Carnival of Homeschooling #44

at Why Homeschool

Learning and Living with the Saints

This is a quote from Bishop Finn of the Kansas City - St. Joseph Diocese from a Mass for homeschoolers...

"Ask God to give you the fervor of St. Albert the Great for science, the joy of St. Cecilia in your music, the diligence of Jerome for translating, and the clarity of St. John in writing. Run and play with St. Don Bosco, debate and persuade with St. Catherine, and fish with Peter himself. Holy Mary, who taught our Lord Himself in the school of Nazareth, accompany us on our new school year. St. Joseph, headmaster and guide for the boy Jesus, lead us on a sure and safe path to Him."

hat-tip Ana Braga-Henebry

The Loveliness of Prayer

is being hosted by Leonie of "Living without School"

Prayer Request

Please pray for a family in our homeschool group whose four year old son, Sam, died this past weekend from complications relating to the flu.

Novena for Life for upcoming Elections

There are a host of life issues wrapped up in the upcoming November election. A novena starting today would end on election day. Here's a suggestion sent to me by one of my reviewers...

Novena for the Culture of Life

This year's election offers another opportunity to further the Culture of Life. Please join us in praying a novena for the victory of the Culture of Life at all levels in the upcoming elections, and in the Supreme Court decision on the federal Partial-Birth Abortion ban (hearing scheduled for Nov 8).

The novena begins on Monday, October 30, and ends election day, November 7, 2006. The suggested prayer is the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, but feel free to substitute the Rosary, daily Mass, or another prayer of your choice.

Here's the info on praying the Chaplet of Divine Mercy using a regular rosary:

1. Our Father ...
2. Hail Mary ...
3. I believe in God ... (Apostles' Creed)
4. On the "our Father" beads: "Eternal Father I/we offer you the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of your dearly beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world."
5. On each "Hail Mary" bead: "For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world."
6. At the end (after 5 decades), pray 3 times: "Holy God, holy mighty One, holy immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world."

Grace Before Meals - a New Cooking Show on PBS?

Read more about it here on Amy Welborn's Site. Official website is here.

From the Grace Before Meals website:

Grace Before Meals is a new television show coming to PBS dedicated to bringing families back to the table. Host Father Leo Patalinghug brings people from all walks of life into the kitchen to share his insights on cooking and strengthening relationships. Whether they're at a crossroads or have cause for celebration. Grace Before Meals creates fun and informative opportunities for people to feed themselves - body, mind and soul.

Research by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University consistently finds the more often children eat dinner with their families, the less likely they are to smoke, drink or use drugs.

And surely we can lend our prayers to Fr. Leo and his beautiful and courageous endeavour!

Homeschool Carnival #43

with a Ben Franklin theme

Reminder: Submissions Due for Carnival of Catholic Homeschooling

Please submit your posts for the November edition of the Catholic Homeschooling Carnival (arriving November 3) by Wednesday, October 25th.

The Loveliness of Babies

Is a beautiful "fair" being hosted today at Real Learning.

Carnival of Homeschooling #42

check it out at HomeschoolHacks

The Origin of Do-Re-Mi

Read about it at G.K.C.'s Favourite

Mother Guerin Canonized - October 15, 2006

Here are some links about Mother Guerin and her canonization. She was a French woman who became a nun and worked in Indiana from 1840 until her death in 1856. Here are a variety of links with information about her life and the miracles that led to her canonization.

ArchIndy.org

Catholic Online

Sisters of Providence

WNDU (South Bend, Indiana) TV

Chicago Sun-Times

Indiana State Museum

A complete list of those being canonized is available at this page on the Vatican website.

Cursive Handwriting: Does it Matter Any More?

The Washington Post has an interesting piece on the demise of cursive handwriting in schools today.

Hat-tip The Lilting House

Daily Lit

I just discovered this site from Willa's Blog. Choose from a collection of classic stories and poems and they'll send you a little piece each day in an e-mail. What a great idea and it looks like it's been very well put together.

Check it out here.

Two resources from Our Sunday Visitor

These two resources from Our Sunday Visitor are part of a series with many other titles. These are glossy, colorful (perhaps "too" colorful?), professional and attractive looking publications filled with informative text presented in short segments. These should be ideal for CCD parents to take home for their personal use. Keep in mind that while these are categorized "magazines", they are more like pamphlets, with just 8 pages each. For a Catholic homeschool parent, these may serve as an attractive aid to the issue at hand.

Catholic Parent Know-How: Preparing Your Child for First Reconciliation, revised

ISBN/UPC:1592762506

Author: White, Joseph & Arista, Ana

Publisher: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing

Description: This colorful, glossy magazine updates parents while giving them the skills and insight they need to teach their children about the faith. Short, informative articles offer parents knowledge, inspiration and confidence to help their children prepare for First Reconciliation. Affordable and engaging. Magazine, 8 x 11, 8 pages. (2006)

Catholic Parent Know-How: Ten Things Your Child Should Know Before Leaving Home

ISBN/UPC:1592761909

Author: Dalton, Sean

Publisher: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing

Description: This eight-page, colorful, glossy magazine helps parents know how to help their children use their freedom responsibly. Through examples from the life of Christ, the articles in this resource will help parents teach their children how to make good decisions about friends, peer pressure, temptation and the myriad of worldviews they may encounter when they leave home. Magazine, 8.5 x 11, 8 pages. (2006)

In Preparing your Child for First Reconciliation, gospel passages on forgiveness are nicely highlighted on the center spread, and on the back page there is a child-friendly Examination of Conscience that may prove to be helpful. On page seven I have some problems with the text, specifically a statement on the left column saying: "Seven year olds have a hard time understanding abstract concepts such as God' forgiveness of our sins"... Uh? No, that is simply not the case. On the contrary, children seem to grasp it much more easily than adults.

In Ten Things Your Child Should Know Before Leaving Home, the prayer on the back page may help some parents who are anxious about their children leaving, but of course a good old novena, perhaps to their patron saint, would probably work even better. The Ten items are mostly good advice: no. 3 Know Your Faith, no. 5 Always Respect Life and no.8 Choose your Friends Wisely are my own top three-- with the addition of no. 9, a no-brainer: Pray Daily!

Reviewed by Ana Braga-Henebry

41st Carnival of Homeschooling

hosted by the Nerd Family

Check out the Catholic Carnival too!

Review: Memoria Press' Henle Latin Guides

Henle Latin I Guide for Units I-II

Henle Latin I Guide for Units III-V

by Cheryl Lowe and Martin Cothran

Copyright 2000, 2003 Memoria Press

Fr. Henle's Latin course is now well recognized as a superior choice among Catholic homeschoolers. Many curricula have adopted it and recommend it, and also publish syllabi and course plans of their own to aid families in breaking it down the lessons day by day. For instance, Mother of Divine Grace School and Kolbe Academy both have their own plans available beginning at the High School freshman level.

Memoria Press, publisher of Latina Christiana and other Latin texts, has introduced a syllabi with a different formula: a slower pace lesson plan/study guide for use after elementary Latin studies, beginning in 5th to 8th grade (but is not limited to students with previous Latin studies).

The lesson plans are well organized daily, and every page is a five day week. Each day lists the suggested activities and students can check the box by each of them. On the first pages the layout is simple and crisp, but as the course progresses and more text is necessary each day, it becomes a bit confusing, especially since the days are numbered outside of a margin. On this “side bar”, as I will call it, there are occasional extra daily lesson notes, helpful and simply put. Unfortunately once in a while these notes are a little longer and get trampled with the day numbering. Hopefully Memoria Press will fix these two problems simply, by removing the days' numbers from this side bar and placing them right by the beginning of each day’s activities where they belong.

Our children’s Latin tutor looked at this and was very pleased with this text's format—it is a plus to have the five days on a weekly page and a system of boxes that can be checked as the work is done. It looks like it would be very helpful especially for students tackling Latin on their own. Latin, as the author comments, has a way of “piling up quickly”. Memoria Press’s Guide to Henle Latin I may be a very helpful tool for homeschool Latin students. Included in the course plans are many resources such as a cumulative grammar tests and a section on how to make vocabulary and grammar cards.

You can access information on these products, and see sample pages at Memoria Press' website.

Reviewed by Ana Braga-Henebry (10-9-06)

New Report: Kids Need More Play, Less Structured Time

Read the report from the American Academy of Pediatrics here.

Nice to see some balance being promoted.

UPDATE: I just noticed that, Danielle Bean is hosting a discussion on this very topic here.

Vatican Releases Regensberg Talk

The Vatican has released the offical translation of the Pope's talk at Regensberg, complete with footnotes.

Hat-tip Amy Welborn

The Loveliness of Autumn Fair

is being celebrated at Family-Centered Life today.

It's a Carnival

Welcome to the first edition of the Catholic Homeschooling Blog Carnival! Catholics who homeschool have a unique set of challenges and we hope this blog carnival will be a way of supporting and encouraging each other in the love of Christ and His Blessed Mother.

Karen Edmisten gives us a glimpse into her First day of school.

Sheila writes a hilarious piece on the beginning of her own homeschool year

In Child Theology, Maureen Wittmann reminds us that "Being home with the kids, homeschooling, brings so many small treasured moments. Moments we'd miss if they were gone all day."

David shares a glimpse of a Catholic Homeschooling Camp in Australia in The Evans Head Catholic Homeschooling Camp.

The Catholic Church commemorates important events and people through special days in the Liturgical Year. October is the month of the Holy Rosary and two upcoming dates commemorate the power of the Rosary and our devotion to the Blessed Mother...

The feast of Our Lady of the Rosary is celebrated on October 7th - the anniversary of the great battle of Lepanto in 1571. G.K. Chesterton has a great poem commemorating this event. (This makes a wonderful read-aloud as the language is so stirring). For more insights on Lepanto, Pope Pius V, Chesterton and the Confraternity of the Most Holy Rosary, read Dr. Thursday's Opening a Window on Lepanto.

October 13th is the anniversary of the Miracle of the Sun in Fatima, Portugal in 1917.

Many homeschool families find that remembering Holy Days with their children is a great way to bring the faith to life for them...

Elena LaVictoire shows us how she adds angels to her fall decor in The Season of Angels.

Meredith Henning explains how she made a A Garden For The Seven Sorrows of Mary.

Dawn Hanigan's family celebrates (and learns about) the Catholic feasts through simple tea and craft days such as Tea and Crafts on the Nativity of Mary.

We study, cultivate and celebrate the Faith in other ways too...

Christine Alcott offers observations on the spirituality of children and its effects on those around them in The Faith of a Child (Christine also moderates Homeschooling @ Suite101.com)

In Catechism Bingo, Helen has invented a fun way to help memorize the catechism - even for non-readers!

Of course other subjects are important to us as well...

Mike Aquilina presents an engaging summary of the persecutions
of the early Christians in Rome, in Roman Roundup posted at The Way of the Fathers, Mike is a homeschool father of six and author of many books on early Church history.

Dani Foster Herring presents Homeschool Happenings - "Poems written by my twins, Cade & Connor and a few photos of classes taken at the Maryland Science Center during homeschool week."

Carnival Moderator Ana Braga-Henebry posted a blurb about Stage, a new website offering Catholic theatrical scripts written and performed in Lincoln, Nebraska—read about it at Ana's Journal.

When it comes to educational methods, Pope Pius XI told us in his encyclical on Christian Education that "the Christian teacher will imitate the bee, which takes the choicest part of the flower and leaves the rest" and will gather and turn "to profit, whatever there is of real worth in the systems and methods of our modern times"...

Elizabeth Foss shares All together now! The Beauty of Unit Study.

Michelle Reitemeyer has lots of experience homeschooling with preschoolers! Read about her philosophy in Unschooling my preschooler.

Catholic Homeschoolers have to tackle some pretty tough questions at times - from practical solutions to issues within the family to understanding modern events in light of Catholic teaching...

Leonie Westenberg shares an article dealing with the dilemma of living as a Catholic homeschooling family but not always reaching "the ideal" in Picture Perfect Homeschoolers.

Suzanne Temple offers "The Solution". The problem? Homeschooling all boys, with a few of them toddlers!

Nancy Brown considers Who Should Read Harry Potter?. She'd appreciate your comments, too, on the topic.

Alicia Van Hecke reflects on what we should take from Pope Benedict's "controversial" speech at Regensberg in The Pope's Talk on Faith and Reason.

Mary Daly and Suchi Myjak tackle "the New Geocentrism" here, here and here at Unity of Truth (a Science and Math Blog for Catholic Homeschoolers)

Catholic homeschoolers spread throughout the land stay close in spirit and support through friendship and the blessings of the Internet...

Denise Laubacher, gives us her thoughts on friendship in The Blessing of Friends posted at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Exchange.

Ian wants to know about Catholic homeschooling in your area in Where are the Catholic Homeschoolers?

Esther, who designed the logo for our blog carnival, writes Are you a Catholic Homeschooler?

That concludes our first edition. Many thanks to our coordinators, Ana and Mary Ann. Our carnival is being co-hosted at Mary Ann Bernard's blog. Please submit your blog article to the next edition of Catholic Homeschooling using our carnival submission form.

Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

New Catholic Liberal Arts College on the Block

This sounds interesting...

Wyoming Catholic College

All professors and teachers of theology are required to obtain a mandatum.

They have a solid advisory board (James Schall, Dominic Aquila and Mitchell Kalpakgian).

And it's designed to encourage a love of the outdoors. Freshman Orientation is a three week backpacking, wilderness expedition with experts from the nearby "National Outdoor Leadership School" (this is partly intended to provide the students with skills to safely enjoy the surrounding wilderness during their college years).

hat-tip Margaret

More Links to Enjoy

Carnival of Homeschooling #40

A Blog for ideas on celebrating Advent and Christmas

New Blog Shares the Writings of Maria Von Trapp

Check out: Around the Year with the Trapp Family

hat-tip Real Learning

We have several book reviews on the Trapp Family singers here