New Video Series on Youtube to Introduce 2019-2020 course line-up!

Starting March the 12th, a Youtube series gets underway to give you a brief description of each of the courses we'll be running for next year.

Talking it all through with you 

The first session is just about the common attributes of all the courses, whether science, foreign language, history, etc. Following that, I'll look at each of the courses in turn.

Why not subscribe so you get the link sent straight to your inbox?

Sessions One: The Intro - https://youtu.be/xKfGtuD-wHE

New Timetable, New Tutors, New Tabs - All NEW!

Today, we have revealed our timetable for 2019-2020, our new roster of tutors, and our FIVE new courses including three new subjects.

My surprise is revealed!

Have a browse around the new website and click all the buttons, and mark your calendar for the 15th of March when we start our Early Bird registration period.

Any questions, don't hesitate to contact us - there's a contact form in the sidebar (maybe more viewable on a computer than a phone), or pop over to the Dreaming Spires Home Learning Facebook page and message us.

Jump on a Course in January

At Dreaming Spires, we always take on a few new students after the Christmas holidays, slotting them cosily into our sociable and friendly courses when maybe their previous studies had become dry or boring, unmotivating, or perhaps not rigorous enough.

A student attends class in the airport!

We can do this because we run all our subjects on a modular or unit-based system. Sure, there will be a few things they missed from Autumn term, but all previous webinars and recordings are available should they feel the need to fill in the blanks.

So whether you want to add something like Spanish or French, delve deeply into the history of Ancient Rome or the complicated causes of World War 2, debate medical ethics in biology or the other sciences, write a stunning screenplay, or lay down foundations for great exam results by learning to read harder books and write solid essays, there's something for everyone at Dreaming Spires.

Course fees are reduced pro-rata, and jumping on now means a family can take advantage of the special pricing of our pre-registration period in April, when our current students can reserve places on courses that otherwise fill up fast.

Pop on over to our registration page to sign up today, or use the contact form to ask for further details.

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

Let's Talk Shakespeare - Thinking about which ones are appropriate for which age

I did a live video on Facebook about Shakespeare's plays, thinking about which are appropriate for younger ages and which might be best to save till later or read only in story form.

Come over to https://www.facebook.com/dreamingspireshomelearning/ to join the conversation.



 

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.

Early Bird Registration is NOW OPEN for 2018-2019

The REGISTRATION FORM for the academic year 2018-2019 is now live for the Early Bird registration period for our unique, online courses taught live for homeschooled teens worldwide.

Oh, the excitement!!

The EARLY BIRD PERIOD runs 1st April to 31st May, 2018.

Paying the registration fee for your chosen courses during the Early Bird Period will secure your place and entitle you to course fees at last year's rates, to be paid by 1st of September, 2018.

For full information, please refer to the Fees page of the website. This especially applies if you have used Early Bird registration in the past since the fee structure changed last year.

Video about Registration Dates and More about Dreaming Spires

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.

The New Timetable for 2017 is Out Now

Early Bird registration for Dreaming Spires courses will open on 1st April, but in the meantime, you may want to see what we have in store in terms of our timetabling.

There are some alterations based on the necessity of our family commitments, especially when it comes to juggling our own children's home education with our desire to supply the highest quality of online learning experiences for yours.

Pop over to our "2017 ?" tab to see details of additional subjects we hope to be offering from September.

NOTE: This is our latest timetable, but where you see "*", the times aren't 100% fixed.

English Literature and Composition
Course	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday
Middle Ages Lit	8 am CST/2 pm UK
British Novel		1 pm CST/7 pm UK
Renaissance				9:30 am CST/3:30 pm UK*
American Lit	1 pm CST/7 pm UK
Add-On Composition	Usually meet 1/2 hour after class
Classical Civilisation/Ancient History
Course		Tuesday	Wednesday
Roman History		1 pm CST/7 pm UK
Greek History			8 am CST/2 pm UK
Add-On Writing Extensions	Usually meet 1/2 hour after class
Biology
Course			Wednesday
Biology with lab			SAME COURSE AT DIFFERENT TIMES:  Biology A will be 1 pm CST/7 pm UK*, and Biology B will be 7 pm CST/1 am UK to accommodate US, Asia, and Australia
Spanish
Course		Tuesday	Wednesday
Spanish 2		9:30 am CST/3:30 pm UK
Spanish 1			10 am CST/ 4 pm UK

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.

Book Club Openings in American Lit

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. 

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.

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