How the Sodalitas Gathering is Changing our Homeschool

Sodalitas means “a close association of friends” and that’s a perfect description for the two days I spend in Louisville, Kentucky, each summer.

Despite the beauty of this gathering, I always worry about being away from my family. But every year, my husband says that I have to go. He’s seen first-hand how it ministers to my soul and that, in turn, transforms our homeschool.

While everyone waits for the session videos (they’re worth the wait!), I want to share some things that really spoke to me this year:

Latin orders language the way math orders the sciences.

LEIGH LOWE

My first introduction to classical education was through The Well-Trained Mind which places history at the center of learning. As a history major, that made perfect sense to me.

Then, I discovered Memoria Press and they said Latin was supposed to be the center of a classical education. Other than the fact that it’s a classical language, I really didn’t understand this shift.

I knew the arguments: if our children are to read well, write well, and speak well, they have to understand the order of language; but English has so many exceptions and idioms that it’s hard to see the order in it. Latin, however, is intrinsically ordered and has fewer exceptions.

I knew these things, but I finally understood them when I took the First Form Latin teacher training at this year’s Sodalitas.

Did you know that every regular Latin verb has four forms and each form is the foundation for building all the variations for a specific tense of that verb?

As Cheryl Swope said in the Simply Classical Latin session, Latin is “incremental, sequential, disciplined.” And a child has to think through that order every time they work with a word, or phrase, or sentence. 

For the first time in my life I can say: Latin is a beautiful thing. 

Going forward: while we’ve prioritized Latin based on the wisdom of others, I’ve finally internalized its importance. Latin will receive our focus this year, not just our time. 

Mastery ennobles both the student and the subject.

LEIGH LOWE

Total conviction here. We’ve worked towards mastery to an extent, but never with full diligence.

If something is worth knowing, it’s worth truly knowing; and my child, made as a person in the Image of God, is worth that knowledge.

Going forward: we will be restoring Recitation this year and mastery review will take place daily.

[Enrichment] raises us and them above circumstances — no one wants to feel that everything is remedial.

CHERYL SWOPE

This was a gut-punch for me.

I was so focused on building skills, that I neglected the beauty my struggling learners needed.

We skipped the read-alouds, the art cards, the music…they still had beautiful content in their skill-work, but they missed out on the full richness of the program.

I told myself this was okay since they did the regular MP Enrichment on Mondays at our co-op; but they missed out on the specifically-tailored Simply Classical Enrichment. 

My 10yo, especially, needs access to deep content while working on the skills most children master at younger ages.

Going forward: I was already planning on the Level 3 American History Enrichment, but Cheryl’s insight will keep Enrichment front and center in our plan.

Traditions are the framework we hang our lives upon.

KATHY BECKER

My mom was a wonder with traditions — even after she became partially disabled. We lived in the middle of a crowded town in South Florida, but we always knew autumn had arrived when the pillows on the couch turned to leaf patterns and gourds appeared on the table.

We welcomed winter with seasonal dish towels and pot holders, a musical, miniature rocking horse on the coffee table, a white pillow embroidered with gold thread, and cypress branches cut from the backyard.

But I haven’t carried this into my own home.

I focus too much on “getting through” each day. Seasons, both meteorological and liturgical, come and go without my children being steeped in their truth and beauty.

Going forward: I’ll be putting some of these days/seasons on my calendar, with a simple idea for remembering and celebrating each one. I’ll be sure to share when I get this done!

While these were some of my big takeaways from this year’s gathering, I also came away with so many practical, “nuts-and-blots” tips from the breakout sessions. I can’t wait to watch all the sessions I missed!

If you’ve never been to Sodalitas, you can watch videos from past years here (free!): https://www.memoriapress.com/videos/

Which of these quotes spoke to you? What will you be doing differently this year?