It's a Classical Life

  Hi all, and welcome back! This week's 'oldie but a goodie' Bitesize Inspiration comes from Charlotte Mason. If you don't know about Mason she was a British educator who dedicated her life to improving the role of education in children's lives in the nineteenth century. So much of what she believed and endeavoured to teach has been lost in our modern school system (at least from what I've seen in over seventeen years of teaching!) This quote is at the heart of her belief of what education should be - an atmosphere, a discipline, a life. Let's have a quick look at each of these. Atmosphere refers to the environment in which we learn. This can be the school environment, but also the atmosphere at home and the attitude towards learning. Education shouldn't just refer to those thirteen years of registered learning - it should be a part of our whole lives (see here for my thoughts on being a lifelong learner). Discipline isn't about punishment and cruel...

  How do you feel about non-fiction books? I love them. Covering a wide range of topics, in many different formats and lengths, I believe there is a non-fiction book for everyone. Generally, I prefer history or philosophy books, but can also be taken by art books, travel, spirituality, or anything really that grabs my interest! Sometimes a book will grab my interest and I'll read the whole thing, cover to cover. Other times a chapter here or an excerpt there is enough to This week I thought I would share with you the non-fiction books that are on my desk. These have all come from the library and have developed from a prior interest of mine.  The Top Five Regrets of the Dying ~ Bronnie Wa re I didn't get too far into this book before I started crying. Bronnie Ware is such a genuine, warm-hearted person and in this book she reflects on the time spent with people at the end of their lives in her role as a palliative carer. Even though she originally began with no f...

  This past week we have been sick again, with lots of time spent indoors. I started reading Samuel Smiles' Self-Help, which can be found online here  or downloaded for free on Amazon . It was my first time delving into Smiles' writings and there was a lot to take in - some of it I agreed with it, some not. This particular quote was one that caught my eye. Here at It's a Classical Life, I always encourage self-education and being a lifelong learner. We talk about how to look to the classics and those who came before us for our inspiration, in much the same way that Smiles is saying here.  I also love the way that he emphasises us being the active agents in our own well-being and well-doing and our own best helpers. Sometimes I wonder if we are becoming too reliant on others to help us or fix our problems. Smiles gives many good examples to back this point up, but I'm sure we can all imagine some for ourselves. Cath over at the Cheapskates Club often sa...

Welcome back to It's a Classical Life! I took a week off from blogging over Easter to visit some family and generally relax. It was lovely and you can see some pictures from our travels in this post. I did, however, keep reading my classics - current read is The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. I'm enjoying it so much and just like A Room With a View by E.M. Foster it is really making me think about English society one or two hundred years ago. I know these books are considered modern classics, but it still amazes me how much has changed and yet, how very little has remained the same in our world. There are still prejudices, still quarrelling families, still heartache and anxiety. It got me thinking about how we can use the classics to help us with our everyday lives, and how just by reading them, we can reap so many benefits.  If you are a regular visitor here you may already know and appreciate these benefits of reading the classics, but if you are new to it, or struggling...

  We've been chatting a bit lately about how life is becoming more expensive, and last week I shared 9 ways to live well when money is tight . One of these tips was to join the public library and to use it for free entertainment. In continuing with this theme I noticed that there are a lot of classic books available for free online. Many of these are available for download at Gutenberg, but Vicki at V ickie's Kitchen and Garden often shares free digital Kindle downloads, and I thought I would do the same. The ones I want to share today are from Amazon and work well with the free Kindle App that can be downloaded on both Apple and Android phones. I have a second-hand iPhone 8 and it works perfectly with these digital downloads. As a side note, I would definitely advocate reading books in paper where possible, but if that isn't possible and you're ready to jump on the classics bandwagon, here are some the books I saw for free on Amazon this week (please check the price b...

  After seeing Van Gogh Alive last week, art has been on my mind. I studied philosophy briefly during university, and had the opportunity to teach it for a year to senior high school students. We had a lot of fun, delving into the history and different philosophical movements.   Schopenhauer is today's Bitesize Inspiration and I think that this quote is wonderful advice for people who are just starting out with art or any creative pursuit - literature, music, poetry and so on. I often ignore the introduction or forward in a piece of literature so that the person writing that forward does not impose their thoughts and ideas on me before I've even read the book! I also think this advice is timely for those who may be connoisseurs of the arts, or have a long experience with studying it. We don't want to go in thinking we know all about it, before we have fully experienced it. Schopenhauer's quote touches on so many important things: manners, reverence, the art of listening...

Have you heard the saying, New Year, New You? I have to say, I really don't like it. First of all, I don't like the idea of one day of the year pressuring us to think negatively about ourselves and consider all the ways in which we would like to be different (usually this has to do with physical appearance). For me, self-improvement goes hand in hand with self-education and should be a lifelong process , not a one day goal. Secondly, having resolutions hanging over our heads takes away the joy and gladness of this time of year. We have made it through another year! We have so much to look forward to! Why spoil that with goals that perhaps don't inspire us but force us to feel bad about who we are? Whilst researching this article, I came across an interesting article comparing New Year's resolutions from 1947 to the most common ones made today. Here you can see how we have changed in the things we want for ourselves in the coming year. Resolutions From 1947 - Gallup Po...

Part of my little Victorian literature collection I started this month on Instagram participating in what is lovingly called #victober. This tag celebrates the diverse and rich history, literature and society of the Victorian era during the month of October. I started the month by reading Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, then followed that with The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte and A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett (the latter is not technically a Victorian novel, but it is certainly imbued with many facets of Victorian ideals, values and social norms.) It has been a while since I have done a History post, and thought I would love to revisit Victorian Britain in a bit more detail here on the blog. I hope to explain here some of the history of this time that has influenced those books, artists and poets that we know and love from this time. There is a lot to love about this time, but there is also a lot that might shock or sadden our modern...

  Hello and welcome to It’s a Classical Life!  If this is your first time here, my name is Kirsty and I’m so glad you’re here to talk about all things classic, from the Ancient Greeks and Romans right up to the present day. We can draw our inspiration from classic literature, style, music and more so join us as we bring some timeless and enduring culture into our everyday lives. You may wonder, why study the classics? For me, studying the classics is part of a bigger whole – to be a lifelong learner. I am a trained History and World Languages teacher (ESL, Italian and Spanish) and have spent fifteen years studying and teaching topics I love from kindergarten to grade 12. In these days of our internet knowledge and ability to search for quick answers, becoming a lifelong learner is one of the best gifts you can give yourself and to your children. I can always tell those students who have grown up reading widely and reading well!  To be able to understand and assess how tho...

The summer and Christmas holidays have continued to be a disappointment. Although the weather is mild and the air is beautifully clear and crisp, we are still isolated from friends and family living on the other side of the border. I miss them. I missed being with my parents, sisters and nieces and nephews for Christmas. I missed the big, loud, exhausting days of Christmas time spent together. The year we all couldn't wait to end still seems to be hanging on, even though the calendar has ticked over to January.  I have been relying on some old favourites to help with this isolation-induced sadness, turning to classical pursuits that I know will bolster my spirits and give me hope for a kinder, gentler future: reading, writing, listening to Podcasts and classical music.  Classical music continues to move, inspire, transport, relax and invigorate. As the world continues to tilt on its rather dangerous and precarious axis, as we have seen in recent days (and months) around the wo...