Karen Edmisten

Karen Edmisten

Karen Edmisten lives with her family in the Midwest and has been homeschooling for sixteen years. Karen and her husband, Tom, a high school English teacher, homeschooled two daughters through high school and are still homeschooling their youngest. The family delights in the homeschooling lifestyle and have enjoyed being able to pursue each child's interests through a flexible, relaxed approach to home education. Karen is a convert from atheism to the Catholic faith. She was received into the Church in 1995, and her husband was received five years later.
Photo of Karen

Jesus Feeds Everybody!

Book cover: Jesus Feeds Everybody
Author(s): 
Choi, Young-Jin
Kim, Jung-Cho

Jesus Feeds Everybody! by Young-Jin Choi and Jung-Cho Kim, is an English translation of a board book originally published in Korea. The multiplication of the loaves and fishes came to life for Ramona. She loved this brightly illustrated book and I think she especially loved that it comes with a built-in ribbon handle for convenient toting.

A very happy Jesus, cute bunnies and lambs and its own handle ... Ramona was pleased.

The Easter Swallows

Author(s): 
Vicki Howie
Illustrator(s): 
Paola B. Grudina

The Easter Swallows, by Vicki Howie, is a lovely book that tells the story of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection from the point of view of two swallows, Long-tail and Short-tail. Though it gets right to the point:

"What are they going to do to Jesus?" she whispered.

"I'm afraid they are going to kill Him," said Long-tail.

That dreadful Friday, the soldiers put Jesus on a cross between two other crosses. They left Him there to die.

Student Writing Intensive, Level B

Author(s): 
Andrew Pudewa
Occasionally, friends or readers ask my opinion about various writing programs. I never feel qualified to answer, because I have rarely used writing programs in our homeschool. I’ve mainly taught my girls about writing as we write. Initially, I taught them about things like rough drafts. I wanted them to know that they’re called “rough” for a reason, and that we should let our drafts be messy -- full of cross-outs, scribbles and insertions. The other thing I wanted my children to understand about writing was that there are radically different kinds, suited to different purposes.

Signs and Mysteries

Author(s): 
Mike Aquilina
Illustrator(s): 
Lea Marie Ravotti
Mike Aquilina's newest book, Signs and Mysteries: Revealing Ancient Christian Symbols is a great read and a great reference book in one. It's also an exquisite piece of art, thanks to the illustrations by Lea Marie Ravotti. (Do yourself a favor and click through to her site. Her work is gorgeous.) It's so easy to take illustrators for granted, isn't it? But one cannot do so with this book. The illustrations are integral; the book is, after all, about looking more closely at symbols, visual representations of the life of faith.