Summer is here! And while you are hauling out the pool toys and planning your family's next great adventure, somewhere in the back of your mind you know that fall will be here sooner than you would like. You're exhausted and ready to burn the homeschooling books, but you're also a little afraid of entering the upcoming academic year unprepared. How can we both get the rest we need and ready ourselves for the next go around? Are you allowed to take a little "me" time, or is there no rest for the weary?
Read MoreYou know you need one. That's why you set out to give it to your students in the first place. But the goal of "education" can be vague and daunting if you don't quite know what it is you're after and you only have 12 years to figure it out. What is the purpose of an education and why should we seek after it? Is it training for real life? Is it mastery? Is it for virtue? And once you know what it is, what tools do you need for the journey? It's a big, juicy topic, and we think the great Western literary heritage has some good perspective to offer.
Read MoreAs busy parents and teachers, any opportunity we can find to combine subjects and "kill two birds with one stone" is a boone and a blessing. And it isn't a stretch to say that literature and history are a natural pairing. History is itself a narrative of the past, and literature in the same way is a product of its historical context. But what are the differences between these two studies? And what do we do when we encounter the marriage of these studies in a work of historical fiction? How do we receive from historical fiction without doing violence to either the art of literature or the art of history? You've been asking for this one, and we just happen to have a history Ph.D. candidate on staff to help us think through these issues!
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