West End, North Carolina — When Leigh Bortins started Classical Conversations® in 1997 in the basement of her Winston-Salem, North Carolina, home with 11 students, little did she know that her creation would grow to more than 100,000 students in less than 20 years. Leigh’s oldest son, Robert Bortins, now...
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I recently had an aha moment about what it means to enter the dialectic stage. I have three children ages thirteen, ten, and seven. My oldest son Caleb was down at the lake trying out a net he made while I wanted to do a science experiment with the...
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When I first sat down to write this article, I had a specific message I intended to get across. As I was writing the final paragraph however, I realized my struggle to compose wasn’t because I had writer’s block; it was because I wasn’t writing what was on my...
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“Memory is the scribe of the soul.” – Aristotle Are you making some family memories this summer? Around our home this week we have been sharing some of our favorite memories from summer and homeschooling. With the long evenings that seem to be made for lingering conversations, summer is...
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I have been sitting in chairs for over forty years. During those forty years, I have sat my posterior down in many different chairs. All those many years of sitting, and you know what? I cannot remember breaking one chair. Well, maybe one of those cheap resin chairs that...
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I’ve been in the homeschooling community for quite some time. I was educated at home from kindergarten until I graduated high school in 2011, and this upcoming school year will be my third year as a Challenge director. I’ve seen the best and worst of homeschooling through the years....
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I have just finished three days of speaking at one of our Parent Practicums in Georgia, and once again, my own heart has come away enriched and grappling with deeper truth and greater insight. We spent the past three days analyzing and sharing with one another about the arts...
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We sit side by side, propped up on pillows on my bed. It’s midday and neither of us is sick. We just like to do it this way. One by one each grandchild comes by “Grammy’s room” to do their math with me in turn (they fight about who...
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Something is different this year. When we went through Cycle 2 three years ago, we were completing our first round through the cycle of Foundations memory work, and my eight-year-old daughter felt that she now understood all mysteries and all knowledge. Her hard-won memory master certificates stood alongside the...
Read the Full ArticleSitting at a Parent Practicum last week, I couldn’t help but remember the early days of homeschooling. More than seven years ago, I attended my first Practicum and had no idea what I was doing. My head swirled with questions as I wondered why I was here, who were these people,...
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Summer—a time for refreshment, for renewal. And for many of us, for review. I don’t know about your children, but I have found that my daughter quickly loses math skills, speed, and insights if they are left to lie dormant for an entire summer. And sometimes we just don’t...
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“Hard work and perseverance remain the answers. In college prep, as in everything else, those who prepare far in advance and work like they are running a marathon are the ones who succeed. The college admissions process is just another thing to learn and do as a family” (Leigh...
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