It's a Classical Life

  We have been having many discussions about education in our home recently. We haven't been all that pleased with the schooling that our two youngest children are receiving and have been discussing the possibility of switching to home-schooling. Charlotte Mason has been an inspiration to me for a long time and this quote of hers not only guides my beliefs as an educator, but also guides the premise of this blog.  My husband and I have both recently left our careers in teaching to go down a different path. Part of this came from burn-out, part came from a desire for a slower life, less dependant on the "system", and part of it came from a real disillusionment with the education system in our country today. Teachers are trying their best, but it's an uphill battle and very rarely do they win. And it's our children that are caught in the crossfires.  Our daughters are sensitive girls, they're well-read, eager learners and their growth - physical, intelle...

  This summer I have decided to focus a little bit on Ancient Greece in my blog posts. First up, I thought I would give an introduction, just to set the scene. I’ve used a number of sources for this information; see the end of the post for a full resource list. If you already have a sound background on this time period, feel free to skip the following overview. If not, I suggest you do read as knowing the cultural and historical context in which a writer is writing will add to not only your understanding of the themes and style of writing, but also help with your critical analysis of the work.  There are many resources available today for the beginning student of Ancient Greece, some of them good, some of them not. I won’t try and recreate a whole unit of study on Ancient Greece here at this stage (though I may do in the future 😊) because for the self-educated student, working through a variety of sources is the best way to learn. What I will do is guide you through a brief i...