In today’s episode, Pam, Mystie, Abby, and Brandy discuss portions of Saint Augustine’s book On Christian Doctrine that deal with the need for background knowledge in order to read with understanding, especially understanding metaphors. This was a very fun reading assignment! *** Don’t forget to become a Sophie level member of the Sistership! You will get our Spring Training sessions with Rosaria Butterfield this month, along with access to all the other wonderful things going on, AND our annual summer gear! Click here to sign up. *** Click here to access today's show notes. Click here to join the Sistership.

Renee Shepherd is back with us again today. Renee and her husband, who were both homeschooled, are now homeschooling their six children. She is currently finishing her graduate degree in Classical Christian Studies at New Saint Andrews College, where her favorite things to study are theology, Latin, and literature. Renee brought a lesser known article by Dorothy Sayers to our attention, and that’s what Mystie and Brandy are discussing with her today. We think you will be interested in how it rounds out what Sayers said in her well known Lost Tools of Learning. *** Spring Training is coming up later this month! Registration is open for our annual Spring Training. Our coach is the one and only Rosaria Butterfield, author of a number of wonderful books, including The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert and The Gospel Comes with a House Key. We asked Rosaria to coach us on what we like to call Intellectual Hospitality. How do we read classics with discernment, handle disagreements with grace, or confront inconsistency & error with love? Rosaria is going to help us with all that and more. Just click here to register. *** Click here to access today's show notes. Click here to join the Sistership.

In today’s episode, Pam, Mystie, Abby, and Brandy break down the transition to independent work from preschool all the way to high school and beyond. This conversation gives us a lot to think about! *** Spring Training is coming up next month! Registration is now open for our annual Spring Training Our coach this year is the one and only Rosaria Butterfield, author of a number of wonderful books, including The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert and The Gospel Comes with a House Key. We have asked Rosaria to coach us on what we like to call Intellectual Hospitality. How do we read classics with discernment, handle disagreements with grace, or confront inconsistency & error with love? Rosaria is going to help us with all that and more. Just click here to register. *** Click here to access today's show notes. Click here to join the Sistership.

In today’s episode, Mystie, Abby, and Brandy discuss their way through the entire Thinking Person’s Checklist at the back of Alan Jacob’s book, How to Think. This was a fun and interesting conversation to have and they think you’re really going to enjoy it! *** Spring Training is coming up next month! Next month — the month of MAY — is our annual Spring Training, as you well know. We are pleased to announce that our coach this year is the one and only Rosaria Butterfield, author of a number of wonderful books, including The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert and The Gospel Comes with a House Key. While registration is not yet open, now is the PERFECT time to go ahead and sign up for your Sophie membership. You’ll get all the normal fabulous benefits of being a Sophie, and as usual the Spring Training sessions are included in your membership at no extra charge. Click here to sign up. *** Click here to access today's show notes. Click here to join the Sistership.

Today’s guests are Karen Elliott and Erica Robertson from Rafiki Schools. Karen has served with Rafiki since 1990, including twelve years on the mission field, most of that time in Jos, Nigeria. Upon returning to the U.S., she became the Director of Africa Operations for the Rafiki Home Office and was responsible for managing the ChildCare and Education Programs for all ten Rafiki Villages as well as curriculum development. She served at the Home Office for ten years before being named Rafiki's Executive Director in January of 2012. Erica has worked with the Rafiki Foundation since 2010. She was the headmaster of the Rafiki School in Rwanda for three years, and held the same position in Nigeria for five years. She currently serves as the Director for Africa Operations at the Rafiki Home Office in Florida. Today’s episode is our way of remembering that Christian classical education isn’t just about America or the West – it’s an attempt to raise up well-educated and faithful Christians around the whole globe. What does it look like to pursue this Christian heritage in Africa? Today you’ll get a very exciting glimpse! *** Are you thinking about summer reading for your kids or maybe even pulling together your book lists for next year? How do you know what books will be best for you and your family? How do you know which book lists to pay attention to and which to ignore? Can you defend your choices when people cast doubts on them? On March 27, at 9:30 am Pacific, Steven Rummelsburg will be teaching a workshop on How to Choose Good Books followed by a 45 minute Q&A session. By the end of the class, we will understand what makes a classic a true classic and why we should seek out and study the classics. Come get your bookish priorities reinforced and reinvigorated at Steven's How to Choose Good Books workshop. Click here to register. *** Click here to access today's show notes. Click here to join the Sistership.

Today’s episode is our attempt to answer the question of what is scholé? And how do I know if I’m doing it right? Is scholé just restful learning? Or is there more to it than that? These are interesting questions to tackle! *** So what is scholé anyway? What gives with using such a weird Greek word? Scholé Sisters has a short, free guide to understanding what scholé is and how to get some in your life and homeschool. We want to make scholé approachable and practical. Scholé is more than reading and more than restful learning. It's an approach and an attitude. Our Beginner’s Guide to Scholé will help you jumpstart your own schole practices. Click here to find it right on the front page of our website - for free. *** Click here to access today's show notes. Click here to join the Sistership. Click here to follow us on Instagram!

Our guest today is Amber Johnston. Amber lives in Georgia nestled among pine trees, hammocks and ziplines with her husband and their four children. Her happy place is the back porch on a rainy day, preferably with a giant mug of hot tea and a good book. When they have the chance, her family enjoys extended worldschooling trips to immerse themselves in other cultures. Amber blogs about adding mirrors and windows to a traditional Charlotte Mason education at HeritageMom.com and you can also find her on Instagram as @heritagemomblog. Today’s episode is all about tackling a foreign language. Amber is not just wonderful about telling you HOW to go about foreign language; she also gives you a big WHY. Let’s face it: foreign language can be intimidating and so we put it off until the kids are older. If we are going to get brave start ‘em young, we need a really big WHY. *** Ready for the Commonplace Workshop? Are you intimidated by commonplacing? Not sure if you're doing it right? Uncertain how to get started? You're not the only one. So, on February 20th at 9:30 am Pacific, join us for a LIVE Commonplace Workshop where we will break down the process of getting started and keeping up with commonplacing. It doesn't need to be complicated and you don't need to make it a keepsake. At the Commonplace Workshop we'll each share our own commonplace practices and real life examples, helping you see how doable and unfancy - and how beneficial! - commonplacing can be. Click here to register. *** Click here to access today's show notes. Click here to join the Sistership. Click here to follow us on Instagram!

Do you keep a commonplace book (or wish you did)? Today’s episode is serves as a first half for our upcoming Commonplace Workshop. Pam, Mystie, Abby, and Brandy discuss what a commonplace book even is and why anyone would want to keep one. It’s a great discussion you don't want to miss and will get you ready for the Workshop, which is happening this month! *** Ready for the Commonplace Workshop? Are you intimidated by commonplacing? Not sure if you're doing it right? Uncertain how to get started? You're not the only one. So, on February 20th at 9:30 am Pacific, join us for a LIVE Commonplace Workshop where we will break down the process of getting started and keeping up with commonplacing. It doesn't need to be complicated and you don't need to make it a keepsake. At the Commonplace Workshop we'll each share our own commonplace practices and real life examples, helping you see how doable and unfancy - and how beneficial! - commonplacing can be. Click here to register. *** Click here to access today's show notes. Click here to join the Sistership. Click here to follow us on Instagram!

The death of culture and festivity is not a less important death than bodily. No matter what government officials say, Christmas is coming and must be honored with festive celebration – piety requires it. In this episode, Brandy Vencel, Pam Barnhill, Mystie Winckler, and Abby Wahl discuss how festivity and scholé fits into the curricular framework found in Kevin Clark & Ravi Jain’s PGMAPT formulation in The Liberal Arts Tradition. With occasional timely musings about how festivity is different and difficult this season, they return to our responsibility to keep up the cheer – because we do have a hope that extends beyond the grave, a true reason to truly celebrate with as many of our number as we can. *** Join the Sistership Sophie Level to get Christmas gift access! Have you joined the Scholé Sistership yet? If not, you really should since the annual Christmas gift for Sophie level is so close to ready that it’ll be out by the time you listen to this. Santa’s elves have been working away for months on an amazing printable 5x5 Challenge Journal that is FREE for all of our Sophie members in December and January! Click here to join. *** Click here to access today's show notes. Click here to join the Sistership. Don't forget to find us on Facebook! Click here to follow us on Instagram!

Our guest today is Maria Bell. Maria educates her children at home in the Charlotte Mason tradition and enjoys studying and sharing with others the biblical roots of Miss Mason’s philosophy. She is a linguist by training and profession, but her heart is for the ministry of motherhood and the pursuit of Truth. She resides in the Washington D.C. metro area with her husband and three children. Today’s discussion about memory work and recitation is just delightful. Maria Bell sees these things not as building piles of knowledge, but as nourishing the soul in a way that promotes spiritual growth. Her words are a soothing balm to the soul *** Preparing for a new school year in January? If you need to teach logic this year, consider using the Scholé Sisters Liberty of Logic course. This is a very unique approach. Teacher Steven Rummelsburg will help you go deep into logic as a liberal art and then assist you in teaching your children the art using the class textbook. We cannot recommend this course enough! Click here to learn more. *** Click here to access today's show notes. Click here to join the Sistership. Don't forget to find us on Facebook!