• Bible,  Education,  Music,  Poetry

    Christmas Memory

    The classical (or neo-classical) approach to homeschooling stresses the importance of memory work during the first stage, the “grammar stage,” of education. Fill those absorbent young minds with lots of good stuff, then…

  • Nonfiction

    Epicenter

    Epicenter is this month’s selection for the book club I belong to. I was curious to read it, because recently the subject of the Middle East has come up several times in conversations,…

  • Education

    Homeschool State of the Union

    My second grade daughter and I are about halfway through the year. It’s time to stop and take stock of how things are going. Academics: I’m very pleased with her progress. We’re on…

  • Parenting

    Weird but good

    I did something weird tonight. After my kids were tucked into bed, I slipped into the laundry room where their Christmas presents are hidden, selected several, unwrapped them, and put them in the…

  • Chapter Books

    The Princess and Curdie

    Here she is: Princess Irene of The Princess and the Goblin . She’s following the thread spun by her mysterious grandmother, who lives in a tower, keeps pigeons, and reveals herself only to…

  • Bible

    How Long, Lord?

    I’ve been reading through — or more like plodding through — my Bible since last year some time. Isaiah is as far as I’ve gotten. It’s been a long time since I felt…

  • On Reading,  Picture Books

    Raising Readers

    I joked on another blog recently that I was raising readers the old-fashioned way: by making sure they have nothing else to do but read. It’s somewhat true; we aren’t awash in extra-curricular…

  • Christianity,  Essays

    The Weight of Glory

    The Weight of Glory is a collection of speeches C.S. Lewis gave on different topics, for different occasions. It was my first experience of reading Lewis this way, rather than in a sustained…