Our lives are full of entertainment. One can scarcely imagine a day without music, YouTube, Facebook, movies, Netflix, NFL, 19 Kids and Counting, video games, and iPods. It seems as though all our time is caught up with some form of entertainment. In the old days, entertainment consisted of...
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Last year, our homeschool community, Classical Conversations, introduced the Lost Tools of Writing program as parts of the seventh and eighth grade curricula. This was a good, good thing. I am no expert in the Lost Tools curriculum or in the application of all it has to offer, but...
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“If you are willing I will be there.” Thus the gracious, tender voice of the Holy Spirit came. It was May 2013 and I was at a homeschool convention. I went for one reason: to research math curricula. However, twenty-four hours later I found myself on the threshold of...
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Yesterday was our Challenge II museum field trip. It is part of an assignment for students to research and present about a favorite work of art. I take our class to the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. every year and every visit makes our hearts flutter with the excitement...
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Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. It ranks high because I love good food and good fellowship. Thanksgiving, of course, incorporates both of those for many of us. Living in North Carolina, but with most of our family in Florida, Thanksgiving is our annual pilgrimage home to visit...
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Yes, I am reading yet another book on productivity. With six children, an aging father-in-law, a self-employed husband, and an irrepressible desire to do something more, I just may have an excuse. I know I have many kindred spirits in the classical homeschooling family. I have already shared some excellent...
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We belong to a very small subset of the population. We live on one income, we have more than two children (in fact, at last count, there were five), we homeschool, and two of our children have disabilities. Those last two facts are the ones about which I receive...
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The Classical Conversations’ Challenge programs introduce students to many valuable subjects as they practice the skills of learning. These subjects include some that are undisputedly regarded as significant today, such as algebra, while others have fallen out of favor in academic circles, such as Latin, poetry, philosophy, and formal...
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The memory should be specially taxed in youth, since it is then that it is strongest and most tenacious. But in choosing the things that should be committed to memory the utmost care and forethought must be exercised; as lessons well learnt in youth are never forgotten. Arthur Schopenhauer...
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Is logic really relevant in today’s culture? All men are equal. You have heard it touted by advocates on all flanks. In our Challenge B class, we have recently looked at current cultural issues that commonly use that argument: All men are equal and so should have equal rights....
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So you have a child in Challenge class and you aren’t sure exactly what’s going on there. You know they are reading a lot of books, studying Latin, and learning math, science, and history. You wonder, though, “What exactly are they doing during class?” Perhaps you don’t have a child in...
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Imagine this scenario: As we travel across West Virginia, three boys are loudly singing “Take Me Home Country Roads” by John Denver (at the top of their lungs), the rain is pelting our windshield so hard that it sounds like a helicopter is about to take off right there...
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