On The Literary Life podcast today, our hosts Angelina, Cindy and Thomas sit down for a chat with twin sisters Addison and Ella Hornstra. Together they have been given a literary home education, and this fall they will continue that journey at New College Franklin. Angelina introduces the Hornstra ladies and she and Thomas tell a little bit about having them as students. Cindy also shares how she met the Hornstra family. Then they dig into the girls’ reading journeys from the beginning of their learning to read all the way to their current reading lives. Some of the topics that come up in this conversation are: reading content beyond your understanding, owning your reading life, the problem with using the wrong approach to literature, the dangers of modern education for uniquely gifted students, the power of just reading well, and so much more. Come explore, with seasoned moms, the things that stand the test of time in our homeschools at this year’s Literary Life Back to School Online Conference. In addition to our hosts, Donna-Jean Breckenridge and a panel of home educating parents and their adult children, will be bringing encouragement and insight to help you on your homeschool journey. This year’s conference will be live online on August 2-5, with recordings available for those who cannot join live. Commonplace Quotes: It is bad to spend too many hours over either a microscope or telescope or in gazing fixedly at some one distance range. The eyes need change of focus, and so does the imagination. There has been in modern Europe a shocking riot in misuse of the imagination. The remedy is to learn to use it. But the same kind of people who would like to bandage a child’s eyes lest it should learn to squint like to bandage the imagination lest it should wear itself out by squinting. Mary Everest Boole Away from the immense, cloistered in our own concepts, we may scorn and revile everything. But standing between earth and sky, we are silenced by the sight. Abraham Heschel In nature, the bird who gets up earliest catches the most worms, but in book collecting, the prizes fall to birds who know worms when they see them. Michael Sadlier The madman, of all men, lives most in a world of his own. E. J. Oliver Symbols are the nature speech of the soul, a language older and more universal than words. Edmund Spenser Sonnet XIX: On His Blindness by John Milton When I consider how my light is spent, Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide, And that one Talent which is death to hide Lodged with me useless, though my Soul more bent To serve therewith my Maker, and present My true account, lest he returning chide; “Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?” I fondly ask. But patience, to prevent That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need Either man’s work or his own gifts; who best Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed And post o’er Land and Ocean without rest: They also serve who only stand and wait.” Books Mentioned: The Philosophy and Fun of Algebra by Mary Everest Boole Thunder in the Soul by Abraham Heschel A Gentle Madness by Nicholas Basbanes Coventry Patmore by E. J. Oliver The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë Beatrix Potter Mistmantle Chronicles by M. I. McAllister Redwall Series by Brian Jacques Poppy Series by Avi The Trumpet of the Swan by E. B. White Ralph Mouse Series by Beverley Cleary The Cat of Bubastes by G. A. Henty In Freedom’s Cause by G. A. Henty Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy Les Miserables by Victor Hugo Gene Stratton Porter The Chronicles of Prydain Series by Lloyd Alexander Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson Phantastes by George MacDonald The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton Support The Literary Life: Become a patron of The Literary Life podcast as part of the “Friends and Fellows Community” on Patreon, and get some amazing bonus content!