Amanda Chagnon is a wife and mother of three who is now using her professional experience as a nurse to care for her medically fragile child. She talks with Melissa Elizabeth Naasko about the joys and challenges in homeschooling with chronic illness.

In this episode, Fr. Noah Bushelli (Saint Emmelia Ministries Director) joins Mindi to discuss the spiritual aspects of reading, especially selecting books.

Books mentioned:

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

The Cosmere series (and other works) by Brandon Sanderson

The Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

Laurus by Eugene Vodolazkin

The Betrothed by Alessandro Manzoni

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

Fr. Peter Kavanaugh offers suggestions for helping our children to form good Orthodox friendships.

On today’s episode, Melissa talks with Steve Christoforou. Steve’s smile and friendly voice is familiar to Orthodox youth and their families because of his incredibly popular Be the Bee internet series and the accompanying Bee Retreats. Melissa and Steve talk about the positive and the many negatives of engagement with social media. Recently, Steve has made an intentional effort to reduce the role that social media plays in his life and he shares the way he’s managed it and the positive effect this had in his life. These days, Steve is the Director of Operations and Community Engagement of FOCUS North America, an organization dedicated to helping Orthodox Christians serve the needy.

Among the many books mentioned are:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Wave Kings by Brandon Sanderson

Billy Summers by Stephen King

How Should We Then Live? by Francis Schaeffer

Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevski

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

AND MANY MORE!

Fr. Peter Kavanaugh offers suggestions for the challenges of Orthodox dating.

Two of our Summer 2023 interns join Mindi for a discussion about favorite books and how their parents helped them learn how to love good literature.

The books discussed are:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodr Dostoevsky 

The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander

Fahrenheit 451 and Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury

Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

Fr. Nikolai Meyers reflects on loving ways to address moments when parents are faced with disobedience and disrespect.

Today’s podcast with Melissa Elizabeth Naasko features the new financial coordinator for St Emmelia Ministries, Marcy Fox. Marcy is a mother of three and she and her husband own a small business. As music teachers with a studio, they incorporate their business life with their homeschooling life. Marcy is also a dedicated life long adult learner and she inspires others to always keep learning and to not let the fear of failure deprive of us the opportunity to do new things. One of her tasks is to distribute scholarship funds to clergy families enrolled in online education, a program which is funded through the generous donations of the faithful. You can find out more about this and other scholarship programs offered by St Emmelia by clicking through here.

https://www.saintemmelia.com/scholarships-grants

The interns discuss some of the challenges they've faced in their homeschool journey, and how they have faced those challenges.