Disqus - Latest Comments for BadgerMum

Re: Five Ways to Wear a Plaid Midi Skirt

Kelly — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 16:25:51 -0000

These are lovely, but I have always loved plaid skirts. Maybe it's a personality thing -- I was called "Queen Elizabeth" when I was in high school in the 80s and don't think of "matronly" as an unpleasant word or idea. ;-)

Re: Do You Know How Special You Are?

Kelly — Fri, 13 Jul 2018 22:47:31 -0000

I believe you're the first person I've ever read who states so plainly what it feels like to be a Gen X'er. Thanks so much for this! It made me feel less lonely.

Re: Forma: Andrew Kern and Tim McIntosh on a brief biography of reason

Kelly — Thu, 17 May 2018 19:35:20 -0000

Could y'all include a list of all the book titles mentioned in this post? That would be fantastic.

Re: Friday’s Fab Find: Soul Insole Shoe Bubble

Kelly — Fri, 20 Apr 2018 10:32:23 -0000

Oh, wow, I'd love a pair of those! I too have foot trouble (from a childhood injury that healed badly) that has led to pain in my knees and hips. I walk about half a mile on most days, and once a week my kids and I go hiking in the hills nearby. I've gotten to where I can take the mile-long path and not be done for the day. Hoping to build up my endurance this season.

Re: When You Finish The Test, Please Aimlessly Gaze Into Space

Kelly — Mon, 19 Mar 2018 12:57:12 -0000

Your line about a man's soul being another person reminds me of Henry V's line, "I and my bosom must commune awhile."

Re: Escaping Pop Culture Syncretism

Kelly — Tue, 21 Mar 2017 14:25:06 -0000

My older set of kids were raised mostly without pop music just because my husband and I never cared for it. My great loves from childhood were Chopin's waltzes (because my mother loved them and played them on the piano for me) and the great hymns we sang in church, so classical music is naturally what I raised my children on.

As the older set grew into their teens though, they discovered pop music online (I have to admit that they have pretty good taste in pop music) and have shared a lot of that with me and their younger siblings. That's all well and good, but then that means that my younger set are less influenced by classical music than the older ones are. I guess I'll see how that works out in another ten years.

That said, the best thing to do for your children is simply to play what you love -- not as background music, though. As an Event. The way you would sit down and watch a movie or read a book aloud together.

Re: Introducing The Crossroads, a New Column about the Quadrivium

Kelly — Thu, 02 Mar 2017 18:09:45 -0000

Oh, I'm so excited about this! I've been studying it a bit on my own the last few years, reading Clark and Jain's Liberals Arts Tradition, Caldecott's Beauty for Truth's Sake, and Nicomachus of Gerasa's Introduction to Arithmetic, but it's slow-going. I'll be so glad to read your thoughts on the matter.

Re: Rules Of Decorum

Kelly — Tue, 23 Aug 2016 22:07:51 -0000

Yes, me too!

Re: Class Trip To A Museum: 9 Tips

Kelly — Sun, 03 Apr 2016 14:23:30 -0000

Thanks, this is helpful. We're really looking forward to it. The theater is very small and the lights are kept up so the actors can really interact with the audience.

Re: Class Trip To A Museum: 9 Tips

Kelly — Sat, 02 Apr 2016 12:09:39 -0000

This is fantastic. I'll be taking my students to see Henry V at the Shakespeare Center in Staunton in June (we'll be reading it in class over the next few weeks). If you have any tips for that, could you share those?

Re: Tradition, Authority, and the Classical and Medieval Poet

Kelly — Fri, 01 Apr 2016 17:08:14 -0000

Which makes Tolkien a medieval poet, I guess, since he references "historical documents" in his stories. ;-)

Re: A Flannery O'Connor "Starter Kit"

Kelly — Fri, 27 Mar 2015 18:41:00 -0000

Revelation, and The River. Also whenever she writes about her peacocks in her letters.

Re: Podcast: How to "Illicit" Good Questions from Reluctant Learner

Kelly — Sat, 21 Mar 2015 11:26:26 -0000

I was able to hear it better after I downloaded it to my computer. It was only the first five minutes or so that were really impossible to hear.

Re: Who Most Influenced the Way You Teach?

Kelly — Thu, 05 Mar 2015 18:38:25 -0000

My daddy -- his love of practically everything, his pleasure in talking about those things and bringing me along with him, his example of life-long curiosity, his skill in doing the things he loved.

Re: The Dress: A Fake Science Investigation

Kelly — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 14:23:31 -0000

Those are not garbanzo beans. Those are chick peas.

Re: Favorite Reads of 2014

Kelly — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 12:00:48 -0000

Ravi Jain's Liberal Arts Tradition -- it helped me fit so many pieces together and gave me direction in trying to understand Mathematics from a classical perspective. Because of it I've also been reading Beauty for Truth's Sake, Nicomachus' Introduction to Arithmetic, and Children's Mathematics:Cognitively Guided Instruction by Thomas Carpenter, which is revolutionizing math in my home. That's not an exaggeration.

Re: Favorite Reads of 2014

Kelly — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 11:45:37 -0000

Same here. I haven't read it a few decades but I loved it. I loved all of Bradbury. My fourteen year old son gave it to my sixteen year old daughter for Christmas this year and they both read it and liked it. So I'd also like the name of that Ethos. (I feel like I'm asking for a diagnosis. "What is it, Doctor? Tell me the worst -- I can take it!")

Re: 5 Southern Novels for Your Winter Reading Indulgence

Kelly — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 14:15:21 -0000

Caroline Gordon "was married, off and on, to Allen Tate"? I did not know that. I love Penhally and I love The Fathers.

Thanks for mentioning the Pat Conroy book. I've only read one of his, The Prince of Tides, but it was so brutal and heart-breaking that, though I loved it, I've been reluctant to read anything else by him.

Re: The Transforming Nature of Love

Kelly — Sat, 28 Jun 2014 20:59:37 -0000

What a beautiful story.

Re: Go to Yale. Go Directly To Yale.

Kelly — Tue, 20 May 2014 00:16:10 -0000

Thanks for the recommendation. I took a course on Ancient Greece from Coursera several months ago and really enjoyed it, but I've been wanting more. Donald Kagan's lectures sound just right.

Re: How to Teach Virtue

Kelly — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 12:58:00 -0000

I first tried to read The Meno a couple of years ago based on your recommendation but gave up because I couldn't understand what was going on. But now I'm taking a Coursera class on Plato's dialogues and the professor has just spent two weeks holding our hands and leading us through Meno (after two weeks with Euthyphro). I sort of feel like maybe now I might be able to kind of see what he's probably talking about. I hope.

So, um, no feedback. Just thanks, and a request that you keep writing on this because people are out here reading and trying to understand, and you're helping.

Re: To Become a Thousand Men

Kelly — Fri, 07 Feb 2014 11:21:02 -0000

Such a good point. I've been reading to my own children Rosemary Sutcliff's retellings, Black Ships Before Troy, and The Wanderings of Odysseus. In Black Ships, which we just finished last week, she tells the whole story, which means we're hearing from both Homer and Virgil, and let me tell you, I cannot read that last chapter without weeping. All through the story my children would stop to ask which side were "the good guys," and we'd talk about why the Greeks were there, and why the Trojans were defending their city. It's been a very good experience.

Re: On Love in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

Kelly — Wed, 08 Jan 2014 20:38:01 -0000

"Sad is an empowerment that grants security but makes love impossible."

That's such a good point. Twelfth Night is our favorite of the comedies and when I asked the kids which one they would like to have in an audio version done with a full cast, it was the one they requested. I'll keep that point in mind when we start listening to it next week.

Just a technical point on the Church calendar -- the 25th is the first day of Christmas; Epiphany is the 6th of January, so Twelfth Night is always the 5th of January, the Vigil of the Epiphany.

Re: Word of the Day: bonnie

Kelly — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 20:26:31 -0000

People don't use it much nowadays, but don't forget our word "goodly."