About My Studies

C.S. Lewis has been my mentor since I was in my teens, so you're going to hear me talk about him an awful lot. 

I first met him in Mere Christianity when I was fifteen or sixteen years old. I discovered That Hideous Strength when I was nineteen and was completely enchanted by it -- it seemed the fulfillment of all the Arthurian legends, fairy tales, and myths I had grown up reading. Eventually I read the other books in the Space Trilogy, but THS is still my favorite of the three. I didn't read his Narnia stories till I was in my twenties (there's a backstory to that, but I'll tell it some other time). Then in my late twenties or early thirties I discovered his literary criticism. In those works he mentions The Faerie Queene so often that I finally read it aloud to my children and we all fell in love with it. 

Lewis has been my constant guide. His works on medieval literature and cosmology have opened up a world of fascination for me, and his way of talking about stories has shaped not only my own approach to reading, but also the way I teach literature.

Quotes

mostly on books and education

"We feed and clothe and exercise our bodies... in order to be able to do something with our minds. We employ our minds in order to achieve character…. We achieve character, personality, gentlemanliness in order to make our lives an art and to bring our souls into relation with the whole scheme of things, which is the divine nature."
~ John Gould Fletcher, "Education, Past and Present"


"The Senior Common Room behaved to Harriet with that scrupulous and impersonal respect for a person's mission in life which the scholarly tradition imposes."
~ Dorothy Sayers, Gaudy Night


"It is a great misfortune to grow up without having read and dreamt over the Faerie Queene."
~ Charlotte Mason, Formation of Character


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About Me

Kelly Cumbee

I’m a veteran homeschool mom of seven and the wife of a retired military veteran. I have a lifelong love of music, nature, stories, and tradition, and believe they are all intimately connected. I've been teaching literature and Medieval and Renaissance cosmology to teens and adults in local co-ops and online classes since 2015. All learners are welcome here, but as a retired homeschool mom I especially want to equip younger homeschool moms so that they feel confident as they teach their own children. Pull up a chair, grab a cup of tea, and hang out with me a while!