FYI from Leigh! at Lunch 3/30/11

If you are interested in topics that came up during this week's show, here are a few links and tips from Leigh at Lunch on Blog Talk Radio 3/30/11, "Matt Interviews Jonathan Bartlett." (Click on the title to listen to the show archive).

Had a question for today's show that you didn't get to ask? Email it to 1smartmama@gmail.com or comment on this post for an answer!

Coming soon from 1 Smart Mama

Tune in next Wednesday, April 6, at 12 noon EST to talk with Matt and Nancy Pearcey, the author of The Soul of Science. To get a taste of her passion for science and faith, check out her interview with Jennifer Courtney on the CC Writers Circle.

Ongoing events

Don't forget to sign up for end-of-grade testing! Visit our new website, Homeschool Testing Services, to register and get test-prep materials.

Register now for our 1-day and 3-day summer Parent Practicums and Student Camps!

Register as a friend on BlogTalkRadio to be eligible for our weekly drawing! Click "follow" so you'll get updates about spontaneous and pre-recorded shows.

Stay tuned for more information about Leigh's upcoming tour to Hawaii.

Send questions to Leigh for her next book on the dialectic via AskLeigh@ymail.com.

Email us at TellUs@classicalconversations.com to let us know what topics you'd like to see on upcoming Blog Talk Radio shows!

Notes from today's show

Register now for "Toward the Quadrivium," a series of talks with Leigh Bortins and Nancy Pearcey about science and teaching the quadrivium: April 29-30 in Manassas, Virginia.

To purchase your own copy of Defeating Darwinism, visit the CC Bookstore.

Read more of Jonathan's articles on the CC Writers Circle.

Visit the Blyth Institute to learn about Jonathan's work on the research and study of biology.

Read more about 20th century scientist and philosopher Michael Polanyi's views on the origins of scientific thought. Also see this article: "The Biblical Insights of Michael Polanyi."

To understand the tension between the National Center for Science Education and Christian biologists, see the Center's "about us" page.

To get one perspective on the difference between intelligent design and creation science, check out this article from the Center for Science and Culture.

Read the NAS paper on the criminal justice system and choice: "The Lucretian Swerve."

Christian screenwriter Brian Godawa (To End All Wars) produced a short film "Cruel Logic" about choice and ethics (video from YouTube).

Read "From Evolution to Creation: The Testimony of Dr. Richard Lumsden." For more stories like this, check out the book Persuaded by the Evidence: True Stories of Faith, Science, and the Power of a Creator.

To get involved, interested students should read Defeating Darwinism, Understanding the Pattern of Life (specific to creation biology, for upper high school students), and The New Creationism.

Want to go into creation science as a career? Check out the Creation Biology Society conferences. Jonathan recommends that students who want to study creation science in college visit New Saint Andrews College, Patrick Henry College, Liberty University, and Cedarville University.

Also, contact Jonathan via the Blyth Institute (info@blythinstitute.org) if your students would like to write a book review for the Creation Biology Society newsletter.

Civil War Anniversary

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War. Visit the Civil War Trust to get ideas for turning this event into a teaching moment. Also, check out Reading the Civil War, from the CiRCE Institute, for helpful suggestions about how to approach what can be a daunting task: teaching your children about the Civil War.

Is one of your children a history buff? Then you might be interested in this opportunity from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and the History Channel:

...high school students who know their Civil War history will get a chance to compete for a college scholarship as part of an initiative announced today by education publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and HISTORY, the cable network. The National Civil War Student Challenge, a timed online competition, will award more than $30,000 in college scholarships, including $15,000 for the grand prize winner.

The online quiz will be conducted April 7-9, with the 30 top-scoring finalists invited to take an in-school final exam. (source: Civil War Anniversary Spurs Educational Activities, EdWeek)

More information is available from History.com and Houghton Mifflin. The official rules call for students to be "enrolled" in 9th-12th grade, and there is no mention either including or excluding home school students. If you're interested, consider contacting the sponsor to find out if your students can participate.

Jonathan Bartlett on Leigh! at Lunch

Dear Friends,

This Wednesday, March 30 at 12 noon on Leigh! at Lunch, while Leigh is traveling, please join host Matt Bianco and Jonathan Bartlett as they talk about the intersections between faith and science.

Click here to go directly to the show.

Jonathan Bartlett is the director of The Blyth Institute (blythinstitute.org), a nonprofit organization dedicated to research and education in new paradigms of biology. He also wrote the book Programming from the Ground Up, which was required reading at Princeton for a few years. Jonathan’s interest in biology and genetics came from his family’s battles with genetic illnesses, which required him to stay on top of the current medical and biological literature.

Last year Jonathan graduated with a Master of Theological Studies degree from Phillips Theological Seminary. Jonathan is married to his wife Christa, and they have had five children together - Daniel, Andrew, Nathan, David, and Isaac. Christa teaches in the Challenge program in Classical Conversations of Tulsa.

Click here to read one of Jonathan's articles for the CC Writers' Circle.

Call or chat in your questions and comments for Jonathan and Matt!

Bring on the Whole Family

Today, I want to share with you an article from Tabletalk magazine. It's called "It Takes a Church to Raise a Child." The article gives you some practical ways you as a church member can reach out to other families in your congregation, and it also cuts to the heart of why we need the church:

Parenting is not for the faint of heart. It is also not something parents should attempt to do alone. Thankfully, those in the church don’t have to. They are part of an extended family — the family of God — that can play a vital role in the raising of children.... [Keep reading]

Ephesians 4:11-13 explains to the church, “It was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” The role of the church was to equip the adults to train their families to work in unity as they transformed culture.

That's still an important role of the church. That's why, at Classical Conversations, we base many of our campuses at local churches. We want pastors, parents, and students to be witnesses for each other as families strive to train (or re-train) their minds.

I'll close by sharing in the words of the author Mark Bates, "Thank God that He has given us the church to be the family of God and blessed us all with the privilege of raising children."

FYI from Leigh! at Lunch 3/23/11

If you are interested in topics that came up during this week's show, here are a few links and tips from Leigh at Lunch on Blog Talk Radio 3/23/11, "The NEW EEL GUIDE for 2011-2012 and other NEW products." (Click on the title to listen to the show archive).

Had a question for today's show that you didn't get to ask? Email it to 1smartmama@gmail.com or comment on this post for an answer!

Coming soon from 1 Smart Mama

Tune in next Wednesday, March 30, at 12 noon EST to talk with Matt and Jonathan Bartlett, a writer for the CC Writers Circle, about faith and science. The following week, we'll be talking to Nancy Pearcey, the author of The Soul of Science.

Ongoing events

Don't forget to sign up for end-of-grade testing! Visit our new website, Homeschool Testing Services, to register and get test-prep materials.

Register now for our 1-day and 3-day summer Parent Practicums and Student Camps!

Register as a friend on BlogTalkRadio to be eligible for our weekly drawing! Click "follow" so you'll get updates about spontaneous and pre-recorded shows.

Notes from today's show

Visit ClassicalConversationsBooks.com to see these new products and more!

• The Essentials Guide (4th edition) - On sale for $30 before Aug. 1! Get your hard copy in May. Also use this link for FAQs about the new edition.
  
• Trivium Tables: English Grammar - Available April 1. Use this link to see sample images of the product.
  
• Trivium Tables: Quid et Quo - Available April 1. Both tables are great for introductory Latin students as a refresher course on English grammar.
• Classical Christian Education Made Approachable - Will be available mid-summer.
  
• Compass of Classical Conversations - CDs will be available April 25th.
  
• Words Aptly Spoken: American Documents, Short Stories, Children's Literature, American Literature, British Literature (second editions with all new designs!) - FAQ about the updates are available via these links.
  

Stay tuned for more information about Leigh's upcoming tour to Hawaii.

Send questions to Leigh for her next book on the dialectic via AskLeigh@ymail.com.

Email us at TellUs@classicalconversations.com to let us know what topics you'd like to see on upcoming Blog Talk Radio shows!

New Products Day on Leigh! at Lunch

Dear Friends,

This Wednesday, March 23 at 12 noon on Leigh! at Lunch, while Leigh is traveling, please join host Matt Bianco and the CCMM team as they discuss new and revised products coming this year.

Click here to go directly to the show.

Classical Conversations MultiMedia team members Heather Shirley, Denise Moore, and Courtney Sanford will discuss the upcoming Essentials of the English Language 4th edition. Heather and Denise will discuss some of the revisions, updates, and friendly formats parents and tutors are sure to enjoy. They will also hit some FAQs that will help directors and parents in their decision to purchase the revised guide or to keep and mark up the old guide. Heather and Courtney will then discuss Classical Conversations' newest resources, the first two in our Trivium Tables Series: English Grammar and Quid et Quo. These easy to use, quick reference and dialectic desktops will serve Essential families and Challenge families in their family's language education.

Heather Shirley, Executive Director of Classical Conversations MultiMedia, has been homeschooling her three children since 2000. When she began her homeschooling journey, in spite of having an engineering degree, she was overwhelmed and undirected. The Lord graciously intervened and brought tools and people across her path to help her gain clarity and direction for her family's homeschooling journey. Classical Conversations provided the tools and the vision she had been looking for. Heather serves as an integral leader in Classical Conversations, making the vision a reality through marketing collateral, communications, and product development.

Courtney Sanford, studied writing and graphic design in college, and used both in her work in the software industry and in the arts. She has homeschooled for six years with Classical Conversations and has tutored Essentials for five years. She enjoys collaborating on creative projects with Classical Conversations and mentoring moms in grammar. She is married to Chris Sanford, Classical Conversations' Chief Technical Officer. They have three children: James 13, Ellie 11, and Joshua 7.

Denise Moore has been involved with Classical Conversations for eight years in various tutoring roles: Foundations, Essentials, and Challenge, as well as serving as the Challenge I Program Manager. For the past four years, Denise has been CC's Senior Program and Production Officer. She and her husband, Fred, have been homeschooling two of their four daughters, Kathryn (age 16) and Hannah (age 14), for the past twelve years. The Moore family, including daughters Rachael (age 30) and Sarah (age 27), moved to Raleigh, North Carolina in 1984.

Won't you join us? Call, email, or chat in your questions for the CCMM team!

Save on Classical Science Flashcards

There's still time to save!

Check out the March sale going on now at Classical Conversations Books.

March 1 - 31

10% off all Classical Acts and Facts Science Cards!

*Online orders only
*DISCOUNT10 coupon can be used for an additional 10% off on purchases over $250.
*These promotions do not apply to prior purchases or open orders and the dates of the sale cannot be altered for any orders.

History, Stories, and Classical Education

The blog "Curriculum Matters" recently posted an article about concerns that history teaching may be on the decline. One particular comment caught my attention: "At the primary level, the report [on history education in England] found that some pupils found it difficult to place historical episodes in a 'coherent, long-term narrative.'"

In light of that, I'm especially proud of our CC history students for their efforts to see history as part of a coherent, long-term narrative, and I want to recognize their hard work.

Between kindergarten and sixth grade, in the Foundations program, students memorize more than 200 points on a time line of U.S. presidents and world events. The video below from 3 years ago shows my son William reciting the 160 world events on that time line.

These "pegs" give students a broad framework so they can then build deeper, more complex ideas about history. Knowing the context of a particular event helps them understand it as part of a long-term narrative. We also read lots and lots of stories from history to reinforce the time line and get students excited about the stories that make up our past.

This prepares students for the Challenge Program, where our in-depth study of American and world history is part of a belief that subjects should be taught not in isolation, but in relationship to one another. Science ought to correlate to math, theology, history, philosophy, and literature. Math should find its application in the sciences. Literature analysis should not be separated from history, philosophy, and theology.

We want students to develop a narrative about how all knowledge works together to make the universe, not a disconnected "multiverse."

Want to know more about studying history using the classical method? Check out this article from the CC Writers' Circle: "Lessons from the Past: The Core of History," by Jennifer Courtney. Along with thoughts about the "why" of studying history, Jennifer gives great practical tips about the "how."

Do you have a video or other story about your history studies? I'd love to share it with our readers! You can leave a comment here or email it to 1smartmama@gmail.com.

Testing Season is Approaching

Dear Friends,

It is not too late to save. Register more than one month before your local testing date and sign up for only $50. We have close to 130 testing sites posted and we are working on getting another 20-30 set up with local communities. Find your local testing group.

Confused about how to interpret test results?...

Visit our Test Result Page in order to help you if you test with us or someone else.

The end of the school year is approaching...

As the end of the year approaches do not forget to sign up for end-of-grade testing.
If testing is not in your area, it is not too late to sign up to be a site coordinator.

You can get all the information you need on our website: www.homeschooltestingservices.com. Just click on the Site Coordinator Info link at the top of the page.

Perks for Parents who host a testing site...

The parent who coordinates the testing will receive a percentage of the testing fee for their site. This offers you a chance to earn part of your tuition for the following year. The testing coordinator must meet at least one of these requirements: Have a BA or BS degree, receive our certified training, be a qualified teacher with a current certification, and also be organized, administrative, and able to problem solve.

We will walk our site coordinators through each step and answer any questions they have. Please contact Shannon Brown at sbrown@homeschooltestingservices.com for more information.

The benefits of providing this service in your community...

Offering end-of-grade testing strengthens your community by providing additional services, and promotes you and your community as local homeschool leaders. Classical Conversations has been providing the testing service for four years now and has streamlined the process.

Thank you for your service and leadership to your local homeschooling community.

Sincerely,

Robert Bortins

Giveaway from Old Schoolhouse® Magazine

In case you aren't on our email list, I wanted to make sure you had a chance to see this special offer from The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine.


The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine has asked CC to contribute articles on classical education for their magazine and web sites. They also want to help us promote our free Parent Practicums.

The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine (TOS) is one of my favorite home school magazines because they offer a wide variety of teaching tips as well as focusing on the heart of a child and the family as the basic unit of society.

I also want to let you know about their subscription drives in which they do something fun for new subscribers and renewing subscribers. Periodically, they give away gifts worth hundreds of dollars during these drives. Receiving these gifts in the mail makes it feel like it's your birthday. These give-aways allow TOS to promote their advertisers, build their subscription list, and give homeschoolers lots of books and products.

So if you already receive TOS, look for more mentions of classical education. If you don't subscribe, you can do so now and receive their free gifts by visiting
http://thehomeschoolmagazine.com/TOSSpring19Gifts/index.html

Don't wait! The giveaway is limited to the first 5000 who take advantage of this offer and over 1300 are already gone.

FYI from Leigh! at Lunch 3/16/11

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

If you are interested in topics that came up during this week's show, here are a few links and tips from Leigh at Lunch on Blog Talk Radio 3/16/11, "Leigh! at Lunch with Lawrence Reed." (Click on the title to listen to the show archive).

Had a question for today's show that you didn't get to ask? Email it to 1smartmama@gmail.com or comment on this post for an answer!

Coming soon from 1 Smart Mama

Tune in next Wednesday, March 23, at 12 noon EST to talk with Matt Bianco and the CCMM Production Team about this year's new products from CC and how to incorporate them into your home schooling.

Ongoing events

Don't forget to sign up for end-of-grade testing! Visit our new website, Homeschool Testing Services, to register and get test-prep materials.

Register now for our 1-day and 3-day summer Parent Practicums and Student Camps!

Register as a friend on BlogTalkRadio to be eligible for our weekly drawing! Click "follow" so you'll get updates about spontaneous and pre-recorded shows.

Send questions to Leigh for her next book on the dialectic via AskLeigh@ymail.com.

Email us at TellUs@classicalconversations.com to let us know what topics you'd like to see on upcoming Blog Talk Radio shows!

Notes from today's show

Visit the Foundation for Economic Education to learn more about Lawrence Reed's work.

Check out The Freeman magazine for yourself! Since The Free Market Reader is out of print, CC finds many of the same essays in the Bluestocking Press's Economics.

To apply for a Summer Seminar for High School students at FEE, visit http://www.fee.org/seminars/high-school. Don't wait - apply now! The deadline for this summer is March 31.

Interested in the history and tradition of FEE? - read about Leonard Read, the founder of FEE; Ludwig von Mises; The Road to Serfdom by Nobel prizewinner Friedrich von Hayek; and Henry Hazlitt and his Economics in One Lesson, available free for download from FEE.

Check out the FEE website, http:// fee.org/events, to find out about upcoming events.

Learn more about Solidarity and the Polish freedom movement in the 1980s.

For the study of economics, Mr. Reed recommends high school students look at Florida Gulf Coast University, George Mason University, Patrick Henry College, Grove City College, and Hillsdale College.

You can find some of Nicholas Winton's story on Wikipedia. Winton is known for his humanitarian work with refugees after Kristallnacht in 1938. A documentary of his life, The Power of Good, is available from Amazon.

Looking for a great film about freedom? Mr. Reed recommends East-West, Amistad, Shenandoah, The Greatest Game Ever Played, and Amazing Grace.

Lawrence Reed on Leigh! at Lunch

Dear Friends,

This Wednesday, March 16 on Leigh! at Lunch, please join me at 12 noon as I interview Lawrence Reed of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE).

Click here to go directly to the show.

Lawrence Reed became president of FEE in 2008. He was a founder and president for twenty years of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Midland, Michigan.

A champion for liberty, Reed has authored over 1,000 newspaper columns and articles, 200 radio commentaries, dozens of articles in magazines and journals in the U. S. and abroad, as well as five books. His articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, USA Today, Baltimore Sun, Detroit News and Detroit Free Press, among many others. His interests in political and economic affairs have taken him as a freelance journalist to 69 countries on six continents. You can read some of his articles in The Freeman here.

Mr. Reed holds a B.A. degree in Economics from Grove City College (1975) and an M.A. degree in History from Slippery Rock State University (1978), both in Pennsylvania. In his spare time, his interests include reading, travel, fly-fishing, hiking, skydiving, and animals of just about any kind.

Please join us at 12:00 noon EST and feel free to call in (347-215-6509) or chat to ask questions of me or Mr. Reed. You can also email questions ahead of time to 1smartmama@gmail.com.

If your students are studying history, current events, economics, politics, or debate in the Challenge programs, I especially encourage them to share their questions! This is a great opportunity to talk to someone with extensive experience in these areas.

I'm looking forward to our conversation! Won't you join us?

• Hundreds killed in Japan earthquake, tsunami
  Today, our prayers go out to those who've lost, or are missing loved ones in Japan and other parts of the Pacific affected by this tragedy.

-----------------

• Credentialing and Grade Inflation
  From the CiRCE Institute - The metaphors we use for education matter.
  
• What Counts When Choosing a College?
  From Ligonier Ministries and R.C. Sproul - timely, since April decision-making for high school seniors is just around the corner!
  
• Making students smarter AND better
  Jay Mathews - someone needs to model for students "productive behaviors and attitudes, such as cooperating, being on time, making eye contact, speaking persuasively, offering suggestions and focusing on tasks." But whose job is that, if not parents'?
  
• Home-schooling format changing
  Families in Alabama work to bring the church back into a strong role in education.
  
• Homeschool Teen's Documentary to Air Nationally
  A member of Generation Joshua recently released a documentary about the state of education and the family in America.
  
• WWII studies prompt fundraiser for veterans group
  Turning learning into action: examples of the rhetoric stage.

Testing Fear against Freedom

This week, USA Today ran a story called "When scores seem too good to be true" about a teacher who admitted he had cheated in order to raise his students' scores, and about school officials' uncertainty about the difference between scores improved by hard work and scores improved by unethical means. Take a look:

Seipelt's gains and losses are typical of a pattern uncovered by a USA TODAY investigation of the standardized tests of millions of students in six states and the District of Columbia. The newspaper identified 1,610 examples of anomalies in which public school classes — a school's entire fifth grade, for example — boasted what analysts regard as statistically rare, perhaps suspect, gains on state tests...

Given the mounting pressure on teachers, principals and superintendents to produce high scores, "no one has incentives to vigorously pursue" testing irregularities, says Gregory Cizek, a professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill who studies cheating. "In fact, there's a strong disincentive."

Although the emphasis in this story is not on placing blame, bloggers and commentators are now tossing accusations back and forth at supersonic speed. In the process, I think we've missed the point.

I've said it before, but it's worth repeating. Tests are just small steps in a life-long process. One of the joys of home-centered education is the ability to separate test scores from personal worth. We don't have to be afraid of test results because we know that as free people, the point of a test is to train for things that really matter. We use tests often as a way to measure learning, but we understand that a test is used for measuring where we are right now, not judging whether we've succeeded or failed.

So how can we show others in our community what it looks like to live, learn, and test in a spirit of freedom, not fear?

French writer Albert Camus once said, "The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion."

I love watching our CC students reciting history timelines, giving presentations, filling in geography maps, and even taking tests. They encourage each other and compete with each other, but we want them to know it's okay to make mistakes because that's how we learn.

In our CC Parent Practicums this summer, we'll be talking a lot more about what it means to be free and what freedom requires of us. Remember Galatians 5:1 - "It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery."

So, as we see and hear news stories about our nation's education anxieties, let's not forget our purpose. We have the privilege to know God and to make Him known, through learning, as an echo in celebration of our freedom in Christ!

FYI from Leigh! at Lunch 3/9/11

If you are interested in topics that came up during this week's show, here are a few links and tips from Leigh at Lunch on Blog Talk Radio 3/9/11, "Parent Practicums on Leigh at Lunch." (Click on the title to listen to the show archive now).

Had a question for today's show that you didn't get to ask? Email it to 1smartmama@gmail.com or comment on this post for an answer!

Coming soon from 1 Smart Mama

Tune in next Wednesday, March 16, at 12 noon EST to join the conversation with Lawrence Reed, the president of the Foundation for Economic Education.

Ongoing events

Click here to see the last few chances to catch Leigh's Midwest tour!

Don't forget to sign up for end-of-grade testing! Visit our new website, Homeschool Testing Services, to register and get test-prep materials.

Register now for our 1-day and 3-day summer Parent Practicums and Student Camps!

Register as a friend on BlogTalkRadio to be eligible for our weekly drawing! Click "follow" so you'll get updates about spontaneous and pre-recorded shows.

Send questions to Leigh for her next book on the dialectic via AskLeigh@ymail.com.

Notes from today's show

Visit the CC Writers' Circle to read daily articles about classical education from our talented contributors.

Get ready for Leigh's meeting with Nancy Pearcey in April by reading Nancy's books The Soul of Science and Total Truth.

Information about Parent Practicums is available on the front page of the CC website, or go directly to the Parent Practicums web page.

Pass on the link to our 2011 Parent Practicums promotional video! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vv5J_VbFiCk). Keep watching for an upcoming podcast about the practicums.

This year's practicums will highlight the books Norms and Nobility by David Hicks and Nancy Pearcey's Total Truth.

Visit our online catalog to see more new resources from CC. Especially check out our new booklet Classical Christian Education Made Approachable and the Compass of Classical Conversations audio CDs, which will be available around the first of May. Also new for the Essentials Program are the Trivium Tables for English Grammar and Quid et Quo (dialectic work).

Coming out this year will also be a newly revised Essentials guide, and new editions of the Words Aptly Spoken guides, especially Words Aptly Spoken: American Documents as we discuss freedom in relation to American history.

There will be a special Blog Talk Radio show on March 23rd about the new products and your questions.

Email us at TellUs@classicalconversations.com to let us know what topics you'd like to see on upcoming Blog Talk Radio shows!

For more dialogue about these topics, register for the free portion of our CC Connected website and the CC Facebook page. Tobin also recommends St. Anne's Public House for online dialogue on Christ-centered issues.

Poetry and Patriotism

Join me this week for my tour of the Midwest!

Teaching our students to cherish their freedom begins with instilling an understanding of what freedom truly is. What is patriotism? Of what or whom should we be patriots? This week, I'm talking with interested families in the Midwest about how to instill proper patriotism in our children in a country that is forsaking its roots, and how to give them an understanding of what Freedom is and what it requires of them.

There are still five chances to join our conversation!

March 8th - Plainfield, IN
March 9th - Bloomington, IL
March 9th - Moline, IL
March 10th - Des Moines, IA
March 11th - Nebraska, NE

(Click on the links for specific locations and host contact information)

2011 Parent Practicums Video

Next week, while I'm on tour, Matt Bianco and Heather Shirley will be talking on my BlogTalkRadio show, Leigh! at Lunch, about the upcoming season of Parent Practicums and our goal of improving the vision of homeschool families through Classical Conversations.

To get in started thinking about these big ideas, I encourage you to watch our new promotional video and ask yourself, "What kind of vision is directing my steps as a parent, an educator, and a free person?"

Register for Parent Practicum in your area today, and join the conversation next Wednesday with Heather and Matt!

FYI from Leigh! at Lunch 3/2/11

If you are interested in topics that came up during this week's show, here are a few links and tips from Leigh at Lunch on Blog Talk Radio 3/2/11, "Leigh! at Lunch with Bob and Geri Boyd." (Click on the title to listen to the show archive now).

Had a question for today's show that you didn't get to ask? Email it to 1smartmama@gmail.com or comment on this post for an answer!

Coming soon from 1 Smart Mama

Tune in next Wednesday, March 9, at 12 noon EST to join a special conversation with CC's Heather Shirley and Matt Bianco about upcoming Parent Practicums.

Ongoing events

Click here to see Leigh's Midwest tour dates and locations for next week!

Don't forget to sign up for end-of-grade testing! Visit our new website, Homeschool Testing Services, to register and get test-prep materials.

Register now for our 1-day and 3-day summer Parent Practicums and Student Camps!

Register as a friend on BlogTalkRadio to be eligible for our weekly drawing! Click "follow" so you'll get updates about spontaneous and pre-recorded shows.

Send questions to Leigh for her next book on the dialectic via AskLeigh@ymail.com.

Notes from today's show

Visit the CC Bookstore to buy your own copy of Millstones and Stumbling Blocks by Bradley Heath.

Visit Bob and Geri's website, IssuesinEducation.org, to read more about their radio show. Bob and Geri won the 2010 Dr. Robert Dreyfus Courageous Christian Leadership Award.

Read more about G.K. Chesterton via this biography. Many of Chesterton's lectures are available from the American Chesterton Society.

Read about Robert Lewis Dabney, 19th century pastor, and his opinions on early models of state-run education from this anthology of his writings. Also contains links to a biography of Dabney.

The Home School Legal Defense Association covered the 2010 case of a German family seeking political asylum in the United States for the freedom to home school.

The full quote from Charles Colson about Christian education comes from page 338 of How Now Shall We Live, which is available from Amazon.

For a further conversation about the failings of the modern church, download one of Leigh's early podcasts, "If We are the Light, Why Aren't We Attracting Bugs?"

Register for Classical Conversations programs for next year at Classicalconversations.com. Under the drop down menu "Academic Programs," click on Forms and Fees to download the PDF file.

Updated Tour Information

Next week, I'll be heading off on my Midwest tour, "Poetry and Patriotism." I hope you'll join me!

From March 7 to March 11 I'll be visiting West Virginia, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska to talk about freedom and patriotism, and what freedom requires of us.

Information about the specific locations where I'll be speaking is now available -- click on the "Speaking Schedule" tab to find out more.

I'm looking forward to seeing and talking with many of you in person next week!

Leigh! at Lunch with Bob and Geri Boyd

Please join me this Wednesday, March 2 at 12 noon for Leigh! at Lunch. This week I'll be talking to Bob and Geri Boyd about the roles of government and freedom within education.

I'm very excited to have Bob and Geri on the show this week. Bob and Geri host a radio program called Issues in Education that focuses on Christian education and homeschooling in order to encourage families to see the importance of Christian education. Please feel free to call or chat in to ask your questions! (347-215-6509)

Click here to go directly to the show.