Submitted photo Area homeschoolers Katie Sullivan (left) and Jed Heidbreder with their awards.

Two Rugby area homeschool students, Katie Sullivan (daughter of Kelly and Brooke Sullivan) and Jed Heidbreder (son of Darren and Marit Heidbreder), who both participate in the Minot Classical Conversations Foundations/Essentials homeschool programs, earned the prestigious “Memory Master” award on Monday April 15th. These talented students were recognized at Minot First Church of the Nazarene during the Classical Conversations End of Year Celebration for their arduous efforts to achieve this distinctive honor. Memory Master is the highest award given by the national Classical Conversations (CC) homeschooling curriculum to exemplary students who have mastered all the memory work for a given year.

Classical Conversations combines classical learning with a biblical worldview and believes the ultimate purpose of education is to know God and to make Him known. The memory work this year for Classical Conversations Cycle 1 covers seven subject areas: geography, Latin, math, English grammar, science, history and timeline. Classical Conversations defines mastery as the storing of information to long-term memory, which means the students do not cram for a single test and then move on, but instead they endeavor to train the brain to retain information permanently. They “pound” each fact into their brain like a “peg” through rote memorization, which later they will be able to “hang” information on as they expand their knowledge and understanding of each topic. At the end of the year, students who wish to obtain the Memory Master award must accurately recite all 24 weeks of information (for all 7 subjects) on three different occasions to three different people to assure complete mastery. Katie and Jed committed over 400 facts to memory in order to achieve this award, including –

*161 events and people in a chronological timeline

*24 history sentences with dates to add depth to our timeline

*45 U.S. Presidents, in order

*120 geographic features and political locations throughout history, all around the world

*53 prepositions along with grammar facts, including 23 helping verbs and 12 linking verbs

*24 science facts including classifications of living things and each continent’s highest mountain

*Latin Noun Endings in their singular and plural cases

*Multiplication tables/skip counting up to 15×15, common squares and cubes as well as basic geometry formulas, algebraic math laws and unit conversions

Parents who are interested in the Minot Classical Conversations programs may find out more at: www.classicalconversations.com or by emailing Foundations/Essentials Director Katie Vert (Campus #1, meets Mondays) at reverticalinc@gmail.com or Foundations/Essentials Director Megan Sargent (Campus #2, meets Tuesdays) at meganmsargent@gmail.com. Classical Conversations is also bringing their free Parent Practicum equipping event to Trinity Evangelical Free Church on June 25-27th, 2019 for those interested in learning more about homeschooling classically for ages PreK-12th, register at www.parentpracticum.com .

– Minot Classical Conversations