As we parents sit down to help our children with their homeschooling, I think we would have to admit that some of the biggest distractions are often the ones inside ourselves—the ones that keep popping into our minds as we attempt to teach.
Read More »‘Be Like Little Children’: How Not to Lose Wonder
As the freshness of childhood and the exuberance of youth fade, and life assumes a regularity and familiarity, it is all too easy to become jaded and blasé. Instead of ...
Read More »Homeschooling With A Limp: This Mom Won’t Quit
Tonight I’m making chicken noodle soup for dinner. I need the comfort that it brings to me because today my meds aren’t working. One of the hardest challenges that I face as a homeschooling mother is dealing with hypothyroidism (an underactive thyroid gland).
Read More »7 Ways Our Children Can Keep Their Way Pure | Part 2
If we and our children are to keep our faith, we must immerse ourselves in the mind of Christ, not the mindset of the world. Knowing the teachings of the Magisterium (teaching authority) of the Catholic Church is essential to living a life that is pleasing to God. How can we learn these teachings?
Read More »Instilling A Spirit of Gratitude: The 6th Principle of The Simple Life
Several years ago, I received a phone call from a dear friend who invited me to take a free shopping spree at Costco Wholesale Club. The offer was so tempting since anything and everything I would purchase that day would all be paid for. I was so floored by such a generous offer that I felt like one of those eager contestants who had just won the grand prize in “Supermarket Sweep.”
Read More »How to Make Your Home a Domestic Monastery
by Fr. Pablo Straub | At first it seems contradictory that there would be similarity between those who marry and those who go into a monastery or the priesthood. Can there be any two things more unlike?
Read More »My Home Color-In
What is your favorite thing to do at home? 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 »Aren’t You Too Old to Have Been Homeschooled?
In passing, I mentioned to a co-worker the other day that college was my first classroom experience. She said “Really?” I explained that, “Yes, I was homeschooled from Kindergarten through 12th Grade.” She said “Oh, wow, cool!” A few minutes later she walked by my desk and said “Wait a minute, aren’t you too old to have been homeschooled???” Well, thanks for that.
Read More »Homeschool Organization for the Disorganized
Some think that a chaotic home means you can't homeschool. John Clark disagrees, and encourages you to focus on establishing something more important first.
Read More »The Human Touch: What King Midas Didn’t Get
While everyone has heard of King Midas’s avarice and his desire for The Golden Touch that transforms everything he touches into gold, not everyone has heard of The Leaden Touch. In Hawthorne’s A Wonder Book one of the children who hears of the famous story about King Midas, remarks, “But some people have what we may call ‘The Leaden Touch,’ and make everything dull and heavy that they lay their fingers upon.”
Read More »Got Faith? Pumpkin Chili and the Catechism
Several days ago, I was in the kitchen whipping up a pot of pumpkin chili, (recipe included below!) while reflecting on some thoughts regarding faith. Earlier in the day, when my daughter was sitting at the kitchen table working on her Catechism lesson, the subject of faith came up. My daughter wanted to know if everyone who believes in Jesus is a Christian.
Read More »Training Our Children to be Urban Legend Detectors
Of all the cultures and all the philosophies and all the religions which have been known in the world of men, none have placed truth on as high a pedestal as the Catholic Faith. Truth is literally our God.
Read More »7 Ways Our Children Can Keep Their Way Pure | Part 1
How can we as Catholic parents help our children keep their way pure when they go out into the world? We are living in a culture that is becoming increasingly hostile to all that is good, wholesome, and decent. Although we recognize that the souls of our children are ultimately in the hands of God, we also know that He has placed them in our care.
Read More »The Importance of Fathers in our Search for God
These have been a tough couple of decades for fathers in particular, and men in general. [People] attack men’s identity and undermine the whole idea of fatherhood. In the process, women and children are hurt, families are damaged, and our understanding of God Himself becomes confused. Let me outline three criticisms, or problems, which make our times especially hard for fathers.
Read More »Orange All Over Color-In
Caption this image! Why are the children happy? What are their names? Share your child’s comment below! What could be more fun than coloring a picture? Sharing it with someone! ...
Read More »Where are Tomorrow’s Catholic Leaders?
Catholic parents seeks to shelter their children in their youth, so that they may grow in wisdom and holiness without constant battering from the world. But once they are grown and educated, these children no longer need shelter. They are able to take what they have learned and engage the world without fear.
Read More »Delighting in God: Praying for the Costume Catalog
When I went to retrieve the mail from my mailbox, I saw a Costume Express catalog in the stack of mail waiting for me. I smiled when I saw the catalog because it brought back a memory to me many years ago, when we were teaching our children about prayer.
Read More »The Secret Ingredient to Bliss: A Story from King Arthur’s Round Table
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 »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 »