After you finish the last page, there are books that you forget about right away. But then there are those rare ones that remain with you forever. Cynthia Montanaro’s Diary of a Country Mother is one of those. This book is a biography of her mentally-challenged son, Timothy, whose life was cut short in an accident as a teenager. Montanaro, a homeschooling veteran, says that she wrote it as a celebration of Tim’s life, but most of all as a “thanksgiving journal to God.”

First, stop insisting that you “went wrong” with your kids. I don’t know exactly how Jesus felt when He was betrayed by Judas. But I do know this: I know that Jesus did not wonder where He went wrong with Judas. Jesus didn’t “go wrong.”

I was asked to write an essay about the book that had most changed my life. This book was my answer. Relating the account of Denton’s ordeal as a prisoner of war in Vietnam for nearly eight years, it is clear that his struggle to practice his faith and keep his sanity during this time were beyond heroic.

My father, an accomplished carpenter, always seemed to be building “one more bookcase” to meet the literary demands of his wife. For all the things that our large Catholic family did not have, we had a treasury of books. My mother’s consummate genius in homeschooling pedagogy reached its zenith with a simple rule for her children: you can stay up as late as you want as long as you are reading.

It’s often lamented that babies don’t come with manuals.  Of course, this isn’t true—babies do come with manuals.  They are called “parenting books.” There are books that tell you how ...

When I was growing up in the 1970’s, many Catholic parents took turns going to Mass: Mom might go to an early Mass while Dad stayed home with the kids; ...

At the beginning of every school year, I make a little personal checklist as to how I can improve homeschooling in the upcoming year.  I don’t always stick to the ...

When I was about five or six years old, I remember that my maternal grandmother had a beautiful garden in her backyard that she spent many hours cultivating. Among her ...

Certain things in life seem common to all men.  The physical things are the most obvious: we all need to eat and to sleep, and we all need shelter.  But ...

John Clark shares his 5 favorite uses for advancing education with modern media, and how invaluable a tablet will be to a homeschooling family.

Thanks to some good friends generously giving us tickets and inviting us to go along with them, Veronica and I recently went to see an NHL hockey game. I have ...

Men in our society are often criticized for being perpetual adolescents. Yeah, maybe— but it’s not all our fault. I recently did a little research into the medical facts about ...

Some homeschooling parents believe that unless they can do a great job, then homeschooling is not for them. That must be a tremendous cross for these Moms and Dads to ...

A number of studies have confirmed that speaking in public is the biggest fear that Americans possess; in fact, the fear of public speaking surpasses the fear of death for ...

Most of us probably don’t think about it much, but a father’s work can have a big impact on the lives of his children. I hadn’t thought about this much ...

In the final days of August and the first days of September, thousands of parents proudly posted “First Day of School” pictures of their children on blogs and on their ...

Over the past several years, I have seen some of my friends divorce. When we see marriages fail, we might consider the occurrence an opportunity to work on our own. ...

When Lisa and I signed up Tarcisius for his spring baseball season earlier this year, we all knew that it would be his last year in Little League. He turned ...

On Memorial Day weekend, the goal for our family was getting our landscaping done. And with an acre of land, and a once-professionally landscaped yard, that is no easy task. ...

As readers of this column know, I recently wrote a book called Who’s Got You?, in the hopes of reminding Catholic fathers that theirs is a great calling. As part ...