Scholé Groups Blog
The Three Kinds of Homeschooling Communities
For any of us who have been involved with homeschooling for any length of time, we have inevitably heard about the various kinds of homeschooling communities and cooperatives. As the popularity of homeschooling grows, so do the opportunities. The many opportunities...
The Classical Charlotte Mason Way to Pass a Test
The Classical-Charlotte Mason Way to Pass a Test, by Cheryl Floyd Why do we still stress over tests? Why are we still tempted to use them as a meaningful way to assess retention or understanding? I don’t know. I don’t have the cure either, but I certainly do still...
Commonplacing: A Lifelong Practice of Scholé
My scholé practice of keeping a commonplace book predates my knowledge of what a commonplace book is. One of the most vivid memories from my youth is sitting at the desk in my vintage 70s yellow and orange room, copying quotes from books or lyrics from pop songs....
Suffering, Scholé & the Highest Good
A mother’s suffering, A child born, A farmer’s labor, A flower burst forth, A student’s wrestling, A mind illumined, A savior’s death, A people delivered. A sinner’s repentance, A soul freed, And love is made known. ―Jennifer Dow, 2019 What do each of the stanzas in...
Why Read Pagan Literature?
This post is based on brief comments at the Scholé Retreat 2019, Silencing the Sirens, and on an article from the author's personal blog, The Reading Mother. Most of us have probably been asked, as Christians and classical educators, if it is really necessary for our...
Schole in the Midst of a Storm
I n the midst of a painful providence, what’s a Mama to do? That’s a good question. Mamas like doing. And yet we are encouraged to practice scholé, restful learning, in our lives. What exactly does that look like, especially in the midst of a significant trial? To be...
Using the Eight Principles of Classical Pedagogy to Grow as a Leader
In his popular talk, The Eight Principles of Classical Pedagogy, Dr. Perrin discusses eight principles that speak to how children learn and therefore how teachers should teach. By moving with the grain of how a student learns, the whole process of learning and...
Developing Healthy Community In Your Schole Group
I have been homeschooling my children since their earliest years. They came fast and furious, in just barely over three years, two boys and a girl, now ages 14 - 11. I have learned so much, but I am still a novice. My dad always told me, “The more you know, the more...
Scholé Guilt
Guiltily, I take out the math facts drills, saddened that I am choosing to do “labor” instead of “scholé” again, wrestling internally over whether or not to have the child finish the assignment with which she is struggling. Do you struggle with scholé guilt? Have you...
Aiming Your Students Toward Virtue
I f you are educating your own or other people’s children classically, then you desire to instruct them towards virtue. That sounds like a philosophical concept that isn’t very tangible to our lives in practice. However, there are practices and aims that will take...
Scholé Spotlight: Miranda Scholé Community
Miranda, a name derived from Latin, means wonderful or worthy to be admired. Miranda Scholé Community aims to cultivate wonder in our students by presenting before them that which is worthy to be admired. We wish to create an atmosphere that is conducive to a...
The Role of Prayer for the Scholé Director
As a Scholé Director, I am the person that everyone is looking to for wisdom and direction in my group. How do we possess this type of wisdom and provide the needed direction that makes our group successful for years to come? I believe it is through the power of...
The Sabbath of Summer
Summer! Summer! Summer! It is the season we celebrate the cumulation of the school year and the associated fruits of our labor, a time to anticipate renewal, to remember and to refocus. It is also a time of refreshment for ourselves and our families. How is summer...
The Classical Spirit of Inquiry
C lassical education is not, preeminently, of a specific time or place. It stands instead for a spirit of inquiry and a form of instruction concerned with the development of style through language and of conscience through myth. The keyword here is inquiry. – David...
Simplifying Summer
W inslow Homer's Boys In a Pasture embodies summer. You can smell the grass, feel the heat, hear the bees buzzing. Do you remember the glorious freedom of a long summer of such days stretching out as far as the eyes could see? For me, this painting conjures up endless...
My Scholé Journey: A Disciple, A Wife, A Mother, An Educator
bout five years ago, as my oldest child was entering the third grade, I was at a loss to teach him how to write. I didn’t know anything about writing, and it seemed like such a difficult, subjective thing to teach and...
Repentance and Rabbit Trails in the Pursuit of a Life Well-Read
any of us who are earnestly seeking to provide our students with a classical and restful education had educations that were anything but. In some cases, they were seriously deficient. How then can we hope to provide this...
Purpose & Unity in Academic Communities
“The Person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer Several months ago, in the article Growing Gracefully, we discussed Bonhoeffer's quote in relation to how we...
Restful Learning and Repentance
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” –Matthew 11:28–30 About two...
The Journey of Scholé Education
Learning is a journey. Back in my college years, as I backpacked in the mountains of Wyoming, I embraced the idea that the journey is just as, if not more, important as the destination. As I reflect back on my own learning journey this past year, particularly...
Growing Gracefully: Introducing New Families to Classical Ed
Whenever we get people together around Classical Education, one thing we can always count on is that we are all at different places on that journey, and we represent a plethora of diverse experiences. This dynamic adds interest, new perspectives, and beauty to a...
Wonder Overflowing
“You are the God who works wonders…” —Psalm 77:14 While the desire to ponder God in one’s heart is a grace from God, the ability to reflect on God’s love and how He weaves all things together develops over time as a child of God encounters and contemplates the good,...
Toward a Life Well Read
Our high school Humanities II curriculum at Providence Prep concentrates on classic works of literature, poetry, and history—the Great Books canon of western civilization—contextualized by an outstanding history lecture series from Dr. George Grant. In general, our...
Scholé Spotlight: Cedarbrook Scholé Community
Hello! We are Cedarbrook Scholé Community, a group meeting in Southern California for the past school year. We are actually a subset of a larger group that disbanded after the last school year. We have five families in our group, with fourteen kids ranging from age 3...
Celebrate Learning
Learning is such a gift! I love to involve students in experiential learning, which engages their senses in what they are learning. Our Scholé Group, Sola Gratia Classical Academy (SGCA), has been a place for students to do just that—fully engage their bodies and...
Scholé Spotlight: Pro Gloria Dei
The Pro Gloria Dei Scholé Group is three years old and serves thirteen families in Alabama’s Wiregrass area. Our students range from infants to eleventh graders. One unique aspect of our group is that we have two alternating weekly schedules. We have Class Weeks (a...
The Year 2016: From Pilot Groups to Beta Groups
We are now wrapping up our first calendar year of Scholé Groups, a year during which we began working with twenty-two Pilot Scholé Groups from across the nation (and Canada!) who were willing to “test the concept” of scholé (restful learning) and travel with us. It...
Scholé Spotlight: Scholé Group of Rochester Hills
We began a Scholé Group this year as a few like-minded homeschooling families who desire to pursue restful learning together. This year we have three families, and we’re enjoying our small-group environment. We are also a young group, with five children ages four to...
One Toothache at a Time
I love the idea of scholé (restful and contemplative learning), but I just don’t know if I can pull that off in my homeschool! If you can relate to this sentiment, congratulations! You are in good company. The Scholé Groups community is filled with homeschoolers who...
Scholé Spotlight: The Scholé Homeschool Center of Harrisburg
The Scholé Homeschool Center of Harrisburg launched this year with twenty-five families, who come together to give our children a beautiful, Christian, classical education. We meet at a beautiful church in Harrisburg, PA, and are a full academic co-op, offering...
Mining for Books: The Classical Reader
Dear Homeschooling Parent, We think it's important that you have the freedom to choose the curriculum that will best suit your students—that’s why Scholé Groups only asks that our members teach classical subjects, without requiring the use of any particular text or...
Scholé in Upper School
Scholé is an important concept at all levels of education, but perhaps especially so in the upper school years (the dialectic and rhetoric stages, i.e., grades 6+). Upper school students devote more of their time to their studies, which necessarily explore more...
Plato and Play
As a classical educator and consultant to classical schools for about twenty years now, I have often been amused and sometimes gratified by the ways scientific research rediscovers what classical educators have known (or at least believed) for centuries. For example,...
