Education

Sometimes at homeschool camps we hear from guest speakers with interesting ideas. One such guest speaker is Peter Doig from sunny Queensland. He homeschooled his kids and has a keen interest in History.

I found a new website: Learn Church Latin It’s by a Catholic homeschooling mum like me, who, unlike me, has done actual proper Latin courses at actual proper educational institutions! I am stoked!

When typing up booklets I often forget the accent marks. I take it for granted now that after years of reading Latin I can guess how most words are pronounced - especially with parts of the Mass, where there is a lot of repetition over the years.

A legendary book that I was overjoyed to find in an Op Shop way back in 2001 (before kids). Something about pre-natal check-ups and waiting rooms meant that I read a lot of books that year.

Each time I come to write one of these annual plans I am struck by how time flies. This year I have been looking at years 11, 9, 7, 5 and Kindergarten.

Some years ago I had a go at using Anki to help learn the Baltimore Catechism. It probably helped a bit, but one of those things that dropped by the wayside.

Chemistry lectures - no - open day Chemistry lectures were a memorable highlight of my time at University. One thing you miss with homeschooling is easy access to test tubes, magnesium ribbon and hydrochloric acid.

Last term we read through Charlotte Yonge’s History of Rome which leads up to my favourite topic - Medieval Europe. Now, because of the Protestant Revolution, it is nigh impossible to find a public domain text of this period from a Catholic perspective, but here is the plan.

Moodle is a Learning Management System - the big open source megalith of the Learning Management landscape. One drawback is that it needs more resources than can comfortably be supplied by your average cheap shared web hosting.

When we sing the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Latin I often wonder how much my children understand. So, today I cut and paste Psalm 84 into two columns, printed out four copies, cut them up and asked my students to put them back together.