OUT NOW!!! Shakespeare Copywork book.

I've been working on a copywork of Shakespeare plays and have now released the first volume with more planned in the future.

This one features Comedy of Errors and Richard III, two of my favourite plays. Not only do I select lines for copying, I also explain what they mean and how they're important to the play, then go on to talk about productions and films I've seen and what was memorable about them.

I have started using copywork in my local co-op for my teen group, and have found that they are able to understand the language so much better when giving it such careful, regular attention.

Here's the link to Amazon for getting your own copy today:

https://tinyurl.com/ycplnvxb

Early Bird Sees Courses Filling Fast

We've just had our first course reach maximum numbers and close to further registrations, our ever-popular Middle Ages Literature course on a Monday.

It's all a bit crowded in here!

But never mind: we have a second section available on Tuesdays.

This brings up a good point, however: Early Bird registration sees an influx of families who want to reserve their spot for next year at the best level of discount, so there are two reasons why taking advantage of this is in everyone's interest.

The first is, classes do fill up, and only a very few of them have more than one section on offer. If you want to grab a spot on our live, online courses with subject experts who teach via living books, then do it now.

I'm not saying this because it's sales talk - I'm saying it because Middle Ages Lit on Mondays is only the first course that's full. There are four others that are near this level, and once they're closed, they will be closed for the full academic year.

The second is, there are only two weeks left of the Early Bird specials, of which there are three main perks: one is to lock in your place on any course for just the registration fee, and following on from that, the chance to pay the rest of your balance in installments*. The third is that you will be assessed at last year's rates for the course fees.

As a very practical person myself, and a homeschooler to boot, I hope you'll also see the logic in grabbing a good deal while it's available. There's only so much of me and my colleagues to go around.

So honestly - register today or your teen may be bummed they missed the chance to join such motivating and stimulating opportunities for learning!

*With installments, you're welcome to pay a little bit as a time, as long as the full balance is paid by 1st September, 2018. No student with a remaining balance will be admitted into the live classroom.

Proposed Timetable of Dates

I've been looking ahead to plot the next academic year and thought I'd share how we get 30 weeks into our year while enjoying generous blocks of holiday!

Date	Event
Sept 10th 2018	First week of Term
October 22nd 2018	This week is a holiday for Autumn Break
October 29th 2018	Classes resume this week
December 10th 2018	This is the last week of class before Christmas Break
Dec 17th - Jan 6th	Christmas Break
January 7th 2019	Classes resume this week
April 15th 2019	Start of Easter break for 2 weeks
April 29th 2019	Classes resume this week
May 13th 2019	Last week of classes before the end of the academic year

Meet our Newest Tutor and History Teacher

Welcome to our newest tutor at Dreaming Spires Home Learning: a specialist in modern history, Yvonne Mason is a well-known online tutor amongst home-educated high schoolers in the UK, and we are so pleased that she is able to join us next year for a fascinating course about World War 1 and World War 2.

Yvonne will teach Modern History

She took her undergraduate degree in English Language and Literature, then an MA in history from Royal Holloway in London while working as a costumed historical interpreter at the Tower of London. She has been working as an online tutor since 2001 in both English and history, home educates her own daughter, and in her spare time, is an avid embroiderer. She has plans to study for a PhD in Medieval Studies very soon.

STOP PRESS! Timetable out now for 2018-2019 classes

The title says it all ... we are publishing our tentative timetable for the next academic year, unveiling our newest course offerings like chemistry, French, modern history, and creative writing.

The year that packs a punch!

Registrations will open for our Early Bird period over Easter weekend, when registration fees will hold your place for the course of your choice. Last year, most of our courses filled up by the middle of May, so put a reminder on your calendar so you don't miss out!

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday
English Renaissance: KP  8 am  CST / 2 pm UK	English Middle Ages : JP      8 am  CST / 2 pm  UK	Ancient History Rome:  AS 8 am  CST / 2 pm  UK	English British Novel: KP      8 am  CST / 2 pm  UK
	Spanish 1 : JB will meet at   9 am  CST /3 pm  UK	Spanish 2:  JB will meet at  9 am  CST / 3 pm  UK
History: 1914-1945: The Road to War: YM          10 am CST/4 pm UK	French 1: JB will meet at 10:30 am  CST / 4:30 pm  UK	French 2: JB will meet at 10:30 am CST / 4:30 pm UK	Biology KJ at 10 am CST/ 4 pm UK
General Science  KJ at 11 am CST/ 5 pm UK	Creative Writing:  JP noon CST/6 pm UK	English British Novel:  JP noon CST/6 pm UK
English Middle Ages KP    1 pm  CST / 7 pm  UK	Ancient History Greek:  AS      1 pm  CST / 7 pm  UK	Two courses, same time	Chemistry  KJ at 1 pm CST/    7 pm UK
	English American Lit: KP          1 pm  CST / 7 pm  UK

Now Accepting Mid-Term Entries for January 2018

If you've got tired of your curriculum already, if you're new to home education and looking for something to inspire you, or you just think it's time your teen buckled down and started working harder, then Dreaming Spires Home Learning may be your answer.

Are your current studies leaving you cold???
Let Dreaming Spires warm you up!

We offer live and online courses and accept mid-term entries for January, so your child can jump into our New Year units with any of our subjects, whether Spanish or Biology, Ancient History or English Literature and Composition.

Jump into our courses at mid-term!

We've been allowing people to join us mid-year since we first began, and nearly 100% stay with our programme for two-, three-, or four-plus years, so we know it ends up being more of a long-term love affair with our approach to studying, than a short-term quick-fix.

Get in touch today about registering for courses - we'll kick off the new year during the week of 8th of January, 2018. All classes will take a couple of students so the timetable is completely open.

STOP PRESS! New Sections of Middle Ages and BritNov on Offer!

We're so blessed and humbled at Dreaming Spires that so many people are entrusting us with the education of their teens, and our popularity meant that two of our English courses became oversubscribed before the end of May!

Problem: how to make sure more students can take advantage of our motivating and empowering style of live, online courses?

Solution: Recruit one of my oldest and dearest and cleverest friends to come on board as a second English tutor!

Introducing Jackie Pavlenko!

Jackie's bio can be found on the "About Us" tab, but the long-and-short of it is that she's an Oxford grad who went into the screenwriting business. She's too humble to tell you about the awards won by the film she wrote, El Greco, including BEST FILM at the Thessaloniki Film Festival in 2007.

Jackie and I have been co-home-educators in the trenches off and on for the past twelve years, and I'm so thrilled that I managed to eventually pin her down to join the Dreaming Spires team. She has so much insight and depth of thought to add to our courses' explorations, and being a "worldschooler" at this stage in life, she'll be one of those value-added tutors with oodles of culture to exchange!

Mrs Pavlenko will teach a section each of Middle Ages and British Novel: refer to the timetable for the new opportunities to study with us.

Unexpected Gifts -- Courses Almost Full Already

I know sometimes people will claim their courses are filling up to just get people to sign up earlier, but in this case, I'm telling the plain truth.

This is my "being honest" face

Dreaming Spires has added new subjects this year, and all of them are filling up in May when they're not due to start till the second week of September.

I can't believe it! Incredibly humbled and very excited, but also, stunned.

This is my "I'm stunned" face

So let me just make one plea: if you're considering joining us for any of our courses -- the four options for English and composition, Ancient Rome or Ancient Greece, Spanish and Advanced Spanish, or our new living books Biology course -- then please register today!

The only commitment is a £20 registration fee.

If you're still on the fence, let me just say three things: 

• first, we're the only Charlotte-Mason-style, living-books curriculum delivered live and online by home-educating parents who are subject specialists (that's a mouthful: we really are a unique tutorial staff here at Dreaming Spires!);
• second, we retain 80% of our families year-on-year, and for the first time in this registration period, we've had more than one family RETURN to us after trying a year of something else;
• third, our "graduates" are contacting me to say that not only have we prepared them for their further academic studies, but that they MISS the way that we taught our subjects in such a living and memorable way.

So, with my most sincere face ...

Ummm ... no ... that's not the one ...

Okay, we'll go with this one

I sincerely encourage you to sign up today using the Blogger contact form on the right-hand sidebar, or drop me a line at
https://www.facebook.com/dreamingspireshomelearning/.

I'm very approachable, and I and my hand-picked subject tutors are committed to providing courses for your teens as though they were our own children.

Early Bird Registration Starts 1st of April

No ... this is not an April Fool's joke - Early Bird registration for current Dreaming Spires students is opening on 1st April, to book places on courses that are due to start in September.

Don't be a fool! Sign up early!!

If you're not a current student, your Early Bird registration period begins the 15th of April and lasts only two weeks.

 Why sign up so early? Because April is the only month where you get two great deals:

1. Fees will be held over from 2016; after 30th of April, the prices WILL increase!
2. You are able to spread the cost over five months instead of paying the full price at once!

Pop on over to our Timetable tab and see all the courses we've got on offer this year: the oldies-but-goodies, four years of English with a composition option; our new star of 2016, Ancient History; and the new kids on the block, Spanish (2 courses) and Biology.

Go ahead and spread the word ... referral discounts are unlimited to the tune of 100% savings, so get out there and share!!!

Foremost Frankenstein Expert Dies

So many famous people died in 2016 - Prince, David Bowie, Carrie Fisher - but one of the deaths that impacted me the most was that of an academic.

This man was Professor Charles Robinson. He was my graduate advisor at the University of Delaware back in the 80s, and one of the foremost authorities on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

Professor Robinson died peacefully at home in November last year, but in June, he was taking my children and me on a tour of the Delaware campus where I'd spent two years as a student. As eager as always to talk up the English department there, he gave the recruitment spiel to my teenage daughter. Heck, he did such a good job, I was ready to sign up for it all over again!

He then took us up to East Main Street and bought us pizza. As we sat on the patio, practically sweltering in the summer sunshine, he started telling us all about his continued research in Mary Shelley's original manuscripts. 

The Pizza may be a legend, but so was the company!

Robinson's book called The Original Frankenstein is published by Vintage Classics, and provides actually two different versions of the novel: that with Mary's words only, and another with Percy's amendments.

"She uses a lot more simple vocabulary and is more straightforward, then Percy comes along and adds all these Latinate words. But even though he added about 4,000 words to the original story, the novel is all Mary's."

His research and scholarship has earned him the position as the go-to consultant on most documentaries on Shelley's bookname turns up on almost every documentary about Shelley as a consultant, but it's not just his excellent scholarship; it's his enthusiasm for studies.

So friendly and accessible, and a lover of great scholarship!
Here are my kids with him at the pizza place.

The man loved his Romantics - his Byron, his Shelley, his Mary Shelley. He didn't know just the texts, but their letters, their manuscripts, their scribblings - the kind of behind-the-scenes expressions that reveal more about the author than simply reading between the lines.

Perhaps in the context of 2016, his death was just a small pebble in a very large pond, but the ripples he made in terms of Frankenstein scholarship were considerable, and will be noted for many years to come.

Middle-Ages Literature Student Wins Charity Speech Contest

A student from the Middle Ages Literature class at Dreaming Spires Home Learning has won the annual speech contest where the winner sees a donation sent from Dreaming Spires to a charity of his or her choosing.

Talia shows off her winner's certificate

Talia K, a 16-year-old from Maine, spoke with great passion about Dress a Girl Around the World. She continually asked us to envision a world where every girl owned at least one dress, and pointed out how a well-dressed girl was actually less likely to be targeted for the slave trade. We learned that people help sew the dresses rather than relying on machinery or mass-production, and each dress is distributed on mission trips in person, not just shipped abroad.

The external judge gave Talia the nod for not only her crafted speech, but because she had personally raised money and sewn dresses for the charity herself.

Congratulations, Talia!

Book Club Openings in American Lit

Does Dreaming Spires prepare you for A-level?

Here is the testimony of a student who spent the last three years as a Dreaming Spires English student, and is now studying A-levels at a comprehensive in north Oxford with a reputation of academic excellence.

• I just wanted to send you a message to thank you for the last three years of teaching. I have started my English Lit A-Level this month, and have fully realised how lucky I was to have such wonderful education. I've now seen how much of your teaching directly went against how English lit is done in schools, and must say your way is preferable... 

• We have five hours of class time a week and I've been at school since the first week of September, we have read only the first three scenes of Dr Faustus in that time, and have been handed every piece of analysis we need. I've only been asked to write one paper, but it was a paper just on the first two pages of the chorus... Which was difficult as the question would have been better answered in reference to the whole play. 

• We one time spent a two hour lesson just coming up with good words to use when analysing something... It is certainly a very different experience to Dreaming Spires... 

The student went on to ask how she might maintain her enthusiasm for English when the progress in class is so slow and elementary. I suggested using her time in copying the work they're studying as per Charlotte Mason copywork, and in honing her note-taking skills.

She replied that the next two texts are ones she has already studied in the past, so is anticipating that she'll produce rather a large tome of copywork during her year as an A-level student.

So glad that Dreaming Spires makes A-level seem so easy!

BOOK CLUB OFFER!

For 2016-2017, I'm offering spaces for a limited number of non-registered students to join the monthly book club groups.

This is a great opportunity for anyone doing A-level English who wants to widen their exposure to great literature, or for students who want something to motivate them to read more, or for any teen who wants to see what live online learning is all about.

For only £38, your teen can log onto the book club each month in one of the following eras:

1. Middle Ages literature, reading Rolf and the Viking Bow, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Hobbit, The Black Arrow, The Lost Prince by Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Princess Bride, and The White Company (this book may possibly change).  This book club is now full.
2. Renaissance literature, reading The Prince and Pauper, A Man for All Seasons, Dr Faustus, Kenilworth, The Three Musketeers, Lorna Doone, The King’s General -- Probably meeting Fridays at 4:45 pm UK time.
3. British Novels literature, reading The Way of the World, Songs of Innocence and Experience, Joseph Andrews, The Rivals, Silas Marner, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Moonstone, and The Portrait of Dorian Gray. This book club is now full.
4. American literature, reading Last of the Mohicans, My Antonia, Moby Dick, Of Mice and Men, Death of a Salesman, The Chosen, and Jonathan Livingston Seagull.  Meeting time still to be determined.

Each group has only about one or two spaces available for this offer, so if you're wanting to take advantage of it, please contact me as soon as possible via the blogger form or at dreamingspireshomelearning<at>gmail<dot> com. 

Courses Filling up FAST! Register now for September

If you're wanting to take one of my online literature courses or our new Roman culture and civilisation, you'll have to act fast.

Stress! Time's running out!!!!

We don't start till the week of the 12th of September, but we've hit our limits on some of the classes already.

• Middle Ages is FULL
• American Literature is FULL
• British Novels has ONE place
• Renaissance Literature still have FOUR places
• Classical Civilisation has THREE places

One of the reasons we're so popular is that our former students return year after year, or sign up their siblings once they've completed our four-year rotation.

They like us because we're specialists -- we LOVE our subjects. 

They like us because we're home educators ourselves -- we KNOW what it's like to teach our own kids. 

They like us because we follow the Charlotte Mason method -- the ONLY online courses for teens that follow the CM method (as far as we can tell) ...

.... in the WHOLE WORLD ...

... world

... world ...

Seriously, get thee to our registration page and nab one of our spots for your teen or tween today. You will NOT be sorry (or if it's really just not working for you, you can get a full refund before the first month is out).

Early Bird Sign-Up for September Starts Today!

From the 18th of April until the 30th, Dreaming Spires is offering incentives to sign up early for next September's courses.

Dreaming Spires is an online provider of challenging courses in English and Classical Civilisation. Run by homeschooling moms who are specialists in their fields, we give you the personal touch because we are exactly where you are in terms of our own children's ages and college aspirations.

 Here's what you get if you sign up before April 30th:

1. the chance to reserve your place for only the £15 registration fee -- deadline for full payment is 1st September;
2. the chance to pay via monthly instalments, to help spread the costs of the course;
3. a 10% discount off the main course, even if you're already receiving the 50% sibling discount!

Current students have already been able to reserve their places for the previous weeks, so some of the courses are filling up fast -- don't delay in contacting us and getting your name down while space is still available!

Registration form is here.

Come visit us on 

• Facebook page = https://www.facebook.com/dreamingspireshomelearning
• Twitter = @dreaminspiresHL
• Instagram = dreaming_spires_home_learning

Hey, we're famous! The Examiner Publishes an Interview

Word is getting out about Dreaming Spires Home Learning, and the online news network, The Examiner, contacted us for an interview.

Here's the link, where you'll find out more about our background, our vision, and our future. Have a look, and find out why we're growing so fast while staying true to our Charlotte Mason roots!

http://www.examiner.com/article/about-dreaming-spires-home-learning