Catching up on my goofing off this morning. Thought these photos of an MK mini-school in Haiti were pretty interesting. For people who like to look at pictures of school stuff, anyway. Sort of in between homeschooling and regular school — I guess maybe falls closest to the more formal homeschool co-ops and homeschool academies here in the US? Or a very small charter school or private school?
Anyway, I like it.
The Impractical Catholic has a very practical link to how to submit your comments on the new health insurance regulations. Click on his link, it is very easy from there. You can scroll through the regulations to make sure you know what you are talking about, and then submit the comment of your choice.
Naturally I forgot to copy mine for posterity before it submitted, by my talking points were this:
I didn’t say it, but it’s a bit like the difference between saying, “every employee shall be given a per-diem allowance to pay for travel expenses at a hotel or brothel”, versus specifying a per diem amount per day, and leaving it to the employee to decide where he wishes to lodge.
So that’s what I wrote. Go write something yourself. It is so easy and fast. Really, it is.
Okay, here’s the link directly to regulations.gov that I followed from Impractical Catholic’s post. Go. Now. Seriously.
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Also: Reconsider giving your nine-year-old a blog on the same blogging program you yourself use. I almost posted this on a hot-pink ProudKittyCat blog. That woulda made the grandparents raise an eyebrow.
We just started week 5, thought I’d give a little report on how things are going. Re-cap: This is our first year using Kolbe. 6th and 4th grader are enrolled, and mostly following the plan with a couple substitutions. 2nd grader and kindergartener continue to do the home-grown, relaxed-schooling thing.
Overall Impression: Very happy with the decision. On a day like today (evil dictator felled by an evil-er cold), wow it is SO MUCH BETTER having the plans ready-to-go. Oh I know, it is so easy to make your own course plans. Oh, I know, it only takes a few minutes to type them up each week. But wow, being able to growl at a child and say, “Where are you in your homework?” is even easier.
–> Without ready-made, day-by-day plans, two big kids would definitely still be on the relaxed-schooling plan, which I really love for the little guys, but is not the ideal choice for our older kids. Way too many disruptions in the school year so far (exhibit A: evil dictator with evil cold), no way I could have held together a formal curriculum if it relied 100% on my willpower alone.
Some comments on specific subjects:
Latin: Mr. Boy is doing the first year of New Missal Latin. I like it pretty well. Like the kolbe-published supplemental resources. Will say this: In my opinion, the teaching parent needs to either have a smattering of Latin under the belt, or be ready to learn-along. Having already done the intro to classical Latin in previous years, these first few weeks have been largely review for Boy & myself, and yes that is very nice. Now is not my time to be learning a new language. No really. Sometimes it is not that time.
(Remind me also I have some other comments on this particular Latin program and the pro’s and con’s. For a post another day.)
Grammar: No shock here, I’m one of ten people in the known universe who actually likes Voyages in English. So far, no difficulties. Definitely if you haven’t diagrammed sentences before, you want the intro to diagramming booklet as a supplement.
Composition: I failed to observe that there is a separate composition book for 6th grade in addition to the vocabulary and grammar books. Kolbe plans call for one assignment a week from that book. I’d already maxed out the book budget. So I typed up 36 composition assignments for the Boy, and stuck those in his plan book. Conveniently, 6th graders do not use the composition portion of VOE, so I borrowed from there.
Spelling / Vocabulary: The kids hate this. Lot of work. I keep reminding them that a good PSAT / SAT score is worth cold hard cash. They get that. We’ve used Spelling Power in the past, and have good results with using that study method for studying the words missed on the pre-test. The whole amount of Kolbe-assigned words is a lot, though. And we’ve had a couple weeks with enough disruptions that I couldn’t keep up my end on this one through the whole week. We just move on to the next week, rather than piling up.
Word Study: Oh, yeah, and word study. Gee these children get a LOT of language arts. They tell me this one is easy (MCP Plaid). It is also good for them. Happy there. Decided this was one workbook the kids could write their answers in, would be a royal pain to have to do the assignments on a separate page.
Geography: Lovin’ the geography books. Short, easy assignments, genuinely useful map skills. Makes me happy.
Religion: Of course I like it (Faith & Life), I was already using it anyway. This is the other activity book I let the kids write in. Pretty happy with the addition of the St. J’s Balt. Catechisms as well, serious retro power going on there. My DRE also likes the program. She’s experimenting with one section of F&L for 8th grade CCD this year. (Rest of us are using our same Loyola Press books from previous years. Which are fine. But I’d still make my kids do F&L at home.)
Science: Not a demanding program, which works for me. We skip the Monday “investigation” every week, so far there hasn’t been one worth the hassle. Also, I have the workbooks but the course plans don’t call for them, and both kids have decided we are happier not doing them. I’m good with having them do just the textbook reading and review questions, and they can unschool any other science they desire. I like that balance. [Recall: Two real microscopes in my living room. Engineer at the dinner table every night. Unschooling science is a viable option.]
Literature: Um, where are the study questions? Apparently they are in some other place than the course plans. I guess a Kolbe booklet I was supposed to buy? For the uninitiated: You acquire the book you are studying — White Fang and Misty of Chincoteague to start, for us — and then the course plans give you chapter reading assignments and a weekly short essay to write, book report at the end. And those plans also mention these “study questions” and “vocabulary” and stuff. But they aren’t in the plans. And no, I can’t be bothered to go look back at the Kolbe catalog, nor to post a question on the Kolbe forums. Because, um, my magic pen of you-don’t-have-to-do-this works great! I just cross out assignments! We love it!
–> As a result: I let the girl take her final exam open-book and open-dictionary (Misty only takes 5 weeks), since it would be requiring her to have memorized study questions she’d never seen. Flipped around the final week course plans to have her do the exam first and write the book report second.
Math: Not using Saxon. Nothing against it. We’re just still happy with Math-U-See, didn’t see a reason to switch when that was already working.
History: Recall everyone’s doing Rome this year, which would ordinarily be the 5th grade course. Very happy both with using the program as written for Mr. Boy, and subbing in History Pockets for the first two quarters for the girl. Not much else to say. The Kolbe-recommended course is very good. And one of my children really needed to meet Ancient Rome in a perkier manner.
[But yes, I had to pick up a library book on the Aztecs, because HP fails to mention the, er, human sacrifice, those amazing wonderful ancient Aztecs were practicing during the European renaissance. Yeah, I’m a western culture snob. Facts are facts. I vote for the no-live-beating-human-hearts-in-the-hands-of-the-priest every time. Give me self-flagellating, slightly sore-backed penitents over flayed-alive sacrificial victims any day.]
Funny story though: We’re planning to go see our local Roman legion when they gather not so far from us in November. Except the girls only want to go if they get to dress up. So a certain growing 4th grader is going to be let loose with some discount linen between now and then. Luckily the rest of us already own passable garb that still fits.
A reader asks for recommendations on Catholic Dad blogs. I read lots of blogs written by catholic guys with children, but nothing that’s specifically a Dad Blog. Any suggestions?
There’s a blog in my head that is chock full of posts. A few of them will soon escape into the internet.
Working on a booklet for catechists, and have gotten some good feedback and helpful edits from my beta-readers. I would like to point out that if you ever write something really stupid, Dorian Speed has your back. THANK YOU DORIAN. Also got my first back-cover blurb quote, from Sarah Reinhard: “I NEED this book.” Heartening, very heartening.
This week on the calendar:
School. It’s going well. Yay!
First Night of CCD. This Wednesday. Wrote up class plans today. Need to get the classroom set up and materials in order. Stoked about my new helper / co-catechist, think it’s going to be a good match for the class.
Edits. Turning booklet from a 2nd draft into a 3rd draft, with help from some kind readers. Hope to have that done by the end of the week, and ready to send to the next set of readers.
Theology of the Body for Teens book review. Am plugging through that, really liking what I see. Top notch so far. My DRE is being very patient with me as I take forever to finish reading and previewing; I think mostly because buying it herself is not in the budget, so she’s scrambling to see what other parish wants to lend us materials. Thank you Catholic Company for helping keep the budget under control.
Ever heard of Dan Castell? He’s making us laugh. Mr. Boy is happily plowing through a draft manuscript as a beta-reader, and not just because I’ll excuse him from a week of National Catholic Reader assignments. Dr. Boli fans should watch this space. Some day I don’t know when, a finished work will emerge from Dan’s writing cave. Good stuff. Real gift for repartee.
And then all the usual stuff like cooking and cleaning and driving children places and gee, wow, laundry. I think maybe changing clothes is overrated.
Dear Friend of Family Honor:
You are receiving this e-mail as a friend of our organization. We need your help. We have hit a cash flow crunch that is having a significant effect on our staff. They are loyally working away at half pay and even that will be interrupted.
We have assembled a real “A Team” of staff and consultants over the last year to help implement our vision of putting Family Honor in every diocese in the country. Great strides have been made thus far: we have significant, new alliances with Catholic bishops and lay leadership around the country; we have added an affiliate in Ohio; our executive director and other guests are being interviewed regularly via Catholic media (our executive director will be a guest of Father Mitch Pacwa on EWTN Live this month); our parent-child programs are in the process of being updated and streamlined; and staff has been planning new ways of reaching even more parents. We also have many fund development efforts underway. Ironically, however, much of those fund development efforts will not bear fruit until at least the first of the year.
Excluding project driven efforts, which are covered by specific grants or donations, it takes about $25,000 a month to operate Family Honor’s home office. Our parent-child programs are essentially revenue neutral.
Can you help? In the short term, we need $15,000 by the 15th of September. We would also appreciate pledge commitments over the next few months. Please feel free to forward this e-mail to those who you think may be able to provide a donation to Family Honor. You can donate via the secure Family Honor web site at http://www.familyhonor.org or you can drop a check to our office:
Family Honor
Attn: Brenda Cerkez
2927 Devine Street, Suite 130
Columbia, SC 29205
Whatever you can do will help. Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
J Cabot Seth
Family Honor Chairman of the Board
803.773.8676
Courtesy of The Catholic Company Reviewer Program, I’m curling up this weekend with The Theology of the Body for Teens – Middle School Edition. So far so good. I’m halfway through the student and parent books, have not yet viewed the DVD’s. I’ll post my own review in the next week or so, and then will be passing on the bundle-o-curriculum to my DRE. Might be able to get some opinions from her and our youth minister to share with you as well.
–> Our parish elementary and middle/high school religious ed programs are on separate nights. Which means many family members of middle schoolers are loitering around the education building on a night when the middle school kids do not have class. This course looks like one that would make a great stand-alone program to offer during that time. We’ll see.
Ann Lewis of CWG fame requests we spread the word about the Guild’s upcoming writers’ retreat, which is not for guild members only!:
Our next big event is Your Word is My Delight: Catholic Writers Retreat – October 5-9, 2011 at the St. Francis Retreat Center in DeWitt, Michigan. I did send out a separate e-mailing on this event, so many of you have this information, but I want to reiterate that it looks to be a fantastic experience that is different from our writers conferences. With this retreat, we’ll work on our souls, contemplate God’s calling to us as writers and grow as writers through one-on-one critique sessions. And, because this is a writers retreat, you will be given a lot of time to just write! Please consider coming, and pass on this information to those you think might be interested. Post it on your blogs, twitter and facebook. If we don’t get more registrations for this event quickly, it may have to be canceled and we’d hate for that to happen.
Looks like a good event. Check it out.
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And spread the word. You don’t have to be a member of the guild, or even really be entirely certain about the existence of “Michigan” — though I have it from seemingly reliable witnesses that the place is real.
The CWG provides writing support to writers of all abilities and interests. Although the most expensive events do have an admission fee to cover costs, the guild runs top-notch educational events online at no charge, that are open to anyone at all. Great catholic and catholic-friendly books are being written and published today in part because of the help of the CWG along the way. If you like to read, the CWG is your friend. And it’s very easy to post a link to Ann’s announcement on your blog or page, so that your Michigan-area reader(s) can find out about a retreat that might be just what they need.
And then they will be like me, forever grateful to the person who posted a blurb about a CWG event on her blog, and introduced me to a whole wonderful world I never would have discovered.
I was in a private conversation with a young woman a few years ago, and the topic was modesty. No, she told me, she didn’t think outfit she had shown me was a problem. Her reasoning?
I’m not that attractive.
She meant it.
Let me tell you, she was and is BEAUTIFUL. I don’t just mean “all young women have a special inner beauty of their own if they just let it shine blah blah blah.” I mean like, Wow! Gorgeous!
–> One thing Jon and I discovered when we quit watching TV many years ago, is that our sense of beauty readjusted. Our brains no longer held up some kind of fake, air-brushed perfect standard as the model to which all humans must be compared. It is a kind of freedom.
Girls today are not growing up in my little cave of normalcy. They are surrounded by images everywhere of Perfect People. Those people are pretend. They are fake. They are like the hamburger in the picture on the menu at the fast food restaurant.
But here’s the thing about modesty: Men are perfectly happy with regular hamburgers. They don’t need it all fluffed and shellacked and with lettuce and onions hanging out just right to show off what’s inside. Maybe you have to photograph a hamburger just right to sell it to a girl. But all you have to do is say, “Hey, hamburgers!” and the guys will line up.
Really.
Girls, even if you aren’t super gorgeous, guys are THAT interested in you, just because you are a girl. You! Yes, you! You don’t need to “sell” yourself. You don’t need to put your every asset on display. Be a kind, friendly person who cares about others. That’s what real men are looking for in a wife.
PS: Betty Beguiles comes well-recommended, if you are looking for fashion ideas that show off the best you, without showing off more of you than needs to be public. Thank you to the Dorian/Bearing blogging powerhouse for their regular reminders that I really need to subscribe.
[And if you make a point of not showing off your body, you’ll eliminate from the field all the jerky dogs who are only interested in that, and who will drop you in ten years if you don’t stay perfect enough. You don’t need that. Do you have ten years to waste, and no desire to find a guy who loves you for YOU? No. Use the power of clothing to cull the field of the losers.]
As requested. Go vote. The topic is “Does an all-male sanctuary foster vocations to the priesthood?”
The results (given that this is Fr. Z’s blog) are unsurprising. But vote anyway.
[I voted yes. FYI I have a daughter who loves serving at the altar, and as long as my pastor is good with it, I’m good with it. My parish has about half and half boys & girls serving. Last time the secretary counted, she said it was more boys than girls. But my intuition is that a mixed server-corps encourages vocations to the sacrament of matrimony. I could be wrong. H/T to Sr. Meris the New Nun, who used to be an altar server.]
