Our Mission Statement

We, at Cor Iesu Academy, vow before the Lord our God to guide our children in a traditional liberal arts education imbued with our Catholic Faith. The Lord entrusts us with their intellectual and spiritual formation that they might grow in mind, body and spirit to find and fulfill the vocation He has in His mind for them. This will be accomplished through a traditionally well-rounded, organized and disciplined yet accommodating curriculum. Homeschooling allows us to focus on each of our children individually, on a day-to-day basis, so that each will develop a rigorous intellect and goodness of soul based on the teachings, morals, values and deep love of God present in our Holy Catholic Faith. It also allows us the time and flexibility to avail ourselves of the Sacraments, the Rosary and other prayer devotions for their Guardian Angels, their Patron Saints, and the full Communion of Saints, because we cannot do this alone. God suffices in all things, and supplies all we need.

Our Sixth Grade Curriculum Choices

Since I NEVER just followed the textbook when I taught Language Arts, it is only normal for me not to have been 100% satisfied with ONE curriculum choice, therefore, I have decided to pick and choose the best textbooks for my son. He will not be formally enrolled in one curriculum but instead, I have selected what I considered, in my most humble opinion, the best of the best in each subject for the sixth grade. I was also happy to select some books that would actually take him from 6th to 7th in the same text (less money to spend next year). So here's my choice for the BEST curriculum for 6th Grade:

Religion: Baltimore Catechism I, also we will study The Four Gospels (2 year cycle)

Science: Exploring Creation with General Science, 2nd Edition - Apologia (2 year cycle)

Social Studies: From Sea to Shining Sea: The Story of America - Catholic Schools Textbook Project/Ignatius Press (2 year cycle)

Latin: Latina Christiana I - Memoria Press (2 year cycle)

Spanish: Spanish I - Cliff's

Math: Mathematics 7/6 - Saxon (aiming for 1/2 year and then transitioning into Algebra 1/2)

Reading: The Reading and Writing Sourcebook - Great Source

Writing: Strategies for Writers - Zaner/Bloser

Handwriting: Handwriting 5/6 - Zaner/Bloser

Word Study/Spelling: Word Study & Phonics - Spectrum

P.E./Health: Theology of the Body for Teens & continue Tennis Lessons with Coach Moore

So that's it, I'm so excited. Our books are in and I've began planning. Guillermo is super excited (maybe even more than I)...he keeps saying, "Mami, I'm gonna be homeschooled!" I love it! :) I'll post on my choices for the little guys in another post as I have to keep following our schedule some (trying to get the kids adjusted to a school-like schedule before starting the actual teaching). Gotta run...

I've Totally Abandoned this Blog!

No, I'm not missing! LOL, between planning, ordering books, organizing the classroom, and getting my act together...oh yes, also getting Catholic Blogging Homeschooling Mamas up and running, I've totally neglected posting on this blog! My opologies....and I cannot forget the fact that I have four children and my DH who constantly need me...I love it, can't complain. As I tell people, "if I had less kids, I would definitely be bored!"

So as soon as I have all my ducks in a row, I will be back to blog about my curriculum choices and all the wonderful things that have to do with starting a new school year. See you soon! Meanwhile, visit my other site! :) GBY,

Catching Worms, Bright and Early!

From Nigh Owl to Early Bird: My Transformation

I'm a research-based kinda person, maybe because of my Reading Intervention background? I'm not sure but I like to find research or conduct research as to why things are the way they are. Sometimes I thought that I like being a teacher mainly because I get to be a learner all day all the time, this might prove to be true. So, as I analyzed my new life as a homeschooling mother of four and wife, I realized something: I am no longer the Night Owl I used to be. My WHOLE life I have been a night owl. My mom shares stories of me fighting my sleep as an infant. This has all come to an end at the ripe age of 35!!

I have noticed a couple of things: 1. I'm tired at around 10PM, 2. I like waking up before the kids to start my day, 3. I can't function as well as I use to with lack of sleep, so 4. I need my sleep! So strange to me! If you are anything like me (and so unlike my DH), I could function without sleep and not be grumpy or grouchy. I remember when Number 2, Josef Nicolas-Pablo had colic at six weeks old (for six weeks). He would wake up at 11PM and cry until around 2-3AM, I had to be up by 6AM and at work teaching by 7AM. I was fine...so I think, maybe I wasn't my 100%??? I thought I was.

Here's something I found regarding this topic. This new study shows that how we sleep often reflects how we function intellectually and socially. Researchers claim that early risers tend to “reach conclusions through logic and analysis. Night owls are more imaginative and open to unconventional ideas, preferring the unknown and favoring intuitive leaps on their way to reaching conclusions.

Morning people are more likely to be self-controlled and exhibit “upstanding” conduct; they respect authority, are more formal, and take greater pains to make a good impression. (Earlier research also suggests that they are less likely to hold radical political opinions.) Evening people, by contrast, are “independent” and “nonconforming,” and more reluctant to listen to authority—which suggests that teachers may have several reasons to prefer those students who wake

up in time for class.

So I guess that the Lord is forcing me to change my sleeping habits as well as many other aspects of my life. Unlike other Catholics, I need a metal hammer to the head to realize this, lol! Seriously, a couple of weeks ago I did my usual nightime web surfing in quest for the perfect homeschool curriculum, texts, etc.. By day five of staying up late and getting only about 5-6 hours a night, I got the migrane from hell! I never even get headaches so you could imagine how horrible this must have felt to me. If you have ever had a migrane, you know how bad I felt that night. I could not function, my DH had to take over from around 6:30PM until around 2AM when I woke up and showered. That was horrible, never again! This is when I realized, I can't do this anymore. Little did I know that it was the hammer to the head that I needed.

I've been on a quest to get curriculum planned and my entire life organized (and put on paper). During this process, many things have changed. Much to my surprise, I love it! The kids are happier as they are getting more sleep and better sleep patterns. I know this process will be slow and I need to pray for patience but I'm happy with the positive results thus far! So I am off to catch some worms...oh and in reference to my quest in planning and getting organized, I FINALLY found the right combination and I'm so excited! I've gotten my DH involved and he is happy (the pack rat that he is, lol). I can't talk I'm so much like him it drives me nuts because he does the things that I dislike about myself, it's a weird combination but we can laught together about it because we understand each other so much. I will post my organizational findings another day....gotta run and stay on schedule, lol!

It's Planning Time (again!)

So it's been almost a month since I was last on here...not that I haven't been thinking school (on the contrary). A couple of weeks ago, we got a chance to go back to Florida. I got a chance to dig through some of my teaching things, which was great because I found tons of things I can use with the kids at home as well as the Co-op!

I am also looking into ways to get more organized at home. With four children ages 11 months to 11 years, I need to be in full control of all the components of house keeping to maintain a happy home life. I have a close friend who is a teacher and fellow home schoolers who once told me, "when you get to number four, you'll get super organized, it will be second nature." Bless her heart, she was right! Well, atleast I have the desire to get more organized. So I'm planning, organizing, planning, restructuring, and planning some more...because with a plan, I firmly believe that you avoid many pitfalls! So a planning I shall go!

Getting a teen (or pre-teen) to Love Reading

This is a topic I see frequently and recently took the time to make these recommendations to a friend, so I thought I'd post it here too. The key thing to get a teenager (or pre-teen) turned on to reading is to selects books interest him/her. When I taught Reading to middle schoolers I would always start the school year telling my kids that if all they learned this year was to love to read, I did my job (I also taught them other classes: grammar, composition, & vocabulary to the same group). I loved it when, mid-year, kids that NEVER picked up a book were reading ahead in the class novel we were reading together.

One day, a student came up to me (the principal's son, lol) and said one morning before school started, "I hope you aren't mad at me because I read the next chapter! I had to know what happened next!!" I pretended to be mad at him and took him to the principal's office (his dad). When I told his dad what he had done his dad picked up on what I was doing and "scolded" him for reading ahead and then lost it laughing and said, "this is the happiest day of my life!" His son was so adamant about reading that he couldn't believe what had happened.

In one school year each student had read 11 novels (2 in the summer before school started, 6 with me-I read or the kids read aloud, and 3 individual books the kids had to select for their independent reading). Both parents and kids couldn't believe that they had read so many novels in one school year when they were accustomed to maybe two books in the past.

The key? Two things:

1. I read the six novels to them (out loud) and did a couple of things to get them to participate. At the beginning I only selected good readers to read and towards the middle they all were fighting to get a chance to read, by the end of the school year some kids were reading during my grammar class (another class-hiding their books in their desks-normally it would be a note or doing homework for another class but instead they were READING their independent novels)!!! Now there were a handful of advid readers in the group (maybe 5 out of 33-35 kids). These were NOT the ones doing this, it was the ones who were "on the fence" about reading and some who were totally in the outfield, not interested in reading at all! At the beginning the kids were shocked that I was reading to them in middle school! But they loved it! Also, I did a lot of think alouds while reading. This is when you pause while reading and make a connection to your life (something you remember or connect to another character or person). They loved that, it is quick (maybe a 20 second pause) think aloud and then you just keep going. This taught the kids to do this naturally when they read their own novels. Sometimes the kids would add to my think aloud, saying things like, "that actually reminds me of this..." or "oh, I thought of the same thing".

2. I taught them how to select a novel they liked and to learn that they had to make a good choice.

• First, it had to interest them.
• Second, the style of writing the author uses is important because the topic could interest you but if the author's writing is weird or difficult to follow??? it wouldn't work.
• Third, the reading level is important. Make sure the novel is at or above their independent reading level. You can go here and get an idea of what level your child is on.
• Make a follow up activity for the novel, like a reading log where they keep track of how much they read and to summarize the chapters or even sections of the chapter. Don't make this rigorous because this is an independent novel. But the log would let me know (especially at the beginning) if they were reading or at what pace.

Now for comprehension, you can do something simple such as a GIST Summary. You start with 50 words (50 Word GIST) and when he masters that number of words with a great paragraph, you decrease the number of words by five 45, 40, 35, until you get to 30. This is a way to help students be VERY selective with what will be in their summaries will look like. This is harder than it sounds but once they get the hang of it, it is fun and easy. I even tested them on this with a prompt. "Such and such characters developed a conflict through out this chapter. Describe the conflict in 40 words or less." It's a great writing and comprehension activity!

You need to start by finding your child's independent reading level, then take him to the library and help him select books he will like at his level or a year above. Don't go any higher than this. This is how I taught my kids to select an independent novel:

1. find a book

2. read the title, sound interesting? then,

3. flip through the pages, then

4. read the back summary, still interesting? then,

5. open to Chapter One and read the first paragraph, still interesting? THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU!

I also encouraged kids to read chapters one, two and three before deciding if that book wasn't the right one. AND this rarely happened because steps one through five above really work, but encourage them to put the book down and find a new one if they are just dragging themselves through the book. This is for independent books, if it's for a read aloud (YOU HAVE TO LIKE THEM TOO)!!!

What does your child like to do? Maybe I can recommend some books I've used in the past. Mind you, they are not Catholic but I did use them in a Catholic school and I was very selective (I did extensive research and read the books first before reading them to my students). Here are some of the books I've used: Tangerine, Things Not Seen, Behind My Bedroom Wall (about the Holocaust), Walk Two Moons, A Wrinkle in Time...these are the ones that I recall that the class as a whole loved! Hope this helps.

Taming the monster that is Curriculum!!!

So, I'm officially overwhelmed! I've seen and tested programs and curriculum for the past seven of the eleven years I taught in a formal school setting. The advantage - samples! I am accustomed to ordering samples from publishers and being able to hold the book(s) in your hands is so much a better experience than just looking at a picture of the cover online! There has to be a better way to present this information to home educators than to expect them to blindly accept the book you are selling them. I know, word of mouth is always a great way to find out about curriculum...but I just wish I could order some samples and be able to sit down at my kitchen table and spread them all out so that I can, I don't know, use a rubric to select what would fit our children best. Is that asking too much? Maybe I was just spoiled by publishers in the past?

Worksheets

I'm not a big fan of worksheets, but I find that for reviews or other occassions, we might need them in teaching. I got this website from a Yahoo Group I belong to and thought to pass it along since they are easily customized and they create a PDF for you to either save or print, pretty neat!

Hope this is helpful. Enjoy!

Schooling: What to do???

By profession, I am a teacher. By heart, I am still a teacher. It is very difficult for any parent to make the decision as to which school to send your child(ren) to these days. There are so many options: charter, public, private, religious, etc., that it makes it even harder to make this important decision. My eldest son has always attended a Catholic school in Florida. Actually, he attended one prominent one until third grade and transfered him out when the tution sky-rocketed to $10,000 a year (not a typo) for elementary education (if you go to the link of this school you will find a fancy flash website with tons of features but don't let this site fool you into thinking it was as flashy or fancy in real life...it was definitely, in my opinion, not worth the price we were paying. We switched him to another Catholic school, near our neighborhood for only $4,300 per year (we were saving at least $5,700 with this change). Plus books, uniforms, fees, etc., etc., oh yeah, and the building fund...donations to the Church (which we would make already). It is amazing how it all adds up. Even after the change we were spending $5,500 a year for Catholic schooling. If you know public schools in Florida, you'd understand why my son was no were near them! So now that he is finishing his last year of elementary school and we have invested close to $50,000 in his schooling from pre-kindergarten three until now, fifth grade. Where do we go from here?

He could continue at the current school; a great school by the way. Well worth the money! A new building will feature state of the art technology and a beautiful Media Center. Very exciting!!! Their Middle School is fantastic, teachers are dedicated and love what they are doing. I know this first hand because I had the priviledge of teaching in their MS for four years. Their sports program is great, their Art and Music program as well. But what are these schools lacking in? Not quantity, but quality! First of all, their teacher to student ratio is at the minimum requirements about 30:1. Have you ever been in a room with 30 sixth graders trying to teach grammar? Not fun...or I should say not fair; and I'm not talking about the teacher, it's the kids that don't receive a quality education because it is nearly impossible for the ONE teacher to spread him/herself that thin. Ideally the number would be half but then you'd have to add more buildings and increase tuition. So, what next?

I've been contemplating the idea of homeschooling for a while now. Not that I have anything against homeschooling. I've seen the nicest, most polite kids from homeschooling families (usually at church). My heart tells me it's a fantastic idea but my mind sometimes plays tricks on my heart and the educator in me tells me I might be underexposing my kids by making this decision. My husband has a similar mentality with the exception that he thinks it would be okay to try it for a year and if works great! if it doesn't, we can explore other options. So what do I do? The only thing left to do, pray about it all the time and then be silent. Wait for God's voice to guide me to make the right decision.

Homeschooling involves a lot more dedication and support from the parents of these children. They are their teachers during and after school hours. No longer would I be able to allow someone else to guide my children in the learning process about seven hours a day then I play catch up when he got home.

So what are the pros and cons of this? Lets see:

Pros: no wasted time with aimless worksheets, waiting for others to "catch up", cost efficient (I'm sure we won't spend $5,500 in books and supplies per year), time efficient (more things can be learned in less time), more time for extra-curricular activities, no worthless homework assignments, no negative influences from other kids (or teachers) that don't share the same values as our family, I could go on but just these couple of things is enough to see why I'd select homeschooling as my choice for the best schooling possible for our children.

Now to be fair, the possible Cons: no other adult interaction, less resources (art, music, PE, or gifted classes), no other kids to socialize with on a daily basis (other than my own children), involvement in religious activities such as Living Rosary, Stations, May Crowning, and other school related activities such as D.A.R.E. (drug prevention), Spelling and Geography Bees, etc.

So how do you remedy the "cons" of homeschooling? First, one perfect, or pretty good, solution is finding a Co-Op in your area. In our case, we were looking for one that was Catholic. I'm sure there are others in this city since there is a good homeschool population in the area. In my area there are two great Catholic Co-Op groups to choose from. For peace of mind I looked for the one closest to home. This fantastic Co-Op (a group where the parents involved contribute in teaching classes), there are a total of 12 families, 27 kids, 3 babies, 4 toddlers. The kids range from n rising newborn (lol, still cooking in Mama's tummy) to 7th grade. This group will also aide in the, very important, socialization process all children need to survive in this world. So this is my solution to homeschooling's cons, find a Co-Op and you'll have a happy school year! (I hope!) As I begin to get more involved I'll post more about this group. But I can definitely say that it has been a blessing in my decision making process for the future of our children. Thanks to Katie and Liz (the moms who founded the Co-Op) for all your hard work and dedication in making this group possible! KUDDOS!

So to end, we have decided that this is the best scenerio for our children. We pray the Lord sends us the wisedom and strength to continue this important task.

Pax Christi!

Almost Ready!

I'm almost ready to start blogging but still learning the ropes, setting the page up, etc.

Get back to you soon!

:)