Ambleside Flourish Podcast

Calming the Troubled Heart

We humans are destined to live in troubled times. As novelist and screenwriter William Goldman puts it in The Princess Bride, “Life is pain, highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.” Goldman echoes the words of Jesus, who made this...

The Greatest Gift of All (Christmas 2020)

Take a moment to imagine a time when someone was truly interested in you. What would it be like for you to give this same kind of attention to your spouse, to your children, and to others? This Christmas, consider giving the...

The Primary Thing For Them

The Pilgrims defined daily living in relationship with God; He was ever before them, the primary thing for them; their unfailing constancy in need and in provision, lives sustained in Him and through Him. May we gain daily perspective through...

To Know and To Love

In the Parable of the Prodigal Son, we find three major players, each with a different orientation toward life: The younger brother who seeks to ESCAPE and INDULGE The older brother who seeks to PERFORM and CONTROL The father who seeks TO KNOW...

On Providence

To believe in Divine Providence is to accept that we do not always know what is best, and the world does not conform to our will but to God's.

Every Person: A Creature of Desire

Slogans like "Be your way" and "Just do it," slogans that encourage us to follow any and all desires, may be good for sales, but they're horrible for souls.

Every Person: A Web of Relations

As the spider is made for building silk webs, so we are made for building relations with persons and things. Our brains are designed for and dependent upon the creation of meaningful relations with persons and things.

Persons: Strange and Glorious Amphibians

Humans are not mere matter or a body directed by some external soul. They are a body-soul unity. In this dense discussion of these primary approaches to understanding humanity, we propose that a proper understanding of human nature will necessarily...

Children Are Born Persons --- Part 1

The first article of a valid educational creed – “children are born persons” – is of a revolutionary character; for what is a revolution but a complete reversal of attitude? - Charlotte Mason

Nurturing the Divine Life in the Child

It is a hard truth that, as a rule, a child will not give greater care and attention to the divine life than do his parents and teachers. read more

Knowing God

Education is the science of relations, relations with saints and sinners, the past and the present, earth and sky, art and craft, work and leisure. Still, there is more. read more.

Instructing in the Beauty Sense

Last time, we spoke of the Beauty Sense, a formative force rarely considered in its potent ability to shape the character of children. The Beautiful, together with the Good and the True are servants to one another, each drawing to...

On Beauty

These are harrowing times. A man dies under the knee of a police officer. Such things ought not to be. Crowds erupt in riot, looting, burning and killing. Such things ought not to be. How are we to understand it?...

“Bringing up” Children in Distressing Times (Part 2)

The story of the principal and Suzie was primarily about recovery from a distressed brain state, but this is only half of the work that is to be accomplished. It is also the responsibility of parents and teachers to build...

“Bringing up” Children in Distressing Times (Part 1)

These last weeks have been taxing. Routines have been radically altered. Freedoms have been constrained. Normal pleasures have been curtailed. For many, income has been disrupted. And perhaps most trying of all, the future is uncertain. The illusion that we...

Child Gymnasium or Child Garden

That children should be trained to endure hardness, was a principle of the old regime. "I shall never make a sailor if I can't face the wind and rain," said a little fellow of five who was taken out on...

Scripture in Community with the Ambleside / Charlotte Mason Method Part 3 Adult Bible Study Example

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q-NmpLDZbY&list=PLSyapsJ5Zs5NFrwJLZbT7i-SwQdA6yYpU&index=3

Scripture in Community with the Ambleside / Charlotte Mason Method Part 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rirUIuadIBo&list=PLSyapsJ5Zs5NFrwJLZbT7i-SwQdA6yYpU&index=2

Scripture in Community with the Ambleside / Charlotte Mason Method Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Q-NmpLDZbY&list=PLSyapsJ5Zs5NFrwJLZbT7i-SwQdA6yYpU&index=3

Opportunities at Home

Last time, we heard from Essex Cholmondeley about opportunities, the opportunities parents have at home “to bring children up to be or to do” to be the kind of persons who have the power to live the life God has...

Parenting in a Digital Age Part 3 with Dr. Bill St. Cyr

Modern technologies propagate a value system. Winners win and losers lose but is that a true statement? Is the purpose of life. To make it to the one percent? Or would I or which would I rather have my child be?...

Parenting in a Digital Age Part 2 with Dr. Bill St. Cyr

What's the most formative influence in that child's life. Is it parents? Is it teachers? I promise you it's the screens that's what's shaping the child's character. Every child is born knowing there are things worth having and things worth...

Parenting in a Digital Age Part 1 with Dr. Bill St. Cyr

Silicon Valley tech executives and engineers enroll their kids in no tech Waldorf schools. Google founders Sergei Brin and Larry Page went to no tech Montessori schools as did Amazon creator Jeff Bezos and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales many parents...

What is Education?

Cholmondeley, Essex, What is Education? An address given to a meeting of the Women’s Institute. 1925.

Bringing Children up Towards Maturity

Parents and Teachers in Authority and Under Authority

Expectations for Children as Persons

Children as Persons and Parents in Authority

"The mystery of a person, indeed, is ever divine, to him that has a sense for the godlike.

The Pursuit of Maturity with Dr. Bill St. Cyr Part 3.4

Join Dr. Bill St. Cyr for the multi-part series on The Pursuit of Maturity.

The Pursuit of Maturity with Dr. Bill St. Cyr Part 3.3

Join Dr. Bill St. Cyr for the multi-part series on The Pursuit of Maturity.

The Pursuit of Maturity with Dr. Bill St. Cyr Part 3.2

Join Dr. Bill St. Cyr for the multi-part series on The Pursuit of Maturity.

The Pursuit of Maturity with Dr. Bill St. Cyr Part 3.1

Join Dr. Bill St. Cyr for the multi-part series on The Pursuit of Maturity.

The Pursuit of Maturity with Dr. Bill St. Cyr Part 2.2

Join Dr. Bill St. Cyr for the multi-part series on The Pursuit of Maturity.

The Pursuit of Maturity with Dr. Bill St. Cyr Part 2.1

Join Dr. Bill St. Cyr for the multi-part series on The Pursuit of Maturity.

The Pursuit of Maturity with Dr. Bill St. Cyr Part 1.3

Join Dr. Bill St. Cyr for the multi-part series on The Pursuit of Maturity.

The Pursuit of Maturity with Dr. Bill St. Cyr Part 1.2

Join Dr. Bill St. Cyr for the multi-part series on The Pursuit of Maturity.

The Pursuit of Maturity with Dr. Bill St. Cyr Part 1.1

Join Dr. Bill St. Cyr for the multi-part series on The Pursuit of Maturity.

The Art of Narration - Defined and Demonstrated with Maryellen St. Cyr

Charlotte Mason called narration the ground-plan of education. Maryellen St.Cyr instructs in this art of telling back with students of varied ages. See how students exhibit the power of narration as they have read/listened to a single reading with attention and...

Educating with the Brain in Mind Seminar Dr. Bill St. Cyr

"To be a teacher you just manipulate their sense experience in such a way as to write on the blank slate of the students mind. We cannot as Christians believe that's all there is to education. As Christians we believe...

Educating with the Brain in Mind Seminar Maryellen Marschke St. Cyr

"Charlotte Mason used the analogy as food for the mind as food for the body. What are we eating? What are our children eating? What is their mind food? Not just in the hours of school but in the hours...

Growth Focus

The heart of a child will shape how they live and how they experience life. “Growth means the formation of new habits, habits formed with the right kind of heart, the right kind of intrinsic motivations, which have to be...

Education is 99% Habits and 1% Knowledge with Maryellen St. Cyr Part 2 [BASECAMP Live]

Classical Christian parents and educators are fond of saying “education is more than information – it is formation”… but what does formation really look like in a practical way? 100 years ago British educator Charlotte Mason wrote on how affections...

Education is 99% Habits and 1% Knowledge with Maryellen St. Cyr Part 1 [BASECAMP Live]

Classical Christian parents and educators are fond of saying “education is more than information – it is formation”… but what does formation really look like in a practical way? 100 years ago British educator Charlotte Mason wrote on how affections...

How do we form a human soul? What Charlotte Mason knew about the art of education. [BASECAMP Live]

How do we make education a joyful discovery? Is it knowledge alone or do relationships have something to do with it? What kind of relationship does your child have with history, with their siblings, with math, with their teacher? If...

Bringing up Joyful Children Part 5: Questions and Answers

Part 5 – Questions and Answers Dr. Bill St. Cyr, Executive Director of Ambleside Schools International, answers questions on Bringing up Joyful Children.   Subscribe to Flourish Podcast: Apple Podcasts |  Google Play Music | iHeart Radio |  RSS Feed Watch on Youtube | Vimeo

Bringing up Joyful Children Part 4: Additional Skills of Joy

Part 4 – Additional Skills of Joy In the final part of his series on “Bringing up Joyful Children,” Dr. Bill St. Cyr, Executive Director of Ambleside Schools International identifies: additional joy skills, the capacity to handle the six painful emotions...

Bringing up Joyful Children Part 3: The Skills of Joy

Part 3 – The Skills of Joy The third part of a four-part series, Dr. Bill St. Cyr, Executive Director of Ambleside Schools International identifies three skills essential to building a joyful life: the capacity for shared joy; the capacity to...

Bringing up Joyful Children Part 2: The Constituents of Joy

Part 2 – The Constituents of Joy The second part of a four-part series, Dr. Bill St. Cyr, Executive Director of Ambleside Schools International explores the fundamental constituents of a joyful existence: belonging, security, fruitfulness, and contentment.   Listen to Flourish Podcast for Free: Apple Podcasts |  Google...

Bringing up Joyful Children Part 1: The Definition of Joy

Part 1 – The Definition of Joy The first part of a four-part series, Dr. Bill St. Cyr, Executive Director of Ambleside Schools International gives us the definition of joy: providing examples of what it is and is not, contrasting it...

Growth Focus

The heart of a child will shape how they live and how they experience life. “Growth means the formation of new habits, habits formed with the right kind of heart, the right kind of intrinsic motivations, which have to be...