Scholé Sisters: Camaraderie for Classical Homeschooling Mamas

Today's episode is our annual Christmas episode! Mystie, Abby, and Brandy are discussing one of their favorite Christmas books, The Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree by Gloria Houston. You're going to love this conversation! *** It's time for the Sophie Christmas gift! Every year, we give a little something to our Sophie members to say thank you and offer them a bit of encouragement. This year, w...

Today's episode is our annual retreat recording! We love recording when we are all together (even though the sound quality suffers). This episode is basically a follow-up in which we give Mystie a soap box and encourage her to talk more about de-institutionalizing classical education. You're going to love this conversation! *** The Stable and Steadfast mentorship inside Sistership is taking next w...

Our special guest today is Heather Olsson! Heather is wife to Dr. Phil Olsson, mother to seven, and Mimi to 14 grandchildren. She educated her children at home for 20 plus years. The Olsson family moved in 2020 from Green Bay, WI to Moscow, Idaho, where Heather has taught and been a Dean at The Jubilee School. She just began her second year as Head of School at Jubilee and also trains teachers thr...

Our special guest today is Adelaide Garner. Adelaide is wife to Ben, and mother to four little treasures. They are Reformed Evangelical Christians. She was a pastor's wife for many years, but their family has moved into Ben owning a small business. Adelaide and Ben are second generation homeschoolers and use Charlotte Mason's principles. They live in a 120-year-old farmhouse on several acres outsi...

Today's episode is the fourth and final in our series exploring Charlotte Mason's chapters on habits from her book School Education and so Mystie, Abby, and Brandy discuss one of the most off-limits topics: religion. You're going to love this conversation! *** The live kickoff for our newest Scholé Sisters Mentorship will take place on Friday, October 18th at 1:30 PM Pacific. Our mentorships are f...

Today's guest is Latin teacher extraordinaire, Angela Reed! Angela has been a student of lingua Latina and classical civilization for over twenty-five years. She started on this path in high school when she took her first Latin class and, for extra credit, joined the Latin club. Angela has been enthusiastically carrying a classical torch ever since. When she first encountered the educational philo...

In today's episode Mystie, Abby, and Brandy discuss the idea of natural consequences with a perspective shift that can really de-stress your motherhood. You're going to love this conversation! *** Are you ready for our annual Homeschool Essentials retreat?? This year's topic is attention, because without attention, we cannot learn. Join us LIVE on October 5, 2024 for a full day of refreshment as w...

In today's episode, Mystie, Abby, and Brandy dig into the history of the Scholé Sisters annual retreat, giving you a behind-the-scenes glance at our decision making that we've never shared before. *** Are you ready for our annual Homeschool Essentials retreat?? This year's topic is ATTENTION, because without attention, you cannot LEARN. Join us LIVE on October 5, 2024 for a full day of refreshment...

In today's episode Mystie, Abby, and Brandy discuss ATTENTION, because it's the topic of the 2024 Scholé Sisters retreat. They do this using a chapter on solitude from AG Sertillanges' book The Intellectual Life . You're going to love this conversation! *** Are you ready for our annual Homeschool Essentials retreat?? This year's topic is ATTENTION, because without attention, you cannot learn. Join...

In today's episode Mystie, Abby, and Brandy discuss what it means when we say we want to raise kids who love to learn. What are the implication of this goal? Does it affect how we teach? You're going to love this conversation! *** It's not too late to catch the replays of our annual Spring Training Sessions! The second session was just on MONDAY! Our coach this year was Andrew Zwerneman from Cana...

In today's episode Mystie, Abby, and Brandy discuss rewards and how to connect them to intrinsic rather than extrinsic motivation. *** Don't forget to register for our annual Spring Training Sessions! This is happening SOON! Our coach this year is Andrew Zwerneman from Cana Academy. Andrew is going to teach two sessions on history. The first session will help us get away from Marxism and adopt a c...

Our guest today is Andy Patton. Andy Patton has held various roles in healthcare technology and venture capital. As an entrepreneur in the healthcare space, he built and successfully exited his first company. He has also started and currently owns a company in the construction industry. Before going into business, Mr. Patton spent his early career as a high school teacher of Latin, Greek, music, a...

Our guest today is Andrew Zwerneman. Andrew J. Zwerneman serves as President and Master Teacher at Cana Academy. For 40 years, he has taught and consulted in secondary schools that emphasize classic humanities. For 19 years he headed schools — 2 at the public charter school, Tempe Preparatory Academy in Tempe, Arizona, 17 at Trinity School at Meadow View in Falls Church, Virginia. Andrew has degre...

Today's guest is Vigen Guroian. Until his retirement in 2015, Dr. Guroian was Professor of Religious Studies in Orthodox Christianity at the University of Virginia. He is now a Permanent Senior Fellow of the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal, Senior Fellow at the Center on Law and Religion at Emory University, Distinguished Fellow of the John Jay Institute, and Senior Fellow at the Trinity...

Today's episode is the third in our four part series on Charlotte Mason's chapters from School Education that cover the training of physical, intellectual, moral, and religious habits. Today, we're discussing the training of MORAL habits.  You're going to love this conversation! *** Did you sign up to do the 5x5 reading challenge this year? If so, you need to join the Sistership as a Sophie member...

Today's episode is on unit studies and why Charlotte Mason disapproved of them so much. You're going to love this conversation! *** Did you sign up to do the 5x5 reading challenge this year? If so, you need to join the Sistership as a Sophie membership and get the accountability you need and the support you want. With weekly check-ins and quarterly zoom-style meetups, you will be encouraged to con...

It has come to our attention that while we discuss and refer to the Scholé Sisters 5x5 Reading Challenge regularly, we've never actually done an episode on it. Today, we remedy that problem! We discuss the history of the challenge as well as how it works. Today's episode is hosted by Abby Wahl (because Brandy is in the middle of a cross-country move). Her ever-faithful cohost is, of course, Mystie...

Today's episode is our annual Christmas episode. We begin by revisiting the theme of our very first Christmas episode, Don't Be the White Witch . We continue with a discussion of generosity and tradition-making that you will love. *** Every year, we give our Sophie members a special Christmas gift. This year, our Sophie members are receiving a workshop on book selection that Mystie and Brandy film...

Today's episode is the second in our four part series on habits and training. Last time, Mystie, Abby, and Brandy talked about physical training. Today they're discussing intellectual training, including that most controversial assertion of Charlotte Mason, that attention can be trained. You're going to love this conversation! *** Have you heard about the ongoing Sophie Mentorship inside the Schol...

Our very special guest today is Jami Marstall. Jami has been homeschooling with Charlotte Mason's principles, primarily following AmblesideOnline, for the past 17 years. She has graduated three of her four children from the family homeschool and has one high schooler left. Jami loves to read about and discuss educational history and philosophy. She always dreamed of being a professional student an...

Today's episode is the annual episode we recorded at the retreat when we were together in real life, which means we have to apologize to you for the sound. You'd think it'd be better in person, but the reality is that a single shared microphone is a questionable idea. With that said, we had so much fun discussing a portion of Edwin Friedman's excellent on leadership, A Failure of Nerve . You're go...

Today's conversation is the first in a four-part series covering Charlotte Mason's chapters from School Education on training children physically, intellectually, morally, and religiously. Today we cover physical training — not so much the how as the what and the why. You're going to love this conversation! *** Have you registered for our fall online local retreats yet? If you are listening to thi...

Our guest today is Chad Vegas. Chad is the founding pastor of Sovereign Grace Church in Bakersfield, CA, where he has served since 2006. Chad received his M.A. from Talbot School of Theology. He also spent nearly two decades in public school education as both a teacher and Board Member. He has been married to Teresa since 1994 and they have 2 children. Chad is the co-author of Missions by the Book...

Today's conversation is all about curriculum. What does it mean to say that curriculum can be a crutch? Is that a bad thing? What does a healthy relationship with curricula look like? You're going to love this conversation! *** Have you registered for our fall online local retreats yet? Our physical hostess kits are just about sold out, but digital hostess kits are still available. Our annual Home...

Our guest today is Kara Hughes. Kara is a Christian homeschooling mama to 5 children – a toddler, and then a 4th grader, 5th grader, 7th grader and 9th grader, all of whom use AmblesideOnline. She loves reading and hiking, and especially the two together when she can get them. Kara is also the librarian at a homeschool curriculum library, and is trying to reteach herself piano, convince her piece...