Here are my first notes after the first reading of chapter 1:

Self education is about reading good books in chronological order and discussing them with friends.

You must carve out the time to do this and guard that time well.

Start small and work up (just like in the gym) with length of time, difficulty of the work, and the length of the piece.

Earlier in the day is better for the mind than later.

Stay away from the computer before before the scheduled reading time. The medium of the internet is not conducive to reading weightier material.

Trivium, taste, swallow and digest what you are reading.

Things I underlined and ideas I revisited on the second and third readings of chapter 1:

In America, to be civilized we must read! I had never thought about the fact that in Europe and the Middle East, you live a few thousand years of history because it is all around you. Here few things that have been preserved are more then a couple hundred years old at best.

Women have always found ways to learn. I loved that Ms Chamberlain thought of her book club as “a peace offering to a hungry mind.”

This statement hit me like a ton of bricks because I think I say it a few times a week when taking to parents! “To convince people that they must learn to study is the major obstacle,” Foster writes, “Most people assume that because they know how to read words they know how to study.” “Study is an exacting art involving a labyrinth of details.”

Since I really love Dorothy Sayers, her quote is one I reread all the time too. This part is the what I strive to remember, “They learn everything except the art of learning.” It hits home that that is my job. Teach the art of learning. The subjects are secondary to the ability to learn.

Jefferson and Sigourney reinforce reading in a time line approach. I think sometimes it is easier to read a modern version of something before reading it in the older works, but for the most part this is how I teach and how I have learned so much myself.