No name

Conceptual Math Media, Game board with paperboard tiles and plastic tile holders

Similar in format to the word game Scrabble�, Equate allows players to place equations on a board while gaining points based upon the types of numbers and operations used. (For example, a fraction is worth more points than a whole number and a division symbol is worth more points than an addition symbol. Don't worry - the point value is marked on each tile.) Players may add on to existing equations provided that both sides of the equation are still equal.

We found this to be a fun and challenging game for upper grade school through adult. Add on sets can be purchased for younger grades or for advanced Math (the advanced set also includes negative numbers and exponents). Even with the basic set, level of play can be quite challenging considering equations involving multiplication and division of fractions and order of operation. Rules could easily be adjusted to accomodate players with varying skill levels.

Joan Carroll Cruz has clearly spent years researching these very detailed accounts of 36 Eucharistic Miracles dating from the 8th century all the way up to 1970. Each story is carefully related according to the details known today which often include scientific confirmation and papal recognition of the miracles as well as photographs of reliquaries and hosts that remain intact even today. The stories are fascinating and certainly provide aid to people's faith through these very real testaments to the Real Presence of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. While these stories are probably written primarily with adults in mind, I was very surprised and delighted when my first-communion aged daughter brought me this book to read to her and repeatedly asked me to read a little to her each night until we had finished the entire book! Highly recommended.

This book can easily be incorporated into a History study as it is organized by date. I have also included references to the stories in this book on my history reading timeline at ReadingYourWayThroughHistory.com

This book may be purchased from any Catholic booksellers that carry TAN Books.

I am very impressed with this new publication by the Institute for Excellence in Writing. It is a user-friendly, comprehensive and resourceful American Literature Course, recommended for 11th grade English. I'd say it is a real possibility I will be using that in our homeschool co-op next year, and it could definitely be doubled as English and Lit. Visit to their website for info and sample pages.

The text consists of nine units, all centered around one main work of American Literature. Each unit is separated into four weekly writing assignments: an author's profile paper, a historical approach paper and two weeks of guided work on a paper about the work of literature itself. Among others, texts students will work on include The Last of the Mohicans, Moby Dick, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn , The Great Gatsby and The Old Man and the Sea. There is plenty of extra work offered for an Honors track student.

A section entitled Literary Context offers an introduction to the work of literature and some thoughs on it. Under Context Resources one will find a myriad of interesting online resources which will bring the material to life: text sites, literary context and related authors' materials, and sites with information on the author. A Poetry section offers sites with samples of poetry contemporary with the work in question. Other online resources offered include audio, video, music and historical context websites all related to each unit's work of literature.

The forms and formats appendices are extremely useful: models are very well demonstrated and student sample work is shown. Also in the appendices one will find rubrics and evaluation forms. There is a glossary as well.

I came across this little gem of a story from the 19th century while visiting the Paidea Classics website. This is a website with resources for Eastern Orthodox home schooling families. If you are studying the time period of the early Church you will find a lot of primary sources and resources there.

Exiles of the Cebenna was originally written in the 19th century and pretends to be the long lost journal of a priest from the 3rd century. The language is delightful and the story very moving. It takes place at the time of the persecution by Decius, a particularly brutal time of martyrdom. The people of Arles, France have been told that they must appear at the arena to give sacrifice to the Roman gods. If they refuse, they will be tortured and killed. A small group of Christians under the leadership of the priest telling the story plan an escape through a secret tunnel. The Bishop however, must stay behind.

On the day of his appointed appearance, the Bishop quails under the torture and makes the sacrifice. He is utterly devastated that he could not bear witness to his faith and has failed his people. Hearing of this, his daughter who was one of the escapees, tries to return to see her father and comfort him. Since the tortures, the people and officials are subdued by the horrific spectacle, and the Christians feel that it is now safe to travel in the open. They are recognized however and taken to the prison. The daughter is told that she must sacrifice. She refuses, and in the most moving scene in the book begins her torture. Her life is spared at the last moment, but she does eventually die from her wounds. Her death indeed helps her father to proclaim his faith, and, according to the epilogue, he is also eventually martyred.

Although, a student may have trouble getting into the language of the story at first, it does become more readable and draws the reader in. The ending is worth every word of the rest of the book. It gives a truly inspiring image of the trials and glory of the martyrs.

Recommended for 7th grade and up.