Jennifer McGonigle
Advent in the Home
My first impression when I opened Advent in the Home was, “Wow, it’s all here.” Normally in October I start filling my calendar with meaningful Advent activities; jotting down ideas on scraps of paper which I promptly lose and printing out coloring sheets until I run out of ink. This seems to be fairly common in homeschooling families. Aspiring to create a more spiritual tone to what has become an oppressively secular time of year can be quite overwhelming. There are just so many ideas spread out in books, periodicals, and on the Iinternet.
Language of God for Little Folks (Level C)
Language of GOD for Little Folks - Level C, is Catholic Heritage Curricula’s grammar program designed for the third or fourth grader. It is a complete program in a spiral bound workbook and does not require any additional text or teacher’s manual. The program focuses on gradually building language skills. These skills are very naturally presented within the context of the Catholic faith. Topics covered are sentence parts, nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, pronouns, commas, apostrophes, tense, and subject- verb agreement.
Onions in My Boots
I was very pleased to see Catholic Heritage Curricula offer a new gardening guide, Onions in my Boots by Nancy Nicholson. Onions in My Boots offers basic instructions for gardening at home. It is an easy read and is printed in child friendly font and format, making it well suited for children or their parents. It features sections on preparation and tools, flowers and houseplants, herbs and vegetables. Nicholson emphasizes adaptability, to both location and budget, and in this way makes gardening very accessible. The methods described are simple and practical.