To know God and to make Him known
Oct 03, 2014

Can My Child with Autism Succeed in Challenge?

Socks worn wrong side out, tags cut from every piece of clothing, food which mustn’t touch and must be of similar consistency and color. Odd questions at odd times on odd topics, usually in public from a tiptoeing, finger-waving, beautiful enigma. No eye contact. No hugs. This is an...

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Sep 30, 2014

Crooked Sticks and Straight Lines

Tools are not perfect. Anyone who works with computers knows this. Experience has led me to this conclusion: technology is great, except when it is not. Printers mysteriously go offline; no one knows why. Browsers and word processors flow like molasses and sometimes reach the solid state, freezing entirely....

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Sep 29, 2014

CC Dads: Become Memory Masters

Hey, CC Dads. Once a week, our wives and kiddos load up in the van and head to our local Classical Conversations campus for their community day. Their summer schedule has ended and their school schedule has begun, but as dads, our work schedules continue unabated. We go to...

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Sep 24, 2014

What Are We Afraid Of?

Your spirit has been bruised by cowardice, Which many a time so weighs a man’s heart down it turns him from a glorious enterprise- as shadows fool the horse that shies away.                  (Dante, Inferno, Canto II) In this early scene from...

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Sep 23, 2014

The Life of Memory

Historia vero testis temporum, lux veritatis, vita memoriae, magistra vitae, nuntia vetustatis… Cicero (De Oratore, II. ix. 36)* The experience of listening to a Classical Conversations Foundations student recite the History Timeline is more than memorable, it is impressive. I will certainly never forget the first time I heard my...

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Sep 22, 2014

What Can Lost Tools of Writing Offer the IEW Writer?

A dear friend of mine prefers Institute for Excellence in Writing’s Elegant Essay to CiRCE Institute’s Lost Tools of Writing (LTW) for high school students. “It teaches a mature essay, while LTW just gives a formula. It seems like a step backwards after Teaching Writing: Structure and Style,” she said. So, I thought for...

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Sep 17, 2014

Written Relics

My daughter, a college student, has taken up an antiquated means of communication. She writes letters—the ones with paper, stamps, and envelopes. She has pen pal from her Challenge IV class. She writes to her mother and grandmothers, and they love it. Unfortunately, I have been way too slack...

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Sep 16, 2014

Breathe Grace

The Peacemaker Monthly Part One – Glorify God Breathe Grace by Cara McLauchlan “Peacemakers are people who breathe grace.” – The Peacemaker, page 11 I want to breathe grace. I love the idea of it and think I do breathe grace, sometimes, but oftentimes, not really. Quite often I breathe...

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