The Five Common Topics

The 5 Common Topics are used in the Challenge programs in every seminar (subject). They are a list of questions that tutors, parents, and students all use to learn and discover new things. Or new ways of looking at old things. You might think you know a Bible verse or story that you've read a thousand times.
But use the five common topics and you will see it in a whole new light. This applies to any event in history, any science experiment, any language grammar rule. The questions to ask and consider are categorized into five categories:

1. definition
2. circumstance
3. comparison
4. relationship
5. authority

The first time I went through these topics and questions, I honestly felt like I was wasting my time. I think my students did too :) We had all read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe several times and knew the book well already. But we stuck with the process and were amazed at how differently we felt at the end of thirty minutes of analyzing it using the above topics. We now looked at the story, characters, and conflicts in a whole new way; we had a greater level of understanding.

Side benefits: By asking these questions, you are actually training your brain to think logically and will be better equpped for the Challenge classes of Formal Logic and Formal Debate.

Here is a great article on the five common topics and how to use them in your homeschool:

http://www.thehomeschoolmagazine-digital.com/thehomeschoolmagazine/2014x6#pg113

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