Challenge A & B

Last year, our children were enrolled in Challenge A and Challenge B through Classical Conversations. So, it was our first year of having both children in the Challenge program after a few years of participating in Foundations and Essentials. I was directing our local F/E community, however, so we stayed in touch with the families and were heavily involved with the weekly community days and other events for our CC community. We have a small campus, so our Challenge classes were not far from our Foundations classes and I was able to sit in on some of the strands after getting the younger families ready for their day. It was different to direct and not tutor for the last two years, but it was great to be able to come in and observe the discussions and learning going on in the Challenge classes.

Some benefits of the Challenge program for our children:

• Our 9th grader and I tackled formal logic, which we never would have tried on our own. It challenged us, but stretched our thinking.
• Looking at both sides of a current event and debating the issue were a great way to expand our thinking and prepare for Mock Trial.
• Learning to write persuasively while looking at both sides of an issue tied right into other strands and is a valuable skill for life.
• His science fair project turned out well and he learned from the process
• Participating in a great mock trial experience was the highlight of the year. He had refused to do it in December, but by the time of the trial in April, he was thoroughly prepared and knew both sides of the case really well. He accomplished something he didn't think he could do!
  

• Our 7th grader learned so many locations around the world and drew some great maps
• Learning to look at literature and find an issue that had two sides to discuss and write about was an important skill for upper level thinking and writing.
• The Fallacy Detective has been a fun way to learn about logical thinking.
• Reading through It Couldn't Just Happen was a good book for discussion of why we believe what we believe about the Bible and the creation of the world.
• She really became excited about learning the body systems and created some cool clay sculptures of the brain and heart at the end of the year and also presented them to our whole community in our end of year celebration.