make joy normal: Catholics in the new springtime

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Well if this isn't a podcasting career highlight for me.  Joseph Pearce is a beloved writer in the Catholic sphere and beyond, his particular area of passion is literature.  Our listener's benefit not only from his knowledge and love of Shakespeare, but his insights into suffering, the blessings of  home education and our life as the primary educators of our children.   
 
2:14 - The influence of "Literary converts" and impact of literacy 
7:35 -  What were your main reasons for choosing to homeschool?
18:20 - Why read Shakespeare and where do we start?
26:50 - What age should you start reading Shakespeare to kids and how?
30:23 - Would you start by reading it or by watching a performance?
33:46 - Where would you go from after Romeo and Juliet and Julius Cesar?
36:00 - How do you read a play aloud?
37:04 - How do we choose a quality performance of Shakespeare?
41:04 - Critical editions by Ignatius Press
41:49 - Are there any movie editions of Shakespeare that would be worth watching?

Romeo and Juliet critical edition and study guide

The Quest for Shakespeare

Shakespeare on Love

Joseph's books at Ignatius Press

The Wagner Stories

Contact

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A fun, rousing and thought provoking episode!  I chat with two moms from the UK, Bo, a pioneer home educator, and Zoe, a covid-induced newbie about the climate of home education in the UK and their own experiences.   But our conversations leads so many good places.  What is education…how do we deal with judgement, the effect that homeschooling has on women, and some political frustrations.  We discuss wet nurses and teens in the fourteenth century.  

1:36 - Bo and Zoe introduce themselves
9:00 - Home education is a whole new world 
12:36 - Assumptions and misconceptions about homeschooling 
21:30 - Impediments to homeschooling and the bigger picture
25:30 - Boxed curriculum, tutors and going at the rhythm of our children 
36:21 - Home education produces children who have initiative, skills and do not fear the opinions of others 
42:51 - How do you define success and when people ask "What do you do?"
59:26 - Resources on home education and finding community
1:18:47 - Emphasis on relationship and listening to that internal voice

Zoe's  little blogette:  

https://www.withsighs.com/

For those interested in American home school curricula in the UK (e.g. IEW or Life of Fred), do support Conquest Books in Wales. Run by a lovely and kind Christian fellow. They are ace: https://www.conquestbooks.co.uk/

Section 7 of the Education Act of 1996 that Bo referred to:

Duty of parents to secure education of children of compulsory school age.

The parent of every child of compulsory school age shall cause him to receive efficient full-time education suitable—

(a)to his age, ability and aptitude, and

(b)to any special educational needs he may have,

either by regular attendance at school or otherwise.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1996/56/section/7

One organisation that supports Home Ed families or those interested in starting Home Ed is called Education Otherwise and would be well worth joining. They have all the info to help families deregister etc and can also provide support if there are difficulties with local councils. https://www.educationotherwise.org/

What is a gibbet? (Not for the faint-hearted) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibbeting

Definition of a "Public School" : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_school_%28United_Kingdom%29

#makejoynormal

#homeschooling

#homeschool

#homeschoollife

#vancouverisland

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With our guest, Crystal Campbell, we discuss the nature of classical education.  There are often misunderstandings of what a classical education means, and how we approach this.  Classical education is a means of helping a human to flourish, and not a series of subjects or even the honing the human faculties or skills.
 
8:40 - A definition of classical education   
24:20 - How am I fostering an education in wonder?
26:04 - We are born to wonder
28:11 - Attending to the piety in our children
34:05 - Misconceptions about classical education
37:51 - The role of memorization
39:12 - The ability to make connections and ask the right questions
42:22 - Resources to learn more about classical education
48:45 - Crystal shares a beautiful quote

We delve into this topic, and Crystal and I are offering three workshops to delve even deeper!

Click here for details and registration

Here are the resources:

What is Classical Catholic Education by Jonathan Beeson

https://sttheresacatholicschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/What-Is-Classical-Education.pdf

An Introduction to Classical Education by Dr. Christopher Perrin

http://classicalsubjects.com/resources/ICE.pdf

Books:

Classical Education by Dr. Gene Edward Veith, Jr and Andrew Kern

Beauty in the Word by Stratford Caldecott

Consider This by Karen Glass

The Liberal Arts Tradition by Kevin Clark, DSL and Ravi Scott Jain

IEW Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization

Crystal's website and public email:

https://crystaljoycampbell.com

[email protected]

Contact

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Well, I can remember thinking, what do I do all day with this small person? 

We talk about developing a routine with our littles ones as we move into homeschooling life.  We also talk about getting kids to help out as part of that framework.  We touch on getting distracted with our phones, and what to do when your child wants to “do it his way.”

2:48 - What do we do all day - a walk through
13:00 - Boundaries around technology in the home
20:47 - How can we keep frustration at bay when children want their way?
31:03 - Is it a good idea to have the kids wait for their turn at the table?
33:14 - How can we teach our children to respect authority?

A day in the life without programs or workbooks

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The resources we mention are here in this blog post.

Oh, one of my favourite topics.  Prepping for our homeschool year.  
Prepare our supplies and our curriculum ~ but mostly our hearts.  

Yes, for sure there are some practical tidbits, where I actually say out loud to our listeners that hinged pencil boxes are life changing.  

We discuss snacks at length.  I’m not sure why. 

1:59 - What are some basic supplies for the school year? 
5:34 - What do you have on hand for the toddlers? 
10:55 - How do you organize and store stuff? 
16:17 - What are some good foods to have for that mid-morning snack? 
23:23 - The importance of planning
33:38 - Start with an empty slate

Contact

• On Instagram at @make.joy.normal 
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We actually answer several questions today, but the one the episode is named after is where we spend most of our time...and such a fundamental question.   What is the difference? 

Here are some more thoughts on that.

But the other questions we spend some time on are:  

• How do we become good leaders in our home?
• What if our husbands aren't on board with this type of homeschooling/discipline?
• How do we encourage kids to get their work done?

2:04 - How can you be the leader in your home in a gentle way? 
11:32 - How can we work on issues in the home when our husbands don't see the issues? 
21:30 - Are using incentives the same as rewards and consequences? 
 33:47 - How can you encourage your kids and keep them on task without draining them?

Contact

• On Instagram at @make.joy.normal 
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All the resources I recommend are in this blog post, linking to my YouTube workshop.  Most things are linked directly to the source.  They are NOT affiliate links....in case you're wondering.   There is also a list of ideas you can talk about with your kids as you learn how to make reading into the curriculum.

 0:49 - Feedback from a listener
3:30 - The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli (for example)
6:51 - What would be a list of topics that you could pull out of a book?
7:58 - Tools for teaching History (Globe, maps, timelines, etc)
16:24 - Learning Vocabulary
18:06 - Studying character through literature
26:00 - What books would you use to extend your study?
30:11 - Would this be your History study and would you read every day?
37:16 - Activities to help grow interest
38:17 - Do you pre read a book before reading it to your kids?
44:13 - Dissecting paragraphs and writing styles
48:42 - How do you decide what to pull out of a book?

https://www.bonnielandry.ca/blog-1/resources-for-homeschool-workshop?rq=resources

And this blog post contains links to the list below, it also includes a list of questions you might have in your brain to use literature as curriculum. 
https://www.bonnielandry.ca/blog-1/some-suggestions-for-studying-the-middle-ages-as-a-family

Novels suggested for a Medieval history study

Augustine came to Kent (In 597 a young boy accompanies a group, including Prior Augustine, to evangelize England)

Son of Charlemagne (780s - the relating of the life of Charlemagne through one of his sons)

If All the Swords in England (late 1100’s, story of the martyrdom of Thomas Becket)

St. Thomas Aquinas, the dumb ox by Mary Fabyan Windeatt 

Big John’s Secret (early 1200’s, during the Crusades, a squire encounters St. Francis of Assisi)

A Door in the Wall (1400’s - a young squire’s life is changed in the midst of the bubonic plague when he becomes crippled and needs care)

Story Books

Tomie DePaola

• Francis the Poor Man of Assisi
• The Knight and the Dragon
• Brother Francis of Assisi
• Clown of God

A Medieval Feast Aliki

Marguerite Writes a Book

Saint George and the Dragon

The Kitchen Knight

DOVER BOOKS - historical colouring books

EYEWITNESS

• Knight
• Medieval Life
• Castle
• Arms and Armour
• Da Vinci and His Times

Contact

• On Instagram at @make.joy.normal 
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In this episode, we talk with Phillip Campbell again, author of the The Story of Civilization series.  We discuss the importance and purpose of studying history and what grabs our attention about it.  How to get our kids to love it!

We also talk about historical accuracy in books and movies, propaganda throughout history and how we use the symbols of history in our everyday lives.   

2:47 - What got you excited about studying History? 
5:19 - History is often taught without continuity 
10:40 - Inaccuracies in movies/books can become a great talking point 
14:00 - Age range for the The Story of Civilization and supplementing resources 
15:49 - Phillip's new book and about the title 
 27:11 - A study of propaganda 
35:09 - How could we bring this into our Homeschool study? 
36:10 - Exciting new books coming soon!

Phillip has a new book out, especially designed for hard core history nerds:  

Here is the link for Cruachan Hill Press:
http://cruachanhill.blogspot.com/p/front-page.html

Here is Phillip's new book on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Power-High-Theocratic-Constantine-Reformation/dp/1638215081/unamsanccath-20

Here are a couple of historically-themed blog post by yours truly:
https://www.bonnielandry.ca/blog-1/what-is-social-studies?rq=history

https://www.bonnielandry.ca/blog-1/rmtmeam2bmw91s34sms54wi5rrnect?rq=history

https://www.bonnielandry.ca/blog-1/resources-for-homeschool-workshop?rq=history

Contact

• On Instagram at @make.joy.normal 
• By email at [email protected]
• Search podcast episodes by topic 
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Some  thoughts about homeschooling high school.  This talk was given at the Canadian Online Homeschool Conference in February, and I'm chatting about the things I learned about high school.  Some resources are included here, so enjoy!

1:48 - The importance of our attitude towards our teenagers
4:40 - The goal is keeping your relationship intact
8:51 - Practical thoughts about working with teens
10:38 - How attitude and record keeping relate
12:11 - Importance of record keeping (see free resources)
14:19 - High school transcript planning 
19:34 - Specifics on developing a transcript and how to integrate life credits
28:53 - Write everything down
29:14 - Bonnie shares the "high school duo-tang" (See Youtube for example)
31:59 - More on marking/grading
35:27 - Keep the data easy to access
36:46 - If you're getting a lot of push back it's okay to wait

https://www.bonnielandry.ca/blog-1/homeschooling-high-school?rq=high%20school

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 Christina Jaloway joins me co-hosting this episode where we interview Dr. Deborah MacNamara.  A wealth of knowledge and passion, Deborah MacNamara has beautiful and sensitive insights into the hearts of our children.    We discuss her work and her book,
Rest, Play, Grow: making sense of preschoolers (or anyone who acts like one). 

Deborah walks us gently, graciously through the layers and depths of building connection with our children, and helps us to understand the instincts and gifts we innately carry to give the safe environment that they crave. 

Deborah's insights and gift to us can be summarized in the following quote ~

"The secret to [developing relationships] is  helping a child see that it’s not their job to strive to hold on to us but to take for granted that we won’t let go of them."

5:38 - Why are rewards and consequences so prevalent today?
10:00 - Why is anxiety related to separation based discipline?
15:48 - What do we do with the fear of judgments of others?
22:50 - What does attachment actually mean?
33:12 - Is it too late if we didn't practice attachment parenting in the early years?
44:20 - What are the fruits of attachment?
46:05 - How is it that a child matures? Where does maturity come from?
1:00:21 - Becoming your child's answer
1:02:52 - How should parents deal with the unreasonable child?

Deborah's website:
http://macnamara.ca

Neufeld Institute:
https://neufeldinstitute.org/

Video on anxiety in children:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hymwvaZ9oKg&t=4s

Dr. Deborah MacNamara on Facebook here:
https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=dr%20deborah%20macnamara

And on instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/drdeborahmacnamara/

Contact

• On Instagram at @make.joy.normal 
• By email at [email protected]
• Search podcast episodes by topic 
• www.bonnielandry.ca
• Shop my recommended resources
  
  

Thanks for listening to Make Joy Normal Podcast!