Summer Academy 2009

Schola Summer Academy is designed to provide the students and tutor of Schola Classical Tutorials the opportunity to meet and get to know face to face the people they've met online during the academic year, while studying together informally some of the subjects we all love: history, literature, and the natural world.

For three days in June we had Schola Summer Academy right here in Sacramento, right in the backyard of our dear friends (this one and this one and this one.)

The students studied church history:



poetry:



and astronomy:

Cycles: An Introduction to Astronomy and Time by Jay Ryan:

A 32 page comic book for introducing the three astronomical cycles -- The Day, The Month, and The Year -- upon which our modern system of timekeeping is based. Restore an awareness of these cycles, lost by modern man's dependence on clocks and calendars. Engaging illustrations graphically reveal the motion of the Sun and stars, phases of the Moon, and the reasons for the seasons.

(You might have better luck ordering Cycles here, and there are plenty of other things to find there as well. Jay Ryan is a man worth knowing.)

Oh, and there was just a little bit of fun. Okay, a LOT of fun. It was a bunch of great kids and we all just had a ball.

The mothers made meals and told stories and listened to some poetry. The dads participated as they could, listening in on reading time, talking poolside, and at least one daddy-o was doing a little samba dancing late one night. Ask me how I know! We all got to know each other better, laughed really hard (remember to swallow before you start laughing, especially before Sara's infamous cat joke) and tasted a slice of heaven on earth.

Wes Callihan is a major hoot, his family is FULL of great people, and we think they are all the bee's knees. And so, I will use this moment for my semi-annual

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FYI: a little hint: his Great Books courses fill up FAST. If you are trying to break in to the Schola inner circle, I recommend you try for one of the less popular courses. To do that, go here, click on "online tutorials" on the sidebar, then scroll down to the 2009-2010 weekly schedule. If a course does not have an asterisk, there is a chance there is still room. What are you waiting for?

Friends, music, poolside...it was an evening to remember