Memoria Press: Enrichment
At the beginning of September, I took a long look at where we were and where I wanted to be. I figured that if Harbour and I worked hard, we could finish the First Start Reading books by January and then begin Grade One properly.
I packed away all our beautiful new picture books and textbooks and I pulled the Kindergarten Enrichment Guide back out again. It was a hard thing to do.
Things went fine until a new problem emerged: our library doesn’t stock many of the books from the Kindergarten booklist and I ran out. I couldn’t buy them either, because I spent all of our book money on the Grade One selections. Argh.
Back went the Kindergarten guide and out came the First Grade Enrichment Guide. Now we’re slowly working through our new picture books and I’m actually pretty happy about that.
I’m enjoying the Grade One guide as much as I enjoyed
It can be a lot to do at once, so we generally split the vocab and the discussion questions up over a few days. I don’t worry much about starting a new book each week either. We generally stay with a book until it feels done, and then we move on to the next one.
I did feel a bit scattered for the first few months, not being on track in either the Kindergarten manual or the Grade One manual. I’m okay with it now, though. I just had to make peace with going our own speed.
Memoria Press: Simply Classical
Actually, I still wonder if I should have put Harbour in the Simply Classical stream, which is Memoria Press’ curriculum for kids that have learning issues. I go back and forth on it every single week.
Back in the spring, I chatted with a staff member at Memoria Press and we decided that it would be best to keep Harbour in the regular program until we receive a formal diagnosis
It might be something I have to decide book by book. The First Grade Enrichment Guide is going really well, but the spelling book is
At least I know that if we choose to switch to Simply Classical Level 2 instead of starting Memoria Press Grade One, there will be overlap in the picture books — I’m happy that I haven’t wasted my money!
I’m also glad to know that switching to Simply Classical is even an option. It’s one of the things that I really love about Memoria Press — whether my kids are struggling, at grade level, or in need of something more challenging, there’s an MP curriculum to
Links: view the Memoria Press First Grade and Simply Classical Level 2 curriculums.
MEMORIA PRESS: SIXTH GRADE
Harbour and Forest ended up going slower than I expected, but River?
Originally, we planned for her to use Memoria Press for:
- Christian Studies II,
- Famous Men of the Middle Ages,
- Literature,
- the read-
alouds .
After I received our curriculum for review, I was so impressed by the quality of the books that I also purchased What’s that Bird and the History of Medicine for science, and, of course, First Form Latin, as I mentioned at the beginning.
I’m so pleased with the books that we have. The pace of our learning is perfect — not too fast and not too slow. I like the way our day is structured. I like that my daughter is able to do much of her work independently, and I like how easy it is for me to check her work even if I haven’t been teaching her the lessons myself. Teacher’s manuals — where have you been all my life?!
(1) Memoria Press Latin: Christian Studies II
Christian Studies II is exactly what I’ve been looking for in a Bible program: basic Bible literacy. This curriculum teaches the Bible stories as they are without adding extra interpretation.
I don’t want a course that’s bogged down with creationism vs evolution or Ken Ham’s ideas about the flood. I don’t want a curriculum that preaches penal substitution theory when telling the story of the cross. I don’t want a curriculum that is a devotional dressed up as a textbook. I just want my kids to know the stories and to know them well.
(2) Memoria Press Latin: First Form Latin
Latin remains my daughter’s favourite subject. She’s learning vocabulary and tenses, diagramming sentences, and doing the translation.
She’s particularly happy about learning different verb tenses, even though I find them hopelessly confusing. But I get where she’s coming from — learning a new language in just present tense makes you feel like a babbling two-year-old. Throw in some imperfect endings and your sentences suddenly sound a lot more sophisticated.
I like the mix of grammar and vocabulary, and I really feel like she’s retaining a lot of what she’s learning. I do wish that she was farther along in her lessons, but I’ve decided not to push it. We’ll get as far as we get and then just pick up from there next year. She’ll need to finish eventually if she ever wants to read her new copy of Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis — that’s probably more motivation than my nagging will ever be.
(3) Memoria Press Science: Birds & Medicine
Memoria Press’ science — can I tell you for a minute what a relief it’s been for me? For years, I’ve struggled to find a science curriculum worthy of the enthusiasm of my science-loving daughter, but she has utterly hated them all. She wants to freely read about science on her own, not be force-fed scheduled lessons and simple experiments. I’m afraid I might have killed her natural curiosity with all the curriculums we tried.
In contrast, the Memoria Press approach to science is far more basic. In their words:
Before you can study nature, you have to know what nature is. Memoria Press’ science program has two goals prior to high school science. First, we introduce students to the world of nature by studying the things it is made up of—birds, insects, trees, mammals, and the heavenly bodies. Second, students are given a narrative account of the development of the sciences—they are given science in a story form, in a way they can best understand it. “
https://www.memoriapress.com/articles/nature-science/
And also read: https://www.memoriapress.com/articles/nature-science/
Nature study? A narrative of historical development? Doesn’t this just delight the Charlotte Mason in me! And the lessons are only once a week too, which delights the overwhelmed homeschooling mom in me.
River and I invited one of her friends to do the curriculum with us, which makes the lessons that much more enjoyable. We just finished up the bird study the week before Christmas. It was a nice routine — each week, the girls carefully coloured two or three birds in their Peterson Field Guide colouring books while I read out loud from the textbook. Then we’d do the study guide orally, frequently reviewing questions from earlier weeks too. These girls are good — I’m impressed at how many facts they’ve tucked away during our simple weekly study.
River knows almost every bird in our flashcard deck now and she is getting better at identifying them by sound. The bird calls still stump me, but I’m determined to learn them all by summer.
Now that Christmas is over, we’re moving from birds to Exploring the History of Medicine. I’ve read ahead in Tiner’s book and it’s fascinating! Did you know that before Hippocrates (of Hippocratic Oath fame), doctors were sometimes hired to create poisons to kill their patient’s enemies? Yeah — good stuff. I think both girls are going to enjoy reading this book with me.
(4) Memoria Press History: Famous Men of the Middle Ages
Famous Men of the Middle ages is scheduled once a week. To be honest, I feel a bit lost this year without our history being at the centre of our homeschool lessons. I’m used to doing some Story of the World every single day. Even last year when we bought Memoria Press’ Famous Men of Rome to try out, we covered a chapter a day.
To make matters worse, I didn’t realize that River has been dawdling through her lessons and now we’re WAAAAY behind. But that’s
(5) Memoria Press Literature: Study Guides
The other subject that I feel that I let slide too much is literature. River hates the workbooks! Which just makes me
However — and I never would have admitted this at the time — I also remember how much more I appreciated the books we studied after we had picked them apart. That’s why I’m cracking down on literature studies now and making sure that we do them right.
I let River read Adam of the Road and A Door in the Wall without using the study guides, but now that we’re at Robin Hood, we’re doing it together. To make sure literature isn’t forgotten, I’ve moved it to the beginning of our day when I have free time.
Now our mornings start off with our read aloud (we’re currently doing Little Women — yay!), then we go over a quick grammar lesson and some poetry or picture study, and then we finish by either reading the next chapter in Robin Hood or doing the next lesson in our study guide. This is different because River used to start the day with Latin and Math and we finished the day with literature — meaning it was often neglected as other activities came up. Now we ease in with tea and books and it’s a much, much nicer way to begin the day in general.
As for the guides themselves, well thank goodness for them! I would never be able to keep the character straight without them. Robert Fitzooth is Robin Hood? William Scathlock is Will Scarlet? Since when!? I don’t think either of those names ever came up in Kevin Costner’s movie, and if it wasn’t for the reading notes, I’d be completely lost.
Incidentally, I made my daughter watch trailers of the old Robin Hood movie so that she would know how to properly read all of the Sherrif of Nottingham’s lines — in Alan Rickman’s voice (or, to an eleven-year-old Harry Potter fan, in Professor Snape’s voice). Honestly, I don’t see how his lines could be read any other way.
Oh man, we are way too lowbrow for classical education lol.
The one thing that surprised me about doing Robin Hood with Memoria Press is that we’re moving so slowly through the book. One day we read a chapter, the next day we do the study guide. It’s not “one chapter a week” like Charlotte Masoners do it, but it’s still a really gentle pace.
Link: view the Memoria Press Grade Six curriculum.
Organizing our Day
Someone asked on my Facebook page which subjects I combine for my kids. I don’t combine anything, but that’s only because my kids are each three and a half years apart in age. If my kids were closer together, I would absolutely stick them in the same grade and work through the material together. Just because a book is scheduled for Grade Six doesn’t mean it won’t work for Grade Five or Grade Seven — in fact, many of the books on the Memoria Press website give a grade range of a few years.
Given that we’re aren’t combining anything, you can imagine that we have a lot of books. A LOT. I’ve found the only way to keep my sanity is to have a milk crate for each grade. Ideally, I go through the schedule and pull out the books I’ll need for each child each day. The books go in the appropriate crate and I work from that for the rest of the day. In practice, the books get mixed up a lot, but it’s still a pretty good system. Latin isn’t in the Grade Six crate? Oh well, check the JK one instead.
The crates aren’t pretty, but they’re stackable and durable and easy to haul from room to room. They work, and when I’m deep into our homeschooling day, that’s all I really ask of them.
Curriculum as a Tool
It’s easy to get caught up in things being perfect when you’re homeschool. The perfect storage system, the perfect book collection, the perfect workspace.
I’ve been working on this post for months — months — and I think the reason that it took me so long to publish is that I’ve been embarrassed, I guess, that we’re not doing everything “perfectly”. Nothing is on schedule. We’ve dropped things. We’ve added things. Homeschooling life is messy. How do I write about a curriculum if I can’t teach it
The thing is, Memoria Press works for us. It works really well. It is meeting the needs of each of my kids, and isn’t that what matters? A curriculum is ultimately a tool and it’s important to remember that it’s there to serve you — not the other way around.
Memoria Press takes my grand lofty ideas of education and it makes them doable, you know? I look at the curriculum and I’m not overwhelmed. I like what we’re learning, and I love the leisurely pace.
I thought that I had abandoned Charlotte Mason when I switched to Memoria Press, but I almost feel like Memoria Press has given me the tools to accomplish the goals that Charlotte Mason first inspired in me. Nature study, great books, classical music, beautiful poetry. It’s “the feast” that I envisioned, with a few workbooks on the side. It’s not too much or too little or too hard or too easy. I’m sure Goldilocks would approve.
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