by Mary Kay Clark | Consider asking your older children to start their schoolwork earlier in the day, for instance, at 7:30 a.m., so they can get at least one or two subjects done before the noise begins from the younger children. Since older children usually stay up later than younger ones, they might try doing some of their schoolwork after the little ones are in bed.
Read More »The Children of Hope
by Kevin Clark " | Recently, I read the novel The Children of Men by P. D. James. The premise of the book is that sometime in the not too distant future, women stop conceiving and giving birth. The book takes place approximately 25 years after the last child was born, and so there are, on the face of the earth, no more children.
Read More »A Day at the Spa for Homeschooling Moms
by John Clark | Alright, homeschool Dads. Your wife is reaching the end of another academic year. She has endured arguments from the teenagers about book reports for Goodbye, Mr. Chips. She has sharpened dozens of number 2 pencils.
Read More »Saint Monica, Patron Saint of Mothers
by Mary Kay Clark | St. Monica, the mother of St. Augustine, is considered by the Church to be a patron saint for mothers, and is honored by the Church with her feast day on May 4th. Monica was born in 332—only 300 years after the crucifixion of Jesus—in Tagaste, currently Algeria, in North Africa.
Read More »Writing That Matters | Part 2
by John Clark | Why don’t more people write moving pieces? I think that one of the answers is that it’s risky. When you leave a part of yourself on the page, and someone doesn’t like it, it is hard to accept that fact—when people don’t like your work, you sometimes feel like they don’t like you. That can be a bitter pill to swallow.
Read More »Religion: A ‘Dirty Word’ in Hollywood? (And Why I Don’t Like ‘Noah’)
by Ken Clark | Back in the golden age of Hollywood, major studios made religious movies that actually praised God and religion. Charleton Heston alone seems to have played most of the Apostles and Prophets. Who can forget his roles as Moses in The Ten Commandments or John the Baptist in The Greatest Story Ever Told, two excellent religious movies.
Read More »Writing That Matters | Part 1
by John Clark | In the homeschool world, articles abound about how to teach our children to write well. They tend to cover areas such as how to outline, how to write a strong thesis statement, and so forth. These articles are certainly necessary, but as we teach our children composition, we need to remember another aspect of good writing.
Read More »5 Laundry Tips for Men
by John Clark | I have noticed a plethora of domestically-relevant articles (such as household tips) lately on this site, and have observed that they are usually written by women. But women shouldn’t have a monopoly on ideas, so I thought it was time to put a man’s perspective on things.
Read More »Why Grownups Don’t Get Stickers for Good Behavior
by John Clark | I went to school for the first five years of my academic life. During that time, if memory serves (and it decreasingly serves), I received many stickers on my papers. Somehow—and no one really knows why—stickers have become part of the primary academic life in America; they somehow signify achievement.
Read More »Saint Catherine of Siena: Patroness and Model of Homeschooling
by Dr Clark | Many years ago, a group of about forty Catholic homeschool state support group leaders gathered in Chicago for two or three consecutive years, in the month of April, to discuss the growing Catholic homeschooling movement. It was not an easy meeting to attend as we all had children and not much money for such trips.
Read More »Walking through Wardrobes: Bonding with Your Children by Reading Aloud
by John Clark | We’ve all probably been in conversations in which a parent will comment that his child spends too much time on the computer or iPad, as though the parent had no control at all over his children. That’s pretty sad for a number of reasons, beginning with the fact that it alludes to a relationship breakdown.
Read More »Does Social Media Create an Artificial Reality?
by John Clark | Does social networking fulfill man’s need to partake of society, thus removing his binary reduction to man or beast? Is the internet a society at all? These are philosophical questions best left to sociologists. I don’t have the answers. I merely ask them in an everyday, pedestrian sense.
Read More »The Day You Couldn’t Stop Smiling
by Kevin Clark | When you first graduate from college, you attend many weddings. For the five years or so after college, several weddings seem to come every year—some weddings where you know the betrothed well and you are actually in the wedding party, and some where you merely witness the proceedings.
Read More »Sometimes I feel alone in my homeschooling. What do you suggest?
by Dr Mary Kay Clark | Contact someone you know who is homeschooling, and see if there is a support group in your neighborhood. Contact people in your parish and tell them that you are looking for a Catholic homeschooling support group. Contact Cecilia at Seton
Read More »5 Paths to Becoming a Philosopher
Inspired by C.S.Lewis, John Clark explores 5 options to help your homeschooler become a home-grown philosopher - because the world needs it.
Read More »Smoking and Religion: Two Things You Can’t Do in Public
by Kevin Clark | The legislature of Arizona recently passed a law which allows a business to assert a free exercise defense if it is accused of discrimination for refusing to provide a service to a customer. The Arizona law, which has gone to Governor Jan Brewer to sign or veto, closely tracks the wording of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
Read More »Is Shakespeare in Jeopardy?
by John Clark | As I have written previously, on the nights when I’m able, I like to watch the show Jeopardy and try to amaze my kids with my knowledge. (These are the kinds of things you do when you’re old—you get exhausted by failing to impress the world, so you spend your evenings in front of a television set in the hopes of dazzling your offspring.)
Read More »‘I Belong to Christ’: How One Man Overcomes Depression and Finds Hope
by John Clark | This Christmas, I prayed to God: “I know that there are certain and special ways in which you want me to spiritually advance this Christmas. Please show me what they are.” During late December of last year, I read John Janaro’s book, Never Give Up: My Life and God’s Mercy, and I believe that this book was part of the answer to my prayer.
Read More »‘Immortal Love’: How Men Express It… or Try
Every St. Valentine’s Day leaves men at a loss for telling their girlfriends or wives how much they love them. Very often, whether a dozen red roses, a box of chocolates, or a hand-written poem, nothing seems to suffice. If you homeschool husbands find yourself in this predicament, don’t feel too bad. We’ve all been there.
Read More »Don’t Just Do Something, Stand There!
Stillness is a thing which it seems harder and harder to find. The constant barrage of information that comes to us now is seemingly more confusing than ever. Years ago, I remember seeing pictures of Times Square, with its multiple electronic screens flashing messages to passersby, and I thought it would be a rather disorienting place to be.
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