A young student's letter

This is an excerpt of a letter written by the college freshman daughter of a fellow Catholic homeschool mother, and I received permission to post it. I love it! She wrote in response to an event she had to attend, where a poet came and recited very low, vulgar poetry. Enjoy!


"...this is not an example of the noble art of poetry. Poetry,
as my father says, used to seize the imaginations of people so
passionately, they'd go to war, they'd forgive their enemies, they'd
weep over a stranger's grave. Poetry caused Schliemann to spend a
fortune sifting a windswept Anatolian plateau for the dream called
Troy. Poetry is not the half-intelligible ramblings of a mind so
shriveled by self-pity and self-gratification that the most meaningful
idea it can offer is hedonism: Feast today, for tomorrow we die.

"I understand that Mr. Maximus and his nihilistic rap lyrics hold a
special place in the heart of multiculturalists, but how large a
portion of our souls should my generation pay the gods of tolerance?
How much good does it do the world that we drink this pollution? More
to the point, how can this great university community expect to mold
us into Christians of character when even Character U preaches the
objectification of human beings-from living souls to lifeless
playthings? As freshmen, life is hard enough; must we also endure
attacks on beauty itself?

"Needless to say, the poetry reading saddened me considerably. Please,
I implore you, invite some other poet next year. My generation has
swallowed enough sewage, we have drunk enough poison; let us enjoy
something wholesome for once."

A new archangel pattern!

The page where I posted this simple feastday craft last year is one of the most popular of all of my blog pages... I decided to re-do it in a cleaner copy... have fun making your little angel to celebrate a great feast day!

Artistic friendship

I am estimating how many hours of art these girls have done together, and I am around 400 hours in the past 4 years! No wonder they have grown in their skills so much!

Harvest day

Braiding onions, bringing in squash, potatoes, chard... and waking up from a nap by a kitten on a sunny porch: that was our day yesterday.

My latest article on Faith & Family

Faith & Family, Feature : How Many Hamburgers?

Posted using ShareThis

Homeschool Art!

Numbers Six and Seven are enjoying Ed Pemberley's Animals book to no end!

A great family read-aloud!

Our good pope Benedict XVI asked us to study the life of the Cure of Ars, especially for this Year of the Priest!

The language is delightful and we have been taking turns reading aloud during art, handwriting or, in the case of Number Five, sewing-pointe-shoes periods.

The life of the saintly, humble and loving priest is winning a place in all of our hearts!

When it's Six O'Clock in San Francisco

When it's Six O'Clock in San Francisco by Cynthia Jaynes Omololu, 2009 Clarion Books.

I cannot resist a new picture book title if it brings up World Geography! The kids loved this one before I could lay my hands on it.

Follow times zones and see what kids are doing all around the world when it's 6 o'clock in San Francisco! A final page explains the concept of times zones with maps and illustrations.

Welcome back, Dad!

Numbers Six and Seven made a cake and decorated it with our fall-bearing raspberries!

Watch for pictures from his Central Asia trip!

Life with Number Seven

She is enjoying her Geography workbook this year, that is, between rescuing creatures in her unbounded love for animals and things wild. So, we have added two new kittens to our farm cat family, and let another beautiful Monarch go--after being loved and cared for by the young future vet.

Co-op Art

This semester we are studying sky landscapes with Eric Sloane's books, per request of Mary Daly who is teaching Meteorology. In the co-op bulletin I did ask if parents can just about smell the sea, salty air, carried by the approaching strong stormy winds...

Can't wait to buy this new saints' book!

Just saw the new review at Love2Learn... and illustrated by the delightful Ben Hatke! We love the Numbers 1 and 2 of this series!

Meet Maximilian Oskar!

May God be praised! We welcome you into the world, sweet child!

His mom and dad are "smitten", and all is well. Oh joy!

Can't believe the wedding was a year ago!

The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau

I confess that, with garden produce processing and the beginning of the school year, I have a growing pile of great new titles from the library sittign here, all worthy of picture-book-of-the week status. Our youngest, an 8-year old animal lover extraordinaire, voted for this one.

The Fantastic Undersea Life of Jacques Cousteau by Dan Yaccarino, 2009 Knopf Books for Young Readers, ISBN 0375855734

Like many parents our age, I grew up with Jacques Cousteau, the Frenchman who brought the life below the water level to everyone's homes via TV and films. Here is a colorful, friendly picture book about his life and accomplishments. Curious episodes of his life and his conservation efforts are explained in simple language. Also, beautiful, direct quotes from him are found throughout the colorful book, such as:

If we were logical, the future would be bleak indeed. But we are more than logical. We are human beings, and we faith, and we have hope.

The art is reminiscent of illustrations from the 60s and very pleasant. We read this aloud and some of the facts of his life listed on the last page. We also found plenty on You Tube including longer films of his adventures on his ship, the Calypso.

Together with another picture book about Jacques Cousteau entitled Manfish by Jennifer Berne, this book can bring alive the life of a great man and his work to any young student .

Note: An interesting piece in the NYT about these books on the "red-capped" ocean explorer is worth reading!

Modern Scholar series, again

I can't help but mentioning this excellent series again. I just visited their site and they are publishing a new title by Prof. Peter Kreeft this month on the Philosophy of Saint Thomas Aquinas.

Numbers Three and Four are listening and loving Prof Meinech's course on Greek Mythology, and will begin an Astronomy by an U. of Illinois Prof. course next. The girls and I are loving Journeys of the Great Explorers by a British Professor in the van... and we will all listen together soon to Professor Shutt's High Seas, High Stakes: Naval Battles That Changed the World. Professor Shutt has great delivery and the boys will listen to anything by him!

10 reasons

Suzanne Temple has a great set of ten reasons to study World History...

My History Workbook

I am finally revising it completely and also writing an answer key, as we begin History with Number Seven and two of her friends!

Posted on Pope St Nicholas V

I just requested this from my library system... I can't wait until it comes! Sophia Press info here. Link to Yahoo group here.

Bless me Father for I have Kids, by Susie Lloyd, 2009

Sophia Press. ISBN: 193318440X

Check to see if this title is already in your library's catalog. If it is, put a hold on it and check it out. If not, fill out a patron request form right away. This can usually be done online at your library's website.

Number Two's blog

She has been posting more pictures!

Clouds, Photos by Number Four

Country neighbor Mary Daly (the same one from The Whole Book of Diagrams) is teaching Weather at co-op this year to my teens, and started a story on her class blog. She has gotten them looking at clouds incessantly!

Our homeschool: first week

In the absence of stickers, I have fun cutting pictures of Number Six's last year's (Seton) Religion workbook--we kept it because the pitures were so beautiful. Number Seven just likes to draw on every page of her (CHC) Speller!

First Day of Co-op!

Back to colors and artistic rewards!

High School Theology

Well, what can I say besides we have fun at home.

Peaches!

Colorado peaches + good music from Pandora in the laptop + two young helpers = 25 jars of peaches!