In this episode Renee and Karen offer five suggestions for getting through the January slump. The excitement of Christmas is past and the days can be long and grey, but with a little planning and intention you can make memories with your children and other families. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Renee and Karen chat with Karen's son, David Kern, podcaster and owner of Goldberry Books, the best little bookstore around, about favorite Christmas books. They discuss the old favorites as well as recently published books for Advent and Christmas, titles you will want to explore! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join Renee and Karen and guest, Greg Wilbur, as he explains the difference between carols of Advent and carols of Nativity and offers resources and particular carols to learn about and enjoy with your family during this season of waiting and anticipation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Renee and Karen chat with Greg Wilbur, founder of New College Franklin, author, and composer, about how music fits in the classical curriculum, the importance of filling your home with music, and how it nurtures the affections. Don't be intimidated, it starts with singing and listening to music together, and it is never too late to start! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Renee and Karen offer tips from their experience: for navigating all the busyness associated with Christmas, for trying to do school and have all the fun, and for participating in your church traditions in order to help your family focus on the most important things. In short, get things on the calendar now and hold everything loosely! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Listen as Renee and Karen interview Jonathon Rogers, author of the Wilderking Trilogy, The Terrible Speed of Mercy, The World According to Narnia, and other books your family will enjoy. Jonathon explains how he came to be an author and how his podcast and workshops inspire and encourage writers from junior high students to adults. Find out how you and your family can benefit from all he has to offer! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you enjoyed our last episode with Valerie, you will want to listen in to a further conversation about homesteading and her micro-business of cheese importing! She talks about the grace of hospitality and offers resources to encourage you. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Renee and Karen have fun chatting with the most delightful Valerie Abraham about the blessings and challenges of moving from Concord, NC to rural Idaho where she and her husband and their 3 boys (and soon to come daughter!) are homesteading and living in an RV while remodeling their house. Even if you aren't about to join her in raising goats and sheep, you will be inspired by her spirit of joy and gratitude. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Listen in as Renee and Karen discuss ways to bring beauty into our homes. Renee offers advice from her experience of recently building their home and how she designed and decorated it. They also talk about the need to start with an uncluttered, clean space, a challenge indeed! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Renee and Karen chat with guest, Marsha Black, about her fascinating family history dating back to the early days of the settling of Texas. She will inspire you to learn more about your family history and encourage you to tell those stories to your children. We probably don't have stories of ancestors involved in Comanche raids, but we all have stories from another time to discover! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Renee and Karen discuss Sally Thomas's new novel Works of Mercy in light of the theme of vocation; how the protagonist, an older woman named Kirsty, who having spent her life preferring solitude, finds herself unexpectedly offering works of mercy to the suffering in her community and experiences the healing of her own wounds. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode Renee and Karen discuss life-long learning, in other words, pursuing new skills and knowledge at every stage in life. They describe how learning something new helps them be better teachers, and they offer steps you can take to fill the gaps in your own learning. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After a break for the summer Renee and Karen, grandmothers who still love a brand new box of crayons, are back offering ten suggestions for launching a new school year. We hope you will be encouraged whether you are homeschooling your first kindergartener or are many years in. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tonya Rozelle, host of the Hearth, an online Circe community for homeschool moms, chats with Renee and Karen about reading in community. They discuss the benefits of meeting together to discuss books and the importance of carving out time in your day to read, no matter which stage of motherhood you are in. Be encouraged to join a book club or start your own! Tonya also provides information about what the Hearth is and how you can get involved. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more...

Join Renee and Karen as they chat with Loren Warnemuende, homeschool mother and author of the Daughter of Arden trilogy, a retelling of a classic fairy tale full of adventure and suspense. Be inspired as you hear Loren talk about her writing journey and how this project has involved her whole family over the course of years. You might just want to take time in this busy stage of life to engage in some story writing yourself! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Renee and Karen are joined by Heather Shirley, mother of three adult children, Chief Academic Advisor for Classical Conversations, and a head mentor of the Circe Apprenticeship to discuss teaching math in your homeschool. Listen as Heather describes her own homeschool journey as a mom with a degree in engineering trying to teach her oldest math and having to learn how to teach in a holistic, soulish way. She will encourage you with the good news that math is not something to...

Listen as Renee and Karen talk with guest, Kristen Rudd, veteran homeschooler, about how she created binders, simple books, and journals to organize her kids' papers and artifacts and how she decided what to keep as mementos and documentation and what to discard. We also discuss record-keeping for mom and the ease with which high school transcripts can be written. She will encourage you with her ideas and her obvious joy at seeing her children finish their homeschool years well! Hosted on...

Join us for this episode on teaching Latin. Renee and Karen are joined by Molly Rychener, mother of two college-age daughters, Head of Trinity Christian Academy in Ohio, and Head Mentor of the Midwest Circe Apprenticeship. Molly, an example of a teacher who loves to learn, offers advice for homeschool moms on teaching Latin with enthusiasm and joy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Renee and Karen chat with Christine Morradian, homeschooling mom of 4, founder of Greystone Academy in Newtown Pa, and head mentor of the Mid-Atlantic Apprenticeship, about when, why, and how to outsource your child's education. They discuss how classes outside the home benefit the student and help lift the burden from mom. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, the 4th of our series on the Four Elements of Classical Education, Renee and Karen are joined by Dr. Matthew Bianco to discuss the place of the Western Tradition in Cl. Ed.: What the Western Tradition is and why it is important. He suggests that the place to start teaching the Tradition is with Aesop's Fables which embody the virtues and provide the ideas, images, and symbols that permeate Classical Education, and with his usual insight, he encourages us to begin with reading...

Join us as we discuss another element of Classical Education: pedagogy, particularly mimetic teaching. In this episode, Renee and Karen explain what a mimetic lesson is and how it can help you teach a skill or a concept, determine if your student understands the lesson, and even evaluate your curriculum. Mimetic teaching is intuitive and corresponds to how we all learn any new thing! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, the second of the Four Elements of Classical Education, Renee and Karen discuss the idea of Logocentrism with Karen's husband, Andrew. They explore how Christ the Word, in John chapter 1, is the Logos or the central organizing principle by which we perceive and communicate truth, an idea that is the remedy to our "woke" world. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our guest for this episode is Andrea Lipinksi. This is the first of 4 episodes on the Four Elements of Classical Education. Listen as Andrea and our hosts talk about how Cl Ed espouses the idea of a high view of man; that our children are made in the image of God with souls to be nurtured and how that idea permeates our parenting and teaching. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, Renee and Karen discuss raising daughters: how daughters need to know that your love is steadfast, how you should be their rock but not their best friend, and how there are joys and challenges in each season of girlhood. They offer ways to deal with "girl drama" and how important a girl's relationship with her dad is. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our guest for this episode is Hayley Croft, gardener extraordinaire! Listen as she shares with us her love of gardening: planning and preparing in the winter and early spring, planting in the late spring, and putting up her fruitful harvest in the summer. Be inspired by her love for her garden and her stories of laboring with dear family and friends to produce a bounty! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.