Classical Conversations Essentials Organization and Prep

Welcome to my Classical Conversations Essentials organization and prep blog post! Getting started with CC Essentials can feel very overwhelming but I’m here to help! Each year I put together YouTube videos showing how I’ve prepped for the upcoming school year and provide you with alllllll the links to all the things.

Here is my most recent Essentials prep video (from the 2024-2025 school year). You can see my first one from our first year of Essentials here (but they are very, very similar fyi).

This post contains some affiliate links. If you purchase a product through an affiliate link I make a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you!

What do I need to start Classical Conversations Essentials?

EEL curriculum – this is the grammar portion of Classical Conversations Essentials. This is a one time purchase that’s used every year. There are three main components: the curriculum guide, the solutions manual, and the student workbook bundle.

IEW curriculum – this is the writing portion of Classical Conversations Essentials. This corresponds with the Foundations cycles history focus (Cycle 1 ancient history / Cycle 2 medieval history / Cycle 3 U.S. history).

Teaching Writing Structure and Style (aka TWSS) – Video training seminar for using the IEW writing program. If your community owns the dvds and you watch them together as a community you will only need the notebook, if you want to own the dvds too here’s the whole program. (talk to your tutor/direct to see what you need to purchase)

To see how this will come packaged, check out my Essentials curriculum unboxing video. Then keep reading/watching to see how I organize it.

Additional items from the CC bookstore

These are not “required” but highly recommended. Your community may provide these so check with your tutor/director.

IEW portable wall – A very handy resource your child will reference often while writing their IEW papers.

Analytical Task Sheet trivium table – One option for how/where you child will diagram their weekly sentences. My son used this every week in community but preferred to use something else at home.

Other trivium tables – There are three other trivium tables that have most of the other Essentials charts on them (nouns / verbs / sentences). We did not use these at all our first year; I bought a set of used ones before our second year because they were super cheap and I wanted to give them a try but they are definitely not necessary. All these charts are included in your curriculum and many (most?) people just put them in page protectors for their child to copy but if you prefer a foldable, laminated version then the trivium tables may be for you.

Digital Classical Conversations Essentials resources

Onward E-zine – CC has created a digital “magazine” for each week of the year called Onward that contains a variety of printables that CC has currated for each week (checklists, charts needed for that week, the “offical” editing exercises, extra sentences to be diagrammed + solutions, parent-created weekly worksheets, history sentence editing exercises, vocab worksheets, and math games) You can access this in CC Connected under the learning center (here is a direct link to Cycle 1 week 1) This is your easy button for what to do each week!

CC Connected: CC Connected (or CCC) is an online resource available to you after you’ve paid your tuition. There are additional resources put out by CC, a forum for parents to chat and ask questions, and a file sharing section where CC parents can share resources they create. Many of the links I share here come from the CC Connected forums.

Digital version of EEL curriculum – This is your EEL curriculum in digital form. It is not downloadable but if you need to reference and you don’t have your book near you you can pull it up online.

Digital version of EEL solutions pack – This has your EEL solutions manual in digital form. It is not downloadable but if you need to reference and you don’t have your book near you you can pull it up online.

Student packet downloads – If something happens to your original student packet you can download them and print them again.

What’s in my binders

The most overwhelming part of Essentials, in my opinion, was trying to figure out what everything was and how to organize it all. Here’s how I set up my binders – this was the most simple way that made sense to me but you’ll see a variety of methods on YouTube, in the Facebook groups, and in your community so do what works best for you!

Binder #1: Main EEL curriculum
(1.5 inch binder)

This is my main binder that I carry to community with me each week and use daily at home. It contains everything I use regularly.

Yearly overview – This gives a high-level overview of what you’ll be doing for EEL and IEW each week of the year. This can be found at the end of the Onward e-zine but your tutor may give you one as well that is specific to your community’s schedule.

Weekly planning/quick reference sheets – These give an overview of each week: topics you’re learning, charts for the week, the weekly sentences, IEW vocab, spelling list, IEW suggested books. These are SO helpful to me because it has everything all in one place! Here’s Cycle 1 / Cycle 2 / Cycle 3. (there are several similar options on CC Connected but the ones I linked here have been my favorites)

Essentials in one hour a day bookmark – A really good snapshot reference of what to do for Essentials at home. Especially great for first time Essentials families!

Master charts – These are the charts that come in your EEL curriculum.

All of the EEL curriculum (minus weeks 13-24) – The EEL curriculum comes with tabbed dividers and pages you put behind each divider. I put all of that in my main notebook except for weeks 13-24 – those I put in a separate place and then switch out weeks 1-12 for weeks 13-24 over Christmas break. Many people carry all 24 weeks (if you do that you will need a much larger binder) but I find that to be really big to carry around all the time and not necessary so I only carry half a year at a time.

Faces of History information packet – A very helpful reference if your community does Faces of History at the end of the year! This walks you through what to do to plan out your FOH.

Tricky sentences for 1st tour students – This has a list of all the weekly sentences just like in your curriculum guide, but these are marked with which ones are tricky and might contain things we haven’t covered yet in the year (so more appropriate for 2nd and 3rd years, not so much for 1st years). I used this to determine which sentences to use and which to skip for my first year student.

Sentence solutions for weeks 1-12 – Found in your solutions guide; these are the solutions to the weekly diagramming. Just like with the main curriculum I only keep 12 weeks at a time in my binder and switch them out at Christmas break.

Worksheet answer keys – The worksheets I print off for my son to do (see the section about his binder below) come with answer keys so I put those in the back of my binder to reference when I check his work.

Binder #2: EEL weeks not currently in use
(1 inch binder)

This binder only contains things for the weeks that I don’t currently have in my main binder. It holds:

weeks 13-24 from the EEL curriculum to store until 2nd semester
weeks 13-24 of my son’s worksheets to store until 2nd semester

Over Christmas break I switch them out and this binder will hold weeks 1-12 until the end of the year.

Binder #3: Masters and Solutions
(1 inch binder)

This binder contains verything from the solutions manual (master charts, editing exercise solutions, weekly sentence solutions) and student packet (blank charts, editing exercises, and blank analytical task sheet)

I remove weeks 1-12 of the weekly sentence solutions and put those in my main EEL curriculum binder at the beginning of the year then switch them out for weeks 13-24 at Christmas; but otherwise left everything else the same

My son’s binder
(2 inch zipper binder)

Our first year we used a regular 1 inch binder and it was sufficient for his charts and worksheets but couldn’t carry some of the larger things (IEW portable wall, white board, etc.) so this year we went with a larger zipper binder that he can fit everything in.

Charts – This has his masters and fill-in-the blanks in page protectors. I put them in so that the master is on the left and the fill-in-the blank is on the right for easy reference as he’s copying with a dry erase marker. If you bought the trivium tables I mentioned above you wouldn’t need to do the ones in page protectors.

Analytical task sheet (ATS) trivium table – He does not use this one at home for diagramming his sentences but he does use it during class on our community day. If you do not get the ATS trivium table then you will either want to put a blank ATS worksheet in page protectors for your child to use with a dry erase marker (this can be found in your student packet and/or in Onward) or print out the pre-printed ones for each sentence (found in Onward).

IEW portable wall – for reference while writing IEW papers.

Copy of weekly sentences – This has all the weekly sentences for diagramming in one document. He does not use this but I’ve left it in for a reference. If your child is diagramming on the ATS trivium table or on a blank ATS sheet you’ve put in page protectors then you will likely want to have this in their binder for them to look at and copy.

IEW vocabularly list – a quick reference of the IEW vocab for that year (I also keep past years in there to encourage him to keep using past words he’s learned) – here’s Cycle 1 / Cycle 2 / Cycle 3 (I have not found cycle 2 on CC Connected but when I do I’ll update with a link)

Tabs – I found a set of tabs that has 24 tabs (one for each week) that I use to organize his worksheets by week (see below for list of worksheets)

Number Knockout equation worksheet – Helps students systematically find combinations to use when playing Number Knockout (I laminated this so it can be used over and over with a dry erase marker)

Additional things provided by our tutor for class – Number Knockout board, white board, notebook, dice, deck of cards, dry erase marker, eraser, zipper pouch, etc.

Reference sheets I printed our first year but we didn’t use

These are some things I printed for our first year but we didn’t end up using.

Expanded ATS – If you have a child who writes large and/or needs more room for writing and diagramming sentences he/she might like these ATS pages that have extra room to write.

Spelling rules, puncutation, and capitalization rules and homophones – This is a great reference sheet but we use a different spelling curriculum and editing exercises so we didn’t use this at all

Worksheets

So far we have kept it pretty simple with our worksheets

What we’re using this year:

Weekly worksheets from Onward – These practice worksheets are great for putting the new material into practice. There are 3-4 per week to work on.

Weekly sentences already written to ATS sheets – Instead of writing his sentences on the ATS trivium table or on a blank ATS sheet in page protectors, my son prefers to do them on paper so I print these (found in each week’s Onward) that has the sentences already printed on them.

Worksheets we’ve used in the past

History editing sentences – Last year we edited the Foundations history sentences that another parent created (this cycle’s can be found in each week of Onward or all cycles can be found here).

Homophone practice – A great, simple worksheet for practing the homophones

Additional worksheets

These are worksheets that I haven’t used personally but also look great and you might want to see if they’re something you’d like.

Workbooks – There are several options of workbooks that people have created for practicing the Essentials work. This is especially great for people who don’t want to pull random worksheets from here or there or print one week at a time from Onward – this has them all together. Easy button! Here are a few:

Option #1: Currently only Cycle 3 available, will update if she creates more for other cycles.
Option #2: This has a couple of different choices within the file (same worksheets, but some are plain and some are cutesy). These are generic and can work for any cycle.
Option #3: This has been a popular workbook. Cycle 3 is available both on CC Connected and for purchase here; Cycle 1 is available to purchase here.

Charts for tracing – Great option for kids who would do better with tracing rather than writing/copying

Editing exercises – Here are some great editing exercises (cycle 1 only)

History sentence diagramming – Diagramming practice with the history sentences (I would probably not use these with a 1st tour student, would be better for older students) Cycle 3 here, Cycle 1 coming soon from what I hear.

IEW vocab copywork – Includes both cursive and print options as well as a drawing worksheet (Cycle 1 / Cycle 2 / Cycle 3)

IEW vocab crossword puzzles and word searches – Found in Onward and also here: Cycle 1 option 1 / Cycle 1 option 2 / Cycle 3

IEW vocab worksheets – We used some that were like this for Cycle 3 and really liked them. They were posted in the CC Facebook group though, not on CC Connected. However, here are some similar ones for Cycle 2.

Other resources and hands on activities

Lego Chart A – a cute reference page that visually explains Chart A using Legos.

Mini charts – I printed these, used a green highlighter to make them match the master charts, laminated, and put on a ring. These were a great reference, especially when he was working on worksheets so he didn’t have to flip back and forth. (if you buy the foldable trivium tables you probably would not also need to print these mini charts)

EEL flashcards – A good way to practice memorizing definitions. We did not use these our first year like I thought we would, but it would have been helpful if we did.

Large Chart A for whiteboard – This is something I created for kids who are more hands on. Laminate, add magnets, and use this to build a huge Chart A on the whiteboard.

Flipbooks – These look like a great reference for Essentials! I haven’t made these yet but they’re on my list to make at some point.

Chart puzzles – A vareity of fun hands on puzzles with the charts. We did not use these our first year but I like them and may incorporate them this year.

Supplemental curriculum we use

We do not use the spelling lists or the editing exercises that CC provides. This is what we’re using this year instead:

Daily Grams – Daily Grams has practice with combining sentences, punctuation,

Automatic Spelling – This spelling program has worked really well for my kids so far so we’re going to keep going with it. It uses many similar rules to what we have been familiar with using Logic of English.

Essentials curriculum unboxing video
Prepping for our first year of Essentials (video)
Essentials review after our first year (video)
Cycle 1 Foundations prep video (this year: 2024-2025) and blog post
Cycle 3 Foundations prep video (2023-2024) and blog post
My Classical Conversations YouTube playlist

Supplies for Prep

Here are a few of the office supply type items that I use a ton when prepping for CC each year.

Printer – you can print at places like Staples (I think CC has a discount with them?) but I prefer to print at home. I’ve been very happy with this printer.

Paper cutter – I have had this for over 15 years and it has been a total workhorse! I use it for everything!

Laminator – I joke that I started homeschooling just so I had an excuse to buy a laminator ;) I love laminating stuff.

Proclick binder – I love using this to make my own spiral bound books. It’s totally not necessary and was a fun splurge last year but I loooove it. I use these coils.

Corner rounder – I use this to round the corners of things I laminate and cut which makes them less pokey