Thoughtworthy (Charlotte Mason Homeschool Fall Kickoff, New Podcast Episode, and MORE!)

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Are you ready for a Charlotte Mason homeschool fall kickoff to help you start your school year off right?? This is something I’m really looking forward to. This past year, I reworked my Charlotte Mason in One Hour talk and I’ll be giving it LIVE this Wednesday, September 4th at 6pm Pacific. (But YES: there are replays, so if you want in, but can’t be there live, you’ll still get the goods.)

Here’s the thing with this talk: it’s great for newbies, who need a crash course in the big picture of Charlotte Mason’s philosophy. But it’s also great for seasoned veterans that want some refreshment and encouragement and, again, that big picture reminder. (My theory on when things go wrong is that often over-emphasizing some principles while neglecting others.)

After the talk, I’ll be doing a follow-up Q&A. Some of you have asked how this is going to work. During the live talk, Brittany will be collecting questions as they come in. You’ll also have a chance to email me (I’ll give you a deadline). After we’ve sorted the questions, we’ll choose what we think are the best ones (and as many as we possibly can) and I’ll record a follow-up session within about a week of the event. You’ll be notified when it’s ready.

This is going to be great fun and help you start fresh, so I hope to see you there. ♥

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Scholé Sisters is back! Season 10 starts today. Listen in your favorite podcast player … it’s free! ♥ In this episode, Mystie and I chat with Wendi Capehart about why it’s not whitewashing to present heroes first in our children’s education.

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We’re almost done with A Fever, A Flight, and a Fight for the World, the last of the four Rwendigo Tales books by J.A. Myhre. We have really enjoyed these books. There are some places where the author could have used an editor — a few awkwardly repeated words, for example — but overall the writing is good. The world she’s created is a fascinating mix of real-world Africa (I assume — the author lives there) and fantasy. The Christian overtones are overt but never preachy. The struggles of the characters are good exposure for children living in middle class America, who never worry about clean water, food to eat, or the spread of virulent diseases.

As we were reading this it dawned on me that we’d read books about every continent except Africa. Novels, I mean. I supposed some of my children have read David Livingstone’s writings (and one of them read A Long Walk to Water, borrowed from a friend). But as far as family read alouds go, I think it was good for them to get this exposure.

Beautifully told, compassionate stories — I highly recommend these tales!

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This month in 2014:

I still think about my schedule the way I think about space.

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Our little Charlotte Mason co-op started back up yesterday. It was hot. But it was so good. I always love my Plutarch students, but my two new students this year were so exuberant, volunteering to narrate right away — it was a wonderful beginning. We’re doing Plutarch (Anne White’s Life of Pyrrhus), Shakespeare (King Lear), dry brush (finishing up this from last year first), and we added P.E. (taught by my daughter A-Age-Fourteen who is the oldest student there and really likes to exercise). In all, it was a good day.

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This week’s links collection:

• How One California Marxist Is Indoctrinating Millions of School Children from The Epoch Times
  • “Under a unanimous decision by the California Board of Education made on July 14, 2016, California students will finally be encouraged to know the history of Latino civil rights leaders like Cesar Chavez …” This comment gets under my skin because I’ve seen how they’re presenting Chavez — as a hero and nothing like the local terrorist he was. I remember the stories told in my childhood of Chavez shooting up farms. This entire side of the story is missing.
  • Notice they’re studying glorified gangsters like Chavez instead of wonderful men like Father Serra, who I’ve rarely seen mentioned.
  • More concerning, though, of course is the influence of one man and one ideology over an entire statewide school system, especially one that stands in opposition to our republican form of government.
• THE ETHICS OF THE WALVAX-2 CELL STRAIN from The Nebraska Coalition for Ethical Research
  • If you can stomach it, this is the most concise description of the ethical problems I could find.
• IG Report on Comey Leak: Violated FBI Policy, But DOJ Passes on Criminal Prosecution from The Stream
  • If he were a nobody, he’d be in jail. But preferential treatment is all the rage, it seems. Sigh. Where is the rule of law? And if laws are not worth enforcing, why are there so many of them?