Catholic Homeschool Support

Lent is nearly upon us again. I am updating this post from last year since most of the resources are still available. I do enjoy adding a new book or two to our family’s Lenten resources, and this one is for me (I love Chesterton)

Additionally, I plan on using Catholic Mosaic’s section on Lent that includes three books:

Catholic Mosaic also has 6 books used that are for Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Easter and Divine Mercy Sunday. It is a wonderful resource to help live more fully the liturgical year.

I am including this at the top of the post – it looks to be quite a do-able reading plan for Lent taking only 10-15 minutes a day and at the end of Lent, you will have read from 10 Church Fathers. So, it’s not too late to catch up:

The overview from ChurchYear.Net

The PDF with all the readings in order

I am dashing around, so this is not a pretty post. I will reformat it when I have a bit more time, but I wanted to begin a list of Lenten Resources:

• Printable Pocket Size Stations of the Cross
• The Observance of Lent from Women for Faith and Family
• Embracing Lent as a Family
• Lent from ChurchYear.net
• Resources for Catholic Educators - Lent Page 1
• Lent is Coming has a great form to print for your older children
• Lenten Workshop (CatholicCulture.org)
• Teaching Catholic Kids from Our Sunday Visitor
• Lenten Activities for Children (CatholicMom)
• Stations of the Cross Coloring Book (pdf)
• Lenten Faith Folder (lapbook TM) – it is worth the money

Tags: Add new tag, faith, homeschool

I am very excited about the new option we have for online course content taught by faithful, Catholic instructors. Content includes science, history, religion and philosophy all from a Catholic world view:

http://homeschoolconnectionsonline.com/?page_id=49
Greetings!

We are so very proud and excited to share our good news with you. As of today, you now have access to a wonderful array of Homeschool
Connections past courses. Our live courses have become so popular that we receive many requests to provide the recordings to the Catholic
homeschooling community. You speak and we listen.

For only $1 you can try out our new subscription service for 7 days. You’ll have unlimited access to past courses, including 100+ hours of
online recordings and 50+ supporting documents (tests, answer keys, etc.). If you find the service isn’t for you, then simply unsubscribe before
the trial period ends. If you find the subscription service is just what you need for your homeschool, then it’s only $30 per month. There is no
commitment. You can subscribe for as long or as little as you need.

Homeschool Connections is not a home study school but instead provides individual online courses to help Catholic homeschool parents
supplement what they are already doing. Our families use a variety of of homeschool methods: Seton, MODG, Kolbe, eclectic, classical,
unschooling, etc.

To subscribe or to view a list of recorded courses currently available, please see below. As live courses are completed, we will add
them to your subscription service. Also below is a listing of live courses that are currently open for enrollment where your student has
the opportunity to interact firsthand with our outstanding instructors and their fellow students.

Thank you and God bless!
Walter Crawford
Maureen Wittmann

I am asking a favor from readers – please share what resources have worked especially well for you this year. Provide a link for where the resource can be purchased too. The information will be of benefit to the homeschooling community – we all need some new ideas to begin the second part of the school year.

Clare Marie to our family. She was born December 20th after a long and unusual labor that ended in a caesarian section because my uterus had rotated 180 degrees – the incision to the uterus is actually on the posterior side. Very, very rare. Clare was a bit stunned by all the happenings but seems to be catching on to nursing. She only weighed 5 lbs 3 oz. – a tiny full term baby. Clare definitely enjoys being cuddled by her siblings, especially her sisters.

And, I offer a picture of all my children – definitely not their best effort, but given the fact they were on their way to mass, I thought it too good an opportunity to pass up – 9 clean children dressed in clean clothes.

http://www.theornamentdepot.com/largefamilies.html

And, if you are handy, you could make an ornament for your favorite family out of sculpy clay, bake and custom paint their names. I am sure it would be treasured.

I keep receiving emails from businesses who have great products on sale for Christmas. Here are some of my favorites:

• Bethlehem Books has 23 books on sale for what looks to be 50% off
• Mystic Monk Coffee has a great Christmas blend only available through the season as well as gift packs.
• Monastery of Our Lady of the Rosary – Dominican Nuns of Summit, NJ – lots of great smelling bath products
• Monastery of the Holy Spirit, Conyers, GA – Famous for their fantastic fudge!

More to come!

Hillside Education has a new section for Advent 2009. Cay Gibson, author of Catholic Mosaic and Christmas Mosaic, has written four Advent Meditations for adults (one for each week of Advent) that works in conjunction with a beautiful picture book for children (available for purchase at Hillside Education). The meditations are downloadable and free.

I do not want to repost last year’s Advent post – I will just give you the direct link: Advent 2009

But, I did want to point out a link to a Catholic Advent book styled in the same fashion (24 daily readings of an adventure) as the “Jotham’s Journey” series:

Dear Home School Educator,

I am excited to be able to introduce you to the Ignatius Critical Editions. Please open the attachment to see full colour images of the covers of the first eight titles in this series, together with brief descriptions of each title.

As you will see, the Ignatius Critical Editions represent a tradition-oriented approach to reading the classics of world literature. While many modern critical editions have succumbed to the fads of modernism and postmodernism, this series concentrates on critical examinations informed by our Judeo-Christian heritage as passed down through the ages – the same heritage that provided the crucible in which the great authors formed these classic works.

Each of the Ignatius Critical Editions has its own Study Guide containing questions on the text and suggested essay prompts, with a detachable answer key. Go to www.ignatiuscriticaleditions.com for further details about the Editions and the Study Guides.

The Ignatius Critical Editions offer a genuine extension of consumer choice in offering educators and parents the opportunity to opt for a tradition-oriented edition of the works that they teach. You will be doing a great service to your students, and to literary truth, if you order these editions as your set texts for the coming semester. Please help the Ignatius Critical Editions to make a real impact on the academic culture by supporting this series actively.

Yours sincerely,

Joseph Pearce

Ignatius Critical Editions

Series Editor

Ten Great Reasons To Have Another Child

As my family looks forward to bringing a new life into the world, I thought I’d pass along this article. Thanks to a person on a list who posted it. It was written by the president of Population Resarch International and reprinted at www.catholic.net.