Flora's Very Windy Day

Flora's Very Windy Day is a lovely book to read during Fall or anytime an older child is just not fully appreciating his/her younger sibling.

Talking to God

"Here is a point for your daily examination. Have I allowed an hour to pass, without talking with my Father God? Have I talked to him with the love of a son? You can!"

#657 Furrow by Josemaria Escriva

Reasons to be Thankful

Okay, I' m feeling a little nostalgic here. This picture is probably 9 years old--just a guess. I'm thankful for love and hugs and children who share them.

Joan of Arc or Jeanne d'Arc

To view an incredible array of paintings and other artwork depicting St. Joan's life, visit Maid of Heaven.com--Historical Pictures of Saint Joan of Arc

On the yahoo group, The History Place, someone asked for a book recommendation on St. Joan of Arc. Definitely throughout history there has been a fascination with Joan of Arc, also known as Jeanne d'Arc. Just type in Joan of Arc into the library catalog and a plethora of books comes up. I, myself, have 14 titles, but then again, I don't seem to have one book of anything. This list includes both books that I have read and not read. Some are rare. Some are certainly better than others. Amazon Associates is not working, so I don't have time to put this all together at once.

Picture Books

 

Hands down my all time favorite book of St. Joan of Arc is Joan of Arc by Maurice Boutet de Monvel. The artwork is spectacular, the story is moving and she is heroic, saintly, and real. Amazingly, it has been reprinted. Even though it is a picture book, it is not designed for young readers.

Another beautiful picture book is Joan of Arc by Josephine Poole, illus. by Angela Barret.











For Middle School:

Saint Joan of Arc, God's Soldier by Susan Helen Wallace, FSP, Encounter The Saints Series (Ages, 8-Up).

Saint Joan, The Girl Soldier by Louis de Wohl, Vision Books
Ages 10-Up

New Face of Home Schooling: Education in the Digital Age

This past summer I spoke at the IHM Conference in VA. The topic was The New Face of Homeschooling: The Pros and Cons of Technology. Similar, but not exactly the same as the talk, is an article I wrote for Lay Witness, Sept./Oct 2011 issue, "The New Face of Home Schooling: Education in the Digital Age." Believe it or not I have not had a chance to sit down and read it. You may think that odd, but sometimes the editor, actually edits. If you are interested in finding out more about CUF or subscribing, you can find them here.

Where Have I Been

Too many book sales! Too little time! Well, that is only part of the story. I have been selling books on Cathswap to help pay for a house that is in constant disrepair. I had kitchen drawers with the faces falling off, a black tar-like floor, no insulation in the walls, and too many other lovely details you don't want to know about.

 Last summer, we stored bird seed on our back porch. We had, however, a squirrel, which was not deterred by the windows and shredded the screens.Therefore, my next goal is to pay for the new screens/windows. I think it will take me a while before I sell that many books.

In the meantime, we are all reading lots of books, but I haven't had a chance to post them.

Tanglewood Performance

My daughter, Alyssa, is experiencing her summer "vacation" playing at Tanglewood. This is what one reviewer had to say:

Making an interesting contrast to that was Arnold Schoenberg’s String Quartet in D Minor, Op. 7, composed when he 30 years old and in thrall to Mahler. The last third of this piece is truly wonderful, and it was played with great verve by violinists Jennifer Yamamoto and Alyssa Yank, violist Esther Nahm, and cellist Loewi Lin. Its triumphant close seemed all the more dramatic because the quartet was played without a break.

You can read the whole review 
here.

BTW: This is not a recent photo.

Life Lessons and Rabbit Tales, The Tale of Peter Rabbit

 Life Lessons and Rabbit Tales, The Tale of Peter Rabbit

There is something magical about snuggling with a newborn baby, caressing his soft, silky hair and cheek, mesmerized by his incredible beauty. Equally magical, though, is that same child years later, delighting in snuggling next to you for no other reason than you are his mother or father reading a picture book.

I couldn't wait until our eldest child could sit still long enough to cuddle on my lap to look at picture books. I had a long list I was waiting to share. Number one on the list was The Tale of Peter Rabbit. . . .

(the rest of the article is in Faith and Family Spring, 2011 issue.)

Art Lessons for Kids

If you are looking for art lessons to do with your children this summer, a friend sent this link to
Deep Space Sparkle

Building an e-book Catholic library

A friend sent this link to building a Catholic e-book library. I know others who use other e-books as well.
Building a Catholic e-book Library. 


Another friend purchased the whole Summa for $.99.

God Bless,
Elizabeth

New Face of Homeschooling

I am sure the Holy Father has many addresses encouraging people to use the internet and technology as a means of evangelization. Here is another talk.
ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI
TO PARTICIPANTS IN A CONGRESS ON
"DIGITAL WITNESSES.
FACES AND LANGUAGES IN THE CROSS-MEDIA AGE"
ORGANIZED BY THE ITALIAN EPISCOPAL CONFERENCE (CEI)
Paul VI Audience Hall
Saturday, 24 April 2010  

Your Eminence,
Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate,
Dear Friends,

I am glad of this occasion to meet you and to conclude your Congress that has a particularly evocative title: "Digital Witnesses: Faces and Languages in the Cross-Media Age". I thank Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, President of the Italian Episcopal Conference, for his cordial words of welcome with which, once again, he has wished to express the affection and closeness to my apostolic service of the Church in Italy. Your words, Your Eminence, mirror the faithful adherence to Peter of all the Catholics of this beloved nation and the esteem of so many men and women motivated by the desire to seek the truth.

The present time is experiencing an enormous expansion of the frontiers of communication, bringing about an unheard of convergence among the different media and making interactivity possible. The internet is therefore revealing a vocation that is open, basically egalitarian and pluralist but at the same time it is creating a new boundary: indeed, people are talking about the digital divide.
This divide separates the included from the excluded and adds to the other discrepancies that are already distancing nations from one another and dividing them from within. The dangers of standardization and control, of intellectual and moral relativism, already clearly recognizable in the erosion of the critical spirit, the subordination of truth to the play of opinions, the multiple forms of degradation and humiliation of the person's intimacy. We are therefore witnessing a "pollution of the spirit; it makes us smile less, makes our faces gloomier, less likely to greet each other or look each other in the eye" (Address for the Immaculate Conception, Piazza di Spagna, 8 December 2009). This Congress, on the other hand aims precisely to focus on faces, hence to surmount those collective dynamics that can cause us to lose our perception of the depths of the person by stopping at appearances. When this happens, people are left as bodies without a soul, objects of exchange and consumption.

How is it possible to focus anew on the face? I have also tried to point out the way in my third Encyclical. It passes through that caritas in veritate, which shines out in Christ's Face. Love of truth is "a great challenge for the Church in a world that is becoming progressively and pervasively globalized" (n. 9). The media can become factors of humanization, "not only when, thanks to their technological development, they increase the possibilities of communicating information, but above all when they are geared towards a vision of the person and the common good that reflects truly universal values" (n. 73). This requires that they "focus on promoting the dignity of persons and peoples, they need to be clearly inspired by charity and placed at the service of truth, of the good, and of natural and supernatural fraternity" (ibid.). Only on these conditions can the epochal change we are passing through be fruitful and rich in new opportunities. Let us set sail on the digital sea fearlessly, confronting open navigation with the same enthusiasm that has steered the Barque of the Church for 2,000 years. Rather than for technical resources, although these are necessary, let us also qualify ourselves by dwelling in this world with a believing heart that helps to give a soul to the ceaseless flow of communications that makes up the web.

This is our mission, the inalienable mission of the Church. Every believer who works in the media has a "special responsibility for opening the door to new forms of encounter, maintaining the quality of human interacti0n and showing concern for individuals and their genuine spiritual needs. They can thus help the men and women of our digital age to sense the Lord's presence" (Message for the 44th World Day of Social Communications, 16 May 2010). Dear friends, you are also called to post yourselves on the web as "leaders of communities", attentive to "preparing ways that lead to the word of God" and showing special sensitivity to "the disheartened and those who have a deep, unarticulated desire for enduring truth and the absolute" (ibid.). The web can thus become a sort of "Court of the Gentiles", "offering a space... for those who have not yet come to know God" (ibid.).

As leaders of the world of culture and communications, you are a vital sign that "Church communities have always used the modern media for fostering communication, engagement with society, and, increasingly, for encouraging dialogue at a wider level" (ibid.). In Italy, voices in this field are not lacking. It suffices here to recall the daily Avvenire, the television broadcasting station TV2000, the radiophonic circuit inBlu, and the press agency SIR, alongside the Catholic periodicals, the diocesan weeklies and the now numerous websites of Catholic inspiration.
I urge all professionals in communications never to tire of nourishing in their hearts that healthy passion for man which seeks to draw ever closer to his many languages and to his true face.
A sound theological training will help you in this and, especially, a profound and joyful passion for God, fostered by continuous exchanges with the Lord. The particular Churches and religious institutes, for their part, should not hesitate to make the most of the formation courses offered by the Pontifical universities, by the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart and by the other Catholic and ecclesiastical universities, earmarking for them, with foresight, people and resources. The world of the media is fully part of pastoral planning.

As I thank you for the service you offer to the Church and thus to the human cause, I urge you, enlivened by the courage of the Holy Spirit, to set out on the highways of the digital continent. Our trust is not uncritically placed in any one technical instrument. Our efforts consist in being Church, a believing community that can witness to all to the perennial newness of the Risen One, with a life that flourishes in fullness to the extent that it is open, enters into relationships and is freely given.

I entrust you to the protection of Mary Most Holy and of the great Saints of communications and I cordially bless you all. 

Vatican Library

New Face of Homeschooling: Technology

Here are some helpful links. If I don't put them down somewhere, I will never find them again. These technologies would work for many kids who struggle with learning issues.

Assitive Technology for Students with Learning Disabilities

Homeschoolers May be Ahead of the Technological Curve

Homeschooling Special Learners with Assistive Technology

New Face of Homeschooling: Technology as a source of income or saving money

II. Technology as a source of income and/or means of saving money.

            Because of the way the internet is designed, some moms are able to stay home and work and contribute to their family’s income. For example one mom in our homeschool group, does medical records from home. Some moms have online businesses.

Used Books: Many moms buy and sell books through Cathswap, a yahoo group.  There are other homeschool buy and sell yahoo groups.

Ebay, www.abebooks.com , etc.

Whether you homeschool or not, moms want to save money.

Coupons: Individual stores, including Catholic homeschool stores, like Emmanuel Books and many others, send e-mails alerts of sales or coupons. Some businesses discount purchases made through the internet, i.e. airlines, driving schools, etc. Another popular coupon group is www.Groupon.com , which sends e-mails to your account of various discounted businesses (restaurants, hair salons, etc). http://www.retailmenot.com/ is a website with coupons for over 90,000 stores nationwide.

Discount Retailers: Some stores offer free shipping with a minimum purchase.

Homeschool Buyers Co-op is just what it says. Bulk purchases allow for discounted prices. Homeschool Buyers Co-op: http://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/

They are the cheapest place for Discovery Streaming. They offer many online programs like Colonial Williamsburg field trips, or online math and reading programs. They also sell an online version of Explode the Code.

New Face of Homeschooling: Organizing

Here we go! Some of the resources referred to in my talk The New Face of Homeschooling at IHM in DC, 2011.

I Technology as an Organizer:

A.    For organizing your home and schedule:

1.     Emilie Barnes

2.     Family-centered.com

3.     Homeroutines.com (app. works well with FlyLady):

4.     flylady.net

5.     Google calendar, which multiple people can have access to, PDA, smartphone, etc.

B.     For organizing your lesson plans:

1.     For organizing lesson plans, attendance record, report cards, transcripts and more on your computer, there is the Homeschool Tracker

2.     For printable resources, there is Donna Young.org Printables and Resources: donnayoung.org

3.     Scholaric: http://scholaric.com/marketing

4.    titus2.com

5.    Chart Jungle : Printables for school and homeschool

6.   Excel spread sheet

7.   If you google, homeschool record keeping, or homeschool lesson planner, you will find a number of alternatives: Edu-Track Home School http://www.contechsolutions.net/products/eths_pc/

C.     For organizing Books: There are several choices.

Good Reads  Book recommendations from friends, keep track of what you have read and if you liked it and what you would like to read, form a book club and more. 

Shelfari: Shelfari

Keep track of what you have read; how you liked it and connect with friends.

Library Thing

Free unless you wish to catalog an unlimited number of books and no ads. Library Thing is to keep track of all the books you own. You can add books that are not in the system. You can scan books that have a bar code with your mobile phone or with a cue cat they sell on their site.

Harmony

New Face of Homeschooling

I will be speaking at the Washington DC IHM conference June 10/11, 2011. There is no way I can possibly share all the information about the impact of technology on homeschooling in 45-50 minutes. Therefore, I will be posting many of the books and links here. I will be continually updating.

Here is a Bibliography. I have read portions of these books, but have not necessarily cited them. They are not in alphabetical order or organized by topic.

The Illustrated Guide to Assistive Technology and Devices: Tools and Gadgets for Living Independently by Susznne Robitaille, 2010
For people with disabilities, this book offers a wealth of assistive technology, written for the layman.





Learning How to Learn, Revised by Joyanne Cobb, 2003.
Incorporating her own experiences of going to college as a disabled person, she lays out a well organized look at getting into and surviving college. She includes many helpful tips.





Christian Homes And Special Kids by Sherry Bushness and Diane Ryckman, 2003
Published through NATHHAN/CHASK
The book is laid out a little different. Each section is a different topic and then different families offer their first hand experience. There is a short chapter on assistive technology.

 High Tech/High Touch: Technology and Our Search for Meaning by John Naisbitt, 2001
How technology effects our lives.







 The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr, 2011
He takes a look at how the internet and how we interface with technology is effecting how we think. Is the internet encouraging us to think with quick bits of distracted information instead of "promoting deep creative thought."





Raise a Smarter Child by Kindergarten: Raise IQ by up to 30 points and turn on your child's smart genes by David Perimutter MD, and Carol Comman, 2008.
I bet you can guess what they are going to say! Limit screen time. No TV for children under two. No TV in your child's room. No video games for children under 3. The list goes on.




Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology (P.S.) by Eric Brende, 2005.
This is Eric and his wife's experiment to live without technology. But, I would add, there are plenty of uses of technology sprinkled throughout. I did not read the whole book. In my opinion, it is not what you are willing to live without, but what are you willing to live for. I don't know that the author fully recognizes that although there is a hint of it when they baptize their baby.



The Future of the Internet--And How to Stop It by Jonathan Zittrain, 2009.
The is written by a computer geek. It presents a technical look at the history of computer technology. The information is not really related to my topic at hand, but may be of interest.






The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future(Or, Don't Trust Anyone Under 30) by Mark Bauerlein, 2009. Is the digital age destroying people's ability to think and reason, let alone read.






Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology by Neil Postman, 1993. The fear that technology is transforming culture negatively.








 Endangered Minds: Why Children Don't Think And What We Can Do About It by Jane M. Healy, 1999. Are children struggling in school, because of too much time with TV and video games.






 Different Learners: Identifying, Preventing, and Treating Your Child's Learning Problems by Jane M. Healy, 2010. More and more children are becoming labeled learning disabled. Healy takes a look at many of the diagnoses, identifies them, and discusses how they are addressed. For example, Asperger's Syndrom, What is it? Where does it come from? What do we do? Healy also covers how the brain develops, the effects of the environment, and much more.



 Disconnected Kids: The Groundbreaking Brain Balance Program for Children with Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, and Other Neurological Disorders by Dr. Robert Melillo, 2010. This book offers exercises to assess the child and practical solutions to overcome neurological disorders.





Overcoming Dyslexia For Dummies by Tracy Wood, 2005. She includes a list of technological helps for the dyslexic.







Overcoming Dyslexia: A New and Complete Science-Based Program for Reading Problems at Any Level by Sally Shaywitz, 2003. Now in Kindle. And there is a later pbk edition. She does have an interesting section on brain development.






Boys Should Be Boys: 7 Secrets to Raising Healthy Sons by Meg Meeker, 2009. No TV or computer in bedrooms.







Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters: 10 Secrets Every Father Should Know by Meg Meeker, 2007. One of the few if only authors who includes the importance of a moral foundation and God.







Helping Boys Succeed in School by Terry W. Neu and Rich Weinfeld, 2006. Some tech support suggestions offered.







The Trouble with Boys: A Surprising Report Card on Our Sons, Their Problems at School, and What Parents and Educators Must Do by Peg Tyre.







Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men by Leonard Sax, 2009.








Girls on the Edge: The Four Factors Driving the New Crisis for Girls-Sexual Identity, the Cyberbubble, Obsessions, Environmental Toxins by Leonard Sax, 2010.







Five-Star Apps: The best iPhone and iPad apps for work and play by Glenn Fleishman, 2010.







 Kids in the Syndrome Mix of ADHD, LD, Asperger's, Tourette's, Bipolar and More!: The One Stop Guide for Parents, Teachers and Other Professionals by Martin L. Kutscher and Robert R. Wolff, 2007.










How the Special Needs Brain Learns by David A. Sousa, 2006. The importance of language development in the young child.







Smart Moves: Why Learning Is Not All in Your Head by Carla Hannaford, Ph.D, 2005.







Making the Brain Body Connection: A Playful Guide to Releasing Mental, Physical & Emotional Blocks to Success by Sharon Pomislow and Cathrine Levan, 2005.







Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age by Maggie Jackson, 2009.







Leisure: The Basis of Culture by Josef Pieper and James Schall SJ (forward), 2009.