Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!

My December CatholicMom.com post got picked by Catholic Lane, and then by Big Pulp.it.

a) Why yes, I am wildly excited.

b) Why yes, I did intentionally go check just to see if the Pulp.it picked it up, because I knew that although the odds were not great, I would be wildly excited if they did.

c) And they did.

In real life: The mild sore-throat thing turned hard-core evil.  SuperHusband’s been felled, which is actually helping school stay on track, because when he’s awake, he says to any moving child, “Have you done your school work?” and they quick go look busy.  We’re doing that in shifts.  And my first grader can read.

Bleg #1: What are your favorite late-elementary aged, non-specific learning disabilities, help-me-learn-to-read resources?  I have a real-life friend asking.  4th grader, strong auditory skills, still waiting on the school to get their act together and evaluate difficulties on the visual processing and motor skills end, per mom’s reports, meanwhile mom wants to do what she can in the afternoons, without spending $ frivolously.

Bleg #2: Favorite readable, top-quality, Catholic resources for chastity, sexuality, NFP, Theology of the Body, all-that-stuff, target audience is parents and kids in late elementary – high school*.  Because I talked someone into letting me write a review round-up of resources, and I know what I think I’m going to cover, but you might know about something I’ve missed.  Need to have my media in hand by the first of January so I can read and review and write for an early February deadline.

*The answer is not Love and Responsibility.  We’re talking readable.  Things you leave on the back of the toilet, and your teenager sits down and reads the whole book, because it was interesting, made sense, and was an effective way to stall at doing the dishes.  That genre.

 

Busy not blogging. And blogging.

What I’ve been up to so far this Advent:

1. Acquired a cold just strong enough to plant me in front of the PC and get some writing done for a change.  I’d complain, except it’s really not that bad. For me.  My family wishes I’d start making dinner again.  I think.

2. Posted my book review of the Didache series of textbooks up at AmazingCatechists.com.  These are awesome books, and the new parish editions bring serious theology to high school and adult faith formation.  Long-needed.  Don’t cry to me you don’t have priests, but refuse to teach theology.  How exactly is a boy supposed to fall in love with a something he’s never met?

3. Guessed at my login information for the Happy Catholic Bookshelf enough times that I finally broke in.  And put up my review of Walking Dickens London. Verdict: I still don’t like Dickens all that much, but the guide book is awesome.  Of course I had to put a reference to Rerum Novarum in the review.  Only logical.

4. I cleaned out my inbox.  If I still owe you an e-mail about something, you’d better tell me.  Because I’m under the mistaken impression I’m all caught up.

5. Planted the potatoes that were sprouting in the cardboard box in the living room.  Ditto for some garlic in the bottom of the fridge.

6.  I’ve written about 5,000 words on the homeschooling manuscript. Also pre-wrote my January CatholicMom.com homeschooling column, because once you get school on the brain, and a cup of coffee, these things just pop out.

7.  I got all vice-presidential over at the Catholic Writers Guild.  Being VP is almost exactly like being the blog manager, except that instead of plaguing the officers all month long with bad ideas and unhelpful suggestions, you also get to do it during the monthly officer’s conference call.  I think someone nominated me because the existing officers were already practiced at telling me, “No!  Quiet! Sit!  No Biscuit!” so it makes their job easier.  So mostly as VP I amuse people with my ridiculous ideas, and about 1 time in 10, I think one up that someone makes me go do.  And then I regret it, and don’t think up any more ideas for at least 10 minutes.

Also, I goofed off on the internet more than I had planned.   It happens.  I was sick.

Happy Advent!

You’ll be pleased to know I don’t have a single bit of real-life drama to explain why I suddenly dropped off the internet.  Just, you know, real life.  Errands.  Christmas presents.  Educating children.  Imprisoning chickens.  A little bit of teaching (fun), a lot of laundry (relaxing), and a dinner guest (seriously awesome, but of course we had to make the house 90% less disgusting in advance, plus cook half-decent food).

But here’s what happened at Mass the other week, before I ever disappeared:

I had this thought.

Now 98% of the things I think about during Mass have one very easy-to-interpret deeper meaning:

You need to quit daydreaming and pay attention to the Mass.  Hello?  King of the Universe visiting your neighborhood, right now?  Say hello, eh?  And He knows what you’re thinking, so just staring in the right general direction doesn’t cut it.

That’s the usual.

Here’s the unusual one: I should quit blogging for December, so that I can get the manuscript on the homeschooling book done.

For various reasons, I’m inclined to take that one seriously.

***

By “quit” blogging, I don’t of course actually mean “quit blogging”.  My December CatholicMom.com column is up now, and fits right with the theme for the book.  Still on the horizon for this month:

  • A textbook review at Amazing Catechists, of the new “parish edition” of Midwest Theological Forums’s excellent high school series.
  • A review here of Forming Intentional Disciples.  (Go ahead and buy it.)
  • My December column at New Evangelizers, which I think (this could change) is going to be about, “How do I evangelize when my parish stinks?”  Because someone asked me that.  I’m sure there’s more than one guy who has that question.

I think that’s about it.  Maybe some Catholic Writer’s Guild odds and ends, and I have fantasies of doing the long-awaited blog maintenance here, and tending to the SuperHusband’s photoblogs, but let’s just admit it, I have a rich fantasy life.  We’ll see.

***

I adjusted the sidebar to reflect the reality that I’m not going to be reading much of anywhere either.   It’s just way too easy for me to get on the computer to start writing, quick go check just that one awesome blog I love so much (yours), and next thing I know I’ve spent an hour reading, and funny the family thinks I shouldn’t be glued to the computer all day (see: chicken prison, dinner guests, educating children, etc.).

***

But just because I’m not reading, doesn’t mean my many fine readers here are going to give it up. So in lieu of Tuesday Link Day, we’ll just have link month here in this post.  As always, 100% optional, just a little outlet for the people who like to e-mail cool links.

Have a lovely Advent, and beautifully Christ-filled Christmas, and I’ll see you in January. I’m thinking mid-January, let’s go ahead an give me the whole season, okay?  I’ll be back with a manuscript.  Ready to be passed around for evisceration.  If you’ve ever been edited by me, you know you want a chance to wield the Pen of Death.  That’ll be your chance.

3.5 Time Outs: Tigering

Thanks once again to our host Larry D. at Acts of the Apostasy, who is himself Mr. Thankful today, good guy that he is.

Click and be amazed.

1.

Yesterday the kids and I turned out at the parish gym to help get the St. Vincent de Paul boxes of Thanksgiving food put together.  It was our first time.  It’s a two-step operation, well-run, which is what happens when you have a ministry put into the hands of a large group of retired professionals.  We arrived during opening prayers; long tables were already set up with different food-category stations on each table, clearly labeled.  Green beans, corn, other vegetables, canned fruit, snacks, pasta, breakfast, cranberry sauce . . . etc.

In one corner was the haul of imperishables donated by the parish the previous day. Our first job was to grab bags of unsorted food and walk the tables, getting all our food to the proper piles.  Three big kids worked independently, with the occasional, “Mom, what is this?” question about mysterious food items.  My only rule was Please Do Not Pick a Bag With Glass Jars In It.

6-year-old and I worked as a team.  She was quite insistent about putting all the food from her bag up on the tables herself.  If I impulsively reached in to help her quickly get all her creamed soup cans shelved, she’d complain, and I’d have to let her put up one of my food items as compensation for her missed opportunity.

The second job was to get the freshly-organized foods into the baskets.  Our leader walked the aisles and estimated how many of each item we had, and thus how many could be put into each box.  Then each person or team was given a food product to distribute.  We were the Stuffing People.  Two boxes of stuffing in each of the hundred boxes.   Half-dozen Hispanic families had their boxes pulled aside, and our venerable Spanish Lady (a real live 80-something lady originally from Spain, with a brilliantly German last name) saw that all the salsa and tortillas went into those boxes.  Hint: If you are more of a salsa person than a weird-packets-of-instant-gravy person, if you ever need food relief, give the SVDP ladies a Spanish-sounding pseudonym.

2.

Tigering is the new verb around our house.

Tigering is what The Tiny Tiger does. All the time.

3.

What with the Groaning Ladies Show having come to season’s end, Sunday and last night we watched The Dust Bowl.  Good way to get your head on straight for Thanksgiving.

3.5

Fifi the resident cat does not care for the Tiny Tiger.  But she seems to be getting along with the young interloper better now that the Tiger has been taken on as the Chief Pot-Licker’s protege.  Last night during The Dust Bowl, all pots having been duly cleaned, they spent a full two hours rough-housing in the living room.

So the dog knows that the bunnies and chickens and the cat belong to us, and that the kitten is an orphaned puppy in need of a good upbringing.  She also knows that squirrels and voles are for hunting, but that SuperHusband will step in and take over when it comes to possums.  There was confusion the other week though, about what to do with the big fuzzy

***

Well, that’s all for this week.   Tuesday’s Link Day, which is when instead of e-mailing fun things I ought to post but forget to, you just tell the world all by yourself.  Entirely optional.  I’m pretty swamped with real life but I’ll try to post updates here as I work through my to-do list elsewhere on the internet. Have a great week.

7 Takes – Home on the Range

What I’ve been doing instead of posting on the internet:

1. Child with bronchitis.

2. Same child with Chicken Pox.

3.  Or is it an allergic reaction to amoxicillian?  We may end up back at the doctor again.

4.  Building Chicken Prison.  It’s still not complete, but almost.  I like having free range chickens.  Some (by which I mean: All) of the people I live with do not like sharing their backyard with chickens.  Who are maybe not the most fastidious creatures you ever met.

That’s not strictly true.  Our chickens, given the space to do so, were quite particular about housekeeping.  They roosted in one part of the yard where they otherwise spent no time, because what chickens do at night is:

a) Sleep
b) Poop

Yes, they poop and sleep at the same time, it appears, just like your very small children sometimes will.  It is not endearing.  Where chickens sleep is not a clean place.

But here’s the interesting part: They spend their day avoiding the place where they roost.  And note, the chickens avoid a path into the roost that would require them to walk through the muck.

Double interesting: So we went to build chicken prison, and our first location was near the shed, at the time being used to store miscelleanous items that clogged up the around-the-shed area, making it a quiet, dark, and virtually impassable place where no human ever trod.  Turns out chickens like this.  We moved the old boat stuffed behind the shed, and discovered eggs!  We thought the hens weren’t laying yet.  But there were eight perfect eggs, neatly layed in an impeccable pine-straw nest.  Not a sign of chicken droppings anywhere.  The kind of place you could, say, raise a baby.

I was impressed with the chicken hygiene.  Who knew?

So . . . in building chicken prison, one of my goals is to try to create spaces suitable for a hen-approved separation of sleeping, laying, eating and lounging areas.  Soon as SuperHusband gets the gate and a few pieces of chicken furniture built (kitchen, living-room, nursery) we’ll see how it goes.

Also we’ve been:

5.  Making beer.  Jon likes this supplier for kits and equipment.  Combine orders with your friends to get enough of a bill to get free shipping. While the wort was boiling, our brew partner pointed us to this very cool video of a free-range child left to his own devices:

Viewer Discretion Advised: Not All Homeschooled Children Spontaneously Take Up Arts Like These

6. Top-Secret Catholic Writers Guild Projects.

Okay, not really top-secret, just stuff you don’t announce until it’s done.

Terrifying news, guaranteed to bolster my prayer life: Our current guild president used her mind-rays to talk me into letting them put my name on the ballot for Vice President.  So unless “No” defeats me in the guild elections, come December 1 I will be praying every day for the health and vigor of our new president, because basically as long as long as she’s well, the VP’s job is cush enough even for someone like me.  I’m kickin’ God in the shins if anything happens that causes me to have to temporarily assume real responsibility.

7.  Yes, God has shins.

 

What you should be doing while you’re wondering when I’ll ever post again:

a) Go ahead and register for the Catholic Writers Conference Online. It’s free, no-commitment, and you don’t even have to be Catholic to attend.  Actually, only register if you like to write or have to write, and want to get better at it.  Otherwise, do something else those weeks.  The world needs chicken prisons built, all kinds of other non-writing work, you reading-only-never-writing people can go do that.

b) Pray for the Hathaways, of course.  Hardly need me to remind you at this point.

c) Prepare yourself to say “Yes” if you one of the two or three readers here who I’m going to e-mail and ask you to present a short talk at the online conference, because you have something cool to say to aspiring Catholic writers that will help them do their work better and not make all the mistakes you made when you first started out.  Or, since I am probably going to forget to e-mail you, but you’re a great writer who wants to help other new writers, you can just volunteer straight-up.  Here’s the link.  E-mail me if you’re not sure you really have anything to present, but you kinda want to, or you have this nagging feeling you should e-mail me just ’cause.  Blog @ CatholicwritersGuild.com goes all the same places my other e-mail addresses do, any of ’em will work.

–> For the record: I am not queen of the conference.  I’m a helper-bee rounding up potential presenters.  But round up I will.

Have a great weekend, and I’ll see you when I’m out from the tunnel again.

3.5 Time Outs: Entertained.

Thanks once again to our host Larry D. at Acts of the Apostasy, who has his own entertainment post up today.

Click and be amazed.

1.

At CatholicMom.com, I have a post up for November about how to get along at holiday parties, even if people bring up the topic of homeschooling. Apparently I hit a chord, because I’ve gotten some good feedback.  Mostly from non-homeschoolers.  Also, it was a great excuse to use this photo:

It would be convenient if I had married a guy who liked to take pictures of homeschoolers, and CCD classes, and stuff like that.  (Um, except, we’re not allowed to publish photos of CCD kids, so I guess it would just be some adult teaching and a bunch of blurred-out backs of heads.)  Instead every month I amuse Lisa Hendey with my proposed alternate illustration for the homeschooling column.  So far she hasn’t rejected any.  Patient lady.

2.

Sunday night I helped out in a colleague’s CCD class by dressing up like this venerable creole candidate for sainthood:

I own absolutely nothing that could be described at mid-19th century clothing, but the 6th graders were very polite, and overlooked the fact that my costume was really more like Faux-Edwardian-Pulled-From-late-20th-Century-Closet.  Also, I learned a surprising number of the kids had some knowledge of the French language.  I’d estimate 2/5ths of the class.

Heartening: 95% of the class had no difficulty with coming to Ven. Henriette’s same conclusion, that having a wife in the countryside and a mistress in the city was not the Catholic way.  Good for them.  The other 5% just weren’t paying attention, but once they heard what I had said, they too, agreed.   I guess it’s easier in 6th grade, when who wants a girlfriend anyway?

3.

Eldest daughter and I have recently gotten hooked on The Groaning Lady Show.  So-called by the guys in our household.  Who always come and watch it.

 

3.5

St. Monica, of course.  In other homeschooling news:

a) We’ve completed Q1 with varying amounts of success, and are jumping into Q2 today with varying amounts of enthusiasm.

b) I tried to vote mid-morning, but estimated the line was about an hour long, not so fun for young children, particularly the one with a nasty scrape on her hand from tripping on the walk down the block, plus an un-fun headcold.  We retreated, charged the iPods, and will give it another shot after lunch with entertainment in hand.  Most years there isn’t much of a line, but apparently people are a touch worked up about this election.  Go figure.

***

Well, that’s all for this week.   Tuesday’s Link Day, which is when instead of e-mailing fun things I ought to post but forget to, you just tell the world all by yourself.  Entirely optional.  I’m pretty swamped with real life but I’ll try to post updates here as I work through my to-do list elsewhere on the internet. Have a great week.

 

Henriette Delille: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Henriettedelille.gif [Public Domain]

Book Review: St. Catherine Laboure

Continuing with the theme of “Books I need to choose so my daughter doesn’t disown me,” I picked St. Catherine Laboure and Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal as my most recent Catholic Company review title.  I was particularly curious because things like “miraculous medals” fall into the category of devotionals I don’t know much about — but when my eldest daughter was born, a random parishioner came up and gave me a blessed medal, and I do wear it. (Not always. Sometimes.  Long story.)

Synopsis for people who don’t know the story:  St. Catherine was a 19th century French farm girl who discerned a religious vocation.  While in the convent, she had a series of visions of the Blessed Mother, who instructed her to have a certain silver medal made and distributed.  Recall the French Revolution had wiped out large numbers of clergy and religious, and militant atheism was still very much afoot in St. Catherine’s time.  Forget all the warm-fuzzies associated with France being the Eldest Daughter of the Church, the 1800’s are no wonderland for those prone to religious nostalgia.

So anyhow, St. Catherine eventually did get the medal made.  It proved to be a great spiritual help to many.  And meanwhile, Catherine went on being an ordinary saintly religious sister, quietly doing her work, and never letting on that she was the visionary responsible for the origins of the “Miraculous Medal”.

(It’s called “Miraculous” not because it works miracles — sacramentals aren’t magic objects — but because of the miraculous nature of the visions that led to its creation.  There are miracles associated with the medal, just as there are miracles associated with praying the Rosary, visiting Lourdes, or sitting under the shadow of select Apostles.  Miracles aren’t scientific wonders, they are the freely chosen acts of a Person, God, responding in an unusual way to another person — a human — in a way that will benefit the human’s soul. )

Reading Level:  Upper Elementary and older.  As an adult I found the biography to be readable, enjoyable, and with plenty of interesting content.  I didn’t find the story was at all dumbed-down.  My 5th grader read it without difficulty, though as with others in this series,  it helps to have a general knowledge of the Catholic world. For a mixed-group book study, plan to have a group leader who can answer basic questions about the faith in order to assist readers who don’t know much about Catholic culture yet.

A note on the pronunciations:  The book gives easy pronunciation guides to the all the French names and vocabulary, as the words appear in the text, which is great for the reader, since most kids (and grown-ups) don’t know how to pronounce French stuff.  I noted one name in the book that the given pronunciation did not match what I thought it should be.  I don’t know if that is a regional/historical variation, or a typo.  In any case it was a fairly trivial concern, and of all the pronunciations, there was only the one that seemed slightly off to me.

What I love about the book:  The focus on the utterly normal nature of St. Catherine and her vocation.  In shorter treatments of her life, and undue amount of attention is given to her visions and the making of the miraculous medal, with one or two sentences summarizing an entire life that bookended that one part of her life.  In this biography, in contrast, we see St. Catherine growing up, discerning her vocation, and devoting the bulk of her life’s work to taking her everyday gifts (household management, farming, a kind personality) and using them to help others and share the faith.  If she was blessed with an unusual spiritual life, it was a spiritual life grounded in the everyday holiness that all of us can aspire to.

Late in her life we get to see an incident of extraordinary courage, the kind of heroic courage that caps a lifetime of small decisions to do the right thing in little every day matters.  In many ways this biography dovetails nicely with a study of St. Therese’s Little Way.

Summary: It’s a great book.  If you’re looking for an enjoyable, readable life of St. Catherine Laboure, here you go.  Very nicely done.

 

***

The fine print, and yeah, I just copied and pasted it off my reviewer-info page: This review was written as part of the Catholic book reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on Saint Catherine Labouré . The Catholic Company is a great resource for tools to help you participate in the Year of Faith, including Year of Faith bible studies and exclusive Year of Faith personalized gifts. The Catholic Company also has all your Advent needs in stock, such as Advent calendars and Advent wreaths.

***

And look at this: Here’s a list of all the books I’ve reviewed for the Catholic Company to date.   I thought it was cool.

Anna Mei, Blessing In Disguise – Reviewed – See All Reviews

Benedict of Bavaria – Reviewed – See All Reviews

Saint Gianna Beretta Molla – The Gift of Life – Reviewed – See All Reviews

Doctors of the Church – Reviewed – See All Reviews

The Mass Explained for Kids – Reviewed – See All Reviews

Theology of the Body for Teens – Middle School Edition Bundle – Reviewed – See All Reviews

Why Enough Is Never Enough-Overcoming Worries about Money – Reviewed – See All Reviews

Prove It! – God – Reviewed – See All Reviews

Who Is Jesus Christ? Unlocking the Mystery in the Gospel of Matthew – Reviewed – See All Reviews

The Salvation Controversy – Reviewed – See All Reviews

Sex au Naturel – Reviewed – See All Reviews

Saint of the Day (Revised Sixth Edition) – Reviewed – See All Reviews

Mary, Mother of the Son 3 Volume Set – Reviewed – See All Reviews

The Angels and Their Mission – Reviewed – See All Reviews

The Apostles Illustrated Edition – Reviewed – See All Reviews

Dark Night of the Soul – New Edition – Reviewed – See All Reviews

The Fathers – Reviewed – See All Reviews

 

3.5 Time Outs: Charisms

Thanks once again to our host Larry D. at Acts of the Apostasy, who’s got the best hurricane photo going.

Click and be amazed.

1.

SuperHusband & I went to the state Catholic Charismatic Conference this weekend.  Friday evening began with such a promising start that we dragged the kids along Saturday so we could both attend all day.  Yes, I bribed them.  They seem to be okay with that.

I don’t actually have a charismatic bent, but it’s comfortable enough once you’ve traveled in Evangelical circles for a while.  Here’s what we liked:

  • All the songs were about God, and directed to Him.
  • The guest speaker taught the Catholic faith.
  • The people were friendly.

Yep.  I will totally turn out for that.

2.

The retreat leader was Fr. Peter Sanders from New Pentecost Catholic Ministries.  The topic was “The Character of Christ”, the focus being on using the cardinal virtues to conform your life to Christ.  Knowing nothing else about the guy than what I saw and heard Friday and Saturday, I’d recommend him if you are looking for a guest speaker.  100% Catholic, no patience for New Age nonsense, and no patience for the showboating that can swirl around certain Charismatic circles (not something I’ve ever seen from a local, FYI).

Recall that SuperHusband reverted to the Church less than two years ago, though he’d been attending Catholic churches for all his vacation/travel church attendance for years prior.   This was the first time he’d ever heard of the cardinal virtues.  Next day at dinner he was telling some friends about the talks.  “What a great framework! Apparently it’s this well-established thing.  Very useful.  I wonder why I’ve never heard a sermon about it?  You’d think it would be the kind of thing priests would teach in their homilies.”

I’ve been Catholic much longer, and I think I’ve heard a priest mention the virtues in passing one time.  Note to priests and deacons: “The Cardinal Virtues” isn’t being overdone these days.  You could preach about that.  Thanks.

3.

Because homework is not his charism, our boy is currently living the iPod-free lifestyle.  Which  means he needs some kind of other music to listen to when he does dishes.  So he’s taken to composing fake VBS theme songs.  Yesterday’s was, “I’m a Little Bitty Platypus in a Great Big World”.  Took me hours to get the tune out of my head.

3.5

I went crazy and volunteered my own house for the annual homeschool All Saints Party (long story), because certain of my children have been planning their costumes for months. Eldest daughter did a saint-change on account of how even though it’s very cool to carry around eyeballs on a platter, St. Lucy is just too easy to guess.  She’s going with a more obscure saint.  And the youngest is of course going to be

***

Well, that’s all for this week.  Tuesday’s Link Day, which is when instead of e-mailing fun things I ought to post but forget to, you just tell the world all by yourself.  Entirely optional.  I’m pretty swamped with real life but I’ll try to post at least once more this week as I work through my review-backlog. Have a great week.

Make that one long take. (Holy water, death, evangelization.)

I was goofing on Google Reader and discovered I’d written something.  I tend to forget about my New Evangelizers column because I turn it in a week ahead of when it’s published.  Here’s the background: My friend and I were talking on the phone, and she told me her death-bed-holy-water-evangelization story.  It stuck with me, and when my NE deadline came to my attention, I e-mailed and asked if I could borrow the story for the column.  We changed the names to protect privacy, and after I wrote up my draft, she looked it over and corrected a few details I’d mixed up (working from my memory of the phone conversation).

Anyhow, it’s a lovely story of evangelization by a person you don’t think of as an “evangelist”, but who is a good Catholic doing her normal Catholic housewife stuff, and gets a miracle.  Yeah.  Seriously.  A little miracle. But not so little to the person on her death bed who benefited from it.  Go look.

Kolbe Reviews: Thoughts on Math

Kolbe calls for Saxon Math as its default math program for upper elementary school.  That’s the one in the course plans, and it’s one I’ve looked at but never used.   The  Kolbe plans primarily serve to divide out the work day-by-day; there is not math instruction in the plans.  (In contrast to say the religion course plans, which include teaching suggestions in the daily notes of the course plans.)  There are quarterly exams in the course plans, so you can do an exam at the end of each quarter that will line up with what was covered in the plans.  The exam answer keys show not just the answer, but the “show your work” way that the problem was solved.

Saxon’s reputation: A lot of people love it.  It’s the A+, teacher’s pet of math curricula.  If you successfully complete Saxon, you’ve got a well-trained math student.  People who don’t like Saxon tend to not like the homework:  For each lesson, the homework includes a relatively small number of practice problems for the new concept (so complain those who want more practice), and many problems that review previously-taught concepts (so complain those who can’t bear repetition).  The latter problem is easy to fix — just don’t do all the homework problems.  If you have a student who tends to need more practice to “get” a concept, preview the curriculum and see if it looks like it will provide enough help for your child.

Kolbe’s second-choice recommendation is Singapore Math.  Give it serious consideration, because it’s the top choice of some well-regarded homeschool moms.  Look here for Rebbecca Frech’s comments on Miquon & Singapore Math, and here for her general approach to teaching mathematics.

Another homeschooling friend and math-professor-on-homeschool-leave recommends the Life of Fred, which her kids love.  I ordered a book, and my 5th grader is excited about using these to review and master the topics she’s been learning.  She likes the story-format better than a regular math book, perhaps in part because she has spent many years with a regular math book.  I’m not persuaded every family would use Fred as their sole math book, though.  But it’s a good resource to know about.

I am pretty happy with Math-U-See, which is what we’ve used all along, but don’t think it’s a good fit for everyone.  I like it because I like the way it explains the math concepts — that whole thing of understanding how math works, rather than just memorizing processes.  I am also 100% comfortable with the MUS guidelines on teaching math, which direct you to slow down and speed up per the student’s readiness.  Which in our family consistently translates into long periods where we make “no progress”, then quick speed through a bunch of chapters at once when the brain catches up with the new topic.  A lot of people would not be comfortable with this.  (Even if you despise MUS, check out their various free E-sources, land of the free printable worksheet generator.)

Note also, that MUS’s scope and sequence is not the same as in most public schools.  It would not be the best choice for someone planning to put the kids in and out of school during the elementary years.  On the other hand, if you have a struggling math student and want to spend a summer on review, the videos and a workbook used strategically might be a way to help a student master a topic that had never quite clicked.

Finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the controversial Teaching Textbooks.  People hate these for all sorts of reasons, some of them (reportedly) valid.  But people love them because they let you sit your kid in front of the machine, do the work, done.   They seem to be most popular with non-math kids who just need to get the basics down by moving at their own pace, and with families that are extremely overloaded and need a method that is not parent-intensive.

Based on all that, here are my criteria for a good math curriculum:

  • You the teaching parent like the general approach.  If you don’t believe in the method, you’ll never last 10 minutes when your kid digs in the heels and tries to talk you out of it.
  • It fits your family’s needs and abilities.  People vary in how well they read, how easily they learn math, how much hands-on time the parents have, and so forth.  Shed the fantasy life and be the math person that you are.

The big problem with math instruction: Not enough of us love math.  And those who do love it are divided into those who have fun with it, and those who take perverse pleasure in accomplishing nasty chores.  It is very hard to teach a subject that you don’t personally enjoy.

What to do?  My advice if you are math-phobic is to relax, sit down with your kids, and learn with them.  Your brain is more mature than it was a decade or two ago, and it is not too late for you to finally understand the topics that confused you way back when.  (FYI – Math-U-See is popular with moms who are going this route.  I can’t speak for other series, but I’d say for any math book: Take a look and see if the explanations make sense to you.  If they do, you’ll be able to turn around and explain them to your kids.)

My advice if you are competent at math but just don’t love it* — and this is me, and so I constantly nag myself with this advice — is to keep searching until you find a way to love it.  Be it via games, or making a sport of comparison shopping for groceries, or rewarding yourself with chocolate for every twenty minutes spent faking it for your kids’ sakes, try something, anything, to get you past the I-hate-math hump.  Don’t give up on yourself — keep trying different things until something clicks.

Okay readers: What’s your favorite math curriculum?  Supplements?  Games?  Websites?  Recommend away.

*People think accountants are math whizzes.  Some are.  But accounting actually only requires about an 8th grade math education, and a teeny tiny bit of algebra, sometimes maybe. In any case, I am not the kind of accountant who just loves adding columns of numbers.  I am the kind of accountant who loves creating spreadsheets that add numbers for me.  Also I like to figure out what went wrong with your computer and make it work for you again.  I like figuring out why the government just sent you a nasty letter, and then digging through your confused box of documents and showing you how to properly fill out your form the second time around.  That kind of accounting.  I am not the person you want keeping your books.  I am the person you want to call when you suspect your bookkeeper is up to no good.  That’s what I like.  Accountant detective work.