Saint Juan Diego

When Juan Diego was 13 years old he witnessed the Night of Darkness when 80,000 Aztec Indians were killed in human sacrifice. Juan Diego wished there was another way to live but he did not know another way. Around 15 years later the Catholic Faith arrived in Mexico and he learned another way.

One day when he was about 50 years old Juan Diego was going to Mass when there, on top of a hill, was a bright light, then there was a beautiful lady instead. The Lady told Juan Diego to go to the bishop and ask him to build a church where they were standing and she would bless Mexico. Two time Juan Diego asked the bishop to build a church on the hill yet the bishop did not believe.

Juan Diego left the bishop for the second time and went back to the Lady. The Lady said," Go home and then meet me here in the morning." When Juan Diego went home he saw his uncle dying. The next morning Juan Diego's uncle was worse. Juan Diego went to get a priest, being sure to go another way so as not to disappoint the Lady. The Lady found him anyway and said,"Juan Diego, why are you going this way? I told you to meet me on the hill, yet you avoided me."

Juan Diego said,"I go to get a priest . My uncle is dying."

The Lady said,"Go to that hill and pick all the flowers you can find. Then bring them here to me in your tilma." Juan Diego did as he was told even though he doubted that there where going to be any flowers this late in the year. When Juan Diego got there, to his amazement he saw hundreds of roses. He gathered all the roses up and brought them to the Lady who arranged them in his tilma. Then Juan Diego went to the bishop and showed him his tilma with the roses i nit. The bishop gasped and dropped to his knees and started praying. Juan Diego asked what was the matter. The bishop pointed to the tilma. Juan Diego saw the image of Mary. The church was built and the uncle healed. Juan Diego and his uncle lived happily ever after.

Saint Joseph

Joseph was a carpenter and the foster father of Jesus. One day Mary got pregnant and a few days later the emperor Caesar said that everyone had to go to their hometown so that they could count the people. Joseph's hometown was Bethlehem and it was a long way away. But they had to go, so they went.

When they got there, there was no place to sleep. Finally, they met a boy that said there was a cave up on the hill that you could sleep in. When they got there Joseph made a bed out of straw so Mary could lie down. Then the cave was filled with light and when it was gone a little baby was sitting on the straw. They named him Jesus.

Hobbits hiking the bluff

Another shelf or two

Moving down the bookcase we have the poetry books--Favorite Poems Old and New compiled by Helen Farris is probably the most used but you will also find a beautiful copy of A Child's Garden of Verses illustrated by Jesse Wilcox Smith, 101 Best Loved Poems, A Child's Book of Beasts (alas illustrated by B.T.B. not G.K.C.), a few of those Poetry for Young People series of books, The World of Christopher Robin, Leaves of Grass and a collection by Robert Browning. The hobbits are fans of poetry and a few books are missing--The Harp and the Laurel Wreath, A Child's Anthology of Poetry and A Treasury of Playtime Poems are about the house somewhere. Also on this shelf are stray CD's for the computer--100 years of back issues of National Geographic, two editions of the World Book encyclopedia, various educational programs like Typing Tutor and Spell It and A Quarter Mile (never used, any of them!) A CD version of Butler's Lives of the Saints is here too and occasionally gets dusted off and placed in the computer, usually in November. The next shelf has my collection of What Your 1st through 6th Grader Needs to Know. These books were published roughly at the same time my oldest was in the corresponding grades and I have them all (I have the updated ones for some too). I never used these much passed the 3rd grade however except for science. The history just gets too confusing. I see Plutarch's Lives is on this shelf as well as Grimm's Fairy Tales, Bulfinch's Mythology, American Indian Myths and Legends and a couple of Shakespeare stories for kids (Nesbit and Garfield, we have Lamb too but it is obviously mishelved). Also on this shelf is six well thumbed volumes of Charlotte Mason, and four volumes of Our Quest for Happiness-a pre Vatican II high school religious course which I haven't read but my oldest hobbit liked alot.

Fun in the Sun

The hobbits and I have been working real hard on those second declensions: servus,servi, servo.....and the weather has been just fabulous of late so we took yesterday off and went to the beach!

Lepanto or why this is the month of the Rosary

It's Battle of Lepanto week at the Hobbit Homeschool! Today, we studied maps of the Mediterranean circa:1571. And we read the entry for the battle in Great Moments in Catholic History (The Neumann Press) and we read the poem by Chesterton out loud. We also started the day with a decade of the rosary (as usual) and read Lovely Lady Dressed in Blue by Bell, Brindle and Lademan. That lead to an emotional discussion on abortion,the presidential election, what a Knight of Our Lady can do to fight the good fight today, Saint Dominic, the power of Eucharistic devotion (when an abortion clinic attempted to open locally, a group of Catholics started an Adoration Chapel nearby, wherein the abortion clinic had no end of trouble getting staff, proper certifications and whatnot to open and eventual gave up, hurrah!). Tomorrow we will re-read the poem with explanations line by line using the excellent annotations by Dale Ahlquist in the Ignatius Press edition.

I was planning Lepanto week anyway but it seemed especially needed after reading this from the Church er..Faith Community bulletin--October is the Month of the Rosary but did you know it was also National PIZZA Month? --well, no I didn't, but I know why it is the Month of the Rosary...St. Michael's on his Mountain in the sea-roads of the north. (Don John of Austria is girt and going forth.)

Spelling Revisited

It's been a couple of weeks since I had my spelling meltdown. In that time we have been using Seton spelling workbooks. One hobbit in grade 7 one in grade 4 and one in grade 3. Yesterday, hobbit-7 asked,"Mom, what do you think of these workbooks?" I replied, cautiously,"I don't know. What do YOU think?" "I like them," he said. "Yeah, me too." "I do, too," was heard from the others. Whew.