SCHOLA: Welcome to my SCHOLA blog

Thursday, January 08, 2004

Welcome to my SCHOLA blog

a Secular Classical Homeschoolers' Odyssean Learning Adventure

Depending on our day, the "O" can alternately stand for: obnoxious, obsessive, obfuscated, obtuse, obsolescent, obsequious, obstinate, obtrusive, obscure, objective, obstreperous, occasional, occupational, ochlocratic, odd, odiferous, odious, offensive, official, officious, offshore, old-fashioned, oligarchal, omnidirectional, omnifarious, omnipresent, onerous, onomatopoeic, operatic, opportunistic, oppositional, oppressive, optimistic, optional, orderly, original, orthodox, Orwellian, oscillating, outrageous, outdoor, outstanding, overblown, overseas, and overwhelming...

But almost never: ordinary

You know how it is.

I decided to jump on the bandwagon and create a little place of my own to catalog our many adventures. If you are interested in the day-to-day minutiae of a homeschooling family, read on. Or don't. Sometimes we're not particularly interesting, but I will try to keep this from becoming a blah-g.

Cheers.

SCHOLA 101

schol' a: 1) An intermission of work, leisure for learning, learned conversation, debate, disputation, lecture, dissertation. 2) A meeting place for teachers and pupils, place for instruction, place of learning, school. 3) The disciples of a teacher, body of followers, school, sect. 4) An acronym for my tortuous blog title "Secular Classical Homeschoolers' Odyssean Learning Adventure." 5) How my Boston cousins pronounce "scholar." 6) Someone who studies at 10 o'clock for a dilla or a dolla.

These are the blatherings of an introverted, autodidactic, champion of The Enlightenment raising three daughters. At one time or another we have homeschooled, public-schooled, Catholic-schooled, cyber-schooled, unschooled, and even threatened boarding school. We have been inspired variously by The Well-Trained Mind, A Thomas Jefferson Education, and Climbing Parnassus, tempered by the writings and wisdom of Charlotte Mason, John Holt, Benjamin Franklin and Michel de Montaigne.

I try not to get wrapped up in labels, but we are secular and we are classical-ish.

We travel. A lot. Sometimes to the other side of the state and sometimes to the other side of the planet. Join us on our journey as we search for our home, navigate the waters of self-education, lounge with the lotus-eaters, and bash a Cyclops or two.