My daughter and I received the delightful but daunting request to read an author-friend’s 294-page manuscript. I agreed to write a thorough review, and Michelle said yes to creating an original poem to be placed in the back of the book. We set aside one weekend to complete our tasks. With no quick or inexpensive […]
One of the most heartbreaking things I hear is fatigued resignation from a parent: “I loved the curriculum, but I gave up after the first few weeks of trying to make my child like it. Maybe he would do better with a non-traditional approach, like ‘discovery learning.’” Such a homeschooler has often spent months researching […]
The highest end of true education is capable, compassionate service to others. When our children struggle with learning, or face challenges such as medical conditions, we can devote extraordinary amounts of time and effort to help them. We cancel plans and sacrifice money so they can receive therapies and see specialists. We change diets, find […]
One evening my son came to me beaming: “Mom, you have to read this!” Earlier he had been “in a mood,” so I had sent him to his room with clear instructions: “Do not to speak to anyone the rest of the night until you have read two chapters of your C. S. Lewis literature […]
Spelling is the meticulous twin sister of Reading. Reading may receive all the adulation, but Spelling accomplishes the work. Spelling is where students of Reading come to master their lessons. The Role of Spelling Hard-working, durable, and orderly, Spelling holds a respected role in education. Early in the first century, Quintilian wrote: As regards syllables, […]
Training the Memory with a Classical Education In the Dickens novel Great Expectations, Estella admits, “There was a long hard time when I kept far from me the remembrance of what I had thrown away when I was quite ignorant of its worth.” So it is today with the lost art of training the memory […]
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 […]
An Interview with Michelle Swope What is the hardest thing about the different challenges you face in your life? The hardest challenges of my life are not being able to do what I dream about in my life, such as marry, drive a sky-blue bug that is a convertible, act well, sing, dance ballet professionally […]
My daughter works each week in a nursing home. She helps me at home with dusting, folding laundry, and making beds. She feeds her cat and cares for the neighbor’s dog. She takes ballet, enjoys art, plays sports, listens to music, goes to the library, and takes walks with her brother. She cheers all of […]