Dwell

After a break for the summer Renee and Karen, grandmothers who still love a brand new box of crayons, are back offering ten suggestions for launching a new school year. We hope you will be encouraged whether you are homeschooling your first kindergartener or are many years in.

Tonya Rozelle, host of the Hearth, an online Circe community for homeschool moms, chats with Renee and Karen about reading in community. They discuss the benefits of meeting together to discuss books and the importance of carving out time in your day to read, no matter which stage of motherhood you are in. Be encouraged to join a book club or start your own! Tonya also provides information about what the Hearth is and how you can get involved.

Join Renee and Karen as they chat with Loren Warnemuende, homeschool mother and author of the Daughter of Arden trilogy, a retelling of a classic fairy tale full of adventure and suspense. Be inspired as you hear Loren talk about her writing journey and how this project has involved her whole family over the course of years. You might just want to take time in this busy stage of life to engage in some story writing yourself!

In this episode, Renee and Karen are joined by Heather Shirley, mother of three adult children, Chief Academic Advisor for Classical Conversations, and a head mentor of the Circe Apprenticeship to discuss teaching math in your homeschool. Listen as Heather describes her own homeschool journey as a mom with a degree in engineering trying to teach her oldest math and having to learn how to teach in a holistic, soulish way. She will encourage you with the good news that math is not something to be afraid of, but instead can be made hospitable to you and your children!

Listen as Renee and Karen talk with guest, Kristen Rudd, veteran homeschooler, about how she created binders, simple books, and journals to organize her kids' papers and artifacts and how she decided what to keep as mementos and documentation and what to discard. We also discuss record-keeping for mom and the ease with which high school transcripts can be written. She will encourage you with her ideas and her obvious joy at seeing her children finish their homeschool years well!

Join us for this episode on teaching Latin. Renee and Karen are joined by Molly Rychener, mother of two college-age daughters, Head of Trinity Christian Academy in Ohio, and Head Mentor of the Midwest Circe Apprenticeship. Molly, an example of a teacher who loves to learn, offers advice for homeschool moms on teaching Latin with enthusiasm and joy.