Writing well is an undisputed goal of excellent education. However, as with all things rich in character, the process of good writing bequeaths an even greater blessing. When we study formal writing using the five canons of rhetoric, we are also teaching our students to be proficient problem solvers....
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We engage in the art of rhetoric in order to persuade others to the true, the good, or the beautiful. Any act of persuasion that seeks to move someone toward the false, the bad, or the ugly—intentional or not—is an act of sophistry. What often moves or persuades someone...
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It isn’t news that video games are increasingly a part of our culture. But there’s been a surprising lack of thoughtful consideration regarding something so influential, and into which so much time is being invested. I don’t only mean that there aren’t enough parents saying “video games are bad”...
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Chapters Four and Five – Reading and Writing Three Big Ideas about the Three Rs by Cara McLauchlan “As parents and teachers, we can form intimate bonds with children by loving the books they love and listening carefully to their ideas.” – Leigh Bortins, The Question (pg. 76) Legend has it...
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Were you classically educated? Me neither! I have so much to learn! And I have been doing it through reading about classical education. I finished reading Climbing Parnassus: A New Apologia for Greek and Latin by Tracy Lee Simmons today. Yay! This book was handed out at my local...
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The Scriptures state, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven”1 including “a time to keep, and a time to cast away.”2 Clearly, we are exhorted to consider our time and actions carefully. In daily life as home educators, we are bombarded to get everything...
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It has become taboo today to mention anything relating to Christianity in the same sentence with anything regarding law or public policy. If you mention anything that even remotely sounds like Christian theology in a public policy context, you are immediately met with cries of “Separation of church and...
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Although copywork, dictation, and narration are not difficult concepts, I struggled with how to implement them effectively during our first years of homeschooling. I offer here what I have learned about these valuable tools of learning—not as an expert, but as a beginner who is still learning how to...
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What do you believe about children and learning? In any learning environment we consider—public, private, or home school—some children seem to enjoy learning while others seem to be bored or frustrated by it. Parents and teachers will go to great lengths to make learning fun, enticing children to enjoy learning. They...
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Revisiting Some Archived Articles that Have Not Been Lost, but May Have Been Forgotten and Are Worth a Fresh Read Among the five paths to great writing is the “literary path,” which shows that to become a great writer one must read great writings. However, one may be wrong...
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In an earlier article, I discussed the dangers of perfectionism as exhibited in protectionism and power (see The Pitfalls of Perfectionism, Part I). In these follow-up thoughts, I want to explore two additional ways in which perfectionism might affect our personalities and the manner in which we interact with others....
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It is National Latin Exam time again! This test was given in 2013 in the United States as well as in the following countries: Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Poland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, Zimbabwe, and, for the first time, in Indonesia, Netherlands, Philippines, and Turkey (NLEReport2013...
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