In His Image: it's almost here!

Margot emailed to let me know she'll be picking up the first run of In His Image! She'll be debuting them at IHM on Friday ... and I just can't wait!

Thanks to all for the good words ... I so want this to be for the greater glory of God ... let me know what you think!

Resources: Catholic and Homeschooling combined

Please, click here to subscribe now!

Do you want a recommendation for one of the best homeschool resources? Do you want to imbue your homeschool with Catholicity and love of learning? Have I got a recommendation for you!

Have you seen the only Catholic, homeschooling quarterly available? mater et magistra (a quarterly for which I'm proud to write the handcrafts column) is an amazing publication! The name says it all: Mother and Teacher which is what the Church is for us all; but in lower case letters it's what each one of us is in the hearts of our homes: mother and teacher!

Each issue has a theme which means these are definite keepers for future projects. The volunteer contributors are experienced homeschoolers with lots of great information for incorporating the arts, sciences, books and crafts into our learning adventures. Margot works hard to give the magazine a sophisticated feel with lots of depth to the articles.

If you haven't seen this magazine ... ask around or better yet, go to one of the many regional homeschool conferences (for instance, Margot will be at IHM this next weekend) and look for the m-et-m table! I really do thing you'll like what you see and want to subscribe to the only Catholic homeschool magazine out there. And at $20 for 4 issues, it's a great price too!

WooHoo: Elizabeth's Foreword

Here's a link to a beautiful foreword from a beautiful friend ... thanks Elizabeth!

WooHoo: it's out!

Please celebrate with me .... Margot, my publisher at Hillside Education, just posted that my book, In His Image: Nurturing Creativity in the Heart of Your Home is available for pre-order (with a shipping date of June 15th). If you get a chance to read a copy, please let me know what you think. And my good friend over at 4real, Elizabeth Foss, kindly wrote the foreword for me!

Enjoy!

Review: Webinars and Wittmann!

Did you make it to the Wittman webinar on Wednesday evening (try saying that 5 times really fast)? What a GREAT time was had by all.

This is the first on-line conference I've attended and, although I'm a tech-head, I was a bit wary of the whole concept. I mean, c'mon, I love sitting in front of the computer like most folks but an hour and a half of just sitting (albeit, I'd be knitting), listening and watching ... sounded a bit over the top.

Well, let me tell you -- this is pretty slick. I got to sit and listen to Maureen and her presentation about teaching art and music using living books. AT THE SAME TIME, I could ask questions, chat with others or generally cut-up through the chat feature (just typing, no mike needed). Maureen, pro that she is, was keeping one eye on her presentation and one eye on the chat window so she could add her two bits too! VERY COOL.

Maureen's presentation was, as usual, excellent. Many of the books mentioned are in her classic, living teaching book, For the Love of Literature: Teaching Core Subjects with Literature. As a matter of fact, on of the participants had the forethought to have the book available so she could stick post-its as fast as Maureen commented on one book after another. But more than just repeating what she has in her book, Maureen did a great job of "playing to her audience" by keeping the flow going, by responding to questions or comments lobbed in the chat window, by generally giving us her "full monty" from the comforts of our own homes. I was surprised how quickly the technology took backstage to the presentation and it was almost as if she were in my living room giving the talk!

Walter Crawford, the brains behind the Homeschool Connection idea has partnered with Maureen to increase the number of webinars, making them all free. Additionally, the team is devising on-line classes for high school and middle school students. The first course will be a government course taught by the head of the Michigan pro-life committee! Check out the Homeschool Connection website for further information ....

All the webinars are now free, thanks to some amazing homeschool resource suppliers. For instance, the webinar on Wednesday was sponsored by Love2Learn.net and Margot at Hillside Education gave away THREE one-year subscriptions to her amazing Catholic homeschool quarterly, mater et magistra. I'm proud to say that I write the handcrafts column for this beautifully edited one-of-a-kind magazine!

In addition, you can actually download past webinars (including the one I attended), and you can replay it at your leisure. You'll get not only the presentation but you'll also have the actual "chat room" text that occured at the same time. You can save the webinar to your computer and replay it whenever you feel the need to spunk up your home-education adventure.

I love this stuff!

Christmas Shopping Op while Helping Others

See that little button on my side-bar? Well, here's the story behind it:

I have a wonderful cyber-friend who I've only met once in real life, yet know quite well as I've "chatted" with her for more than five years (and finally met when we were both in Colorado a couple of years ago). She is a Catholic home-educating mom of 10 children.

Michele's 8 yod was diagnosed with type-1 diabetes this summer; this Fall, her 4 yos was also diagnosed. The whole family will now need to be tested to determine if there are antibodies present that could be responsible; in addition, the 8yod may have celiac disease.

Michele's husband's company doesn't have insurance for the family and through a snafu, their public insurance was cancelled. Insulin and incidentals for diabetes runs over $500 per month PER CHILD.

Margot over at Hillside and some others have gotten together a "Helping Those in Need" page for those who need a helping hand. From now until the end of December, ALL proceeds from the sale of the items on that page will be sent to the Michele. More items will be added over the next days. Margot, bless her heart, will make this "Need" page a permanent part of Hillside Education!

So go do some Christmas shopping and help out a wonderful family. And please spread the word.

News: A Catholic homeschooling magazine is announced!

Margot Davidson, the publisher of my book, Great Yarns, has taken over the ownership of Heart and Mind magazine. She has renamed it, " index.php?main_page=" cpath=" store hillsideeducation.com http: mater et magistra" and it promises to be an excellent endeavor! I'll be doing some writing and other odd jobs and hope you enjoy the product.

Here's an excerpt from the website:

Our new name is taken from the papal encyclical Mater et Magistra, which
explains the Church’s role as our mother and teacher. In our homes—our
domestic churches—we, too, are “mother and teacher” to the children in our care,
a special blending of the God-given duty to educate our children.

We have made our title in lower case letters in deference to the “big” Mater et
Magistra, the Church, and we take as our model the most beautiful mother and
teacher ever created, Mary, the Mother of God.

So please, check it out and see what you think!

It's often the little things ....

.... that REALLY make my day. But this one was so exciting I just had to share with everyone/anyone who reads my blog ....

Amazon has my book listed!

Yep, thanks to the hard-work of my publisher, Margot at Hillside Education, my book Great Yarns for the Close-Knit Family is now officially available on Amazon. Now this might not be a big deal to some .... but since I'm VERY OFTEN on Amazon, building up their stock by buying books every month, it's nice to know they're selling my book.

Read-alouds and knitting -- what could be better?

Margot Davidson at Hillside Education has just announced a brand new book:

Yep, that would be MY BOOK! The long-awaited, long-hinted-at book will finally be coming out. Pre-orders are available from Margot's web-site (and you'll get a pair of hand-made Birch knitting needles to-boot!) until March 8th with the books shipping by around March 12!

How exciting is that??????

Just to give you an idea, we read-aloud a dozen great family read-alouds and then I designed projects for each book. Here are the books we chose and the designs included in this book:

1. Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
a. Pinocchio Doll and Clothes
2. Canadian Summer by Hilda vanStockum
a. Mr. Magic’s Gnome Hat
b. Arthur Purcell’s “Gay” Sweater
3. The Hobbit or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkein
a. Bilbo’s Backpack
b. Bilbo’s Traveling Jacket
4. Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder *
a. Ma’s Boot Socks
b. Pa’s Red-White Checked Mittens
5. Little House in the Highlands by Melissa Wiley *
a. Mittens for Laird Alroch & Auld Mary
b. Tullie Greyshanks Doll and Clothes
6. The Lost Island by Eilis Dillon
a. Fisherman’s Jersey
b. Wool Socks for the Journey
7. Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers
a. Mary Poppins’ Carpetbag
b. Mary Poppins’ Fur-trimmed Gloves
8. Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater
a. Captain Cook (penguin doll)
b. Mr. Popper’s Cozy Scarf
9. Otto of the Silver Hand by Howard Pyle
a. Otto’s Chain Mail
b. Otto’s Scabbard and Belt
10. Redwall by Brian Jacques
a. Matthias’ Over-sized Habit
b. Asmodeus the Snake
11. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
a. Colin’s Rug and Cushion
b. Mrs. Sowerby’s Cloak
12. The Wheel on the School by Meindert deJong
a. Lina’s Stocking Cap
b. Thick Wools Socks for Linda & Jan

These are all fun projects -- I had fun creating them and I think you'll have fun making them too! We've also included some basic knitting helps and a fully annotated bibliography of great knitting books.

The book-links are to the versions we used ... many are hard-cover as we want to keep these classics. The two that are *'ed, Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Little House in the Highlands by Melissa Wiley, are quickly going the way of the Albatross -- the publishers are changing the editions to give them a more updated appeal. Try to find these editions linked here -- the text is complete and the pictures are wonderful!

Please let me know what you think about this book -- I'd love to do a sequel, especially when I saw UK's List of Best Children's Books and saw many on that list that I'd love to read-aloud to my kids and create more designs!

I was SOOOOO Excited ....

... when I checked Margot's blog and found that not only is the long-awaited Father Brown Reader (compiled by Nancy Carpentier Brown) coming out, but so is Cay Gibson's sequel, Christmas Mosaic! Not only do I "know" (in the "online, chat all the time, really respect these ladies" way of knowing someone) these two authors, but the subject content is wonderful!

The Father Brown stories (which are wonderfully illustrated by homeschool dad, Ted Schluenderfritz) are ably re-written for a younger audience -- a great idea as early Chesterton readers grow up to devour his books! Nancy does a great job of rewriting the text without losing the flavor of Chesterton's original. Bravo!

Cay's first book, Catholic Mosaic, was so well-received that she decided to do an Advent/Christmas book. This new book promises to keep you and your kids reading throughout Advent and Christmas, with 30 picture books suggested with full study guides (including recipes!), and an annotated list of 200+ picture books with the Advent/Christmas theme. I can't wait to get a copy!

As Margot mentions, it's quite fitting both of these should be available in the Harvest season .... and just in time to put on your Christmas list for dh, in-laws or someone else to buy for your home learning environment!