Anyone supplementing CC Challenge A with additional science or history?

[Marisardh]

We are starting CC Challenge A in the fall and I feel that the science and history are a little weak. I love the CC community but the entire first semester is just about animals and the second is about the human body. I want to add a science curriculum that has lab exercises and I also want to add a little more history than just the few books we will be reading and discussing. Anyone have any thoughts???

[Another Lynn]

We haven't done Challenge before, but in the fall I'm considering having my ds continue to sit in with my younger dc when we do our Bible and history read alouds. I'll also be reviewing cycle 2 memory work with them and he has expressed interest in hearing some of that. I doubt I'll add any science as we are low-key about that subject anyway. Generally speaking, I won't make plans to add to challenge until I see how it goes.

[G5052]

First time through we were also doing BF's Ancient History program as a read-aloud with notebooking, so they participated in that. I assigned some of the books with that as readers. The Challenge A tutor also handed out a list of geography-related novels for extra points that I picked from. I was fine with the science. We have a science-oriented tutor who enriched the content in class.

 

This year we added the last year of the Veritas self-paced history program with the readers. Still the same tutor, so I didn't add any science although we're going to Physics Quest over the break, which is something we've always added.

[momofjep]

Hands-on science and grammar review are the two things I added to the Challenge A curriculum. My son attends a science class once a week for the messy/fun science, and we did/will work on grammar review during the breaks. Our CC community has 6 weeks between fall and spring and about 6 weeks after the spring session ends. Does yours have that? That would be a good time to add anything you need.

[stm4him]

Take this with a grain of salt because my child isn't in Challenge A yet and won't be for awhile (though she could by her age year after next, she just won't be ready because of learning issues and math). I am a long term planner and my plan is that we will add the following (though some may think this crazy, we'll have to see when we get there):

 

Building Thinking Skills 3 (both of them) and Critical Thinking 1 and 2

Hey Andrew 7

Ultimate French I (or some other French curriculum or class)

Our Mother Tongue and/or Garlic Press Grammar & Diagramming (for review)

Teaching the Classics?

IEW Poetry Memorization

Bible Study (through our church)

Cultural geography study (maybe the one Apologia sells?)

Omnibus (maybe self-paced or maybe at our own pace at home as we can b/c I want to do it with them)

Apologia Science (any of the elementary books they haven't read, if any)

 

Of course, some of this would be in the summer instead.....

 

Some people say it would be crazy to add in Omnibus and other people say most of the kids at their campus do it alongside. I think it depends on how much work they are used to before starting Challenge and how diligent they are.....

[Brenda in FL]

I have had two in Ch A. For the animal research papers, We did some additional reading on the classifications per animal using the Rainbow Science text. For the human body study we supplemented with readings from Apologia's Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy and Physiology - elementary book. For the second student I purchased these books:

 

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Human-Body-Book-DVD-ROM/dp/075666733X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1364186649&sr=8-1&keywords=dk+human+body

 

http://www.amazon.com/Natural-History-Smithsonian-DK-Publishing/dp/0756667526/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1364186678&sr=1-1&keywords=smithsonian+natural+history+the+ultimate+visual+guide+to+everything+on+earth

 

We did not add history. But I do want to mention that the number of books for Ch A has increased for next year. They will be reading all the books from Ch A and the books from Ch B.

 

You may find the pace and schedule for Challenge to be a bit challenging in itself! My advice is to be flexible, if supplementing works for your family than great! But don't allow it to cause stress. The content in the Challenge program is sufficient on it's own.

[Woodland_Mom]

I have tutored Challenge A for two years and have a son in Challenge A this year. (We moved to a new area, so I'm not tutoring this year!)

 

Before I comment on science and history in Challenge A, I want to remind you that the Challenge program is not just about working through a curriculum. Each level focuses on developing skills. The science strand is meant to develop and strengthen student research skills -- something that is vital in real science! Then . . . in challenge B, the research continues as kids study great scientists. The research papers/ reports are a little more involved and are often paired with demonstrations and/or models. Later in the semester, Challenge B students begin to learn about the scientific method and experience it first hand as they focus exclusively on a 6 week science fair project.

 

Challenge A science includes research on plants, animals and the human body. The classical method is really used in this seminar! Students are tasked with researching a topic, for example herbs. They go home and research herbs, prepare an outline for their research write-up, and then write a short report about herbs. In addition, they sketch their research. Each student presents their report in class, which gives students an opportunity to listen to the herb reports of every single student! Students usually take notes while listening to the reports. By the time the herb "unit" is finished, students have read about herbs, outlined important/interesting facts about herbs, written a paper about herbs, sketched herbs, presented their report to the class, and listened to multiple other herb reports. In other words, the topic has been well covered.

 

Most parents don't add anything to the Challenge A seminar because, as a pp already mentioned, the pace in Challenge is pretty fast and the schedule is quite full. However, there are plenty of families who do add to the science. We have supplemented with readings from the God's Design Science books. I have appreciated these because they often have hands-on activities that compliment our research. I have also used the Janice VanCleave experiment books for more hands on experiments/demonstrations. During the summer, you can take a look at the student assignment guide and make notes about resources you'd like to use.

 

We have had enough time to continue history study in addition to Challenge A, but I have had to stay flexible. There have been some weeks that we simply could not add any more to our Challenge A load. We cover history slowly, but it's something that we all enjoy, so we keep it up the best we can. Right now we're covering Ancient history using Mystery of History and pairing it with SOTW audio. We do not do any mapwork because there is LOTS of geography in Challenge A, but we keep a timeline, and write summaries about most of the MOH chapters (but not all).

[Woodland_Mom]

 

We did not add history. But I do want to mention that the number of books for Ch A has increased for next year. They will be reading all the books from Ch A and the books from Ch B.

 

Writing and Literature is changing for Challenge A! The 2013 - 2014 year will include 10 novels instead of 7. Three novels from Challenge B are now par of Challenge A: A Gathering of Days, Crispin: The Coss of Lead, and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

 

You may find the pace and schedule for Challenge to be a bit challenging in itself! My advice is to be flexible, if supplementing works for your family than great! But don't allow it to cause stress. The content in the Challenge program is sufficient on it's own.

 

 

:iagree: