About Me
Welcome to Family-Style Schooling.
My name is Betsy Strauss. I'm an unexpected homeschooler, mother of three, who is in a relationship with a sweet man for life. Our kids, Andy (2000), Alyssa (2004), and Audrey (2006) keep us learning and growing. In 2009 we combined households with my widowed mother, and we've stumbled across the immense blessings of a multi-generational household.
My husband and I both grew up in the public school system. We had great expectations for what life looked like with a kids attending the school down the street. As the youngest child in my family growing up, my mom was completely involved at my school from serving in the library to being the room mom. Often she came to eat lunch with me, and I always knew she was just a phone call away if I ever needed anything during the day. When Andy started school, I was surprised by the difficulties I faced being involved in the school system with a toddler and a baby on the way.
Needless to say, the reality didn't match our vision, and we found ourselves three years later with a kid in competitive gymnastics and only seeing him a couple of hours a day. This wasn't the dream.
In 2008, my husband started seminary, and it was almost as if we woke up. God had given us three sweet children to shepherd and nurture. We took a step back and asked ourselves, "Why are we giving away the majority of our kid's day to others?" It seems we needed to adjust our course. C. S. Lewis eloquently explains:
"We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive."
So when the opportunity arose in 2009 to serve my mother by moving in with her, we seized it, along with the opportunity to transition into homeschooling our children. That first year was an adventure for my husband and I along with my mother. Since then, we have all grown to love having the kids home, learning and growing together.
In 2010, we found Classical Conversations, and slowly both my husband and my mother have become actively involved in our local community. We are far from perfect and still so new to the process, but we are thankful to be on the journey together.
How old are your children? I’m a new follower/homeschooler. Looking for reading suggestions with age guidelines. Thx
Currently they are 15, 11, and 9! What are you looking for?
I love this blog so so so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am so thankful for Latin with Andy! I am recommending it to my local CC campus! Thank you!!!
good morning where do we find the lessons??
If you’re already logged in, you can find them here: https://familystyleschooling.com/latin-andy-welcome-page/
Betsy! Fellow CCer here up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Is there a way to send you an email with some questions?
THanks
Jen pazdur
Absolutely… Betsy (at) familystyleschooling (dot) com
Thanks for your resources and encouragement. 🙂
I also have a high school son who is a high level volleyball player with his focus on our future Olympic team, he’s also an entrepreneur.👌🏼
I’d love to hear how this amazing page/business started.
Thanks
Mia
Awesome! Here’s some of the background story of how my son and I built our Latin resources: https://familystyleschooling.com/2018/07/09/latin-with-andy-behind-the-scenes/
Hi! I am a new subscriber and my daughter is in Challenge A in classical conversations. I’ve subscribed to Latin with Andy but been viewing mainly his lesson videos (overview lessons and by days videos) on YouTube. He explains it so well and I’ve seen his lesson videos up to lesson 5. I’ve noticed he doesn’t have any more lesson videos posted on YouTube beyond lesson 5. Does Andy plan to make more lesson videos or post them on his website? I love how he breaks down the lessons into details and reviews the vocabulary at the same time. Thank you so much for this amazing resource!! It’s so much easier to follow his videos than reading the Henle books. I am a visual learner. Thank u again and I look forward to hearing from u and hopefully future lesson videos.
Caroline kutrovics
So glad you are enjoying it! Since you are a member, the rest of the videos can be accessed on this site (or just http://www.latinwithandy.com). The lessons on YouTube are the CodeBreaker series and aren’t lined up exactly with Henle. The ones on this site match by Unit, Lesson, and Exercise all the way through Henle 2. Once you log in, just scroll down and start viewing! Be sure to check out the Printables page as well for additional resources.
my older son is in challenge a this next year and my younger son is in fifth grade doing foundations and essentials for the fourth year. I was thinking about having my two sons go through Latin with Andy together do you think it would be too advanced for a 5th grader? My older daughter did his program a couple years ago for challenge A and really enjoyed it. I would really like to combine their studies so that they are spending more time together. What ages would you recommend Latin with Andy for?
Staci, I love combining studies when I can. I’d actually recommend our Code Breakers Series first (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4nxGhn5RAxFEo7WGmJ9R9D71CiS8DS9B). Andy have 5 lessons they could try together first to see how they do. It’s very simply put, easy to follow and fun. There are supplemental printable materials, but just try out the videos to see what you think first. Then, if you feel your younger student is catching on okay, then they can go as slowly as you like through the first Latin with Andy videos. I hope that helps!
hi!! love ur sons channel really helped me! it seams like i heard yall are from north carolina is that true i live there is why i am asking. btw i love that yall love god just like i do!!!! with love janaya
Wonderful! We are actually in Texas, but I’m so glad our resource reached you, and we’re so glad it’s been helpful! Blessings!
Ummmmmm, is Andy with a beard now? THarts sooooooo ocooll and also hes 21 wowowowowow can he do a latin attack video where he kills things and shouts latin words is he a translator for the dead gauls now?
Haha! Yes I actually look a lot different now than in my videos! Also, I still have about six months till I’m 21. As cool as an attack video sounds, it seems like I wouldn’t be nearly as cool in it as you would probably be…
Unfortunately, I cannot tell you the wishes of the dead Gauls. Believe it or not, Latin was not their primary language. It was called “Gaulish” (creative, right?). Gaulish is a dead language now, just like Latin, but it was probably more like Greek than Latin!
Hope you’re having a great day!
We are beginning our Challenge A journey this coming year. I have searched YouTube and blogs and cannot find what is required to bring to class. I have seen many with large milk crate style boxes at our community. Do the books required for class not fit in a book bag? By the way, I have your son penciled in as our Latin tutor next year! I have also seen two different suggestions for Latin help: Memoria Press, and Seton, I believe. Can you/he speak to them? Thank you so much.
Wonderful! As for what to bring to class, I would say contact your Challenge A director and they can tell you specifically. You may feel you don’t need a large box. Many of our students only use backpacks. Since you’ve got a little time, you may even be able to wait until you’ve seen the Challenge A Guide or attend a local practicum. As for the other helps, we’ve liked Memoria Press. They have good material that can be a benefit when easing into Henle 1. However, simply copying charts (like 1st declension endings) was one of the best things Andy did. It helped him see and remember patterns in a way no other resource did. Hope that helps!
Do you have sample lessons of Latin with Andy?
Find out more information here: http://bit.ly/LatinWithAndy. You can also try out the first lesson for free here: https://familystyleschooling.com/lesson-1-1st-declension/
https://fortworth.culturemap.com/news/arts/08-18-21-national-endowment-for-humanities-grants/
In case anyone would like to use their Latin skills in a scholarly job in the DFW area.
Hello I just read about morning time with teens. I would like to know what is morning time. It sounds like something I would like to implement. Or do you have a previous post on what morning time is?
Thank you Therina.
Here’s a description of morning time: https://familystyleschooling.com/2015/12/03/morning-time/
If I’m correct, Andy is 23 now, right?
Not yet! Six more months to go 😉
How old were you in the videos? Lesson videos
I started making these videos with my parents a couple of months before I turned 17! Good memories!
I wanted to let you know that THSC is featuring this article (https://familystyleschooling.com/2022/01/10/two-andrew-peterson-books-that-will-recalibrate-your-heart/) in emails today for our upcoming convention, sending out to our large lists. It supports the idea that Andrew Peterson is coming to our convention (http://convention.thsc.org). I hope that it draws more readers to your site! Let me know if you are ever interested in writing an article for us on HomeEducator.com. Thank you!!
Thank you!