I have the same cord as you. It can play video straight from youtube and other websites from the ipad to the tv, so the material doesn't have to be downloaded on the ipad to play on the tv. There is some setting on the ipad you have to turn on. I'll ask my husband later.

Prsyers for you, Patty.

I am pretty bad at this. If I meet Catholics who haven't been to church for a long time, I will invite them to our parish for Sunday Mass. I have seen a few in church after an invitation, so that was great. I feel very, very awkward asking anyone who isn't Catholic to come to mass. I recently have been spending my time focusing on encouraging people I make connections with in our RCIA class and Moms' group, who need support in making it to Mass each week. One of the young women who came in last Easter had a horrible break up with her Catholic boyfriend just a month after she entered the Church (and he was the only Catholic she knew besides me and her whole family was very hostile to her converting). I invitied her to come to mass with us each week so she wouldn't have to sit alone at church. That experience was such a blessing to both of us. She said she would have never kept going to Mass without the support during that emotional time, and I learned that this was something I was able to do well. I think all of us have a niche in the Church. I think helping exisiting Catholics who need support is a good fit for me. Some have good ecumenical outreach. Some can talk to those who cannot even concieve of a God of any kind. And we all need each other. Some of us need to help get folks in the door, and others of us need to make the parish a place they'll want to come back to. I'm starting not to worry as much about what I am not doing well and instead am focusing on what I can do well. That was a bit off topic, but I've been thinking about it lately.

I really want to read the book!!

The Catholic blog called Purple and Fine Linen has this great link-up Every week called "What I Wore This Sunday." While I haven't participated, I get quite a kick out of it. There is lots of deets of shoeware, great Goodwill deals, and, of course, earrings! http://www.finelinenandpurple.com/2013/01/13/what-i-wore-sunday-volume-13/

Cardinal Avery Dulles' most well-known work, Models of the Church, addresses this diversity within the Church. His book isn't really about spirituality as much as how you percieve or emphasize the Church and its mission. Just becoming familiar with the ideas about the models helped me see how different Catholics can often talk past each other, because they emphasize different aspects of the Church and its mission. I haven't read it yet, but I am hoping to soon. I found this fun online quiz to find your model. I am such a sucker for online quizzes! I scored highest in the Sacramental model. http://quizfarm.com/quizzes/Fashion/McBrien/what-is-your-model-of-the-church-dulles/ Anyway, I love, love, love the diversity of spiritualities in the Church. Peter Kreeft has this great analogy about the Church that I love. He talks about how Church is not a melting pot, where everything ends up tasting thensame, but a stew in which each ingredient tastes the best it can. You aren't asked to lose your individuality in the Church, but enhance it to be best it can be. The Churchtells us to be salt. And what does salt do? Brings out a food's flavor! Makes eggs eggier, beef beefier, etc. That is what the Church does for each of us! My wedding Mass had guitar and harp music, lots of sponteous praise and singing in tongues during the Eucharistic thanksgiving songs. My sister's wedding mass was three hour+ High Latin Mass, where they flew in a 12 person choir to sing the responses. Both were faithful to Church rubrics, but wildly different. But both were utterly beautiful.

We use the HOP and AAR readers for actual "school" practice. My kids would never read them on their own without being told. Ever. My kids enjoy reading Elephant and Piggy and Fly Guy. For some unaccountable reason, my kids LOVE Dick and Jane books. Also, I have them listen to audiobooks during quiet time from ages 3-4. They listen to Frog and Toad, Little Bear, Mouse Tales, etc, during that time. Looking along with the books. Then they begin to read the books to me. Because the stories are so familiar to them, this makes a nice transition for them into more fluent reading. After this stage, we move up to Henry and Mudge, Nate the Great, Click and Ladybug magazines. Things along that line.

Between 3-5, my kids liked having a book to go with the audio. We listened to the same ones over and over, which actually was very helpful for working on fluency and confidence in reading because the kids were so familiar with the stories. Our favorites: Frog and Toad series The Frances collection Curios George collection Little Bear collection Mouse Tales collection Mike Mulligan Blueberries for Sal The next level up included: Nate the Great Magic Treehouse Mr. Popper's Penguins Charlotte's Web The Little House series 101 Dalmations The Wind in the Willows

Argh... lost my post. I have a newly three, almost five, six, and almost eight year old to please. The Wind in the Willows: I read a slightly abridged, but beautifully illustrated version to them first. Now we are listening to Jim Weiss' recording of the full story. Fairy tales: Well-illustrated versions of both Grimm and Anderson usually go over well with all of them. Also, we really got into Russia tales for awhile. They seem to always have compelling and beautiful illustrations. Once we read a version of a tale with some type of illustration, we can usually do audio versions later and keep the younger ones attention. Little House on Praire series: We did the audio version of these. Big hit all around. Roald Dahl: We have only done Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach, but these were big hits once the little ones got past the first few chapters of each book. Family stories, like The Moffats, The Saturdays, Half-Magic, All-of-a-Kind Family: Books that focus on the life of siblings in a family seem to work well since each kid kind of identifies with a certain character. The Action Bible: Not a typical read aloud, but this graphic novel style Bible is fought over by all of my kids. We read some every night. Huge hit. Charlotte's Web and 101 Dalmations: I thinked it helped that the little ones were already slightly familiar with these stories from the movies. Totally homeschool fail to see movie before book, but there you have it.

I think xtramath would be great to build confidence and speed in her multiplication facts. It is a very simple, free computer based program. You just go here and sign up. Your child takes a placement test to start. Then each day, your child can easily log in, do there 10-15 drill, and log out. You can log in at anytime and see exactly what kind of progress they are making, what facts they know down cold, what ones they know pretty well, and where they are struggling. You also get weekly emailed progress reports. You can always try it and see if it click with your daugher. It's free so you don't lose anything!

I have not read this book and it is overtly Christian, but authors make a case against Sayers' interpretation of the Trivium: http://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-Eloquence-Christian-Paradigm-Classical/dp/1581345526/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1244817947&sr=8-1 I do recommend James Taylor's Poetic Knowledge, that Faith mentioned.

I'm glad to hear you can sync different phones with EEBA. I downloaded it and a couple of others last night and hope to get them set up tonight.

We had holy water fonts at all of our exterior doors and at the door to the main stair case in our house growing up. With seven kids, we went through several fonts since they were breaking all the time! I really loved it, though, and we blessed ourselves dozens of times a day out of pure habit. I need to get a few in my house. I figure I need all the help I can get!

Thanks, ladies! I'm going to check these out.

I'm looking for an app that will help you track purchases in categories similiar to using a paper envelope system. I would use an envelope system, but we prefer to put everything on a credit card and pay off monthly to build points. I have a Droid phone that I would like to use the app on, though I do have an iPad I could use.

Oops, wrong board. So sorry.

I think it has to do with learning the numbers in ascending order early on. Basically, learning to count for most of us is simply learning to add. I still always think of a number line going up first, even though I know the numbers ascend and descend. I think it makes addition a little faster for most since we essential learned to count by adding, not subtracting. ETA: I noticed the same thing in my kid. Subtration facts are answered a bit slower than addition facts.

I think it is fine for a female to pick a male saint for confirmation. I sponsored a member of my RCIA class last year and her confirmation patron saint was St. Peter. Prayers for your daughter and husband! And congratulations to you on the upcoming birth of your first grandchild!

Chesterton Press is run by Regina Doman, whom I mentioned up thread. She is also a homeschooling mom. How in the world she pulls it off, I don't know! I actually just went to a book signing and talk for teens she did locally. It was a fabulous talk about evangelizing the imagination through the arts. Anyway, I just thought I would mention that as a publisher, she is looking very hard for Catholic writers who are writing children's literature, especially for the 3rd-4th grade level. A Catholic Beverly Clearly. If any of you ladies or anyone you know writes good children's lit, send them her way.

Sounds like she's read some great stuff! If she has picked out a confirmation saint, maybe finding a really good biography or some of that saint's writings (if they have any) could be a good route. Or if she hasn't picked a confirmation saint, reading some good saint works could be helpful to her. Not all of Michael O'Brien's work is apocalyptic novels. (I don't really like those either!) I really enjoyed his Strangers and Sojourners, which is more of an epic tale of a couple of different generations of a family seeking truth. I do think Fr. Ciszek's He Leadth Me could be a very good fit. It is very spiritually nurting while having a compelling story line that keeps it from getting to difficult. If she likes it, he wrote another book on his experienc in Russia called With God in Russia. Actually, he wrote that one first, and it is more a detailed description of what happened to him in Russia. He Leadth Me is more of the inside, spiritual realtiy of the same story.

This is true! I don't have the temperment for that kind of work, but the board has actually moderated a bit in the past few years from what I see - I don't go there often - due to the work of some dedicated folks who love the TLM, but are not interested in schism. I just mentioned it because I was pretty sure Chucki must have been unaware of the formus because no one would ever send new converts over that way!

Oops, I just realized you asked for fiction books. Some of the ones I mentioned are biographies/non-fiction (The Story of a Soul, He Leadth Me, Orthodoxy), but very readable ones with strong story lines. Other fiction: If she hasn't read Lord of the Rings, it is probably the fiction book that evangelized my imagination the most. Chesterton has some good fiction books besides the Father Brown mysteries: The Man Who Was Thursday and Manalive come to mind as my favorites. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn has long been a very forming read for me. It is not Catholic in nature and actually has some possibly ojectional stuff for some parents, but it helped me wrestle with the nature of love and sin, with ideas about justice and mercy, exposed me to the reality of addiction, etc. I think it can be very good for certain teens, but I would make sure you are familiar with it yourself first. Some of Michael O'Brien's works have stuck with me. He is a Catholic writer, but more aimed at adults. Again, it depends are your fifteen year old's maturity and your own comfort level with certain things if they would be a good fit.

Also, I started reading Chesterton at that age. His Father Brown mystery stories aren't really stirring, but the idea that a good man would understand evil better than anyone else was an important concept for me to grasp at that point. (I had decided to homeschool during my first two years of highschool and friends would say that I wouldn't really understand the world if I didn't get out and "experience" things. Through Chesterton (and C.S. Lewis) I realized that only someone who had fought against temptation and sin actually understood the nature of the world. You truly know a foe once you fight it. If you surrender immediately, you never truly understand its strengths and weaknesses.) Also, I probably read Orthodoxy by Chesterton for the first time at that age. Not everything made sense yet, but the underlying arguement and general drift of the book resounded deeply with me. C.S. Lewis' space trilogy was a very good read for me at that age. Also, I learned some important practical stuff about practicing my faith from The Screwtape Letters and The Great Divorce by Lewis. It helped me see the smaller sins in my life in greater relief.

Regina Doman is a Catholic author who writes for teens. She has a lovely series where she takes a classic fairy tale and puts in in a modern setting. There is overt Catholic imagery, but it is not hit-you-over-the-head moralizing. They are lighter reading, but still very good. The first in the series is called The Shadow of the Bear. There are five books in the series right now, with a sixth coming out soon. At that age, The Story of a Soul by St. Therese was very impactful to me. It is a very accessible read for teens, especially teen girls, I think. I also remember reading He Leadth Me by Fr. Walter Ciszek at that age and being very strengthened in my faith. It is a bit more mature since it is a story of an American priest who went into Russia as the Iron Curtain fell. He was arrested quickly, spent five years in solitary confinement, and 15 years in a Siberian work camp. It is not super graphic, but does talk about interrogations and the horrible conditions of the labor camp. It is mostly focused on the spiritual side of his story than the actual physical realities. He really tackles big spiritual issues like discerning God's will and the whole problem of evil in the world. I read some biographies of Mother Teresa at that age as well that shaped me profoundly. I'll have to see if I can find which ones. I'm sure I'll think of more later...

I really like the homemade burp clothes I've received. Some have been embroidered, some have had colorful printed fabric down the center and trimmed with ribbons, etc. My mom made some to match my diaper bag. You can never have too many burp clothes! I received one blanket I love. It had the baby's name, date of birth, birth weight and length, etc. embroider around the edge. I loved a handmade and cross-stitched baptismal stole I received for one child. (I am Catholic and the baby recieves a small white baptismal stole at baptism.) It had the baby's name and baptismal date cross-stitched on it, along with a scripture verse and some lovely images of water flowing out of shells. It was so much nicer than the generic one you get from the parish! A handmade nursing cover would be awesome as well. I have seen online tutorials for how to make the rigid edge at the top.