Overview of Challenge A

Here's a general article covering the Challenge A level in Classical Conversations. It has frequently asked questions listed at the end. The only fact in the article that has changed is the total amount of time spent per day. For 2016-2017, the recommended time spent is 1 hour per class for Latin, Math, Geography, Science, and Writing. For Rhetoric (It Couldn't Just Happen) the recommendation is 15 or 20 minutes per day. So the total time spent on school each day should be approximately 5 hours and 15 minutes. This will vary from day to day, but it's a good benchmark!
https://www.classicalconversations.com/classical/programs/challenge/challenge-a

Teaching discernment

So I just read an awesome article by Matt Bianco. He introduces the four types of stories. Every song, movie, book, or tv show will fall into one of these categories. I think it is especially apropos given what we are seeing happen all around us in our world today - even just in this past month! Let's teach our kids to be able to identify what they see and then to discern if it's the best choice of our time. Does it match up with our biblical worldview?

Four types of literature

Cutting Back on Glowing Screens

I remember my summers...full of swimming, reading, playing outside, making up new games, and writing and illustrating my own mini-books. We didn't have to deal with the constant pull of devices calling our names. Now that official school in this house is on a severely abbreviated schedule, the electronics usage was starting to drive me crazy. So I am so glad I read a post on Facebook the other day that addressed this very issue!! I added and tweaked a couple of items and here is our new plan for the summer to reduce the time the kids are spending on "glowing screens". This includes tablets, ipods, iphones, computers, netflix, and television.

10 Tips: A helpful CC article!

Getting It All Done: Ten Tips from a Classical Conversations Veteran

Posted by Ruth Holleran on Tuesday, 21 October, 2014 in Articles, Big Ideas: Truth, Beauty, Goodness and more!,Classical Christian Education, Dialectic Stage (ages 12 to 14), Grammar Stage (ages 4 to 11), Rhetoric Stage (ages 14 to 18)

I think I know you. Like me, you are convinced the Christian classical idea is good for your family, but in practice it means long days, hard work, and utter madness on the day before community. If you have children in more than one program you find yourself stretched and you are torn between responsibility for teaching each child, keeping a clean house, providing hospitality, and keeping appointments. I have been living this life for over five years and I have been actively trying to balance my high expectations with the truth that gravity exerts a constant force to pull them down. As one who has benefitted from Classical Conversations in spite of my flawed execution, I would like to offer my sisters and brothers what I have learned.