What's New

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (Movie)

Still shot from 'The Two Towers' movie
After much anticipation, my seven year old son and I saw the Two Towers on the Saturday before Christmas. My nine year old daughter watched it with my husband the night before in order to switch off with the little ones at home. A year ago I wouldn't have expected to be taking any of my children to see the movie (because of their age), but a lot has changed since then for us. John read the entire Lord of the Rings aloud to the children over the past year. Jacinta read it, again, on her own. She and Matthew have also listened to the 13 disc BBC audio drama numerous times.

Ready for Reading! A Learn-to-Read Series, Set 2 (Caterpillar Books)

Book cover: 'Ready for Reading! A Learn-to-Read Series, Set 2'
Author(s): 
Laura Callahan Busch

In a similar fashion to the first set, these books offer additional, more advanced, reader/activity books that combine practice of lots of phonics based words with a number of sight words (some of the sight words could be learned phonetically later on). By the time the child is finished with this second series, he will have practiced 62 phonics-based words (such as Dad, jet, him, stop and bug) and 25 sight words (such as love, you, the, Mommy and room).

Little Stories for Little Folks

Book cover: 'Little Stories for Little Folks: Catholic Phonics Readers'
Author(s): 
Nancy Nicholson
Little Stories for Little Folks is a Catholic phonics readers set that offers an inexpensive alternative to the Bob Books. The entire Bob Books set (5 sets of booklets retailing for approximately $15 each) costs about $75 retail. In contrast, Little Stories for Little Folks costs about $25 for the whole program.

Ready for Reading! A Learn-to-Read Series, Set 1 (Ant Books)

Book cover: 'Ready for Reading! A Learn-to-Read Series, Set 1'
Author(s): 
Laura Callahan Busch

This beginning reader set provides young students with small activity booklet/readers that can be read at a very primary level. The author combines simple words that can be read phonetically with one or two sight words in each booklet that the child will learn to recognize (words like: "look", "go" and "the"). I thought the illustrations were more appealing than those found in the Bob Books.

Learn Spanish with Grace

Book cover: Learn Spanish with Grace
Author(s): 
Miriam Alvarez Gallaher

Everyone knows that children's minds are good at grasping new languages. Many children find foreign languages exciting and fascinating. However, it's not always easy for parents to help satisfy this delight. Learn Spanish with Grace offers a colorful and engaging approach to beginning Spanish that is very homeschool friendly (designed for grades 2-8).

Frost on the Windowpane

Author(s): 
Christine Coley
Margot Davidson
"Art and Composition Activities for Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder"

This deceptively-simple supplement to Little House in the Big Woods packs a wallop of meaningful content into easy and fun art and writing assignments. Not only will it will help children understand the book better, but it provides full-fledged lessons in art appreciation and composition.

The bulk of this resource consists of "chapter activities" which generally include three segments:

The Trivium: the Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric

Book cover: The Trivium: the Liberal Arts of Logic, Grammar, and Rhetoric
Author(s): 
Sister Miriam Joseph, C.S.C.

This little gem was used as a freshman college course after the author met philosopher Mortimer Adler and understood the importance of teaching basic language skills as the foundation of other learning. After some years of study, she put together this course in the Trivium, the three language arts – of word relations (grammar), concept relations (logic), and composition (rhetoric). The result is a primer in Aristotle's Categories, a demanding course in logic, and a prerequisite to good composition.

Heritage Memo Game

Book cover: 'Heritage Memo Game'

A memory game showing 36 pictures of outstanding sites worldwide.
While looking for something fun to add to this year's curriculum purchases, I discovered this memory game in the Montessori Services catalog. I can't tell you how much fun we've had with it. The whole family down to the 2 1/2 year old have enjoyed rousing games of memory while learning about important historical, cultural and religious sites from around the world. The cards are approximately 2 inches square with full color pictures of famous sites. There are a high percentage of Catholic sites:

History of Us, Volume 6: War, Terrible War

Book cover: History of Us, Volume 6: War, Terrible War
Author(s): 
Joy Hakim

This is an interesting, very readable overview of the Civil War. There is a significant focus on the issue of slavery as a plague upon American culture of the time. The author's basic thesis is that, while different people fought for different reasons and the focus was especially blurred when the war began (when there was more emphasis on preservation of the union), the war was essentially fought over the issue of slavery.

Correct Writing

Book cover: 'Correct Writing'
Author(s): 
Michael P. Kammer, S.J.
et al

This 525 page hardcover is Book 1 in the once popular Catholic high school series "A Course For Secondary Schools." Fortunately, for those who want to continue educating their children along the lines of Voyages in English series, Lepanto press has reprinted this 1952 gem.