Something quietly remarkable happened recently – I was honored to be a guest on the Homeschool Minnesota Podcast with host Dayle Annand. And I don’t use the word “remarkable” lightly.
Dayle has welcomed some heavy hitters in the homeschool world to the show – guests like Ken Ham, founder of Answers in Genesis, Andrew Pudewa of the Institute for Excellence in Writing, Linda Hobar author of the Mystery of History, and Davis Carman, President of Apologia Science – which means I was in genuinely good company.
If you’ve been around here for a while, you know I’m a words person. English major. Huge book nerd. The kind of person who has strong feelings about sentence rhythm and will reorganize her bookshelves by vibe or subject, not just by genre or author.
So getting to sit down and talk about literature – specifically classical literature for high schoolers, and why it matters, and how we can make it accessible to every homeschool family – felt a little like being handed a microphone at a concert and discovering the song is one you’ve known by heart for years.
It was a good conversation. I absolutely loved meeting Dayle and finding another fellow Charlotte Mason person! Come listen.
▶️ Listen on YouTube: Watch the Episode Here
▶️ Listen on Apple Podcasts: Journey Through the Classics – Apple Podcasts
▶️ Listen on Spotify: Journey Through the Classics – Spotify
About the Homeschool Minnesota Podcast
The Homeschool Minnesota Podcast is the official podcast of the Minnesota Association of Christian Home Educators (MACHE) – one of the longest-standing and most respected Christian homeschool organizations in the country.
Host Dayle Annand brings on guests to talk about the real, practical, and beautiful parts of homeschool life, and she made me feel completely at home. (Which, given that she’s in Minnesota and I am very much not a cold-weather person, is saying something.)
You can learn more about MACHE and find all their resources at homeschoolminnesota.org.
What We Talked About: Journey Through the Classics
The episode is titled “Journey Through the Classics FREE High School Literature Program” – and yes, free is doing a lot of work in that title, in the best possible way. I’m so grateful that Dayle is helping me spread the word!
We talked about my high school literature curriculum, Journey Through the Classics, which is completely free and fully self-contained. No expensive purchases required. No curriculum company subscription. No scrambling to piece together a reading list and somehow also teach critical thinking and essay writing and the kind of deep literary engagement that actually stays with a person through adulthood.
Just good books. Great conversations. And a framework that holds it all together.
Why Classical Literature Still Matters
Here’s what I genuinely believe, and what I talked about on the podcast: the classics are not dusty relics on a shelf that we assign because someone told us to.
They are stories that have survived centuries because they are true in the way that only the best stories are true – true about what it means to be human, to make choices, to live with consequences, to reach for something beyond yourself.
When your teenager reads Homer or Shakespeare or Austen or Helprin, they’re not just checking a box. They’re joining a conversation that has been happening across generations, across cultures, across time. That’s not nothing. That’s actually everything.
Charlotte Mason understood this. She called it “the living book” philosophy – the idea that a child’s mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled (she borrowed that from Plutarch, so good company). Classical literature, taught well, does exactly that.
Why Free Matters
I also want to talk about the free part for a second, because it matters to me.
Homeschooling can be expensive!
Let’s just say that out loud.
Quality curriculum can run hundreds of dollars per subject per year, and for a high school student who needs multiple subjects, that adds up faster than you can say “co-op Tuesday.” I have always believed that an excellent education should not be gated behind a price tag – and classical literature, of all things, should be the most accessible subject of all. These books are public domain. The ideas belong to everyone.
https://homeschoolwithjoy.kit.com/journeyingthroughtheclassicsSo I built Journey Through the Classics to be genuinely free. Not a free trial. Not a free sample with a premium upgrade. Not free, but you have to give me your credit card. Totally Free.
What’s In the Curriculum
We went into detail on the podcast, so I’ll let you listen for the full picture – but in broad strokes, Journey Through the Classics is:
A complete, self-contained high school literature program. It includes reading lists organized around classic texts, discussion questions, writing prompts, and the kind of literary analysis framework that teaches teens how to think about what they’re reading, not just what happened in the plot.
It’s rooted in Charlotte Mason’s philosophy – which means narration, living books, attention to beautiful language, art integration, love of nature, and the conviction that a student who genuinely loves literature is worth infinitely more than one who can pass a standardized test.
But, of course, it is rigorous enough that your student could!
It works for all kinds of learners – the bookworm who inhales novels, the reluctant reader who needs a reason to care, the analytical kid who wants to argue about themes at the dinner table. (If that last one is your kid: Congratulations! And also I’m sorry, those dinners are long. I know because it was me, lol. Sorry, Mom!)
A Little Behind-the-Scenes Honesty
I’ll be real with you: being a podcast guest is a little spine tingling in a way. I am much more comfortable with words on a page than words coming out of my face in real time. My inner editor would like to go back and revise approximately three sentences. But Dayle is a genuinely warm and skilled host, and the conversation flowed in a way that felt natural and honest – which is all I ever really want.
I talked about my background. My editing and professional literature world experience. Why I care so much about literature and language and the way stories shape us. Why I think homeschool families are, quietly, doing some of the most important educational work happening right now. Why I believe your high schooler can love the classics – and why that’s worth pursuing even when it’s hard.
I hope it encourages you. That was the whole point.
Go Listen – And Share It
The episode is about 25 minutes long – the perfect length for a car ride, a walk, or that sacred window of time when everyone is occupied and you get to drink your coffee while it’s still hot. (Almond milk latte, obviously. I’m nothing if not consistent.)
You can find it on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. And if it resonates with you, share it with a homeschool friend – especially one who is staring down high school and wondering how on earth to tackle literature without spending a fortune or losing her mind!
▶️ Spotify
There’s a free, beautiful, classically-rooted answer. And now it’s out there in the world with a podcast episode to go with it.
Thank you to Dayle and Homeschool Minnesota for helping me let homeschoolers know about it!
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