Charis Classical Academy

We've brought the podcast back from oblivion! (A Mr. Decker has been teaching Latin this year with a more immersive class, and we get to pick his brain about his experience learning Latin this summer. It was a fun conversation!

Today we continue our reading of 'Classical Me, Classical Thee' by Rebekah Merkel, going through chapter 5: Behind The Drill: Literature. Tune in to this episode to hear Monte, Kim, and Katie discuss the importance of Literature in Classical Education (and in life!)

Today we continue our reading of 'Classical Me, Classical Thee' by Rebekah Merkel, going through chapter 4: Latin! Why Latin? Tune in to this episode to hear Monte, Kim, and Katie discuss the importance of Latin in Classical Education.

We reference articles by Dorothy Sayers: The Lost Tools of Learning and The Greatest Single Defect Of My Own Latin Education.

Join Kim and Katie as the go through the book, "Classical Me, Classical Thee" by Rebekah Merkle. We are discussing chapters 1-3 this week. Join us!

We're back! After a long hiatus, the Charis podcast is back up and running, and Kim & Katie (broadly!) go over the vision for Christian, Classical Education. The series will continue in upcoming episodes as we go through the book "Classical Me, Classical Thee", so grab it if you'd like to follow along! Another recommendation is Dr. Timothy Dernlan's "100 Common Questions about Classical Christian Education".

The Ancient Greeks hailed "a sound mind and a sound body." So how do we approach PE in a classical model?

"To learn to think, we must therefore exercise our limbs, our senses, and our bodily organs, which are the tools of our intellect; and to get the best use out of these tools, the body which supplies them must be strong and healthy." - Rousseau

Aaron Decker discusses the history of PE in schools and focuses on Jiu Jitsu, which he calls "physical chess." Katie takes some crazy rabbit trails (we talk about punching sharks at one point), but Aaron gets us back on track (true discipline!) and we learn more about classical PE and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

Links:

La Sierra PE Program

Pankration (ancient martial art, mixing wrestling & boxing)

The Riot And The Dance (the documentary name Katie couldn't think of during the podcast - there are two in the series so far, and both are great!)

Capoeira (Dancelike martial art of Brazil)

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

Aaron Decker & Katie Tuck discuss the results of The Good Soil Study, a ground-breaking study showing the life outcomes of a classical, Christian education.

The Good Soil Study is, in short, a comparative study of 24-42 year-old alumni from public, secular private, Catholic, evangelical Christian, religious homeschool, and ACCS (classical Christian) schools, on topics of life-choices, preparation, attitudes, values, opinions, and practices.

Head to ClassicalDifference.com for further detail and analysis of the study. We were encouraged by the findings here, and hope you are as well!

Join us for a special episode where we talk with our first graduating class!

A few notes from this episode:

Susu!

That's Life - Michael Tucci

Work Hard, Play Hard, Rest Well.

How do we help our kids deal head on with the difficulty and challenges they will inevitably face in their lives? How can we help them become resilient, vivacious, problem-solving souls? Monte, Kim, & Katie discuss this today.

We reference Keith McCurdy from livesturdy.com frequently!

The Wingfeather Saga by Andrew Peterson

The Wise Woman by George MacDonald

Lilias Trotter

The Thorn by Martha Snell Nicholson

Good Soil Report

Jen Pohl is not only a beloved teacher at Charis, but her love of good books is infectious and she is a treasure trove of information on what Charlotte Mason called "Living Books." (She is also a self-proclaimed book sale addict!)

“Education should aim at giving knowledge touched with emotions.” -Charlotte Mason

“Living books have literary power; they have ‘soul.’ The writers have put their hearts into these books.” - Elaine Cooper

Wondering about what living books are? Jen and Katie use this anagram to walk through a quick survey of living books:

Literary Power

Ideas

Virtuous

Inspiring

Narrative

Generational

Referenced in the podcast:

Book Lists: Memoria Press, Ambleside Online, The Classical Reader, Cindy Rollins (Cindy has many other book lists if you search for them, you can even follow her on Goodreads!), Charis Reading List (see Classreach!)

Authors to look for:

Jean Craighead George, Lois Lenski, Kate Seredy, Jean Fritz, Sterling North

Podcasts to learn more: Stories are Soul Food, The Literary Life (they have another website, The House of Humane Letters where they offer webinars, mini-classes and full courses), A Delectable Education