A Catholic Homeschool Treasury

A Catholic Homeschool Treasury (Ignatius Press) has been out of print for a few months now and I occasionally get emails from people looking for a copy. I just discovered that you can still get it from St. John Fisher Catholic Bookstore and Stella Maris Catholic Books if anyone is interested. I've seen used copies for sale for as much as $40, so it may be an investment to buy one or two. Or maybe not.

Clearance Sale!

There is a clearance sale over at RC History. Make sure to check it out!

Steve Wood Interview Postponed

Due to an unforeseen scheduling conflict, my appearance on Steve Wood's radio show Faith and Family Live has been postponed. I'll let you all know when a new date is set.

Prayers, Friends, and Stem Cells

I'd like to ask you all to pray for two friends of mine, Ed and Ann, who will be testifying on March 21st before the Michigan House Health Policy Committee. The testimony is on H.B. 4900, a bill to repeal Michigan's prolife ban on human cloning and fetal stem cell research. This bill is being pushed hard by our governor.

Ed will be testifying as the representative of Right to Life of Michigan and Ann as an MS patient who rejects the idea of destroying human life to cure her disease. Both Ed and Ann are wonderfully articulate and know their stuff, but they still need our prayers. Prayers that they will not be intimidated and prayers that the representatives will be moved enough by Ed and Ann's testimony to have a change of heart

If you live in Michigan, sign an online petition here. Please take the time to forward this petition to Michigan friends and family. Cures can be found without treating human life as if it were a mere commodity to be created and destroyed at any researcher's whim. To support the life-affirming work of Right to Life of Michigan, click here.

Perfection Parenting

As I was sitting in the doctor's waiting room today, I was enjoying the stockpile of Reader's Digests. One declared, right on the front cover, that a perfect childhood is bad for children.

Whew! That's a load off my shoulders.

The Real Da Vinci Story

Check out Da Vinci Outreach for all kinds of great free resources. The website is a frame, so make sure to look for the scroll bar in the center of the page to view all of the free downloads: Parish Action Plan, Homily Helps, Parish Discussion Guides, Youth Group Guide, posters, flyers, and bulletin announcements.

The Da Vinci Deception can be bought in bulk at Da Vinci Outreach at a deep discount. If you're just going to buy one, get it straight from the author.

More CHC Buzz in the Blogosphere

Melissa Willey wrote a lovely review of The Catholic Homeschool Companion at her blog: Here in the Bonny Glen. Give Melissa a visit, especially if you're a Charlotte Mason fan, and leave her a comment.

Melissa writes those lovely Little House prequels. You'll also see her in the spring 06 issue of Heart and Mind.

ALL's 4th Annual National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day

I received the following email from American Life League yesterday. My kids love the ALL apparel. They own several of the hoodies, T-shirts, and hats. In fact, the girls recently bought a bunch of the patches and sewed them to their blue jeans. Check out their online catalog. You can't beat a their prices . . .


American Life League's fourth annual National Pro-life T-shirt Day

Every year in America, the plague of abortion takes the lives of more than 1,200,000 human beings. On April 25, warn the world. Wear a shirt with a pro-life message. And join thousands of kids, teens and adults in the fight to cure abortion!

Official shirt of National Pro-life T-shirt Day
April 25, 2006
$5 each / plus shipping and handling

Adult shirts (military green) available in S / M / L / XL / XXL
Youth shirts (sand) available in YS / YM / YL
Order online or call toll-free — 866-LET-LIVE
Last day to order is April 17!

For specials offers at clearance prices, see our CLOSEOUT page!

Comments? Suggestions? Please let us hear from you!

God bless you and your efforts on behalf of God's innocent preborn babies.
Ed Carroll
ALL Resource Manager

©2006 American Life League, Inc.
This is the ALLResources list from http://www.prolifegear.com,a division of American Life League.
To subscribe: ALLResources-subscribe@lists.all.org

Please Don't Drink the Holy Water

Please Don't Drink the Holy Water: Homeschool Days, Rosary Nights and Other Near Occasions of Sin (Sophia Institute Press) by Susie Lloyd.

I love this book. It is not a how-to book or a book about homeschooling philosophies, it's just pure fun. And you don't even have to be a homeschooling mom to get it. Anyone with kids will totally crack up reading Please Don't Drink the Holy Water.

I have to admit that this book sat on my shelf for a few months without being read. Then Drama Diva picked it up and started reading it. She told me, "Mom, this lady sounds just like you. You've got to read this!" Maybe that's why I love this book, I can so relate to Susie's funny stories.

Susie also has a column in Latin Mass if you'd like the opportunity to read her work elsewhere. In fact, here is an online article: The Successful Homeschool: Some Key Ingredients.

Riddle Me This

Q: How many radical feminists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: That's not funny.

Anti-choice activists on ABC News: Mommy Wars: To Work or Stay at Home?

It's okay to choose death for your unborn child, but if you choose life you best not choose to stay home with said child. That's BAD.

And, btw, if I was as sensitive as my radical feminist friends, I would be extremely insulted by ABC's headline. Believe it or not, SAHM's do work. You wouldn't believe the calories I burn getting my bon bons out of the fridge and turning on the tube to watch Oprah and Dr. Phil.

A Townhall.com column in response to the ABC piece: A Duel in the Mommy Wars.

Hat tip to Kevin Miller.

CHC Authors on the Web

There are a whopping 43 contributing authors to The Catholic Homeschool Companion. If you would like to find any of them on the Internet, I've put up links on left. You'll also find several CHC Authors in the Blog Roll.

The Da Vinci Deception

Hot off the presses is Mark Shea's The Da Vinci Deception: 100 Questions About the Facts and Fiction of The Da Vinci Code. Go to Mark's website to get an autographed copy. You can't beat the price and it's so cool to have autographed books on your shelf. (Make sure to tell Mark who to inscribe it to.) This is important reading, especially with Ron Howard's movie version about to be released.

Also email your library and ask them to buy it. (See PopeStNickV to become a library evangelist)

Other titles on this topic:
De-Coding Da Vinci: The Facts Behind the Fiction of The Da Vinci Code by Amy Welborn
The Da Vinci Hoax: Exposing the Errors in The Da Vinci Code by Carl E. Olson and Sandra Miesel

Update: If you would like to discuss The Da Vinci Code, visit Da Vinci Outreach.

Prayers Please

This week a beautiful soul was taken from us here on earth. Missey Gray, wife and homeschool mom of five, died about an hour after giving birth to a beautiful baby girl. The baby, Melissa Kate, is 5 lbs. 1 oz. and healthy.

Some of you may know Missey through Ambleside Online, or her blog Heartschooling, or the Yahoo group Basically Beechik.

When Missey went in for a stress test it showed that she was loosing amniotic fluid at an alarming rate. They decided to go ahead and take the baby. After the the baby was lifted from her body, some of the amniotic fluid got into her blood stream and caused a blood clot. This in turn caused her death. She never came out of surgery. Apparently this can happen once in 200,000 births.

If you would like to help Missey's family with a financial gift, click here.

Please keep Missey and her family close in prayer.

Update: The Gray family asks that you also keep the doctors and nurses who assisted Missey in your prayers.
Update: There is a memorial at Homeschool Blogger.

Fortune Cookie Wisdom

Found in my fortune cookie tonight: Fail to plan is to plan to fail.

How did the guy at the Chinese restaurant know that I'm behind in my lesson planning?

Faith and Family Live

I'm going to be interviewed by Steve Wood on his EWTN radio show Faith and Family Live about The Catholic Homeschool Companion, Thursday, March 16, 2:00 to 3:00 Eastern. It's an hour long show. The first half hour will be discussion about the book. Steve will pick a chapter or two and we'll chat. The second half of the show is listener call in.

I have two favors to ask of you all. First, please pray for me. It's been a few years since I've done a radio interview and I've only done one live. Pray that I don't get too nervous or say anything too incredibly stupid. The second favor is to call and toss me a softball question. It would be lovely to hear a friendly voice on the other end of the phone line.

Phone number for calling is 1-800-994-2050 (U.S. & Canada). International callers: 011-941-743-0767. Or you can email a question to be read over the air at: Ask the Host.

Go to EWTN and click on Radio to find a local station or to stream online.

Kids, Lent, and Learning Activities

Karen Edmiston has some great Lenten activities posted at her blog.
Check it out at: Lent at Our House.
Also see her post: Crown of Thorns.
Oh wait, there is one more: Lenten Crown.
Great stuff!

Tales from the Bonnie Blue House

Mary Ellen Barrett has a lovely review of CHC at her blog, Tales from the Bonnie Blue House. Thank you Mary Ellen! Hers is one of those blogs that I visit regularly.

If you are not familiar with Mary Ellen, she moderates the discussion group, Special Kids Moms. This is a group of Catholic women with special needs children. It's a very nice, supportive group that I am glad to have found.

Look for Mary Ellen in the upcoming summer issue of Heart and Mind (to be mailed 06/01/06). She writes about homeschooling her child with PDD and epilepsy.

I'm a Minority

I was reading recently that families with more than four children make up only 2.5% of American families. Estimates are that homeschoolers make up only 1 to 1.5% of the school population. No wonder people gasp for air when I tell them that I'm a homeschooling mother of seven!

The Pros and Cons of Harry

If you have made the decision to let your children read the Harry Potter books, or if you teach CCD, I highly recommend reading Finding God in Harry Potter by John Granger. This book helped me a great deal in baptizing the Harry books. Mr. Granger's website is http://www.hogwartsprofessor.com/. (Karen also recommended this book in a comment to a previous HP post.)

Another interesting title is The Gospel According to Harry Potter by Connie Neal. Her website is http://www.connieneal.com/.

I borrowed both the Granger and Neal books from my library.

Catholic children's author Regina Doman wrote Harry for Catholics?. And from Amy Welborn: Sorting through Harry Potter.

If you have yet to decide whether or not Harry Potter has a place on your reading list and want to cover all the bases, here is the other side of the story:
Steve Wood has a large selection of articles at his website: Harry Potter.
He also offers a CD by Michael O'Brien, Vivian Dudro & Fr. Philip Scott: Parental Concerns About Harry Potter.

Who's Really Happy?

The Pew Research Center released an interesting study a couple of weeks ago on the happiest people in America. They surveyed 3,014 adults on their level of happiness. Here are a few of the survey results:

47% of conservative Republicans describe themselves as "very happy," compared with 28% of liberal Democrats. (This number flunctuates somewhat depending on which political party is in power.)

34% of Americans overall describe themselves as "very happy."

43% of married people are very happy, compared with 24% of single people.

43% of those who attend church at least once a week are very happy, compared with 26% who seldom or never attend church. (Hey Chrissy, sounds like a great sermon topic for Tom!)

37% of parents with children younger than 18 are very happy; 29% of those who are childless are very happy.

35% of men are very happy, compared to 33% of women.

The survey has a margin of error of 2%.

To find online articles about this survey, click here: http://people-press.org/news/