While we have not formally resumed schooling yet (still in the 12 Days of Christmas. Sounds reasonable, right?), we did take some time today to watch an educational program on EWTN. Well, we also had another incentive to watch it because our good friends, Laura and Mary, were live on the "At Home with Jim and Joy" show talking about the unit study they wrote for the American Life League.
You might remember that I reviewed and gave away some free copies of this unit study and, since we know them personally, it was so fun to watch them talk about how important it is to cultivate the pro-life mentatlity, especially in our young children.
Another exciting project they just released is a unit study for high schoolers on Euthanasia. I'm so glad that this has come out and I definitely think it is something we'll have to look into. Coincidentally, I just finished reading the book "Me Before You", which is about a quadriplegic who wants to die on his own terms. It was a great book, but if you are not catechized as to why this is wrong, you will definitely be swayed by the emotional aspect of this topic. This is why it is so important for us to arm our youth with the facts and reasons why the Church teaches as it does, so that they are not swayed by emotions.
To learn more about these important programs that our friends are producing through the American Life League, you can either go to their website, catch the replay of the show on January 9th at 10:30 am or watch it on EWTN's youtube channel.
Spread the word about these great unit studies and pray that we can all become ambassadors for life!
God Bless!
I've had the pleasure recently of meeting (via the internet) Dan Gonzalez who has a great set of cards and an app for apple and android devices that deal with Catholicism. He's a new advertiser on my website and he also asked if I'd be willing to review his Catholic Words Memory Match card game. He graciously sent me both volumes of his game and I can say that I am impressed with the quality of them.
Each deck has 26 pairs of cards with Catholic words on them. There is also a .pdf available that has the definitions of the words so that you (if need be) and your kids can learn the proper definitions.
The cards are designed to be used in a matching game by 1 to 5 people.
We opted for the "1" route. My youngest has played this and enjoyed it. The cards are very sturdy and colorful. They will definitely catch the attention of your children!
Even though Mr 10 yo knew the words, he still enjoyed playing the game. I think this would be a great way to teach your budding Catholic students all of the important words of the faith.
For those of you who are into electronic ways of teaching, Dan also has a Catholic word app that looks very cool. I haven't tried it, but I think the Catholic Spell It looks like it might be particularly useful.
So while you're planning for summer activities, or for next school year, you might want to consider getting yourself either the card game or the app, or maybe even both. While Dan sent these to me to review, it doesn't mean I had to like them, so when I give my endorsement to something, you can be assured that I really did enjoy it. I hope you'll consider supporting Dan in his endeavor to bring the Catholic faith to families in new and fun ways.
God Bless!
I had the wonderful privilege of reviewing a copy of the first DVD in the new series called "Inside the Sacraments" by the gang at Holy Heroes. About half way through, Mr 8 yo asked if we will be able to get thesecond DVD, too!
This first installment is about the Holy Eucharist and is a very thorough, yet easy to understand, dissertation on the Eucharist. I know dissertation might sound boring, but believe me this was far from boring. The entire 45 minute story is told by kids and is full of a lot of great information and a lot of humor. We laughed out loud a number of times and, as Ms 9 yo said, "Lily and Caroline are SOO cute!"
I always love when people tie the Old Testament and the New Testament together for me, and this was done throughout the video, especially when they explained how God prefigured the Eucharist with the manna in the dessert. The entire section on Moses was very well done.
During this video, they covered everything from Moses, to Jesus and the Last Supper (my younger kids' favorite part) to Eucharistic miracles, how to receive worthily and spiritual communions.
There were many questions presented, some covering complex topics, that were all explained in ways that even the younger viewers could understand. This video is recommended for ages 5 through 12, but even those of us older than 12 enjoyed it and learned from it.
There are bonus selections, too, including an informative section on adoration, exposition and benediction, as well as bloopers and an online quiz that you can have your kids take to see how much they learned.
This DVD would make an excellent accompaniment to your religious education curriculum, whether you homeschool, teach RE or send your kids to a Catholic school. Even though I received my copy free in order to review it, in no way does that skew my recommendation that this DVD belongs in every Catholic home, and it would make a great gift to give, especially to someone who doesn't quite believe in the Eucharist.
We can't wait for the second DVD to come out!
God Bless!
I don't know about you, but no matter how hard I might try, I'm constantly having to reign in my wandering thoughts while praying the rosary. My kids, especially the younger ones, have a difficult time, too.
Over the years we've tried a variety of ways to stay focused: rosary videos, a rosary CD, rosary coloring pages, laminated pictures of the rosary (yeah, that worked great...the kids constantly fought over who would get to switch the picture!). I figure it is our job as parents to just keep trying to reign everyone (even ourselves) back in every once in awhile so we can hope that we might get one truly good prayer with each rosary! I know, lofty goals, aren't they??
A few months back, I received a copy of a wonderful rosary program aimed at helping children really learn about the rosary and learn how to focus their prayers. Cassandra Poppe, the author, describes why she wrote this program:
"I created the Rosary Quilt, Rosary Quilt Manual and Rosary Quilt Workbook to help teach the Rosary devotion to my children. My children already knew the prayers and had a basic idea of what the Mysteries were about, but they had too much energy in their little bodies and nothing to keep them focused. The Rosary Quilt served as a “practical aid”, which certainly increased their appreciation of the prayer! And the book served as a learning tool to deepen their understanding of the Mysteries as well."
The Rosary Quilt Curriculum is a very detailed and thorough program that will help you to teach your children the mysteries of the rosary using information from many sources, including St. Louis de Montfort's "The Secret of the Rosary", as well as information and many activities to teach them the virtue associated with each mystery. For example, the Annunciation focuses on the virtue of humility, so there are five days of lessons and activities to help your children learn the mystery and the virtue of humility.
There is also a workbook that contains a variety of pages for each mystery, including a coloring page and a page to record appropriate bible verses that have been memorized.
I think the thing that makes this program so unique is that it also has instructions on how to make a rosary quilt. The pictures I saw of an already made rosary quilt were wonderful. The quilt is meant to be made by the family and used during the praying of the rosary as an aid to staying focused. If you are crafty, this quilt would be a wonderful project for your family to do and then to use whenever you prayed. If you aren't crafty (ME!!) this rosary quilt is not an essential part of the program. Cassandra gives you ample directions on how to work without it (although I do think it would make a wonderful addition to family prayer!).
If you are looking for a comprehensive, well layed-out program to teach your children this powerful prayer and its corresponding virtues, I would definitely encourage you to take a look at The Rosary Quilt Curriculum. This would be great with an RE class or homeschool co-op, too! Although it could be used and adapted to any age, it seems best suited for kids up through third grade.
You can purchase the Rosary Quilt Program through her etsy shop.
I think that this would make a great gift for a young family, so if you don't have young children, consider giving it as a gift to someone who does!
BTW, I did receive a copy of this program in order to do this review, but I'm being completely honest in saying that I would not recommend it if I didn't really think it was a good program!
God Bless!
Ms 12 yo turned into Ms 13 yo last week and with it came a rite of passage...that of being allowed to read the Fairy Tale Novels by Regina Doman. In our house, once you turn 13 your older sisters happily hand over their copies of the first three books "Shadow of the Bear", "Black as Night" and "Waking Rose". Ms 13 yo, however, was allowed to read "Shadow of the Bear" a bit early because we went to Minnesota this past summer to see the premiere of the movie.
Seeing as how she just turned 13 at the end of the week and today is only Sunday and she is already finished with the book shown in the picture, you can imagine that the posture seen above was one that was seen quite frequently over the past few days. Like the rest of us, she didn't stop until she finished them all! They really are that good!
Now that she is done with the books, I'm sure she'll be reminding me that the second part of this rite of passage is that she gets to join the Fairy Tale Novels Forum. Like her sisters before her, she will be venturing into fun discussions, creative adventures and the opportunity to meet a lot of new people. The girls have met some really great people from all around the world through this forum, and with her sisters to keep an eye on her, I'm sure she will enjoy herself.
If you or your children haven't read Regina's books, we all highly recommend them! You can find out more about them here. The kids involved in the forum have also begun a magazine that you can check out here. It is a very well-produced magazine that offers the kids a great chance at writing and creativity.
Overall, I'd have to say that our involvement with Regina and her books has been a very positive experience for our family. I hope you enjoy them, too.
I'm going to switch gears here for a bit and actually do a post about a homeschooling topic :) One of the cool things about having your own website is that occasionally people ask you to review their product or book for them. Recently I was contacted by a gentleman who developed a spelling software package called SpellQuizzer. I decided I'd be game and give it a try.
This software was developed to help any student with his/her vocabulary or spelling lists. It automates the "practice" portion of the weekly spelling list. Here's what happened:
I was emailed the link to download the software and didn't have any problems with it at all. Next, I got to plug in my microphone and have some fun. Mr. 9 yo and Ms 10 yo are my two students who are currently doing weekly spelling lists, so I sat down with their lists and very easily entered in all of their words.
For each word you type in you have the option of recording the word and a sentence or definition to go with it. If you don't have a microphone, you can type in a hint for each word that the child would read. You can also choose to randomize the list playback when the student gets tested on it.
After I entered the words and recorded them, I went and took the test to see how it worked. The program simply repeated my recorded words, with the sentences, for me to type into the computer. If I got all the words right, I heard a cheering crowd. Any words I got wrong, I had the option of being tested on again. In case you're wondering, the fact that my two kids aren't great typists hasn't hindered their progress at all.
So, what do we think? Overall, I'd say we are all pleased with this program. It is very easy to use, hasn't error-ed out at all, and is fun. The kids like it and use it a lot (it sure beats trying to bribe one of their siblings into testing them on their spelling words!). Since they've been using it, they have been doing better on their tests.
Even though you may be a homeschooler, there are many benefits to using this program. There are ways that you can share your spelling lists with other homeschoolers as well as download already made spelling lists, some of which look pretty handy.
One benefit I thought of after we started using it was that you can go back and randomly test the kids on earlier spelling lists. It will be interesting to see how many of the words the kids can spell a few weeks after their test!
The only drawback I found may be the price. However, since you can use it with as many lists/kids as you want, it will definitely be available for multiple years and children. I guess if you break it down that way, it isn't a bad deal.
I give this product a thumbs up. I'll be putting up a permanent page for it on my website and will link to it as soon as it is available.
