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I haven’t done much blogging on homeschooling since publishing my book, but I hope to do more now. If you read my blog for spirituality, please stick around, as the bulk of my posts will still be on spirituality for adults. A few weeks ago, my kids and I finished studying the Old Testament. Now we split into two groups. D and M are studying the early Church, while C is going back to the beginning of the Bible to read stories he missed. That means I am revisiting units I created about five years ago. As we go through them, I plan to share many of them with you in detail here. Today I am sharing the unit I created on Creation. The purpose of a contemplative homeschool The focus of the units I have created is on helping your children grow in their relationship with Christ. Academics is part of that, but not the most important part.  I want to help children learn to see God in everything. I want to teach them to practice mental prayer. I want religion to be a pa...

Ready to celebrate the rest of Lent as a family? Here are several activities you can do together, whether or not you homeschool. p=suitable for grades 1-3 m=suitable for grades 4-6 j=suitable for grades 7-9 s=suitable for grades 10-12  Books Besides reading the Gospel accounts of Holy Week, try reading and discussing the following books that deal with sacrifice, martyrdom, or resurrection: The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams (p). The Tale of Three Trees by Angela Elwell Hunt (p+). The Queen and the Cross: The Story of St. Helen by Cornelia Mary Bilinsky (p, m) The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis (p+ for reading aloud; m+ for independent reading). Continue reading at Contemplative Homeschool.

I have been blogging lately about my method of contemplative homeschooling. Here is an example of a unit I did a few years ago with my boys on Jacob and Esau. The best way to start these units is for you (the parent) to meditate on the Scripture passage you will study with your kids. In this case, prayerfully read Genesis 25:29-24, 27:1-40. Since this passage is long, you could spread your meditation over 2-3 days or choose a smaller portion of the text to meditate on.  Identify the main elements or themes of the story that speak to you and use them as part of your studies. The themes I chose for this unit were twins, telling the truth, and comparing and contrasting. (I created this before I began starting each unit with my prayer time.) Narration: Read "Esau and Jacob" from The Golden Children's Bible aloud. If you have a different Bible, use only the parts of the story that correspond to the sections of Genesis noted above. Have your kids narr...

Parents: I have written a short biography of Pope Francis for children. Find definitions of vocabulary words, links, downloads, and other teaching ideas at the end of this post.  " Habemus Papam !" the protodeacon announced to the waiting crowd in St. Peter's Square on March 13, 2013. "We have a pope! The most eminent and most reverend Lord, Lord Jorge Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church Bergoglio, Who takes for himself the name of Francis." The people cheered when they heard the new pope would be Pope Francis . But they also asked themselves , Who is Cardinal Bergoglio? Where is he from? What kind of pope will he be? Continue reading .

Since Sacred Scripture is at the center of our homeschool, I decided to begin our studies on the papal conclave with a look at the origins of the papacy in Matthew 16. We have been reading The Golden Children's Bible chronologically. We are just finishing the Sermon on the Mount with a unit on the parable of the wise and foolish builders. Reading Matthew 16 at this point provides a good bridge to studies of the pope. For the best start to this unit, you (the parent) should prayerfully read Matthew 7:24-27 and 16:14-20 ahead of time. Make it the subject of your daily meditation. (If you don't know how to do Christian meditation, read my recent post on mental prayer , or see this sample meditation .) You may want to share your insights or resolutions with your kids in the course of your studies. Then use as many of the following activities as you see fit. View the whole lesson plan.