My son is struggling with his 8th grade studies. I notice he enjoys playing with the younger children and prefers activities which are popular for younger boys.

It is not unusual for some children to “grow up” at a later age. Parents who recognize this often wait until their child is six years old before starting kindergarten. Parents who start these children at the usual early age sometimes discover that by 4th or 5th grade, they are struggling, especially with reading comprehension and analysis skills…

The feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus is celebrated this year on Friday, June 7th. Among Catholics and many Christians, pictures of the Sacred Heart and devotions to the Sacred Heart are popular because His Heart represents His love, care, mercy, and protection for each one of us…

I feel like my life is a treadmill. It’s always running ahead of me and I am always trying to catch up.

My book, Catholic Home Schooling, has a chapter on “Home Management” which has some ideas you might want to use. Also, we sell a great book by Ginny Seuffert called Home Management Essentials, which gives ten quick ideas about how to bring your home under control.

Sister Josefa Menendez was a Spanish mystic who lived from 1890 to 1923. In 1920, she joined the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Poitiers, France. During her four years of a simple and hidden life, she wrote down the words dictated to her by Jesus during miraculous appearances. His words have been published in The Way of Divine Love, a book which was highly recommended and endorsed by Pope Pius XII…

Do you mind if I send work to be graded only when all the children are finished with their quarter’s work?

You might save a little on postage this way, but it is not the best educationally for your children. It is best to have work graded as quickly as possible, since the concepts should still be fresh in the students’ minds, and grader comments will be most profitable. This is why we encourage taking tests online and/or uploading assignments on your MySeton page. Work graded electronically is often immediately graded by the computer. When it is not immediately graded, it is still graded and returned much more quickly than a mailed assignment…

We home schooling parents are constantly faced with decisions about our children and about their daily schooling assignments, but also about running the household, scheduling doctors’ appointments, running errands, getting the laundry done, preparing meals…

On March 19, we celebrate the feast of St. Joseph, the foster father of Our Lord Jesus Christ. St. Joseph was chosen by God to be the foster father of the Incarnate Son of God. In our current culture, with the feminist movement still strong, the importance of fathers has been denigrated, disrespected, and questioned…

My son has finished his math. May I buy the next book and have him start on the next grade level?

You certainly may do that, and we can record math grades for the next grade level. The next grade-level book will start out with a review of the lessons from the previous book, so he should do very well at first. However, at some point, usually about a quarter through the book, you will need him to slow down for the new concepts being presented. Sometimes the new concepts demand a little higher analysis skills for which your son may not be ready. With the higher level book, make him work out all the problems, not just some of the problems, at least initially.

The Blessed Mother appeared to St. Bernadette in 1858 in Lourdes, France, a little over 150 years ago. Her message was to encourage prayer, especially saying the daily Rosary. However, her appearance at Lourdes had another purpose, to confirm in a supernatural way the new dogma of the Immaculate Conception. This dogma was proclaimed four years earlier by Pope Pius IX, but was a traditional belief of the Catholic faithful…

Because of illness, we are not as far along in our studies as I would like. What tips do you have for us to catch up?

For some subjects, you can use a few shortcuts. For instance, to catch up in Spelling or Vocabulary, you could assign your student two chapters in one week, with the student doing only the essential work. If your student is very good in math, perhaps he could do two chapters in one week by working out only every other problem. You need to be careful that shortcuts should be used only for subjects for which you know your child will not be missing something for which he needs to take the regular length of time…