originally appeared at http://www.integratedcatholiclife.org/2015/01/trasancos-online-catholic-education/ on January 14, 2015 Introduction I should explain my background before hypothesizing. I taught high school chemistry in a Texas public school in the 1990s for two years. I was 21, three years into a biology degree, and had taken no education classes because I had no plans to teach. But science teachers were inContinue Reading
The Renewal of Spring It’s that time of year again! The changing of the clocks, more daylight, the planting of seeds, spring showers, birds chirping, the blossoming of nature, all point to a new fresh start! During the spring season, it is easy to reflect back to when we were first starting on our homeschoolContinue Reading
An Unusual Account In my nearly twenty years of actively studying good parenting skills, I have read tens of thousands of words on the subject. One of the concepts that I have found particularly helpful was the likening of building a relationship to building up an account in a “love bank”, if you will. (MyContinue Reading
We Are the Easter People! We at Kolbe Academy want to wish you and your families a very blessed Easter season! After a Lent of sacrifice, prayer, and almsgiving, we sincerely hope that you are enjoying the peace and love that comes from knowing that our salvation is at hand! As Pope St. John PaulContinue Reading
It Takes All Kinds So what does this have to do with homeschooling, anyway? Adults come in different varieties. Some are early morning birds, getting up at the crack of dawn and cheerfully beginning the day’s tasks. Some struggle to get out of bed, even after hitting the snooze button four times; these are theContinue Reading
Time for Some Downtime! I love this time of year! It’s when our busy homeschool family gets a little downtime! We are a homeschooling family that is also committed to the sport of competitive swimming. My boys swim 5 hours a day, six days a week, with 5:30 AM workouts and evening workouts until 8:30Continue Reading
The Conundrum of Obedience and Free Will “How can we exercise free will when God wants us to be obedient to Him?” This question has been asked in various formulations down through the ages by theologians, philosophers…and children. How indeed? As parents, a natural corollary question is, “How do we teach our children to beContinue Reading
Returning student enrollment is now open for the 2018-19 School Year! We are excited to roll out a new, streamlined process for enrolling returning students. Returning Student Enrollment All returning families will receive one email per returning student with an imbedded “SnapCode” link. Clicking on this link will allow returning families to set up anContinue Reading
The College Application in Parts – The Essay, Awards & Activities, and Some General Principles The Essay & Authentic Authorship In this post on the college application process, I would like to offer a few thoughts about the student essay. The essay contributes something very important to an application, because it is the only timeContinue Reading
Perseverance in Homeschooling, by Willa Ryan From 12/21/2004 Looking Back I have just finished writing a letter of reference for my oldest son, who is in his senior year and hopes to attend Thomas Aquinas College. After eleven years of homeschooling, almost ten of those with Kolbe Academy, I will soon have my first graduate.Continue Reading