To know God and to make Him known
Dec 08, 2016

Slowing Down

“Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him.” Psalms 37:7 When I read from the book of Psalms in the Bible, I feel like they slow me down. This is the reason why I have been reading them over the holiday season. Perhaps it’s because they are...

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Dec 07, 2016

A Celebrated Life

My twenty-one-year-old son is refusing to walk. Before you get the wrong idea, let me back up and start over. It’s December, a time when we enjoy the happy strains of “Deck the Halls,” “O Holy Night,” “Pomp and Circumstance.” Or maybe that’s just me? You see, my son...

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Dec 06, 2016

What Happens When We Choose Rest

At 3:00 p.m. I still had my PJs on. The door to my room was shut, candles were lit, quiet was instrumental music playing in the background while I enjoyed some time to do a few of my favorite things. I don’t normally indulge in rarities such as this, but...

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Nov 28, 2016

The Grammar Clams or Fashioning the Perfect Fit

This is our last night in the nursery. Next year my daughter enters Challenge. But unlike Wendy, we aren’t distraught or anxious. While we both have a healthy respect for the rigors of the Challenge program, we are excited by our new adventure and we are already chatting over...

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Nov 18, 2016

Getting the Best Fit for Every Child

In April of my senior year of college, my high school sweetheart proposed. We decided to get married in August. Four months should be enough time to plan a wedding, but there was one little hitch. Before we decided to get married, I had committed to a six-week backpacking...

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Nov 15, 2016

Weary Travelers: Rest Stop Ahead

Have you ever driven down an unfamiliar road, obediently following the carefully noted directions, to only have an anxious feeling twist knots into your gut? You are certain you have stayed the course, being diligent to only turn when instructed, but somehow the next turn seems to be further...

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Nov 11, 2016

Ordinary Joy

“When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living.” – Tecumseh I love listening to podcasts. One of my favorite podcasts closes every episode by asking their featured guest the...

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Oct 27, 2016

Fantastic Fails

“The difficulty of the journey sometimes turns out to be the blessing.” — Marianne Williamson It’s been a rough start to the school year. Even though our school season has similar qualities year after year, I am surprised by how different this year feels. My Challenge student is in...

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Oct 19, 2016

Encouraging the Writing of More Poetry

As a Challenge III tutor, I have the pleasure of studying poetry with my students. Every week I read aloud a poem connected to their U. S. History reading assignment. As we study Cicero’s speeches in second semester Latin, we encounter many rhetorical devices there also. We become familiar...

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Oct 11, 2016

How the Challenge Program Helped Me

Classical Conversations’ Challenge program is, in some ways, the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life, short as it’s been. It wasn’t the homework that was hard, or the Latin quizzes. It wasn’t the classroom dynamic or the time management that was hard either. I think...

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Oct 04, 2016

Lord, Help Me Teach My Daughter!

As I drove home from dropping my oldest son off at youth group, I used the quiet time to pray for God to show me how to homeschool my daughter. This girl is our bouncy, talkative, middle child who cannot stop doing cartwheels or singing. She’s picked out her...

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Oct 01, 2016

What is Common Core Curriculum?

One can hardly avoid the topic of Common Core curriculum these days. Common Core—shorthand for the Common Core State Standards—was proposed as a way to make sure that American public schools were preparing students to compete in a technologically complex and global economy.

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