Scholé Sisters: Camaraderie for Classical Homeschooling Mamas

Our special guest today is Danielle Cyrus. Danielle was a pre-law student when God disrupted her plans and led her to education. She has 4 children and has been married to Grant for 20 years. She began homeschooling as her oldest reached school age and has been neck deep in books ever since. Danielle is a tutor in the Classical Conversations Essentials program and has led various home-education support groups and retreats on Classical and Charlotte Mason philosophies. She is passionate about fostering supportive community for home-educating parents. Danielle has been hosting a local Scholé Sisters retreat for years so Abby and Brandy thought it’d be great to get together with her for a bit and discuss the ins and outs of of hosting a local retreat, and get her to explain why she loves retreats so much. Danielle gives plenty of helpful tips along the way so listen up! *** Click here to access today's show notes. Click here to join the Sistership.

Our special guest this week is Melissa Cummings. Melissa and her husband Steven are second generation Christian homeschooling parents of five. She directs a Classical Christian homeschool co-op in her rural community, and also manages to pull off the annual Paideia Northwest conference for mamas raising kids for Christ. You can find her at JoyfulDomesticity.com. In today’s episode, Mystie and Brandy talk with Melissa about creating and nurturing community. Trust us, Melissa knows how it’s done! She built a thriving homeschool community in her own backyard! Building a homeschool community takes time and energy, which is why we don’t just ask Melissa about building community – we ask her how to know if it’s worth the sacrifice. *** This summer, Scholé Sisters will be hosting some workshops led by Melissa who plans to walk us through what it takes to build a community, whether it be large or small. These workshops will be FREE for Sistership Sophie members! Just go to scholesisters.com/sisters to sign up. *** Click here to access today's show notes. Click here to join the Sistership.

So many people are turning to homeschooling these days, and the first question they usually ask is about curriculum – what should they use and how should they use it. In today’s episode, Mystie and Brandy discuss why it’s useful to back up and talk about why everyone needs a philosophy and how to go about building one. *** Earlier this week on Tuesday, Scholé Sisters hosted our annual Spring Training. Our coach this year was Dr. Carl Trueman, professor of biblical and religious studies from Grove City College. He gave us an amazing history lesson on Marx and Marxism and answered a lot of great questions at the end. Replays are available, and if you sign up shortly after this episode comes out, you’ll still have time to register and attend our live debriefing session with Mystie, Abby, and Brandy on May 10th. Just go to scholesisters.com/true to register. *** Click here to access today's show notes. Click here to join the Sistership.

To prepare for today’s episode, Abby, Mystie, and Brandy read the first two chapters of Charlotte Mason’s third volume, School Education, which is all about authority. Our conversation centers on trying to grasp exactly what is unhealthy authority, what is healthy authority, and then how do we fight the anti-authority culture we live in? It was s a great discussion! *** Are you ready for this year’s Spring Training? In seeking to understand the times we are in, we have hired as this year’s coach Dr. Carl Trueman, professor of biblical and religious studies from Grove City College. Dr. Trueman is the author of the remarkable book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self. Understanding the times helps us prepare our children, yes, but also prepares US to live counterculturally with confidence. Dr. Trueman is the perfect coach to help us understand how to navigate these strange cultural waters. Just go to scholesisters.com/true to register. *** Click here to access today's show notes. Click here to join the Sistership.

Our guest today is Brett Stroud. Brett is the President of Providence Classical Academy in Bakersfield, California. He is a graduate of the Torrey Honors Institute, a great books program at Biola University, and of the Pepperdine University School of Law. The mission of Providence Classical Academy is “To provide the children entrusted to its care with a liberal education grounded in the Christian scriptures and the Western tradition, with the goal of forming godly, virtuous, self-governing men and women.” Today’s episode is something of an intervention. It looked like Abby was going to abandon politics altogether and so, naturally, Brandy got a lawyer and came to the rescue. You will love not just that is worked … but HOW it worked! *** Are you ready for this year’s Spring Training? We are SO excited to invite you to join us LIVE for the Excellent Marxmanship Spring Training. This year’s coach is the one and only Dr. Carl Trueman, professor of biblical and religious studies from Grove City College. Dr. Trueman is the author of the remarkable book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self. We need to understand the times so we can prepare our children, yes, but also so that we can be prepared to live counter-culturally with confidence. Dr. Trueman is the perfect coach to help us understand how to navigate these strange cultural waters. Just go to scholesisters.com/true to register. *** Click here to access today's show notes. Click here to join the Sistership.

In today’s episode, Brandy, Pam, Mystie, and Abby discuss the idea that classical education “makes you more human.” Depending on what you think this means, the phrase can come off as offensive, in conflict with Charlotte Mason’s assertion that children are born persons, and more. Because of this, they’re taking a deep dive into what this really means and why they think it matters. *** Do you want to enhance your reading? We’ve still got some copies of our 5x5 challenge reading journal in the shop! The Scholé Sisters 5x5 Journal helps you read, review, understand, and assess. It is designed to help you go deeper in your reading and thinking. Stop waiting for the right time or pen or month! The time is now — start building habits of thinking and cultivate your intellectual life. Go to scholesisters.com/journal and get your copy today. *** Click here to access today's show notes. Click here to join the Sistership.

Our special guest today is the one and only Gregory Wilbur! Greg is founder and president of New College Franklin—a Christian college that concentrates on the classics and the seven liberal arts with a discussion-based approach and spiritual formation. In addition to teaching and developing curriculum, his current academic focus is advancing the disciplines of the Quadrivium by bringing together leading voices in its renewal. An award-winning musician, Greg has released seven albums of his compositions of congregational psalms, hymns and service music as well as theatrical musicals and film scores, and his hymns can be found in more than ten hymnals. Having taught for almost thirty years, he is a frequent speaker on music, the Quadrivium, arts, liturgy, and worship and serves as Chief Musician and liturgist at Cornerstone Presbyterian Church in Franklin, TN. Greg, his wife, Sophia, and daughter, Eleanor, enjoy travel, reading, cooking, taking walks and life in middle Tennessee. In today’s episode, Mystie and Brandy dig interrogate Greg about music. In The Liberal Arts Tradition, music appears twice: once as a sort of poetic mode of knowing, and later as a liberal art that looks suspiciously like math. We want to know where instruments come in. *** It’s not too late to join the Excellent Marxmanship seminar going on now in the Sistership. Excellent Marxmanship is all about Marx with an X – and how he has made his marx (pun intended!) on the world around us. To join us as we read Plutarch, the Communist Manifesto, and more, go to scholesisters.com/marx *** Click here to access today's show notes. Click here to join the Sistership.

In today’s episode, Abby, Mystie, and Brandy dig into Josef Pieper’s lesser-known work Abuse of Language, Abuse of Power. They end up spending a lot of time on the idea of flattery which is … super uplifting. The good news is that they decide in the end that what we are already doing in classical education works for this issue, too! *** It’s not too late to join the Excellent Marxmanship seminar going on now in the Sistership. We are already learning lots and having a great time. Excellent Marxmanship is all about Marx with an X – and how he has made his marx (pun intended!) on the world around us. To join us as we read Plutarch, the Communist Manifesto, and more, go to scholesisters.com/marx *** Click here to access today's show notes. Click here to join the Sistership.

Welcome back to Scholé Sisters. Today kicks off our 17th season of the show. This episode has been SIX YEARS in the making! It’s our one hundredth episode! In honor of 100 episodes and also over a MILLION downloads, Mystie went through and figured out our top five most-referenced books. Today we’re sharing a little bit of the personal history of the podcast, and then we jump into these top five books and tell you why you should own them, too. *** On Monday, February 7th our Excellent Marxmanship seminar started up in the Sistership. It’s not too late for you to come and join us! Excellent Marxmanship is Marx with an X – and how he has made his marx (pun intended!) on the world around us. Join us as we read Plutarch, the Communist Manifesto, and more. You’ll be glad you did! *** Click here to access today's show notes. Click here to join the Sistership.

Today is our annual so-called Christmas episode, and the least Christmassy one we’ve ever done. Oops. No matter! We were all together in Idaho and recorded this conversation, inspired by chapter 3 of the book The Supper of the Lamb just for you. It might not be super Christmassy, but we like to think this episode is a gift nonetheless. *** Please note: If you are not in the Sistership, you are really missing out! Our 2021 Sophie Christmas gift came out this week. It’s a Plutarch resource you will NOT want to miss. The annual gift is only available until January 6th, so go grab yours ASAP. We will also be giving away the prizes for 5x5 Challenge Finishers soon so watch for instructions on how to get that. There is also ... so much more! Why don’t you just head over to scholesisters.com/sistership and join us? *** Click here to access today's show notes. Click here to join the Sistership.