Thursday | July 31, 2008

Homeschooling: The Coming Year and a Recommendation

I have finished the bulk of my homeschool planning for the coming year. [Deep contented sigh.] For those of you who are interested in what I use, here are the general details.

We have used Sonlight Curriculum from the very beginning of our homeschooling. I like that I can re-use each year's curriculum with my younger children with a minimal purchase of consumable materials. I like that we are building a library of real books. I like that it's an extremely adaptable curriculum. It is a Protestant curriculum but it has been an easy matter to adapt the curriculum to our family's needs.

Aleks math....may I just say what a godsend Aleks math has been for us?

We will continue using Magnificat for our daily prayer/Sacred Scripture times. We do morning prayers together, Angelus & Mass readings just before lunch, and when things are going well a family rosary before read-aloud time in the afternoon.

We usually ditch most of the SL Bible portion of the core, and I susbstitute read-alouds from biographies of Saints, and other inspirational people of faith. I believe strongly that the best interpretation of Sacred Scripture is read in the lives of the Saints so how the Saints lived their faith is the backbone of our catechism time. Books by Mary Fabyan Windeatt are a good starting place for the younger elementary kids with the exception of the book she did on Blessed Imelda Lambertini and everyone needs to read that one. The Vision series of books (here's one) is also good those listenee's that are a little older. The books by Louis de Wohl are similar to the Henty books in that there's a lot of history in them but they tend to be dry to read-aloud and they are similarly biased like the Henty books. I highly recommend The Shadow of His Wings for anyone who will be covering WWII with jr high and up children. It's a very exciting book and drives home the point that not all Germans were bad guys as well as the power of prayer! At times I will also work in books like The How-to Book of the Mass 

Some other resources that we have used in the past that you might want to look at:

Mass Explained to Children (this is an explanation of the pre-Vatican II mass but without too much difficulty can be used to discuss Novus Ordo)

Also pre-Vatican II but very helpful Know Your Mass

Another pre-Vatican II re-print My Catholic Faith ....some of the rules have changed from then to now but it's broken up into very digestible, systematic chunks, which makes it easy to discuss with children.

New to our catechism time this year will be An Introduction to Catholicism from the Didache series. I know my high schooler could benefit, my jr. higher is up to is, what remains to be seen is if my youngest (9 yodd) will be totally swamped by it. I am also hoping to spend some time with my two oldest on the Theology of the Body for Teens sometime during the year. I have just started viewing the DVD's that go with this program and I am very impressed. I think that teaching our children the Theology of the Body is essential and am enthusiastically recommending this as a way of incorporating it into your youth groups, and homeschools. Please check out what others have to say as well.

Nobattleplansurvivescontactwiththeenemy. Nobattleplansurvivescontactwiththeenemy. Nobattleplan......

Posted by Red Neck Woman at 18:54:05 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

August 2008 is Officially “Pray for PZ Myers Month”

From St. Peter Canisius Apostolate

I’m sure you’ve heard about the outrageous sacrilege committed by PZ Myers. If you haven’t, Jimmy Akin sums it up here. I’m not going to comment on what he did. You don’t need me to do that.


But I will encourage you to make August a month of prayer for PZ Myers. But let’s not just pray for his conversion. Let’s be a little more daring. Let’s pray that he will become our next St. Paul — not an the Apostle to the Gentiles, but an Apostle of the Eucharist.


This isn’t as odd as it might sound. One theme running throughout the lives of the saints, espeically saints that lives worldly lives before their conversion, is this: Their greatest sins became the foundation of their holiness. St. Paul persecuted the Church, and so God used him to build up the Church. St. Augustine lived a life of fleshly pleasure, so God made him the one to clarify the Christian view of conjugal love and made him the model of acesticism. St. Ignatius of Loyola longed to be a military man, and so God made him the head of, at one time, one of the most influential religious orders in the world. And little Therese Martin was extremely selfish in the smallest things of life, so God used her to teach the world how to become extraordinarily holy by giving Jesus the smallest of our acts.


So beginning next Friday, August 1, let us all join in prayer for the conversion of PZ Myers every day, until Sunday, August 31. Let us pray Rosaries for his conversion, offer up the Mass for his conversion, engage in abstinence and fasting for his conversion, and spend time in Adoration for his conversion.


In other words, let’s treat the man as Christ would have us treat him — with profound love.


So get the word out. Email your friends and relatives. Put it on your blogs and websites. Maybe one of you could made a flier that we could put in our parishes (contact me, and I’ll make it available through the Apostolate).


To which I will only add, please consider making the Holy Hour of Reparation for the Sacred Heart of Jesus part of your prayers for PZ Myers and all who share his contempt for the things of God.

Posted by Red Neck Woman at 02:10:34 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Catholic Carnival #183

This week's Catholic Carnival has more submissions that usual and they are truly excellent. Lyn at Organ-ic Chemist has outdone herself putting them all together. Go read, comment, and support Catholic blogging on the internet.
Posted by Red Neck Woman at 00:22:12 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Sunday | July 27, 2008

Something Needs to Be Said...

Do you ever talk back to the TV? My husband tells me that this is an effective means of communication and that the football players and referees will alter their actions because he has told them what to do. He has told me this frequently through our married life and I am certain that he would not lie to me. I am hoping that blogging is a similarly effective form of communication because I went to mass this morning at the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart and this must be said.

This.....



....is a baptismal font.

You will see something similar to it in every Catholic Church every place on the planet. They come in many different sizes and shapes and depending on when the church was built it might be at the front of the church or at the door as you walk in. Even if it is big and looks like it might sort of be like a fountain, it is not. It is a baptismal font. You may dip your fingers in the water and bless yourself with it, if you would like. Even if you are not Catholic. Really. Everyone is welcome to bless themselves with the water. It is not, however, a wishing well. Please do not throw money into it.

Thank you. I feel better now.
Posted by Red Neck Woman at 20:26:42 | Permanent Link | Comments (1) |

Friday | July 25, 2008

Battleplans

I am up to my eyeballs in planning for the upcoming school year.  I use Edu-Track to make lesson plans, keep track of materials we've used, field trips we've been on, books we've read etc. I can print out lesson plans, report cards, transcripts, and all kinds of reports. This program is truly been worth at least ten times the price I paid in the amount of work it has saved me. But...it's a little like Quicken. You've got to put the data in the program in the first place in order to reap the benefits. And so I sit with piles of books and notebooks, typing up my lesson plans for the year. It's tedious but since it doesn't require a great deal of mental effort my mind is free to wander.

Over the years, the thoughts that go through my head have varied. At the beginning of my homeschooling journey, I used paper and pencil and could do this job in a few hours over each weekend. Gradually at I added more children to the school roster and as they advanced in "wisdom and stature" [snort] the job became more complex and I added software to help me with the task. Those years were marked by a sense of optimism. I couldn't wait to share with my children all of these exciting learning opportunities. I loved grammar (can't proofread for beans though in case you were wondering where the evidence of that love is)...why shouldn't they love it too!? So of course, a langauge arts program that includes learning how to diagram sentences would be fun for us all. Latin? Of course! A daily nature journal? What a way to get out into God's Creation and learn to love it! I won't bore you with the laundry list but the evidence of my optimism is still all there on my schoolroom shelves. The optimism of those earlier years has been replaced by a sense of reality. The reality is that my children have long regarded anything involving actually writing on paper to be something akin to a form of medieval torture. The sentence diagramming thing? It's gathering dust. Somehow the children that God gave me don't appreciate the beauty or the importance of grammar. Latin? Well there wasn't room for the second langauge they needed (Spanish) and that third language I wanted them to have (Latin). My visions of well scrubbed, happy, polite, obedient children enthusiastically participating in the formation of their minds has been replaced with reality. They're grumpy in the morning. For that matter, they are grumpy right up to the point where I say that we've done enough school for the day. They still have trouble correctly identifying whether the dishes are clean in the dishwasher and responding appropriately. I still can't see to make them understand the wearing of clean clothes is an important life skill. They CRY if they have to write anything more than a few sentences. In short, I have to push and cajole and persuade and bribe and pester and nag and....

Just like God has to do to me? To get me to join in all that He has for me?

SHHHH.....I didn't hear that Lord, I was busy telling you about how my children make me work SO hard to get them to do these wonderful things. Would you please not interrupt me with a "teachable moment" about my own faults?

And so I leave you with the first immutable rule of homeschooling....

No battleplan survives contact with the enemy.
Posted by Red Neck Woman at 10:50:14 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Wednesday | July 23, 2008

More on Eucharistic Desecration....

Mark Shea has some excellent thoughts on the spreading wave of Eucharistic desecration and threats of such on InsideCatholic.com and Father Joe suggests a prayer of reparation here.

I'll repeat the Prayer of Reparation I suggested a couple of days ago which is taken from Holy Hour Of Reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Please consider buying a copy and praing the entire Holy Hour regularly!
Act of Reparation

O Sacred Heart of Jesus, animated with a desire to repair the outrages unceasingly offered to Thee, we prostrate before Thy throne of mercy, and in the name of all mankind, pledge our love and fidelity to Thee!


The more Thy Mysteries are blasphemed, the more firmly we shall believe them, O Sacred Heart of Jesus!


The more impiety endeavors to extinguish our hopes of immortality, the more we shall trust in Thy Heart, sole hope of mankind!


The more hearts resist Thy Divine attractions, the more we shall love Thee, O infinitely amiable Heart of Jesus.


The more unbelief attacks Thy Divinity, the more humbly and profoundly we shall adore It, O Divine Heart of Jesus!


The more Thy holy laws are transgressed and ignored, the more we shall delight to observe them, O most holy Heart of Jesus!


The more Thy Sacraments are despised and abandoned, the more frequently we shall receive them with love and reverence, O most liberal Heart of Jesus!


The more the imitation of Thy virtues is neglected and forgotten, the more we shall endeavor to practice them, O Heart, model of every virtue!


The more the devil labors to destroy souls, the more we shall be inflamed with desire to save them, O Heart of Jesus, zealous Lover of souls!


The more sin and impurity destroy the image of God in man, the more we shall try by purity of life to be a living temple of the holy Spirit, O Heart of Jesus!


The more Thy Holy Church is despised, the more we shall endeavor to be her faithful children, O Sweet Heart of Jesus!


The more Thy Vicar on earth is persecuted, the more will we honor him as the infallible head of Thy Holy Church, show our fidelity and pray for him, O Kingly Heart of Jesus!


O Sacred Heart, through Thy powerful grace, may we become Thy apostles in the midst of a corrupted world, and be Thy crown in the kingdom of heaven. Amen.

Thank you kindly James for directing me to those posts! 

Posted by Red Neck Woman at 20:44:37 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Catholic Carnival #182: I Love Being Catholic!

It's time to go see what other Catholic bloggers are writing about this week! Go directly to Ho Kai Paulos, do not pass Go!, do not collect $200 and support the things worth reading on the internet!

And while you are at it, please go read my friend Anne's post on Rote Prayer which is another one of this week's good posts!
Posted by Red Neck Woman at 20:16:10 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Monday | July 21, 2008

Heaven's Song by Christopher West

Save your book money. There's a book scheduled to be released in September that you are going to want. Let me rephrase that. You need this book.

Now those of you who know me more than just reading what I write here and those who read regularly enough to be deeply suspicious that I am more inclined than your average person to tell you that you need to buy a book and that I have never met a book I didn't like are saying to yourselves, "She'd sell her soul for a free book. This is just something she read for the Catholic Company's reviewer program. Why on earth would I listen to a thing she said with respect to how much I need to buy this book?" Well let me assure you that while I just might sell my soul for a free book, I recognize in myself a possibly irremediable weakness with regard to that, I have however, met books I don't like. I have....deep breath....thrown books away that made me mad or had no redeeming value whatsoever. True, I might have a very low standard for "no redeeming value whatsoever" but I do have one. And no matter how many books I think I "need", I do recognize that not everyone has the same sentiment about books. I love books and I want to see them placed in homes where they will be loved and cared for and so I do not recommend books willy nilly. As I read books I often think of people who might also enjoy reading that particular book, and this one was no different. What was different was that after a while, I started trying to think of someone to whom I would not recommend this book. I couldn't think of a single one. I don't know a one person who is old enough to read and understand the text who would not potentially benefit from the message of this book.: Heaven's Song by Christopher West

In a nutshell, it's an exploration of some recently discovered adresses that were written by John Paul II (recently discovered writings? how cool is that!?) on the Theology of the Body but were not delivered publicly because of their "delicate" nature. On the surface, they are commentaries on the the Song of Songs and the marriage of Tobias and Sarah in the deuterocanonical book of Tobit. What they constitute though is the rest of theological foundation John Paul II gave us in addresses that comprise theTheology of the Body that every catechist -- and I very much mean every -- bishop, priest, deacon, religious, parent, DRE, CCE teacher, husband, wife, consecrated virgin, (have I made my point yet?), etc. needs to help repair marriages in the Catholic Church and everything resting on those marriages. We will never solve the problem of a lack of vocations which are a generous giving of oneself to the Church until we repair the vocation of Marriage which is the generous giving of one spouse to another. We will not regain our footing with respect to the liturgy until we not only understand on an intellectual level that the giving of oneself to one's spouse in marriage is meant as a sign and symbol of Christ's total giving of himself in the Eucharist, but live it as well. The good news is not that the Church needs to be telling married people that conjugal love is bad, but rather helping them to redeem it from the twisted morass that the enemy has made of things and restore the joy that God intended it to have. The Theology of the Body must begin to permeate our thoughts about the family, the Faith, the Church, and the Liturgy. And that not just my opinion:

According to John Paul II, the dignity and balance of human life depend at every moment of history and at every point on the globe on who woman will be for man and who man will be for woman (TOB 43:7). The sexual relationship -- the relationship of man to woman and woman to man -- is the deepest foundation of human ethics and culture. (TOB 45:3). The union of man and woman builds and shapes families, families shape neighborhoods, neighborhoods shape communities, communities shape cities, cities shape states, states shape nations, nations shape the world. When the sexual relationship breaks down, eventually so does everything resting on it. (page 54)

To which I will only add. "Amen." and offer my opinion that this books offers a good introduction to the completion of John Paul II's Theology of the Body if you aren't starting from scratch with regard to his message, and that it is an excellent place for learning about the Theology of the Body if you aren't already familiar with this important Church teaching.

Through West, John Paul II reminds us that being created in the image of God means that from the beginning of creation, our bodies "have had the God-given ability to reveal divine mysteries." Chew on that for just a moment and begin to realize that to the extent that our bodies  and physical relationships are not in harmony with God's plan for them, we will be unable to understand and to properly live the divine mysteries that God intended to be revealed through our bodies. Time and again in Sacred Scripture we see Jesus use the metaphor of marriage to convey his divine Love for us. The passion of marriage, the sacrifice of marriage, the life-giving embrace of husband and wife is a God-given sign to instruct us about Our Lord's s love and passion and sacrifice for us. Is it any wonder then, that in a world where Catholic divorce rates nearly match those who are not religious, where Catholics are just as likely to contracept as any other Christian, where Catholics live together before marriage nearly as much as non-Christian that we are stuggling to understand Christ's love for us? Redeemed from sin, John Paul II tells us that the marital embrace is liturgical and that the liturgy is spousal. We must understand this, live it, and teach it effectively if we are to turn back the tide of crumbling families and all that implies for society and Church alike.

Here's a news flash....the thou-shalt-not approach to teaching the message of the good news of Christian sexuality is not working. That's why it's a relief to be able to say that this is most emphatically not a book that is condemning. In a field awash with books that can make you feel guilty, West manages to deliver the heart of the message of the Theology of the Body with all of the tenderness that I imagine was in Our Lord's voice when He spoke to the woman caught in adultery. "Neither do I condemn you. Go and from now on, do not sin any more." This is not a book that anyone, no matter how diseased and dysfunctional their sexual life is, needs to be afraid of. It's full of hope and joy and quite frankly, the promise of greater things ahead for those who are married AND for those who are not. You will be able to recommend this book with confidence to those who are already hurting badly in this area and fear additional battery by well-meaning but insufficiently charitable Christians.  

This is also a supremely practical book. It's already set up for those who might want to lead a book discussion in their parish with questions for reflection at the end of every chapter. It's easy to read so it's a good introduction for pretty much anyone who wants to begin to learn about the Theology of the Body both for those who are not inclined to study every point of Catholic doctrine in depth because there is plenty to meditate on for a long time and for those who are inclined to read-more-about-it since it's a good jumping off place. If you are a theologian, this book might be a little lightweight for you but then again, it might just be the help you need to put some of John Paul II's deeper theology into terms that would be easy to digest in a Sunday homily or parish study or at the dinner table with your family.  Besides, I don't think these newly discovered writings of John Paul II are widely distributed yet. (Feel free to leave a link to where they ARE published in the comments, if I am wrong about that.) You've got to buy the book to get a glimpse.

And now, let me tell you that I am putting my money where my mouth is. The copy I read was an unbound galley copy. I want this book on my library shelves and an unbound galley copy just is not going to cut it. Furthermore, I am not lending my copy of this book and I anticipate lending it frequently. So I am not only going to buy this book, I am going to give this book the honor accorded very VERY few books in my library. I am going to specifically buy at least one additional "lending copy" because I am NOT parting with my own.  

This review was written as part of The Catholic Company product reviewer program.  Visit Catholic Company to find more information on Heaven's Song
Posted by Red Neck Woman at 12:18:17 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Saturday | July 19, 2008

Catholic Carnival #182

Alexa at Frank, in a Sense, & Mirth is hosting this week's Catholic Carnival. Bloggers live for you comments so go read and comment and support the good stuff!
Posted by Red Neck Woman at 21:57:06 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |

Tuesday | July 15, 2008

Presentation of Jesus in the Temple

That Mary remained virgin both before and after the birth of Jesus is dogma of the Catholic Church. What is not dogma is under what circumstances she chose to be a virgin all of her life. Catholics believe that the NT indicates her intention of remaining virgin based on her response to the angel Gabriel "How shall this be since I do not know man?" Now if she was expressing disbelief like Zechariah did, she would have been punished like Zechariah. Was she expressing complete ingnorance of the mechanics of getting pregnant? (Unlikely in a farming community.) Or was she curious how that was going to happen since the angel knew she was vowed to be a virgin? One of the possibilities that is suggested in apocryphal works such as the Protoevegelium of James and the Gospel of the Birth of Mary, is that Mary was consecrated as a young girl to work in the temple. When she reached puberty the onset of menstruation would have introduced problems of ceremonial uncleanliness and a guardian, Joseph, was found for her. Here is an article on Catholic Answers that will get you started on references and details. The scholars on all sides are far from agreed on whether there was any such thing as a consecrated virgins in the Temple and I am not attempting to build a case for or against it. My reason for raising this idea is this.....what would the implications for Mary be, if she did spend many years working the in the Temple as a consecrated virgin? She would have been known by the priests, by those who worked in the Temple and its environs and they would have known about her vow of virginity.

Imagine then, showing up with a baby for the ritual purification after childbirth. Imagine the kind of guts it would take to show up with apparent evidence of that vow having been broken. I wonder if that's how Anna and Simeon knew that Jesus was the Messiah. They knew that the Messiah would be born to a virgin and they knew Mary would never break that vow. They had the courage to believe the impossible even when all reasonable explanations suggested a very ordinary reason for her to be carrying that baby. I'm guessing that Anna and Simeon were the exceptions and I wonder if she went home a cried at the end of the day.
Posted by Red Neck Woman at 21:48:04 | Permanent Link | Comments (0) |
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