Traditionally, short stories have gone overlooked. Short stories are often overlooked in favor of novels. Though longer works are certainly valuable, short stories should be recognized as an instrumental source of social and historical context, as well as literary...
Stretch Reading: How (and Why!) to Get Through Those Books You Just Do not Like. A recent bestseller for the Christian youth market had an intriguing title: Do Hard Things. I am a sucker for a bold, audacious title. In any case, I really like the title of that book...
Unfortunate Misconceptions Some people believe that the study of history is boring, that it is simply memorizing tedious details about people who lived long ago that have no impact on life today. This is not true! Not only can history be an exciting exploration into...
The Curious Truth Art history education online seems like the most wonderful pursuit. I have the wealth of the world’s museums at my fingertips as I peruse some of my favorite sites, like the Met or even Google Arts and Culture. People can virtually sit in a chair and...
Struggling with writer's block can be very defeating! If you’ve been writing for any amount of time, you’ve likely hit the proverbial wall that all writers fear. Though it may seem like a rite of passage, you do not have to subject yourself to the frustration that is...
How to become proficient in Spanish “I studied Spanish and got an ‘A’, but I don’t remember anything.” This sentiment expresses what many of us feel about high school foreign language study. No one will ever achieve language proficiency by simply going to a foreign...
The Need for Punctuality Outside of the sanctuaries of our homes, life is filled with deadlines. As a homeschool parent, I have savored the freedom of our family’s life at home; learning at one’s own pace is often rewarded with unparalleled creativity. However, I have...
STEM to STEAM in Education One of the trends in public education is the idea of STEM schools, steering students toward careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. We want our kids to be well-positioned in a world that is driven by rapid technological...
The Most Important Word Last night, I sat down to dinner with my husband at our local French restaurant. Simply walking through the door transports you to a snug Parisian bistro. As we were eating, we began talking about the French language. My husband is a fluent...
Why Excelsior Classes? In our last blog post we discussed the values of excellence and rigor which Excelsior Classes brings to the homeschool experience. But isn’t that boring? J Where’s the joie de vivre in that? Learning should be more than just challenging and...
Why Excelsior Classes? Some of you may remember life when email technology appeared novel. It seemed that the internet in its incipient stage was rather empty or devoid of content. AOL and that dial-up noise was oh-so-mysterious. Fast-forward twenty years, and the...
There is a rather disparaging yet humorous quote about teachers that says, “Those who can, do, and those who can’t, teach.” It is a rather cheeky statement, but the truth of the matter is that superior instructors must do. Mere knowledge and doing is not enough to be...
