Category: Simply Classical Journal

“I think I need to go to the hospital.” Those words felt really melodramatic, but I had just texted them to my husband. “Don’t worry,” he said. “Help is on the way.” I couldn’t move; I just kept staring into space. It felt like my brain was broken. I was terrified. A knock at the …

Amid the bustle of boys just released from school, I searched the crowd for my 12-year-old son, Louis. He approached me with tears in his eyes. Both he and his younger brother, Ben, had competed as finalists in their school’s poetry recitation competition that day. The previous year, the boys had won first place together. …

In some circles the word “curriculum” is anathema. It is far better, this thinking asserts, to take a relaxed approach to education, to teach a la carte, or to let the child decide what and when to study. We must not be “dogmatic.” Different children must study different things—or so we begin to believe. We …

Years ago my curly-headed, blue-eyed little boy toddled downstairs one morning in footed pajamas. He watched Daddy fill his briefcase and leave for work. Climbing atop the sofa to wave through the window, he turned to me and said with authority, “Daddy go to work.” He slipped back down the sofa and went about his …

Developing an attractive, legible cursive handwriting style certainly has great aesthetic value, but it also has numerous mental, physical, social, and practical benefits. 1. Improved neural connections. Cursive handwriting stimulates the brain in ways that typing cannot. It improves the dynamic interplay of the left and right cerebral hemispheres, helps build neural pathways, and increases …

A classical education curriculum can often be adapted for use with students who have learning challenges. Start with visually clean, uncluttered books with a clear, step-by-step progression and built-in review designed to help you teach for mastery. Then make any or all of the following modifications: 1. Reduce the amount of material presented in each …

By Susan Pearson “You are come to the very edge of the Wild, as some of you may know. Hidden somewhere ahead of you is the fair valley of Rivendell where Elrond lives in the Last Homely House… And so at last, they all came to the Last Homely House and found its doors swung …

One hot Missouri June when my children were very young, we decorated our front porch with a large white container of flowering impatiens. The pink and red petals with deep foliage cheered our doorstep. At the time, I knew that impatiens needed shade, but I hoped they would thrive in the full sun like other …