Announcements
7/01/08 - This week, the Catholic homeschooling community found that the owners of our beloved cathswap list have decided to move to a message board. This affects over 7000 users - some will find a message board format easier to use, but many of us will find that the board format is inefficient and time consuming. So, I have started a new swap list, CHSSwap. It will be a slow start, but I hope the list will be a service to the homeschooling community, offering a safe place to buy and sell Catholic homeschool materials.
Most rules from cathswap will remain the same, but some materials from Abeka and BJU will be permitted when they are used by Catholic homeschool curriculums like MODG and Seton. We will observe the copyright laws including a ban on selling Dive cd's, lesson plans from Seton.
This move is not to undermine the new cathswap board, but merely to fill a need for families that are familiar with and desire an email based swap list. I will be asking for co-moderators to help manage new members.
06/10/08- I had the pleasure of meeting Tony Barone at our recent Catholic homeschool conference. He's a
parishioner at a local church, the father of 5 childre, a Major in the United States Air Force
and has worked as a prosecutor and defense attorny. Tony write Christian adventures stories
that have received positive reviews and now he has book 2 out. Please take a moment
to visit his website and view the
video.
06/02/08- Well, it's a bit late, but I compiled a list of Catholic Vacation Bible schools. I
tried to find programs that were developed by Catholic companies rather than protestant progams
that were "catholicized". Find the list here at my blog entry: 2008 Catholic Vacation Bible Schools
06/01/08 - A discussion came on a list I belong to about how to help her son understand the mass better
since he serves mass. So I thought I would compile a list of resources that were listed along with some of my favorites.
For a more in depth discussion, you can visit my blog.
For adults here are some suggestions:
4/30/08 - I had the privilege of working with Margot Davidson from
Hillside Education
on her newest endeavor -
mater et magistra magazine. She has taken over management of the old magazine,
Heart and Mind, and has renamed it and added new contributors while keeping
many favorite old ones including Laura Berquist from Mother of Divine Grace.
It's exciting to see the wonderful tradition being passed on - first issue will be
out in July.
A number of articles and a few unit studies from the old magazine are available for
free including one on Pope John Paul II and one on Catholic Missions.
3/19/08 - ONE MILLION ROSARIES FOR UNBORN BABIES prayer event on May 3rd.
Prayerfully consider visiting the site and registering as a participant. Then mark your calendar for May 3rd at 9:00 AM EST.
3/6/08 -
I cannot wait until this comes in - the reviews look good. I wanted an offline resource for preparing
the children for the liturgy and this has blackline masters and more for all three cycles of the readings. So,
it is a resource that we can use every year.
2/14/08 - Latin Anyone? Latin in Our Homeschools and
Online Latin Resources
1/14/08 - Catholic Homeschool Support Blog - I found that I was in need of a different format in order
to provide readers with homeschool suggestions and reviews. So, I created a new blog. I hope that you will
visit and leave your comments on things that are useful on such timely topics like burnout
and resources for Lent, to home management with a large family, to suggestions for homeschooling an only child.
|
Resource Review
Faith Facts for Young Catholics
I wrote a very long review of this resource that I became aware of and wanted to pass along to you.
First of all is a set of 400 "Faith Facts Now Cards". They are divided into sets of 100 cards each.
Each set is printed on a different color of card stock, each card is numbered and the cards are in
alphabetical order. What the cards provide are words and their definitions - a "vocabulary" of the Church.
These could be a stand alone resource, valuable in and of itself.
But they also are designed to work with
two other books, "Faith Facts for Young Catholics" and "more Faith Facts for Young Catholics". The first
book offers 25 different activities that use the above mentioned Faith Fact cards, and black line
masters for a number of other games and activities like Gospel Trivia and Scripture Passage Cards.
The second book, "more Faith Facts for Young Catholics" carries on with the theme, but also
provides some unique items like a time line activity. 16 pages of content are provided include 4 pages
of material to create a timeline, and 40 timeline cards.
For a complete description of the resources, please visit my blog site.
01/13/08 -
Character-Based Writing Lessons is a theme-based writing program that follows the
Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) program. I noted in a post on my
blog about how IEW was
such a blessing to find after five years of avoiding teaching writing to my students. So, I wanted to take
a moment and introduce this little gem. If you like IEW, and you need some affordable lesson plans
either to teach writing in a co-op or to get you off to a stronger start with IEW, or to practice the
models and stylistic techniques, this might be a winner. One of the characters that is written about
in at least 5 units is Mother Teresa. St. Francis of Assisi is another "character" of focus in the program in
addition to Abraham Lincoln. I plan on beginning a writing co-op for my local Catholic homeschool group
using this program.
Archives visit to find past reviews
|
