Scholé Sisters: Camaraderie for the Classical Homeschooling Mama

Brandy Vencel with Mystie Winckler, Abby Wahl, and Pam Barnhill

Camaraderie for the Classical Homeschooling Mama

  • 1 hour 10 minutes
    SS #139: A Classical College Education (with Andy Patton!!)

    Our guest today is Andy Patton. Andy Patton has held various roles in healthcare technology and venture capital. As an entrepreneur in the healthcare space, he built and successfully exited his first company. He has also started and currently owns a company in the construction industry. Before going into business, Mr. Patton spent his early career as a high school teacher of Latin, Greek, music, and math. He joined New College Franklin as President of the College in 2023. Prior to that, he served for nine years on the Board of Directors, including the last five years as Chairman of the Board. He has taught courses on Dante as well as Economics.

    In today’s episode, Mystie and Brandy discuss classical college education with Andy Patton. Is there a difference between attending a classical college and being a classics major at a "regular" college? Can the classically educated get jobs after they graduate??  You’re going to love this conversation!

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    We are pleased to announce that registration for our annual Spring Training Sessions are now open! Our coach this year is Andrew Zwerneman from Cana Academy. Andrew is going to teach two sessions on history as a classical subject. The first session will help us get away from Marxism and adopt a classical view of history. The second session will offer us a method for teaching history. It’s going to be so great! To register just go to scholesisters.com/history to sign up.

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    19 April 2024, 7:00 am
  • 1 hour 10 minutes
    SS #138: A Little More Conversation, Please (with Andrew Zwerneman!!)

    Our guest today is Andrew Zwerneman. Andrew J. Zwerneman serves as President and Master Teacher at Cana Academy. For 40 years, he has taught and consulted in secondary schools that emphasize classic humanities. For 19 years he headed schools — 2 at the public charter school, Tempe Preparatory Academy in Tempe, Arizona, 17 at Trinity School at Meadow View in Falls Church, Virginia. Andrew has degrees from both Notre Dame AND St. John’s University, and he has authored two books: History Forgotten and Remembered and The Life We Have Together: A Case for Humane Studies, A Vision for Renewal.

    In today’s episode, Brandy and Mystie are peppering Andrew with questions about seminar-style teaching: what it is, where it comes from, how it fits into the classical tradition, and more.  You’re going to love this conversation!

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    We are pleased to announce that registration for our annual Spring Training Sessions are now open! In fact, one reason why we asked Andrew to be here today is because we hired him as this year’s coach. Andrew is going to teach two sessions on history as a classical subject. The first session will help us get away from Marxism and adopt a classical view of history. The second session will offer us a method for teaching history. It’s going to be so great! To register just go to https://scholesisters.com/history to sign up.

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    Click here to access today's show notes.

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    5 April 2024, 7:00 am
  • 1 hour 14 minutes
    SS #137: Fairy Tales are True (with Vigen Guroian!!)

    Today’s guest is Vigen Guroian. Until his retirement in 2015, Dr. Guroian was Professor of Religious Studies in Orthodox Christianity at the University of Virginia. He is now a Permanent Senior Fellow of the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal, Senior Fellow at the Center on Law and Religion at Emory University, Distinguished Fellow of the John Jay Institute, and Senior Fellow at the Trinity Forum. He also is on the faculty of Memoria College online. Most importantly for our purposes, he is the author of a book we love and highly recommend: Tending the Heart of Virtue: How Classic Stories Awaken a Child's Moral Imagination.

    Today’s episode was such a delight to record. Abby and Brandy had a great time discussing with Dr. Guroian truth and how it relates to fairy tales. You’re going to love this conversation!

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    Did you sign up to do the 5x5 reading challenge this year? If so, you need to join the Sistership as a Sophie membership and get the accountability you need and the support you want. With weekly check-ins and quarterly zoom-style meetups, you will be encouraged to continue in good reading habits as well as get fun advice on which book to read next. Just go to scholesisters.com/sistership and join as a Sophie.

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    25 March 2024, 7:00 am
  • 1 hour 17 minutes
    SS #136: Moral Training with Charlotte Mason

    Today’s episode is the third in our four part series on Charlotte Mason’s chapters from School Education that cover the training of physical, intellectual, moral, and religious habits. Today, we’re discussing the training of MORAL habits.  You’re going to love this conversation!

    ***

    Did you sign up to do the 5x5 reading challenge this year? If so, you need to join the Sistership as a Sophie membership and get the accountability you need and the support you want. With weekly check-ins and quarterly zoom-style meetups, you will be encouraged to continue in good reading habits as well as get fun advice on which book to read next. Just go to scholesisters.com/sistership and join as a Sophie.

    ***

    Click here to access today's show notes.

    Click here to join the Sistership.

    8 March 2024, 2:49 pm
  • 1 hour 7 minutes
    SS #135: Unit Studies Are Overrated

    Today’s episode is on unit studies and why Charlotte Mason disapproved of them so much. You’re going to love this conversation!

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    Did you sign up to do the 5x5 reading challenge this year? If so, you need to join the Sistership as a Sophie membership and get the accountability you need and the support you want. With weekly check-ins and quarterly zoom-style meetups, you will be encouraged to continue in good reading habits as well as get fun advice on which book to read next. Just go to scholesisters.com/sistership and join as a Sophie.

    ***

    Click here to access today's show notes.

    Click here to join the Sistership.

    23 February 2024, 8:00 am
  • 21 minutes
    SS # 134: What is the 5x5 Reading Challenge?

    It has come to our attention that while we discuss and refer to the Scholé Sisters 5x5 Reading Challenge regularly, we've never actually done an episode on it. Today, we remedy that problem! We discuss the history of the challenge as well as how it works.

    Today's episode is hosted by Abby Wahl (because Brandy is in the middle of a cross-country move). Her ever-faithful cohost is, of course, Mystie Winckler.

    To join the 2024 5x5 Reading Challenge, go to scholesisters.com/5x5 and sign up!

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    12 January 2024, 8:00 am
  • 55 minutes 8 seconds
    SS #133: Mom is the Magic of Christmas

    Today’s episode is our annual Christmas episode. We begin by revisiting the theme of our very first Christmas episode, Don’t Be the White Witch. We continue with a discussion of generosity and tradition-making that you will love.

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    Every year, we give our Sophie members a special Christmas gift. This year, our Sophie members are receiving a workshop on book selection that Mystie and Brandy filmed with Dr. Christopher Schlect from New Saint Andrews College. In a world of woke, how do we go about choosing books? If you want access to this Christmas gift, don’t delay! Christmas gifts always disappear after Epiphany. Just go to scholesisters.com/sistership and join as a Sophie. 

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    15 December 2023, 8:00 am
  • 1 hour 10 minutes
    SS #132: Intellectual Training with Charlotte Mason

    Today’s episode is the second in our four part series on habits and training. Last time, Mystie, Abby, and Brandy talked about physical training. Today they’re discussing intellectual training, including that most controversial assertion of Charlotte Mason, that attention can be trained. You’re going to love this conversation!

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    Have you heard about the ongoing Sophie Mentorship inside the Scholé Sistership? It started on October 23rd and it’s not too late to join! The mentorship is called Grow Up: Courage to Be the Adult in the Room. We’re reading from four different books and having various types of rich discussions as we flesh out how to grow up so that we can better mother our children. There is a 3-week break over Christmas to give time to catch up if you want to jump in now. Just go to scholesisters.com/sistership and join as a Sophie to be a part of this fabulous four-month study.

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    Click here to access today's show notes.

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    24 November 2023, 8:00 am
  • 1 hour 12 minutes
    SS #131: Outsourcing for High School (with Jami Marstall!!)

    Our very special guest today is Jami Marstall. Jami has been homeschooling with Charlotte Mason’s principles, primarily following AmblesideOnline, for the past 17 years. She has graduated three of her four children from the family homeschool and has one high schooler left. Jami loves to read about and discuss educational history and philosophy. She always dreamed of being a professional student and homeschooling continues to be the perfect career to fulfill that ambition.

    Today’s episode is a conversation Abby and Brandy absolutely loved having with Jami. It is so common to put homeschoolers into public school for high school because mothers feel unequipped for such a big undertaking. They discussed an alternative that all three of them have used that has helped them homeschool for the long haul: outsourcing. You’re going to love this conversation!

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    Have you heard about our new Sophie Mentorship? It started on October 23rd and it’s not too late to join us! The mentorship is called Grow Up: Courage to Be the Adult in the Room, and we’re spending a bunch of time immersed in ideas surrounding being an adult and becoming a strong leader. We’re reading from four different books, including the classic Art of War by Sun Tzu, and having various types of rich discussions as we flesh out how to grow up so that we can better mother our children. Go to scholesisters.com/sistership and join as a Sophie to partake in this fabulous four-month study.

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    Click here to access today's show notes.

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    3 November 2023, 7:00 am
  • 1 hour 13 minutes
    SS# 130: Empathy Is Bad for Your Kids

    Today’s episode is the annual episode we recorded at the retreat when we were together in real life, which means we have to apologize to you for the sound. You’d think it’d be better in person, but the reality is that a single shared microphone is a questionable idea. With that said, we had so much fun discussing a portion of Edwin Friedman’s excellent on leadership, A Failure of Nerve. You’re going to love this conversation!

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    Have you heard about our upcoming Sophie Mentorship? It starts very soon on October 23rd! If you like today’s podcast discussion, you will love the mentorship because we’ll be spending extended time immersed in ideas surrounding being an adult and becoming a strong leader. In fact, the mentorship is called Grow Up: Courage to Be the Adult in the Room. We’ll be reading from four different books (including the classic Art of War by Sun Tzu) and having various types of rich discussions as we flesh out how to grow up so that we can better mother our children. Just go to scholesisters.com/sistership and join as a Sophie to be a part of this fabulous four-month study.

    ***

    Click here to access today's show notes.

    Click here to join the Sistership.

    20 October 2023, 2:16 pm
  • 1 hour 24 minutes
    SS #129: Physical Training with Charlotte Mason

    Today’s conversation is the first in a four-part series covering Charlotte Mason’s chapters from School Education on training children physically, intellectually, morally, and religiously. Today we cover physical training — not so much the how as the what and the why. You’re going to love this conversation!

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    Have you registered for our fall online local retreats yet? If you are listening to this episode the day it comes out, the retreat is NEXT SATURDAY October 7th! Our annual Homeschool Essentials Retreat always takes a deep dive into one aspect of homeschooling. This year’s topic is TIME, the most essential part of homeschooling of all! Discussion is an important part of our retreats. When you purchase an individual registration, you can still enjoy post-session discussions online in our Zoom rooms! They are so great! We cannot wait to spend time with you all get yourself registered ASAP by going to to scholesisters.com/time.

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    Click here to access today's show notes.

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    29 September 2023, 7:00 am
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