Meet our board of Spiritual Advisors! Fr. Nikolai Meyers is the priest of Sts. Peter and Paul in Topeka, KS and is our advisor for the diocese of Wichita and Mid-America. He has been invaluable to Saint Emmelia's, advising us on communications, helping with the SOUTH conference the past few years, and sharing his wisdom about curriculum in our Saint Macrina Lectures.

On today’s episode, Matushka Melissa talks with St Emmilia Ministries financial officer about the scholarship programs funded by our organization as well as managing homeschooling when you have lots of small children at home. It’s a fun and informative interview that will give the listener lots of ideas to make homeschooling easier.

On this special episode, Matushka Melissa talks with her oldest daughter, Maria Ross. Maria is a former homeschooler and a 2023 graduate with honors from Michigan State University with a double major in Math and Secondary Math Education with a minor in Biology. Maria uses her personal experience as a formerly math resistant student to give advice and guidance on teaching math in general but especially to struggling students.

https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Three_R_s.html?id=vRqGAAAACAAJ&source=kp_book_description

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1614165.You_Can_Teach_Your_Child_Successfully

https://hewittlearning.org/curriculum-home/math-it/

https://youtube.com/watch?v=yXNG6GKFhQM&si=kUugCpC_QqV2eNXq

Some of the Summer '24 Interns--Cecilia, Caroline, Londyn, and Sevastiane--are joined by Fr. Noah Bushelli to discuss issues around modesty and peer interactions that teens encounter.

On this episode, Dr Philip Mamalakis shares advice and reflections as well as his motivation for writing Parenting Towards the Kingdom which Matushka Melissa and her husband, Fr Benjamin, recommend as THE parenting book every Orthodox Christian needs. The companion book is spiral bound making it infinitely easy to work with for independent study, book clubs, and church school groups. It was co-authored with Kendra Hunter, Kristina Tartara, and Stephanie Patrides.

https://store.ancientfaith.com/parenting-toward-the-kingdom/

https://store.ancientfaith.com/parenting-toward-the-kingdom-a-companion-guide/

https://www.instagram.com/krusaderkendra40?igsh=MW9rcnZwd3Y0M2p4dA==

https://www.kristinatartara.com/?fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAaaxW-Rix9_OleGAvhUraG0Ze13zYyj_FSamng6ps68XCPgxYO7Pl-Lkg3s_aem_XRSfBOEvDZpxNu4ZjhEh2Q

Taken from the Saint Emmelia Ministries Vocation Fair event, Fr. Noah Bushelli talks about what vocation means and how we can go about discerning what God intends for our lives.

In this episode, Summer '24 interns Juliana, Sevastiane, and Londyn join Mindi to talk about their reading habits, as well as why certain stories have such a strong pull on readers.

Books and Authors mentioned in this episode:

Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh

The End of the Affair - Graham Greene

El coronel no tiene quien le escribe - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Anxious Generation - Jonathan Haidt

Constantina R. Palmer - The Scent of Holiness & The Sweetness of Grace

The Idiot - Dostoevsky

Ruta Sepetys (all books, especially I Must Betray You)

Susan Meissner

Rilla of Ingleside - L.M. Montgomery

The Light in Hidden Places, Bluebird - Sharon Cameron

The Hired Girl - Laura Amy Schlitz

Within These Lines - Stephanie Morrill

Traitor, The Silent Unseen - Amanda McCrina

Shakespeare

The Aeneid - Virgil

T.S. Eliot

Jane Austen

David Copperfield - Charles Dickens

Agatha Christie

On this episode, we talk with Summer Kinard about creating accessible environments at home and in church school. Summer has both a masters of theology and a masters of divinity and she speaks and writes on disability access as an Orthodox Christian. She also owns Park End Books publishing. Summer shares her experiences and her joys on working with challenging situations and teaching us how it is that accessibility is accessible for everyone.

https://summerkinard.com/

https://parkendbooks.com/shop/

https://summerkinard.com/welcome-disabled-children-to-church/

Mindi is joined by her husband, Calvin Schneider, to discuss how his unique educational experience impacted his relationship to reading, as well as how books reveal the Incarnation.

Books mentioned:

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

The Unsettling of America by Wendell Berry

The Miraculous Pigness of Pigs by Joe Salatin

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C Clarke

Perelandra by C.S. Lewis

The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis

The Last Battle by C.S. Lewis

Other media mentioned:

Arrival (2016 film)

Today on the podcast, Melissa Elizabeth Naasko talks technology with Subdeacon Herman Ward. Subdeacon Herman is a husband and father and holds his masters degree in library science. He works as a technology expert with a public school district in California. His wife works as a teacher with St Athanasius Online School and he gives parents advices based on both his professional experience and his faith. Today’s show will be extraordinarily useful for parents but there will be references to some of the specific temptations facing children today.

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/family-tech-planners