School, Music, and All That Jazz

I found this link, Family Catechism.com, via the 4 Real Learning Forum this morning. What a lovely site for learning the Catholic Catechism interactively! The kids always have studied the catechism since they were little and we continue to do so right through high school. This site goes along beautifully with the Baltimore Catechism. I recommend watching the tutorial under the information box to understand how to navigate the site. Each catechism question can also be answered by Fr. Lovasik or Francis Cardinal Arinze by prerecorded video. I am forwarding this link to each of our children to go along with their religion studies.

The weekend is the time I research and plan for the following week of school. I always like to freshen things up so that the kids are a little more inspired when it comes to learning.

I am very pleased to have come across The Teaching Company. Our high schoolers are enjoying the Economics and Chemistry courses. They basically direct themselves through experiments, writing their own labs, and composing their own material for the economics course. I am so pleased with The Teaching Company that I will continue to use them for upcoming courses studied...especially history!

Another site I have come across that I am absolutely pleased with is Livemocha which is a site for studying any foreign language. Our fifth and eighth graders are studying French and I also am furthering my studies in French using Livemocha. These courses are similar to Rosetta Stone but I like them better because they are more interactive and the course is free:)

I AM INSPIRED...which is so unusual for the month of January for home schooling families. I always love finding something new to study or to read and these resources have done the trick! Today I will spend some time watching the economics course...this makes for better discussion with our teenagers. Also, I have caught the younger kids watching these courses too during school hours and I'd have to be off my rocker to shoo them away!

Off to type up our weekly lesson plans and to follow that up with some snowshoeing.

UPDATE ON THE BURNHAM BROS.

We have a wonderful team that is currently strategizing about them. The boys have been hard at work with singing, writing, and playing. We are looking forward to spending a few months in NYC. We have learned that bringing a family of five children and a dog to the city is not easy. We have been told that we are a large family...which I don't think we are. But, we have narrowed our lodgings to a couple of really nice places.

We were joking around the other day that we sort have been feeling like The Holy Family...not the "holy" part, but the "there was no room for them at the inn" part! No, seriously, we will be in the right place within a week and it will be a lot of fun. We've actually needed this time to tie up loose ends here in Vermont and to adjust to the idea of being mobile. We really feel so blessed by our choice of record labels (they have been so supportive) and by everyone on our team. And we know that God's timing is always the right timing. We have also learned that in this business things could turn on a dime. And so now we work, we prepare, we reflect, we get ready and soon....we will go!

Dear families and friends,

You are always in our prayers and we are so grateful for your support!

Blessings,

Marianne