All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon, illustrated by Marla Freeze, Beach Lane Books Sept 2009.
Fallible Blogma has put together a wonderful project that I'm very delighted to participate in: Support a Catholic Speaker Month. Here's what the project organizers have to say about it:
The goal is to create a rising Catholic tide on the internet that lifts all boats (websites, speakers, and all those who participate). This giant, sudden influx of Catholic material and interlinking between Catholic websites should get some attention and raise awareness about all of these great Catholic speakers while also promoting the many wonderful Catholic blogs out there that perhaps you haven’t heard of yet either.I think this is a fabulous idea, in part because we all need to be frequently reminded of what bonds us together - a passion for Christ's truth and a strong desire to share it with others. We need to focus on the truth we hold in common partly because the devil wishes to divide us - and sometimes accomplishes it through the most non-essential differences - like differences of taste or personality (which are gifts from God intended to enrich our lives and the world not divide us and keep us from accomplishing His will). This message of unity is the same message that has been beautifully articulated in a quote I came across many years ago when it was taken on as the motto of Catholic Information Network and which is popularly attributed to St. Augustine:
I've long been a fan of Mike Aquilina's work - especially through his books and blog - and I think the quote is one he'd heartily agree with. I was privileged to have a chat with him in preparation for this interview and asked him about this unity of truth and charity and how he came to understand it in his own life. He said that studying the Fathers of the Church (and appreciating their differences as well as what they held in common) and having children (he's a homeschool dad of six!) were primary influences.
He's a big part of an excellent new project for children on Saint Perpetua. The Story of Saint Perpetua (from the Catholic Heroes of the Faith series) is a short animated film on the early Christian martyr and her companions. You can read a detailed review on Love2learn. As mentioned in the review, Mike is also featured in a companion documentary on Saint Perpetua, The Passion of Saint Perpetua: Martyr of the Faith, which is excellent.
Louisa, The Life of Louisa May Alcott by Yona Zeldis McDonough, illustrated by Bethanne Andersen. 2009 Henry Holt, 48 pages.
ISBN: 0805081925
I love picture books and I love biographies... and I love it when both are combined successfully! This warmly illustrated picture book tells of the most beloved American author Louisa May Alcott. Her family was definitely sui generis, holding unusual beliefs and moving often, and Louisa began thinking and writing poetry at a very young age.
This new picture book sheds light on what a noble soul Louisa had, filled of generosity, integrity and character. Highly recommended especially for young readers who love the wonderful Little Women author.
Although Homeschool Connections is currently scheduling spring courses there is one fall class still open. It's Catholic Spiritual Writers and it starts November 5, 2009. Dr. Gotcher of Love2Learn is the instructor and his classes are terrific for high school students who Love 2 Learn. They are not only academically challenging but also spiritually uplifting. This course is a terrific opportunity for you to give your high school student credit for literature and theology as well help him or her grow in love with all things Catholic.
Course Title:
Catholic Spiritual Writers
(click on the hyperlink to register)
Course Description:
In this course we will look at the basic principles of Catholic spirituality as they are explained by some of the great spiritual writers, such as St. Augustine, St. Francis of Assisi, Thomas a Kempis, St. Ignatius of Loyola, St. Francis de Sales, and St. Therese of Lisieux. We will especially emphasize their application to the life of the young laity.
Homework
The assignment will be to pick one of the great spiritual classics, read the entire book over the six weeks of the course, and keep a journal of reflections as you read.
Fee:
Six-week course for $120.
Dates and Time:
Classes will begin Wednesday, November 4, 2009 and meet every Wednesday through December 16, 2009. The time will begin 8:00 PM Eastern (7:00 Central). The class is one hour 15 minutes.
Enrollment Period:
Enrollment is currently open and will close when the class is filled. (Maximum 15 students.)
Course Materials Needed by Students:
The text will be The Classics of Catholic Spirituality by Fr. Peter John Cameron, O.P. (editor of the English language edition of Magnificat magazine). It is very inexpensive ($7). The rest of the texts from the great spiritual writers are available free online.
Equipment requirements:
Because this is a discussion course, students are required to have high-speed internet and a headset with a microphone. If you do not own a headset, you can find them for a reasonable price at Amazon.
Course Access:
All Homeschool Connections courses are recorded and available to registered students for up to six months.
Professor's Biography:
Dr. Robert F. Gotcher most recently served as Associate Professor of Systematic Studies at Sacred Heart School of Theology in Hales Corners, Wisconsin. He and his wife, Kathy, are raising their seven children in Franklin, Wisconsin. Dr. Gotcher has been actively involved in the home schooling of his children, especially in the junior high and high school years. He has taught Latin, literature, physics, astronomy, and religion to homeschooled students. He has a special devotion to the classical trivium of grammar, logic and rhetoric, especially as they pertain to the written arts.
Dr. Gotcher graduated from the University of Notre Dame in 1981 with a B.A. in the Program of Liberal Studies. He received his M.A. in Theology of the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul in 1991 and his Ph.D. from Marquette University in 2002. In his adult life he has done everything from volunteering with the poor in Appalachia, to religious education and youth ministry, to desktop publishing and computer related responsibilities at a law firm. At the seminary he taught introduction to theology, the doctrine of God, one and three, theological anthropology (creation, sin, redemption, grace, four last things), life principles, and human sexuality and has given public presentations on Vatican II, the encyclicals of the pope, social justice, life issues, human sexuality and the theology of the body. His publications focus on family issues, lay spirituality and issues related to the Second Vatican Council. He is involved in the secular Franciscan order, home schooling, and pro-life activities in the Milwaukee area and nationally.
Dr. Gotcher blogs at Heart, Mind & Strength, Classic Catholic and Love2Learn.
Click here to learn about other homeschool online classes.
If you have questions please email Maureen Wittmann.
I just posted a new craft pattern to make these heavenly paper friends! Enjoy!
Galileo's Leaning Tower Experiment by Wendy McDonald, 2009 Charlesbridge Publishing, 32 pages.
World Geography, World History, science... and some creative fictional characters as well! All in a beautiful information Picture Book.
The story of the legendary Leaning Tower of Pisa experiment by Galileo is brought to life here around the story of a boy, Massimo, who was very clever, and dropped his father's lunch from a bridge everyday in calculating motions... until a passer-by professor named Galileo witnesses it and rethinks the whole Aristotelian notion on the subject!
The pictures are colorful, warm and very pleasant, and some of the angles are taken from delightful perspectives!
A gem. A very nice way to introduce children to Galileo and to some concepts of Physics.
Building on Nature, The Life of Antoni Gaudi by Rachel Rodriguez, illustrated by Julie Paschkis, 2009 Henry Holt, 32 pages.
Like most art students and lovers, I have had mixed feelings about the architecture of Gaudi all my life. When our oldes son visited Barcelona and sent pictures of Gaudi buildings, I planned on learning more about him. Now I find this new and remarkable picture book telling children about a man who was perhaps little understood during his lifetime.
What I find in the warmly-illustrated pages is a likeable man! A devout Catholic, a lover of nature and of poverty, married to his life's hard work. Perhaps his art isn't traditional, in any shape or form, but there is a genuine aspect of Gaudi's work that one can't help being attracted to.
This picture book does a good job of bringing his life and work to young children and it is a fun read aloud, written in the present tense, in poetic lines. The author's note adds important biographical information including the fact that he was a very early recycler, using all sort of discarded materials in his buildings. A list of websites is also listed. I found this list of buildings with photos very useful!
The USCCB has a beautiful new page with pictures of all our new priests from the class of 2009. Check it out here and keep them in your prayers!
We're starting the college admissions process with my oldest, and there's a lot of good stuff we've been running into of late, so I thought I'd collect some of it here.
Catholic College Month: Homeschool Connections is hosting "Catholic College Month" next month with free webinars hosted by representatives of Catholic Colleges. What a great service! Check out the details at the Homeschool Connections website. I'm really looking forward to these!
Catholic College Guide: The Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College has just been released in its new second edition - and is available in its entirety free online (my alma mater is pictured on the front of the print book with their beautiful new chapel). Take a look at the Newman Guide website. The guide offers lots of helpful information on 21 exceptional Catholic colleges in the U.S. and a handful of overseas and online schools.
Another Excellent College Guide: I stumbled upon the Intercollegiate Studies Institute Guide to Choosing the Right College: The Whole Truth About America's Top Schools when I found a copy of their 2008-09 guide at a local thrift store this summer. I am very impressed by the thoroughness and depth of the content. The guide provides helpful and critical information (approximately 7-8 packed pages) on 134 "top" schools in the U.S. You will find the ups and downs of each school's academic quality, political makeup, student culture, safety of campus life and even recommended professors and courses to get a solid liberal arts foundation (and much more). Very honest and very eye-opening! The Intercollegiate Studies Institute is a Catholic-friendly organization dedicated to promoting solid college academics, free of political nonsense. (Their Student's Guides to the Major Disciplines are also highly recommended.) Their College Guide website is also very helpful. There's a lot of free information, including a guide to "Entry Requirements for Homeschool Students", and you can purchase an online version of their college guide for $25.
We've been navigating the waters of standardized testing for college admissions and I thought I'd share a few tidbits here in the hope that they'll be helpful to others.
ACT Test: This is one of the two most common required standardized tests and covers the following subjects: English, mathematics, reading, and science as well as an optional writing segment. I found the website quite easy to navigate and the homeschool options were very clear. Apparently this is the more common admissions test in the Midwest, while the SAT is more common elsewhere. My daughter is taking both.
SAT Test: The SAT Test covers Math, Critical Reading (including Vocabulary) and Writing. We found their website somewhat difficult to navigate. We had a very difficult time finding the "homeschool code" which we finally got from a friend. (The code is 970000). Also, if you sign up for the SAT test first, it won't show you the options for the SAT Subject test on the same day (since you can't take them on the same day), so you should probably schedule your Subject tests first - especially if you're taking a Latin or World History Subject tests which are only made available twice a year (in December and June).
SAT Subject Tests: A few colleges (a very few as I understand it) require these, particularly for homeschoolers, as an objective assessment of subjects not covered, or not covered as thoroughly, by the SAT and ACT tests themselves. SAT Subject Tests are available in five basic subjects: English (Literature), History (U.S. or World), Mathematics (Level 1 or Level 2), Science (Biology, Chemistry or Physics), and Languages (Chinese, French, German, Spanish, Hebrew, Italian, Latin, Japanese, or Korean). You can take up to three Subject tests in one day (though not on the same day as the SAT itself, and taking three on one day is the most cost-effective way to do it).
You also may want to sign up for the free SAT Question of the Day on the SAT website.
Test Preparation: Finally, Ana recommended the Princeton Review Guides for test preparation. We picked up a few of these and I'm very impressed so far. I particularly like how they have you take a test and then explain a little about all the choices (these are multiple choice tests) and why the correct answer made the most sense even if you didn't quite know what it was.
Also see on Love2learn:
Homeschooling High Schoolers Section
Homeschool-Friendly Catholic Colleges
I'm sure there are other helpful resources out there. What have you found helpful in the college admissions process for homeschool students? Please feel free to share in the comments section.
I confess that, with garden produce processing and the beginning of the school year, I have a growing pile of great new titles from the library sittign here, all worthy of picture-book-of-the week status. Our youngest, an 8-year old animal lover extraordinaire, voted for this one.
The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau by Dan Yaccarino, 2009 Knopf Books for Young Readers, ISBN 0375855734
If we were logical, the future would be bleak indeed. But we are more than logical. We are human beings, and we faith, and we have hope.The art is reminiscent of illustrations from the 60s and very pleasant. We read this aloud and some of the facts of his life listed on the last page. We also found plenty on You Tube including longer films of his adventures on his ship, the Calypso.
Together with another picture book about Jacques Cousteau entitled Manfish by Jennifer Berne, this book can bring alive the life of a great man and his work to any young student .Dr. Robert Gotcher who is a Love 2 Learn contributor is going to be teaching some excellent online classes this semester for Catholic high school students.
These courses are in the evening as a number of homeschool students requested evening classes. These would also be good for non-homeschooled students to supplement their day studies. Gosh, anytime you can offer a teenager the opportunity to learn more about the Catholic Mass and the Catholic faith, it's a great thing!
Make sure to check out these links to learn more or to register.
Black? White! Day? Night! A Book of Opposites by Laura Vaccaro Seeger, illustrated by the author, 2006 Roaring Brook Press. ISBN: 978-1-59643-185-0
Here's a clever picture book about opposites! We loved it so much, the kids told me this had to be a picture book of the week.
Each page has a one-work question, such as "alike?" Each page has one or more cut-out windows, showing a picture--in this case, several "alike" diamonds. Flip the page and the picture of an opposite concept is shown: the little "alike" diamonds were actually all part of several very differently-shaped snowflakes!
Have fun with his colorful and imaginative book of opposites!
Pippo the Fool, by Tracey E. Fern, illustrated by Pau Estrada 2009 Charlesbridge Publishing; 48 pages. ISBN: 1570916551
I heard this story long ago... most certainly from my story-telling aunt, who had the power to do exactly what this phenomenal books does: to turn real life stories into a delightful tale for children! But while my good auntie illustrated her stories with words in a way only she could do, this new publication is illustrated by lines and color in a way that will captivate young and old alike. One would be reminded of Tomie De Paola, but a Tomie de Paola turned-to-life with much more realistic, rich-in-detail full page spreads.
The story is one of big dreams, inventiveness, 
and great doses of courage and perseverance. Half a millennium ago in Florence, the great cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore was all built, but for the dome... and a contest was announced for the building of an architectural feat never done before. Little Pippo, called the fool by the people, a goldsmith, dreamed of a plan... and had to undergo quite a bit to accomplish it!
Pictures books are such integral part of our family life... and books such as Pippo the Fool come to entertain, to educate and to delight. Hats off to writer and illustrator. Do not miss this gem!
Mozart, the Wonder Child, A Puppet Show in Three Acts by Diane Stanley, 2009 Harper Collins.
No need to introduce young Mozart or kids biographer extraordinaire Diane Stanley, but this brand new biography has a new twist: she wrote the whole book as a marionette play! The pictures look as if his whole life is a show, with characters suspended on strings. Expect the usual detail-rich, high level writing that comes with her wonderful biographies.
Another innovative aspect is the medium she chose for the paintings for this book: the 500-year old method of egg-tempera. On the interior of the back jacket she explains about this medium and directs readers to the Society of Tempera Painters at www.eggtempera.com. For this art teacher, this definitely sparks my curiosity... potential projects abound in my head!
