Scholé Sisters: Camaraderie for Classical Homeschooling Mamas
Scholé Sisters: Camaraderie for Classical Homeschooling Mamas
Brandy Vencel with Mystie Winckler and Abby Wahl
Scholé Sisters is the podcast for the classical homeschooling mama who seeks to learn and grow while she’s helping her children learn and grow. Scholé Sisters is a casual conversation about topics that matter to those of us in the trenches of classical homeschooling who yearn for something more than just checking boxes and getting it all done. In each episode, we cover our Scholé Everyday (suggestions for inspiration and growth), and a topical discussion relying on principles we find in books by people like David Hicks, James Taylor, and Charlotte Mason. Come and join the Sisterhood of the Podcast!
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! *** 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.
Mar 25
1 hr 14 min
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.
Mar 8
1 hr 17 min
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! *** 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.
Feb 23
1 hr 7 min
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! *** Click here to access today's show notes. Click here to join the Sistership.
Jan 12
21 min
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. *** 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.  *** Click here to access today's show notes. Click here to join the Sistership.
Dec 15, 2023
55 min
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! *** 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. *** Click here to access today's show notes. Click here to join the Sistership.
Nov 24, 2023
1 hr 10 min
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! *** 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. *** Click here to access today's show notes. Click here to join the Sistership.
Nov 3, 2023
1 hr 12 min
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! *** 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.
Oct 20, 2023
1 hr 13 min
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! *** 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. *** Click here to access today's show notes. Click here to join the Sistership.
Sep 29, 2023
1 hr 24 min
SS #128: Division or Dialogue (with Pastor Chad Vegas!!)
Our guest today is Chad Vegas. Chad is the founding pastor of Sovereign Grace Church in Bakersfield, CA, where he has served since 2006. Chad received his M.A. from Talbot School of Theology. He also spent nearly two decades in public school education as both a teacher and Board Member. He has been married to Teresa since 1994 and they have 2 children. Chad is the co-author of Missions by the Book: How Theology and Missions Walk Together, available at all major booksellers. Our conversation in this episode kicks off with Pastor Chad’s interpretation of Matthew 18 – what does it really mean and how do we know if it’s being abused or misused? After that, Mystie, Chad, and Brandy dig deeply into public conversation and where we Christians can and should draw lines. You’re going to love this conversation! *** Have you registered for our fall online local retreats yet? Our physical hostess kits are sold out, but digital hostess kits are still available. 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! We cannot wait to spend time with you all on Saturday, October 7th so mark your calendars! Just go to scholesisters.com/time to sign up. *** Click here to access today's show notes. Click here to join the Sistership.
Sep 15, 2023
1 hr 1 min
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