October pages are here for download! This month features the first couple days of November as well and All Saint's Day is marked in a special color. The boys version will be out by the end of the week. Enjoy!

If you are joining our Notebooking with Butler's Lives of the Saints the October Notebooking sheets are ready! There are 30+ saints this month as a few days have more than one Saint. How did you enjoy the September Notebooking pages? We sure are having fun learning about all the different saints!

Also now available for download are the October Liturgical Bulletin Board Pieces. Both the Saint's Pieces and the Title/Prayer Pieces are located below as well as on the Liturgical Bulletin Board Page.

Don't forget to hop on over to Crusader's For Christ to get the October Issue of the St. Catherine Acadamy Gazette! Some wonderful reading on the Most Holy Rosary! For those of you who already downloaded this wonderful gem, there has been an update you may want to look into.

Hopefully before the week is up we will also have the October Children's Lesson Planner downloads available. Our computer died and so we are busy remaking some things that will lost because of that. As always have a most blessed day!

The internet is full of treasures and especially those that bring back the traditions of the Faith. Everyonce in a while one really special treasure is given to us. A little teacher's guide called Christian Doctrine Teachers Manual was written in 1904 (imprimatur with the same date) and details the basics of what a Catholic child should learn in their Faith from 1st through 8th grade. Its a great guide full of names of lots of old books that are gems in themselves!

The Patron Saints for each grade's Catholic Children's Journal was taken from this book and now another printable inspired by the same. Each grade in this book has prayers that should be learned by the student listed at the beginning of each section. Since our children already know many of the prayers sort of out of grade level order I decided to make a chart to track the ones they know and the ones they need to learn.

In our home we learn in many different ways using the three learning styles. This form also serves as a way to track our different learning. To use the form in this way simply write the activity you do down and the date. Say you happen to do the Willson's lovely "Our Father ; A printing book for Children" during school today (for religion, writing etc.). Write down that under activitty and then make an 'x' under the Our Father slot. Perhaps on the next day you have your child recite the 'Our Father' aloud as memory work. Under activity write 'recite Our Father' then mark an x under Our Father. Another day you decide to have the child read the story about Our Father in Heaven, mark that on your list with an 'x' under Our Father.

This can work all across the board as well. Say you are learning the Angelus .. you can mark down your activity that you are using to teach it and not only mark an 'x' under Angelus but also under the 'Hail Mary' as they share similar stories. In this way you can track what prayers need worked on, which forms of learning you are using and perhaps which forms of learning should be added so that the child fully understands not only the words of the prayer and the form but also the meaning what he/she is saying.

Eventually I hope to have all the prayers listed on the forms typed up and added to our site. Its down the list on a very long to-do list of projects. For your reference the e-book versions of the Christian Doctrine Teacher's Manual can be found free online.

Please feel free to share with us ways in which you help your children learn the wonderful prayers of Holy Mother Church! God bless!

School time is just around the corner, in our little home we are starting full speed ahead next Tuesday.

We are trying something new this year, at least new for the month of September. One of our boys is ready to take on a bit more responsibility with his school work. So for September we are going to see how writing some lesson plans out for him go.

As always we are sharing our printables with you incase you would find them useful. Below you will find four planning pages, dated for the month of September. Each has a quote or poem and boy themed artwork. Along with space to right the weeks lesson plans is a checklist for the child to include things such as chores or school work that doesn't require a lesson plan. Also a check list for virtues that gives space for the parent to grade the child on each virtue for the day of the week. Let us know if you use them and how you like them! We may keep this up monthly, we will see how it goes and how the demand is.

We are joining in another week of the "Not" Back to School Blog Hop over at iHomeschool Network. Personally this is my favorite week! We live in a small duplex and space is always hard to come by. It seems that there are always stacks of books and papers around and projects to be done. As the saying goes, God never gives you more than you can handle. I figure there must be a way to make it work! Here is how we make do with the space we have. I can't wait to head on over to the blog hop and look for more ideas on how to use our space well! Make sure to share your school room too, you never know who might be looking for some help in using their space for school!

While we haven't yet been blessed with an actual school room we have been blessed with a large kitchen table. This is where most of our school work happens, as well as our wheat grinding and our family meals and... well you get the picture. This is where the action in our home takes place. We have our Liturgical Year Bulletin Board set up here which also makes for a great conversation starter. Also our mobile white board that is new this year since we are using All About Reading/Spelling with our school. It has been handy in writing down words for spelling purposes for our Catholic Child's Daily Journal as well.

This cabinet sits front and center in our living area and doubles as a home altar as well as a spot to hold our Morning Basket. The altar is changed out according to the Liturgical Season as well is our Morning Basket. Our basket holds those religious books that we use to read in the morning and get our day started. It also holds stories that are read on Sunday's during Catechism.

Inside the cabinet are different 'toys' such as lincoln logs, Jenga blocks we use for building, counting bears, lace up cards, puzzles etc. These get changed out on occasion and are played with throughout the day. Some things we use for school like the abacus.

Our main homeschool storage and work in progress. Last year we parted with our tv to make room for other things in our home. This lovely tv cabinet was a hand crafted wedding gift (thank you dad!) and so it was time to find a new use for it.

Totes became my new best friend for holding books of different subjects. Most of them have a tag tied to them saying what is inside. The blue totes with the signs hold our file folder games and our weekly work for filling workboxes. The crates in the main compartment hold books that need accessed more easily along with this years texts to be used. Inside the cabinet are all of our school supplies (envelopes, paper, binding materials, color crayons, glue, erasers, pencils etc.) and we also store our photo albums in the lower part of this cabinet. Its amazing what all it can hold! There is much work to be done on this yet, binders to label (and make pretty!) more labels to place and books to organize. It is working great though for keeping all our school items in one place and out of the hands of little ones since it is locked away in our bedroom.

Above are our workboxes we will be using again this year. They really helped the kids be able to 'see' what work they have left and know when they will be done. It gave them that bit of independance that they were looking for in controling their school work. It also made it easy on me for planning because I could see which work boxes needed filled. They also roll and make for easy moveable storage which is great for our small home.

Near our tv cabinet storage we also have a filing cabinet and another clear storage cabinet for mostly craft supplies. Other than a couple of other book shelves that is how we manage our school in our small space. If you have tips and tricks on storage in small spaces or if you school in a small space we would love to hear how you do it! Please feel free to leave us comments and/or share your space on the iHomeschool Network blog hop. May you have a blessed day!

We are starting back our our Notebooking with the Saints project. Starting with September the monthly notebooking pages that correspond with the Lives of the Saints For Every Day in the Year  By: Fr. Alban Butler will be available for download.

The layout of the pages will change and vary for each month, please feel free to send suggestions that might work best for your children and their ages/grade levels. God bless!

Today we are sharing a bit on the Church's teaching on education which also doubles as a blog hop post. Below the encyclical you will find some of our homeschooling plans for this year. God bless!

ON CHRISTIAN EDUCATION RAPPRESENTANTI IN TERRA

ENCYCLICAL OF POPE PIUS XI DECEMBER 31, 1929

To the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, Bishops and other Ordinaries in Peace and Communion with the Apostolic See and to all the Faithful of the Catholic World.

Venerable Brethren and Beloved Children, Health and Apostolic Benediction.

Representative on earth of that divine Master who while embracing in the immensity of His love all mankind, even unworthy sinners, showed nevertheless a special tenderness and affection for children, and expressed Himself in those singularly touching words: "Suffer the little children to come unto Me,"[1] We also on every occasion have endeavored to show the predilection wholly paternal which We bear towards them, particularly by our assiduous care and timely instructions with reference to the Christian education of youth.

2. And so, in the spirit of the Divine Master, We have directed a helpful word, now of admonition, now of exhortation, now of direction, to youths and to their educators, to fathers and mothers, on various points of Christian education, with that solicitude which becomes the common Father of all the Faithful, with an insistence in season and out of season, demanded by our pastoral office and inculcated by the Apostle: "Be instant in season, out of season; reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine."[2] Such insistence is called for in these our times, when, alas, there is so great and deplorable an absence of clear and sound principles, even regarding problems the most fundamental.

3. Now this same general condition of the times, this ceaseless agitation in various ways of the problem of educational rights and systems in different countries, the desire expressed to Us with filial confidence by not a few of yourselves, Venerable Brethren, and by members of your flocks, as well as Our deep affection towards youth above referred to, move Us to turn more directly to this subject, if not to treat it in all its well-nigh inexhaustible range of theory and practice, at least to summarize its main principles, throw full light on its important conclusions, and point out its practical applications.

4. Let this be the record of Our Sacerdotal Jubilee which, with altogether special affection, We wish to dedicate to our beloved youth, and to commend to all those whose office and duty is the work of education.

5. Indeed never has there been so much discussion about education as nowadays; never have exponents of new pedagogical theories been so numerous, or so many methods and means devised, proposed and debated, not merely to facilitate education, but to create a new system infallibly efficacious, and capable of preparing the present generations for that earthly happiness which they so ardently desire.

6. The reason is that men, created by God to His image and likeness and destined for Him Who is infinite perfection realize today more than ever amid the most exuberant material progress, the insufficiency of earthly goods to produce true happiness either for the individual or for the nations. And hence they feel more keenly in themselves the impulse towards a perfection that is higher, which impulse is implanted in their rational nature by the Creator Himself. This perfection they seek to acquire by means of education. But many of them with, it would seem, too great insistence on the etymological meaning of the word, pretend to draw education out of human nature itself and evolve it by its own unaided powers. Such easily fall into error, because, instead of fixing their gaze on God, first principle and last end of the whole universe, they fall back upon themselves, becoming attached exclusively to passing things of earth; and thus their restlessness will never cease till they direct their attention and their efforts to God, the goal of all perfection, according to the profound saying of Saint Augustine: "Thou didst create us, O Lord, for Thyself, and our heart is restless till it rest in Thee."[3]

7. It is therefore as important to make no mistake in education, as it is to make no mistake in the pursuit of the last end, with which the whole work of education is intimately and necessarily connected. In fact, since education consists essentially in preparing man for what he must be and for what he must do here below, in order to attain the sublime end for which he was created, it is clear that there can be no true education which is not wholly directed to man's last end, and that in the present order of Providence, since God has revealed Himself to us in the Person of His Only Begotten Son, who alone is "the way, the truth and the life," there can be no ideally perfect education which is not Christian education.

8. From this we see the supreme importance of Christian education, not merely for each individual, but for families and for the whole of human society, whose perfection comes from the perfection of the elements that compose it. From these same principles, the excellence, we may well call it the unsurpassed excellence, of the work of Christian education becomes manifest and clear; for after all it aims at securing the Supreme Good, that is, God, for the souls of those who are being educated, and the maximum of well-being possible here below for human society. And this it does as efficaciously as man is capable of doing it, namely by co-operating with God in the perfecting of individuals and of society, in as much as education makes upon the soul the first, the most powerful and lasting impression for life according to the well-known saying of the Wise Man, "A young man according to his way, even when he is old, he will not depart from it."[4] With good reason therefore did St. John Chrysostom say, "What greater work is there than training the mind and forming the habits of the young?"[5]

9. But nothing discloses to us the supernatural beauty and excellence of the work of Christian education better than the sublime expression of love of our Blessed Lord, identifying Himself with children, "Whosoever shall receive one such child as this in my name, receiveth me."[6]

10. Now in order that no mistake be made in this work of utmost importance, and in order to conduct it in the best manner possible with the help of God's grace, it is necessary to have a clear and definite idea of Christian education in its essential aspects, viz., who has the mission to educate, who are the subjects to be educated, what are the necessary accompanying circumstances, what is the end and object proper to Christian education according to God's established order in the economy of His Divine Providence. CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING THE ENCYCLICAL

Religion-The Living in God series is one of our favorite!!! Reprinted by Our Lady of Victory a religion series that is set up similar to a reading primer but teaches the catechism using stories. This first book in the set is 1st grade level, we will also be using Living in God's Law for 2nd grade this year. A set of books worthy of any investment!

Along with these books we will continue to follow the Liturgical Year as a way to learn all the aspects of the Holy Catholic Faith. Sunday's the kids learn their Catechism using some new reprints of the Baltimore Catechism from Refuge of Sinners Publishing.

Reading - Our plans are still formulating for reading as we just discovered both our students are dyslexic. if you have any tips for teaching kids with dyslexia please do pass them along! At this point we are going to use both the Little Angel Readers along with All About Reading (be for-warned with All About Reading, one of their readers has an image in it not sutible for children... we plan to cover this up or remove that one story. This program is not Catholic but suppose to help children with Dyslexia and other reading issues.) Hopefully between the two programs we get both a Catholic perspective and help with the reading issues. All about reading is a hands on approach using colored magnet tiles, a workbook with cutting and pasting and also flash cards along with the readers. I think so far my son enjoys the progress chart most because he can see what is left and what he has done. Its nice as a parent too because its all set up and easy to use.

Writing- For handwriting practice this year we are using the Catholic Child's Daily Journal and as review we are going to go back over the 2nd Grade Handwriting Without Tears to help with the dyslexia (dysgraphia) issues.

Math- With our little guys everything seems to be done hands on and the perfect math program has been Math On The Level.  This is a K-8th grade program that can be used with multiple chidlren. It features a 5-A-Day math review and hands on learning for each of the math subjects. We use living math books from livingmath.net along with board games, and lots of other items we find on Pinterest to teach math. This is one of the only math products that is not workbook based and can be tailored according to maturity of the child rather than grade level. When they need more practice there is no worry and when they are ready to move ahead then they move on ahead. It has been a real blessing to our family and worth every penny! We also use Catholic File folder games to add a Catholic touch to our math program :)

History- Our plan this year was to use Founders of Freedom, the 1st of a 5 vol history set. While it is aimed at a 4th grade level and both our boys are about 2nd grade I decided to make it a hands on approach and add living books. The project turned out to be larger than thought so we will see how it goes. If you would like to see the links and notes for each section, they will be logged away here on the site under Catholic History. Its still in the works so please check back often to see if the password requirement has been removed.

The Land of Our Lady series is a wonderful Catholic History series from the early 50's from Newman press. The books are set up with the history of a Catholic Hymn at the beginning of each chapter, questions at the end of each chapter and a end of unit test. They are easily useable as is. They give a most wonderful Catholic perspective and they are worth every penny!

Science - This year we will be using Science and Living in God's World 2. Another wonderful Catholic book that has been reprinted (the whole set reprinted) and is available at Our Lady of Victory. We will also be adding science experiments to the ones included in the book and some more living books on each of the subjects through out the book as time allows.

Last but not least we couldn't do our planning without our Holy Simplicity Planner! Our planner was created so that we could plan our school year in tune with the Church's Liturgical year all in one place. Last week we shared a guest post over at Forever Always No Matter What, for more details on the planner visit our planner page!

Please make sure to share your homeschooling Curriculum plans at this years "Not" Back to School Blog Hop, it goes on for four weeks. Next week everyone will be sharing their School Room set ups! We can't wait to see what you are up to this year!

*** I just wanted to bump this up with a new note since I forgot to mention it prior. Please see the new notes below in daily pages section. ***


There Our little blog has been fairly quiet, part due to the current season of the Liturgical Year and in part due to our preparing this coming school years curriculum.

As part of that curriculum we are doing a daily journal for writing practice. As we strive to make all things Catholic we decided to do that with our daily journal as well. Provided are free journal covers for your use to download and make your own daily journals. The covers go from 1st to 8th grade and they each have their own Patron Saint for the year. The patron's were taken from an old Catholic Teachers Manual called Christine Doctrine with an imprimatur from 1904. The whole text is available here and has been a great help in making sure our homeschool is even more Catholic this year. Half of the quotes or poems on the covers were also taken from this book.

The Journal Pages are also provided here for you free to download and print. With over 14 different pages they feature some lovely Catholic artwork from traditional books. Bright colored pages (they may be printed in black also, please adjust your printer settings), and prompts that guide the child to Catholic thoughts, give them spaces to remember special items on the Liturgical Calendar for each day and a space for their artistic hand. They even get to record the weather for the day! There is a second file of journal pages which are basically the same accept the drawing space has been changed to a bible quote box. This is so that children that are beyond the stage of drawing may still enjoy the journal pages.

*** We are using the beautiful Catholic Picture Dictionary from Refuge of Sinners Publishing to fill out some of our Journal Pages which ask the child to look up a word in the Catholic dictionary, write the definition and then draw a picture of it. These wonderful little dictionary's are a reprint from 1948 and sell for around $11. You can find copies here at Refuge of Sinners Publishing. ***

1.) Download the Journal Cover File

2.) Select the covers (for corresponding grades) that you want to print
- Card stock of 110 lb is highly recommended, 65 lb should also work. Feel free to laminate your covers for durability.
- If your printer has a 'print to edge' or 'print without borders' setting it is highly recommended that you use it for the best looking cover.

3.) For every cover you print have a blank piece of paper of the same stock that you printed the main cover on. This will be your back cover.

4.) Download the Journal Page File for either Draw your Day for younger kids or Bible Quote for older (and younger) children.

5.) Print as many journal pages as you desire. Our school year is about 150 days.
-To save on paper and ink: (a) Print half in black ink and half in color by changing your printer settings (b) print one on side of paper and then on the second side to limit number of sheets used. (c) Print in draft mode (d) print all pages in black and have child add his/her own color

6.) Last but not least bind your new beautiful journal!
- Coil binding at a local office store is only a dollar or two or purchase your own coil binder. They really do come in handy!
- 3 hole punch your Journal Pages and insert them into a 3 ring binder, slip your journal cover in a clear binder cover

Eventually I hope to add more journal pages and you will find those updates on this blog as well as the Catholic Child's Daily Journal. God bless!


*** UPDATE 8-11-12 New simplified pages have been added for the littler ones on our Catholic Child's Daily Journal Page ***