Every human being experiences the conflict between duty and pleasure, what a person wishes to do for enjoyment and what a person ought to do by way of obligation. These two tendencies often appear as contrary, irreconcilable powers that inevitably clash and produce resentment or frustration.
Read More »Monthly Archives: October 2013
Homeschool Kids: Cooped Behind Bars?
Dominic de Souza shares how life as a homeschooling kid can be more fun than going to school with vivid imaginations at work!
Read More »Disorder in the Classroom: Where it Goes Wrong
Government schools have purposefully chosen to ignore God, and that while students may choose to believe in God, this is a belief which students must leave outside the classroom door. Since the government schools and textbooks reflect this denial of the existence of God in what is taught and how it is taught...
Read More »Living with Less: the 5th Principle of the Simple Life
Abby Sasscer, homeschool mom of 3 and public speaker on simpler living, shares her top 3 benefits to living with less and 7 steps to a simpler home!
Read More »Birds of a Feather Color-In
What are the birds singing? Caption this image! Share your child's comment below! Caption this image! What could be more fun than coloring a picture? Sharing it with someone! Why not encourage your child to send it to their grandmother? Or parish priest? Or someone they appreciate? Each week, connect with a loved one through your children’s art, and then share with us where it went! We’d love to know!
Read More »5 Tips and Tricks for Teaching Math to Tikes!
Little learners still have to memorize their math facts— addition, and subtraction—and Mom, or in this case Grandma, still has to drill them. Each time I open Math 2 For Young Catholics to one of those long drill pages, I think to myself that it must seem like approaching Mt. Everest to a little kid.
Read More »Taking a Sanity Break: A Homeschool Mother’s Lifeline
Homeschooling mom Lorraine Espenhain has had bad days, with too much to do, long headaches... Sometimes the only answer is to put life on hold. 'Me time.'
Read More »Self-Possession: Why We All Need It
Two great ancient philosophers, Marcus Aurelius in Meditations and Boethius in The Consolation of Philosophy — two works renowned for their great wisdom and moral power — teach the importance of the virtue of self-possession. Both writers observe that no persons can control the outside events that surround them.
Read More »Growing Up and Growing Old: They Happen Too Quickly
Clichés tend to become clichés for their accuracy. “Life goes too fast” is one. A few weeks ago, a longtime family friend of ours visited us with her nine-month-old daughter.
Read More »Poverty Awareness: The 4th Principle of The Simple Life
When I was four years old and living in the Philippines, there was an elderly man who would come around our street once or twice a month to beg for food. He was ill and had a difficult time speaking. Nobody in the neighborhood seemed to know his name. Every time he came, my Lolo, or grandfather, greeted him with a hearty "Hello My Friend!" From then on, all of us children called him "My Friend".
Read More »God is Moving Among the Pots and Pans!
by Lorraine E. Espenhain Several weeks ago, I found myself becoming increasingly frustrated at the lack of time available to me to study God’s Word, read good Catholic books, and ...
Read More »Clever Fox Color-In
Why is the fox hiding? What is the false fox for? Caption this image! Share your child's comment below! What could be more fun than coloring a picture? Sharing it with someone! Why not encourage your child to send it to their grandmother? Or parish priest? Or someone they appreciate? Each week, connect with a loved one through your children’s art, and then share with us where it went! We’d love to know!
Read More »Thank You Cards: Keeping it Grateful
When a person complains, his creative abilities break free. But it’s also proof to me that we fallen humans don’t commend people well; we don’t thank them enough; and we pat each other on the back far too little.
Read More »NC Lt. Governor Kills Attempt to Search Homeschoolers’ Homes
Dan Forest, the Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina, issued a press release on Monday, October 14th, urging homeschoolers to resist efforts by the North Carolina Division of Non-Public Education to conduct random home inspections targeting homeschoolers.
Read More »The Unlikely Convert and Martyr: Longinus
Longinus looked around and saw some rather unsettling sights: a tremendous storm arose, the earth trembled, the dead rose from their graves. The point is that Longinus SAW these things. You see, Longinus was all but blind, being afflicted with severe opthalmia.
Read More »Shaking Off the Dust: Dealing with Opposition, Welcoming the Good News
Disappointment, rejection, and defeat, however, do not mean incompetence, weakness, or failure. When a person shakes off the dust, he leaves because of the stiff-necked and hardhearted unwillingness of the many that lack docility and openness to the truth the messenger brings.
Read More »The Tortoise and the Hare in the Classroom
Most everyone is familiar with the fable of the tortoise and the hare, but have you ever thought about what lessons this fable holds for education? There are always a few students who are at the head of a class—the hares. For them, the pace of the class comes easily—too easily in fact.
Read More »Greetings from Gibraltar!
It's a good thing we got fuel – the winds were not as high as predicted... we enjoyed dinner with dolphins! A huge pod of dolphins joined us – at least two types of dolphins and 1 shark too.
Read More »8 Steps to Homeschool Success for Dads
With humor and sound advice, Ed Gudan outlines an 8-step plan to help fathers support their wives & live out their commitment to homeschooling.
Read More »Homeschool Mother wants Mini-Cooper, Gets Red Homeschool Bus
I have eight kids and, therefore, I am compelled to drive an exceedingly large van. A van which is, even more humbling still, an eye-catching, look-at-me-I'm-hideous! red. It is a monstrosity.
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