I had every intention of updating the blog with our weekly Classical Conversations A adventures. However Covid …. And I am happy now to write with a mid year, blue book week update.
For those friends who are not familiar with “blue books “ it is the midterm exam for Classical Conversations. This is how students in challenge a – challenge four, which is seventh grade through 12th, cover all the materials and information they have learned. I am one of those homeschoolers who believes in testing and I am happy these Classical Conversations students get a chance to experience testing in a safe calm loving environment.
I was a horrible test-taker. Stressed, anxious, paranoid… Thankfully my son has none of those problems. Blue Book testing is followed by an awesome pizza party, secret Santa exchange, all the sugary sweets, and a nice send off to winter break. Our winter break lasts four weeks. Of course there is work they can do over the break, and I have an overachiever Excited to earn more extra credit. I’m just happy there’s a little bit more to do over the break so it’s not just all Nintendo Switch all day long.
Being new to ‘Challenge’, I didn’t know exactly what to expect. I was just happy we were out of the singsong memorization of Foundations. Last year‘s master class was not challenging for my son, however it was perfect since we had just moved and knew absolutely no one in the entire state of Colorado. CHA is a different beast all together.
I am pleased with the amount of work, studying, reading, writing, and practical application I’ve seen over the first semester. His “weakest “subject”, or strand, going into CHA was writing. Now he enjoys it more than ever.
We are a bit behind in Latin only because I refuse to use Henle. We still use Visual Latin, which is great! But do not match lesson for lesson. I will be one of the renegade Classical Conversations moms and have my son learn Spanish in CH1, 2, & 3 rather than Latin. Family Plan!
I’ve had some moms tell me they were intimidated by Classical Conversations and couldn’t commit to the workload. I have zero problems not following every single fill in the blank or assignment for the week. That’s the beauty of homeschool and you can still be flexible in Classical Conversations.
We celebrated the end of the semester with a family bowling competition.
