Tagged: cultural literacy

Peacemaking and mending breaches is part of life, and poetry, story, and song can help us learn how to do the things that matter.

Peacemaking and Mending Breaches

Remembering Things that Matter I rarely post anything about current events, but once in awhile, it happens. I’ve been thinking about peacemaking, mending breaches, and restoring what has been broken. For issues that have existed for years or decades or...

Middle school reading lists: What a difference 100 years makes!

Middle School Reading Lists: What a difference 100 years makes!

I recently came across an interesting comparison of two middle school reading lists. The author, Annie Holmquist, compared a list from 1908 with a current list from the same state on the basis of time period, thematic elements, and reading...

When is Reading Hard?

Reading, Comprehension, and Knowledge Do you enjoy reading? I do. I grew up reading voraciously — new books, old books, books set in the city, the country, in foreign lands, and many books that featured characters that lived lives very...

Literature, Language Arts, and the Common Core Standards

A look at the literature portion of the the Common Core Standards (CCS), with an excerpt from Hard Times by Charles Dickens.

Cultural literacy, great books, classical education, and Charlotte Mason — what do they have in common?

What is Cultural Literacy?

Cultural literacy can help you decide what to teach and how to teach it. Here’s what cultural literacy is, and how it can help you focus.

What do homeschoolers need to teach?

Homeschoolers: What Must You Teach?

If you’re feeling overwhelmed at homeschooling your students through high school, remember that you don’t have to teach them everything they’ll ever need to know.

Charlotte Mason on Teaching With Literature

Stories bring knowledge alive and engage emotional memory in a way that makes abstract principles and arcane facts easy to understand and remember. When learning can be joyous and simple, why make it boring and difficult (and pointless because they are unlikely to remember anything) by using tedious worksheets and canned curriculum? It’s never too late to start teaching well. Resolve now to make literature and stories a major part of your educational adventure!