My daughter’s first word was “book.” I am sure she babbled “MaMaMa” and “Dada” early on, but her first intelligible word was definitely “book”! Perhaps this is not surprising, given that my husband and I read to her nightly, even while she was in the womb. My parents used...
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This article is modified from sections from the newly-released book MicroSecession: Simple Ways to Liberate Yourself, Your Family, and Your Community from Government Idiocy. When people think of the word “education,” usually the first thing that pops into their minds is their local elementary schools. When we think of a...
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I hope the end of the school year finds you well. Memory Master testing, awards, and, perhaps, blue book exams await you! These days are very exciting and busy. It seems as though God has given me two matters about which to expound. Recently, I have received emails concerning...
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I remember an incident that occurred when my children were somewhat younger; I happened upon two of them in an argument. One child was angry with the other because a toy had been claimed that he wanted. Rather than resort to diplomatic measures, such as no-fly zones and trade...
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Music education that aims at real knowledge requires careful attention to the elements of music: tones, time-values, intervals, etc. Students must learn to read music and correctly identify notes on a staff. Soon after this “basic training,” they should look closely at how the elements conspire to form significant...
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What do Shakespeare, actors, newspapers, jazz, and communism all have in common? Continue reading this article to discover how one Challenge III class threaded these disparate ideas together. Last week in my Challenge III class, we had some spontaneous moments for subject integration. We began the morning talking about...
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My thirteen-year-old daughter is in Challenge B this year, and she is preparing for Mock Trial, so we took a field trip, along with several moms and teenagers, to visit a courthouse and watch a real trial. As we waited for the trial to begin, the sheriff talked with...
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Classical education is a “curious thing,” viewed from the perspective of a traditional educator. Traditional education emphasizes acquiring knowledge of a host of subjects through the passing of a multitude of classes en route to receiving a diploma. Classical education emphasizes the skills of learning and the acquisition of...
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This quote from John Hodges’ first lecture at the Toward the Quadrivium event struck a chord with me. It invoked a desire to act! I realized there are many more good things I should love. So many, in fact, that it would require more than a million lifetimes of...
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In Romans 12:2, Paul writes: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will” (NIV). Having taught in the public school system for almost ten years,...
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I marked my twelfth protocol, with a small group of students and a fellow mom, by experiencing Gioachino Rossini’s opera, The Barber of Seville. We, a happy bunch dressed in regalia, ventured out on a weekday to enjoy fine dining and to feast our senses on delectable artistry. However, many...
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Our world isn’t clear regarding the differences between fables, myths, and fairy tales. We tend to lump them together into anthologies based on the characteristics they have in common: all of them contain fantastical elements, magic, talking animals, and so on, and all of them seem to focus on...
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