Homeschooling With Ease
St. Joseph was chosen among all men, to be the protector and guardian of the Virgin Mother of God;
the defender and foster-father of the Infant-God,
the one confidant of the secret of God in the work of the redemption of mankind.
–St. Bernard of Clairvaux
Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion?
Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life.
I’ll show you how to take a real rest.
Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it.
Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.
I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you.
Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.
–Matthew 11.28-30
28 poems on 28 postcards. 28 days to contemplate and pray for peace. This project hits all the right notes.
Sign ups close on January 28, but I’ll be applying on this Saturday. You come too! Then we can be in the same group and send each other poems.
Head here to get all the details.
One morning years ago, when I should have already been moving my attention toward our school day, a tweet from Sally Thomas flashed on my screen and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.
Question that struck me today: if you can have a Latin-centered curriculum, why couldn't you have a poetry-centered one? How wd it look?
— Sally Thomas (@SallyThomasNC) September 18, 2014
The internet can be rather magical like that. You’re happily drinking a second cup of coffee, and then an idea shows up that will captivate you for years.
Lindsay Crandall, a photographer whose light and composition sing, recently posted about her plans for a year long Literary Happiness Project, a way forward in her reading and writing life. I was immediately intrigued.
Then I saw a comment from my sweet friend, Tresta Payne. So I wasn’t the only one who was intrigued! Lindsay replied to Tresta about the similarities between the Literary Happiness Project and Tresta’s Homeschool MFA. Ah, another thread!
Homeschool MFA comes from Patricia Zaballos, one more homeschooling mama mentor whose life is saturated with writing. I’ve started using #homeschoolMFA to document my own learning, and Tresta is writing about her learning journey as well.
One the same day that Lindsay posted, Sally Thomas offered this excellent poetry submission advice:
Get 'em back, send 'em out again. Lather, rinse, repeat. (and if, when you get 'em back, you think, "YOUR LOSS, SUCKERS," well, that's part of the story, too).
Posted by Sally Thomas on Tuesday, January 8, 2019
And wouldn’t you know it, I got a rejection letter that same day. So, I followed her advice. I said the litany of humility and sent another selection of poems out. I’m especially inclined to take Sally’s advice just now. I’m taking her wonderful poetry class through Homeschool Connections. It’s a recorded class for high school students that is rich and thoughtful and a good next step in my own Homeschool MFA.
