Catholic Homeschool Reviews

I have recently been really pleased to have seen some reviews of Catholic homeschooling items on the homeschool review site Curriculum Choice.  (There is even a sidebar category for Catholic reviews.)  Often, I think, sites that are not Catholic-specific will avoid talking about materials that are specifically Catholic.

I will admit, I did write one of the articles, but that was only after another Catholic specific book was reviewed.  And, then today, another specifically Catholic resource is reviewed on the site.

Kudos to Curriculum Choice for being inclusive!  I know I'm not the only Catholic homeschooler who appreciates it.

~ Angie

Read more...

Resource for Catholic Families

Today's Guest Post is by Brenda from The Tie That Binds Us.

Angie and I have been working together to create a resource for Catholic Homeschoolers like none other. It is a toolbar that sits at the top of your computer and guides you to some of the best Catholic sites and blogs available to Catholic families.

The toolbar itself has many components that are geared towards families, but it also has a huge homeschooling emphasis.

Take a look at all that you get when you download this resource:

• Family planning sites
• Sites on the sacraments and saints
• Web pages about the holidays and feasts
• Links to crafts for Catholic children
• Forums that you can join to meet other Catholic families
• A drop down menu dedicated to homeschooling - encouragement, curriculum reviews, email lists, suppliers, and magazines
• 50 Catholic blogs, plus more on the way!
• RSS feeds to daily readings, Catholic Icing, The Homeschool Classroom and more
• Email notification for all your email accounts
• A radio player that features Catholic radio stations plus your local ones too
• Weather updates

We are still adding sites daily to this free resource. If you download it and you would like to suggest an addition please email us @ hslifemedia@gmail.com

Did I mention that this resource is free?

To download this toolbar visit the page: http://catholichomeschoolingmoms.ourtoolbar.com/

Wait! There is a give-away!

Remember that pretty rosary that was at the top of this post? For your chance to win it you may leave a comment that you have downloaded the toolbar for a chance to win this beautiful rosary hand made by Angie. You may leave one comment (on the original post about The Catholic Family Toolbar at The Homeschool Classroom, comments on this post here at Catholic Mothers Online are closed) if you do any of the following:

• download the toolbar for one entry
• twitter about the toolbar for another entry
• blog about the toolbar for another entry
• leave 5 or more Catholic sites that are not included that should be on the toolbar for one entry

Entries will be closed on February 23rd.

Brenda can be found writing at The Tie That Binds Us.  She is also the founder of Curriculum Choice and Joyful Holidays, and co-founder of Homeschool Lifestyle Media.

Angie can be found writing at Many Little Blessings.  She is also the founder of Catholic Mothers Online and The Homeschool Classroom, as well as the co-founder of Homeschool Lifestyle Media.

Read more...

Sacred in the Ordinary

Today's guest post is by Judy from Daily Blessings and Ben Makes Ten

-----------------------------------

Take a look around you...what do you see when you take in the panorama of your home?


If all that you see is the clutter, or the fingerprints, or the chipped paint and holes in the walls...LOOK AGAIN...Look....and SEE the SACRED.


If God is the center of your life, your marriage, your family, your home school...then by virtue of His Holy Presence, the items in your home become SACRED.


Take your bed, for instance. What were your thoughts when you made it this morning?


Did you really GIVE it any thought? Or, did you mindlessly tuck in the covers as you were already considering the five thousand things you needed to accomplish today? Well, then...consider this invitation: Tomorrow, when you make you bed, think of it as SACRED.


This place where you lie down each night next to the one with whom you have chosen to spend your life...this bed, where all of the worries and tasks of the day are laid to rest...this place of respite and relaxation...this place where God, the Creator allows you the grace of joining with Him in the creation of NEW LIFE...this place where quiet is shared, and warmth is given, where love is present...as you make your bed tomorrow, THINK OF YOUR SPOUSE...pray for him to have JOY and PEACE in his work that day...THANK GOD for him (even if things are not going well between you), treasure and cherish the hours that you spend here with one another...do not take it for granted...for it is a GIFT...and it is SACRED.


And what about your dining room table? Yes, it might be getting wobbly as the years wear on, the knicks and scratches show, and you are tired of explaining to toddlers that it is NOT a stage on which to stand and sing...but the next time you look at it...SEE the SACRED...this is your place of family unity...a place to break bread, such an intimate thing...a place to look into the eyes of those you love most in this world...a place to gather at the end of a busy day...to laugh, to share, to discuss, even to try to be heard over the endless chatter of Littles, a place to welcome guests, a place to serve and pamper, a place that reminds you that "things are good" in life...because you have food, you have family, and you have HOME...just a table? Or...something SACRED?


How many times a day do you use your water? How many of those times do you see it as SACRED...this fresh clean water, with which God has blessed you...to cleanse yourself, to nourish and refresh yourself, to clean the things around you, to cook, to water your plants, to bathe your babies, and even to play with in warm weather...The next time you go to wash your hands, or stop for a drink, say a prayer of thanks for your water...and SEE the SACRED.


Don't forget your SCHOOL...so easy for us to take for granted...or worse yet...to feel it as burdensome or something getting in the way...EMBRACE your school tomorrow...SEE in it the SACRED! God has allowed you to bring your children along-side you to teach, to influence, to share with, to nurture, to love...the books, the papers, the lesson plans, the assignments waiting to be graded...these are all reminders of HOW BLESSED YOU ARE to home school...these things are the font of learning in your home...they are the means by which you raise your children to know, love, and serve the Lord...they are the tools and instruments by which your children (and YOU) are enlightened, enriched, and challenged...you are FREE in your school to INVITE GOD into your classes...ordinary? NO! SACRED!


Family life is such a beautiful gift and blessing from God...His hand is upon you, and therefore all that is ORDINARY becomes EXTRAORDINARY...all that He has touched is SACRED!


Look around you with HIS EYES today...see your home anew! Give thanks for all that surrounds you and know that NOTHING is ordinary where GOD is present. See your home...and SEE the "SACRED" in it!


Judy is busy keeping up with the eight of ten blessings who are still at home with her, and you can visit her at
http://www.momoften.webs.com/ and http://benmakesten.blogspot.com/


photo by chynna67

Read more...

I do it for LIFE

Today's guest post was written by Dessi from Life with Small Blessings

--------------------------------------------------------------

One afternoon, while I was sitting outside watching my last brain cell fly away hand in hand with my last nerve call, my neighbor came by. She sat beside me and asked me the most-asked question of the century. She asked me why I don't send my kids to school. Well, with no brain cells left it was a hard thing to deal with. So I began to tell her my recorded speech. "We like the time we have together...they learn better...we have a wonderful support group."

Satisfied, my neighbor then asked the second most common question: "Why do you have so many children? Don't you know how to prevent it?" Sadly, the second question is posed by many well-meaning NFP catholics. So she asked me why I do everything that I do...what a deep question for a mother of four little ones with another on the way. Here I want to introduce the daily life of our family of little ones. Please do not sue me if you experience any trauma after reading this.

I start the day half asleep, half awake. I don't believe I have slept an entire night in 7 1/2 years. Anyway, early in the morning I am awakened by the inhumane screeching sounds made by my two beautiful sons. They have found something to fight about even before they fully awaken...that is genious!

I, their loving mom, fly out of bed, glamorous as always and in a loving tone of voice explain to them that I have a personal connection with the Gypsies. At that point the boys decide that they enjoy their company far better than the Gypsies' and they go downstairs haunted by my beautiful visage. By the time I get my teeth brushed, my youngest is in frantic search of his human bottle. I scoop him on my lap to nurse, and after a few grunts he is satisfied.

Soon I hear tiny steps up, followed by whispers and warnings of this sort: "Thomas, be careful! She'll hear you!" Or "Peter, come with me. I'm scared she'll look at me!" My boys have ventured up in front of me. The fear of the Gypsies had given in to a basic human need - hunger. I set the table in a manner befitting an "I Love Lucy" episode. After all, I am still trying to catch some sleep. Somewhere in between, my precious daughter has gotten up and is now informing me that if she was a fairy she wouldn't have to do schoolwork. Love of learning is a force that drives my fairy to tears. The table is cleaned, the boys are playing and fighting at the same time, the baby is walking around with a huge blob of oatmeal on his head. (I figure that if oatmeal is good for your skin then it mush also be good for your hair.) Left to beautify himself, the baby wanders off to somewhere in his sister's room. Where I am afraid to say because we have lost a kid or two in that ever engulfing mess!

I give my daughter her school instructions and just in time, because now I have a fight to stop. I put the pasta drainer (helmet) on my head, pick up my biggest pot lid (shield) and a wooden spoon (sword), and go after the two gladiators. To all of you out there, I can survive a fight between a Spartan and a Persian better than one between two boys before the age of reason. While I am washing the baby and now lecturing the boys in a loud voice, my daughter is having major bodily function failure. Her eyes are rolling back, her hair is standing up, her body is convulsing, all from the pain of writing the letter "P". See, if I was a fairy mom I would just have to put some fairy dust on her. But being a Catholic mom I run for the Holy water. I think I might need a priest. Or maybe I could just send her to an old-fashioned Mennonite school to put the fear of God in her.

Unfortunately, at this time I am interrupted by the doorbell. A lady from St. Louis is here to offer me some magazines. I change my cave woman look on my face (reserved solely for my kids) to a nice smile. I asked if she had any titles like "How to Sell Your Children to the Gypsies" or "Did Fairies Go to School?" or "How to Sleep While Awake." But unfortunately after seeing all my blessings behind my back, she runs off.

Now is lunchtime and I just found out that Marco Polo is so boring and Nicolas needs a new diaper. While I change his diaper (which could be used as a lethal weapon in war), I try to explain that Marco Polo isn't boring and that learning is always fun. The boys are starving already, Maria's eyes are permanently stuck in the back of her head, and I am cooking mac & cheese with a baby attached to my hip. Lunch flies by quickly and I mean that literally. There is macaroni stuck on my ceiling and by now the baby is wearing his lunch on his lap as a kilt. The boys are done fighting over who can eat faster, and I am told for the 100th time that Marco Polo is just no fun. As I try to clear the table, Nicolas is ready for a nap. With a loving voice, I tell the children that if they wake him up I will lovingly give all their toys away and then I go lie down to nurse Nicolas.

And so goes my life until my husband comes home from work. He opens the door cautiously. After all, he knows the dangers that lie behind it. Lego pieces, blocks, paper, shoes, and toys are all weapons, lurking everywhere trying to trip us. I then serve the grand dinner - hot dogs! Now my daughter falls into a seizure because we are starving her. She doesn't like hot dogs...at least not today! While we ignore our starving child, my husband and I scarf down our first meal of the day. Let me tell you, we are both very fast eaters! Before the boys' or the baby's tantrum (or whatever), which is usually about 10 minutes into dinner, we are both done. Knowing my Balkan blood, my husband quickly removes the kids to the nearest outside yard or bathtub. I can't talk, I am exhausted, and I don't remember what I did that day. Did I feed them? School? By all the chaos lying around it's evident that I did a lot, and yet nothing at the same time.

So why do I do it? For the evenings when I can snuggle my children, see them, hug them, and realize that I am the richest most blessed woman in the world. i do it for their smiles and their sleepy eyes. I do it for life. That is it. That is the answer to all of my neighbor's questions. Life. Choose life...that you may live!

Today's guest post was written by Dessi from Life with Small Blessings

photo by derPlau

Read more...