AMDG.  We’re all searching for something we’ve forgotten.  Today’s guest describes his search for reintroduction to reality through both foundational texts and sense experiences.  Trae Bailey, currently Director of Residence Life at Belmont Abbey College and formerly Dean of Student Life at Magdalen College, highlights familial and societal dynamics that are important conduits for the fullness of reality, describes the importance of students taking on responsibility of their education, and emphasizes the importance of wonder. 

Relevant Kolbecast episodes: 

• 27 An Appreciation of Wonder 

• 188 Dr. Kevin Majeres Sees Challenges As Opportunities 

• 212 Portable Treasure with Abigail Palmer 

Hear more from Trae on The Classical Education Podcast and read his writing on Substack 

Links mentioned and relevant: 

• Jordan mentions leading a book club discussion about Fr. Gereon Goldmann’s memoir Shadow of His Wings 

• Trae hosted a few episodes of Magdalen College’s From the Summit podcast, which is still available on podcast platforms.  

• The conversation includes a reference to a conversation with Autumn Kern on her podcast The Commonplace  

• News article on the origins of the Integrated Humanities Program at the University of Kansas 

Have questions or suggestions for future episodes or a story of your own experience that you’d like to share? We'd love to hear from you! Send your thoughts to [email protected] and be a part of the Kolbecast odyssey. 

We’d be grateful for your feedback! Please share your thoughts with us via this Kolbecast survey! 

The Kolbecast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and most podcast apps. By leaving a rating and review in your podcast app of choice, you can help the Kolbecast reach more listeners. The Kolbecast is also on Kolbe's YouTube channel (audio only with subtitles).  Using the filters on our website, you can sort through the episodes to find just what you're looking for. However you listen, spread the word about the Kolbecast! 

AMDG.  Just enrolled?  Considering enrolling?  Returning but feeling overwhelmed?  Today’s episode is for you.  Dean of Admissions Jeanne Anne Ford and customer support supervisor Colleen Pilon share their go-to guidance on organization and inspiration for a new school year, from answering the top questions they get on repeat to tips and tricks they recommend on the regular.  Together with Bonnie and Steven, they provide practical pointers on balancing structure and flexibility. 

Relevant Kolbecast episodes 

• 105 Not Just for Special Occasions, concerning socialization 

• 103 Above & Beyond with Nancy Nelson from the Kolbe Academy bookstore 

• 32 Reflections of His Light with Kolbe Academy alumnae Sister Margaret Mary and Sister Anne of the Marian Sisters of Santa Rosa 

• 211 Continuity & Community with advisors who discuss ways that Kolbe advisors can help that families might not have thought of 

Links mentioned & related: 

• The chat feature that Colleen mentions is accessible on the Kolbe Academy homepage. 

• Schedule an appointment with a Kolbe advisor via the Academic Advising services page 

• Course selection support page 

• Welcome Packet including how to submit grade reports 

• Academics & Advising articles, including Scheduling Recommendations and Organizing the School Year 

• Kolbe Bookstore’s Buy Back Program 

Have questions or suggestions for future episodes or a story of your own experience that you’d like to share? We'd love to hear from you! Send your thoughts to [email protected] and be a part of the Kolbecast odyssey. 

We’d be grateful for your feedback! Please share your thoughts with us via this Kolbecast survey! 

The Kolbecast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and most podcast apps. By leaving a rating and review in your podcast app of choice, you can help the Kolbecast reach more listeners. The Kolbecast is also on Kolbe's YouTube channel (audio only with subtitles).  Using the filters on our website, you can sort through the episodes to find just what you're looking for. However you listen, spread the word about the Kolbecast! 

AMDG. As parents of five Kolbe alumni, Charlie and Dee-Dee Mihaliak have a wealth of experience with Kolbe and home education. They visit with Bonnie and Steven in this episode about how homeschooling grew from a project to a lifestyle for their family. The Mihaliaks describe their delight at the dinner table conversations their grown children now have, give an unvarnished account of challenges they faced, and highlight the intergenerational dynamics that developed through the flexibility of defining your own family’s schedule. 

Check out the Mihaliaks’ Domestic Monastery shop here.  

Kolbecast episodes mentioned & relevant: 

• 18 Homer and the Hunger Games 

• 208 A Mosaic of Experience, featuring the Mihaliak’s son Charlie and two other Kolbe alumni 

• 3 Dramatic Arts with Dolores Ann Mihaliak 

• 73 Through Beauty and Technology, featuring guest co-host Dolores Ann Mihaliak 

• Charlie’s speech at Commencement 2018 

Have questions or suggestions for future episodes or a story of your own experience that you’d like to share? We'd love to hear from you! Send your thoughts to [email protected] and be a part of the Kolbecast odyssey. 

We’d be grateful for your feedback! Please share your thoughts with us via this Kolbecast survey! 

The Kolbecast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and most podcast apps. By leaving a rating and review in your podcast app of choice, you can help the Kolbecast reach more listeners. The Kolbecast is also on Kolbe's YouTube channel (audio only with subtitles).  Using the filters on our website, you can sort through the episodes to find just what you're looking for. However you listen, spread the word about the Kolbecast! 

AMDG. Our 2024 commencement ceremony featured voices of experience ranging from new graduates and experienced teachers to ancient philosophers and modern novelists. Listen in on this episode to those speeches, including student speakers Aiden Jagrowski and Jacob Kavanagh, faculty speaker Elizabeth Hoxie, and keynote speaker Msgr. James Shea. 

Timestamps for the speeches: 

• 01:05 Msgr. Shea’s invocation 

Kolbecast episodes featuring this year’s commencement speakers: 

• Student speaker Jacob on episode 209 Kolbe Kids Give Gems of Information  

Other relevant links & Kolbecast episodes: 

• 100 In the Beginning with Kolbe Academy co-founder Mrs. Dianne Muth 

Have questions or suggestions for future episodes or a story of your own experience that you’d like to share? We'd love to hear from you! Send your thoughts to [email protected] and be a part of the Kolbecast odyssey. 

We’d be grateful for your feedback! Please share your thoughts with us via this Kolbecast survey! 

The Kolbecast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and most podcast apps. By leaving a rating and review in your podcast app of choice, you can help the Kolbecast reach more listeners. The Kolbecast is also on Kolbe's YouTube channel (audio only with subtitles).  Using the filters on our website, you can sort through the episodes to find just what you're looking for. However you listen, spread the word about the Kolbecast! 

AMDG.  We live in unprecedented times—or do we?  Can a classics degree set you back in the job hunt? What do you do when primary sources seem daunting?  Longtime friend of Kolbe Academy Abigail Palmer joins Bonnie and Steven to talk about these big questions and more.  She describes how lack of familiarity with history leads to fear and how being fearful leads to being malleable, she explains how studying antiquity gives perspective, and she highlights overlaps between Latin and classics on one hand and coding and tech innovation on the other. 

Relevant Kolbecast episodes: 

• 100 In the Beginning with Kolbe Academy co-founder Mrs. Dianne Muth 

Links: 

• Abigail’s website 

Have questions or suggestions for future episodes or a story of your own experience that you’d like to share? We'd love to hear from you! Send your thoughts to [email protected] and be a part of the Kolbecast odyssey. 

We’d be grateful for your feedback! Please share your thoughts with us via this Kolbecast survey! 

The Kolbecast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and most podcast apps. By leaving a rating and review in your podcast app of choice, you can help the Kolbecast reach more listeners. The Kolbecast is also on Kolbe's YouTube channel (audio only with subtitles).  Using the filters on our website, you can sort through the episodes to find just what you're looking for. However you listen, spread the word about the Kolbecast! 

AMDG.  Families who homeschool in various states or countries during military service have all the complexities of “regular” families and then some. Kolbe moms and advisors Krysten Pizzurro and Jennifer Thomas share the wisdom they’ve gained from their lived experience of homeschooling on base. They highlight what questions to ask your advisors and when, the benefits and unique needs of military families, and how to make connections and build community while frequently moving. 

Relevant Kolbecast episodes 

• 81 The When and the How of Online Elementary 

Other relevant links 

• Kolbe Academy’s academic advising services  

Have questions or suggestions for future episodes or a story of your own experience that you’d like to share? We'd love to hear from you! Send your thoughts to [email protected] and be a part of the Kolbecast odyssey. 

We’d be grateful for your feedback! Please share your thoughts with us via this Kolbecast survey! 

The Kolbecast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and most podcast apps. By leaving a rating and review in your podcast app of choice, you can help the Kolbecast reach more listeners. The Kolbecast is also on Kolbe's YouTube channel (audio only with subtitles).  Using the filters on our website, you can sort through the episodes to find just what you're looking for. However you listen, spread the word about the Kolbecast! 

AMDG.  Experienced Kolbe mom Deirdre Mundy joins Bonnie and Steven in this second half of a two-part conversation on the lessons and insights she’s gained from homeschooling her eight children.  She explains the ways her family has taken advantage of Kolbe’s flexibility, talks about developmental milestones and the changes in dynamics that come as kids grow into greater independence, and puts things in context with raising children to take on their own relationship with God as they mature. 

Relevant Kolbecast episodes: 

• 202 A Great Conversation, the first part of this conversation 

Links mentioned: 

• QuestBridge 

Have questions or suggestions for future episodes or a story of your own experience that you’d like to share? We'd love to hear from you! Send your thoughts to [email protected] and be a part of the Kolbecast odyssey. 

We’d be grateful for your feedback! Please share your thoughts with us via this Kolbecast survey! 

The Kolbecast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and most podcast apps. By leaving a rating and review in your podcast app of choice, you can help the Kolbecast reach more listeners. The Kolbecast is also on Kolbe's YouTube channel (audio only with subtitles).  Using the filters on our website, you can sort through the episodes to find just what you're looking for. However you listen, spread the word about the Kolbecast! 

AMDG.  Current Kolbe students and brothers Jacob, Gabriel, and James visit with Bonnie and Steven today about their day-to-day lives, their experiences with Kolbe, and their insights for their fellow students. Highlights include their various extracurricular activities and how they juggle their commitments through various time management styles, how they prepare for graduation, what it’s like for younger siblings to watch older siblings navigate high school, what it’s like to use an American-designed curriculum in Canada, and their parish life participation. 

Meet the boys’ mother Tricia in Kolbecast episode 190 The School of Patience.

Other relevant Kolbecast episodes 

• 76 Study Buddies 

Links mentioned: 

• Advanced Placement (AP) courses via Pennsylvania Homeschoolers 

Have questions or suggestions for future episodes or a story of your own experience that you’d like to share? We'd love to hear from you! Send your thoughts to [email protected] and be a part of the Kolbecast odyssey. 

We’d be grateful for your feedback! Please share your thoughts with us via this Kolbecast survey! 

The Kolbecast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and most podcast apps. By leaving a rating and review in your podcast app of choice, you can help the Kolbecast reach more listeners. The Kolbecast is also on Kolbe's YouTube channel (audio only with subtitles).  Using the filters on our website, you can sort through the episodes to find just what you're looking for. However you listen, spread the word about the Kolbecast! 

AMDG.  In this episode, we gather alumni in various stages of life post-graduation to discuss the dividends their Kolbe education is now paying.  One-year alumnus Ian describes his transition to college life; five (ish)-year alumnus Charlie describes the ways his Kolbe formation serves him both in the work world and in his growing family; and ten (ish)-year alumna Hope describes the integrated worldview she brings to her adult life.  The three alumni also share some of their favorite memories of homeschooling, provide words of encouragement and advice to current and prospective families, and let listeners in on the things they’d do differently if they could do it all again. 

Related links & Kolbecast episodes: 

• Charlie on 18 Homer and the Hunger Games  

Have questions or suggestions for future episodes or a story of your own experience that you’d like to share? We'd love to hear from you! Send your thoughts to [email protected] and be a part of the Kolbecast odyssey. 

We’d be grateful for your feedback! Please share your thoughts with us via this Kolbecast survey! 

The Kolbecast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and most podcast apps. By leaving a rating and review in your podcast app of choice, you can help the Kolbecast reach more listeners. The Kolbecast is also on Kolbe's YouTube channel (audio only with subtitles).  Using the filters on our website, you can sort through the episodes to find just what you're looking for. However you listen, spread the word about the Kolbecast! 

AMDG.  Tune in to our newest two-parter of episodes last week and this, where we visit with longtime Kolbe moms recently hired on as Kolbe employees.  Elyse Williams puts the day to day of homeschooling life into perspective of the bigger picture to be seen as she visits with Bonnie and Steven.  She highlights the differences in various seasons of parenting, from elementary school to high school; provides reassurance and encouragement; and describes the beauty of the mind encountering God day in and day out through homeschooling. 

Click here for more information about Kolbe’s academic advising services. 

Relevant Kolbecast episodes: 

• 206 Loaves and Fishes 

If you are a Kolbe family, we’d love to hear how you’ve chosen which of Kolbe’s three ways to educate suits your needs at present. Let us know by recording a voice memo on your phone and sending it to [email protected] or emailing us at the same address!  

Have questions or suggestions for future episodes or a story of your own experience that you’d like to share? We'd love to hear from you! Send your thoughts to [email protected] and be a part of the Kolbecast odyssey. 

We’d be grateful for your feedback! Please share your thoughts with us via this Kolbecast survey! 

The Kolbecast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and most podcast apps. By leaving a rating and review in your podcast app of choice, you can help the Kolbecast reach more listeners. The Kolbecast is also on Kolbe's YouTube channel (audio only with subtitles).  Using the filters on our website, you can sort through the episodes to find just what you're looking for. However you listen, spread the word about the Kolbecast!