May, End of the School Year

For all of you who are completely finished your school work for the year, my hat is off to you!!! It is a big sense of relief and accomplishment to be done "on time".

For those of us who are still tying up some "loose ends" on one or two subjects, don't dispair...summer can and will be a fun and relaxing time for all. My plan is to give the two subjects we have left about an hour each day until we see the end of the books. Not a whole lot of time out of our day, and it certainly won't interfere with any activities we may want to take part in.

This does not happen every year, but in those years when it does, just try to go with it. Life happens while we are educating our children. We must be flexible and able to change.

Everyone keep up the wonderful work you do for your families. You are giving them a great start in life. Be happy with your efforts!! :)

Sincerely,
Penny

Bright Minds, The Critical Thinking Company

Just received my Bright Minds Catalog. Looks like they have quite a few new items and a new idea. You can now be a Bright Minds Consultant with your own home-based business.

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May, the Month of Mary, Our Blessed Mother

It is a Catholic tradition to crown a statue of the Blessed Mother sometime during the month of May. The crown should be made of roses, silk or real. The litany to the Blessed Virgin can be said and some hymns sung. This procession is always a part of our homeschooling during May. The children, when they were small, loved this family and church tradition. Now that they are older it is a part of their lives forever. Gather your family around and pay tribute to the the Mother of God and our Mother.

My favorite hymn is:

Bring Flowers of the Rarest
(Lyrics as sung by Fr. Sydney MacEwan, provided by Dan Engler)

Refrain:
O Mary we crown thee with blossoms today!
Queen of the Angels and Queen of the May.
O Mary we crown thee with blossoms today,
Queen of the Angels and Queen of the May.

Bring flowers of the rarest
bring blossoms the fairest,
from garden and woodland and hillside and dale;
our full hearts are swelling,
our glad voices telling
the praise of the loveliest flower of the vale!

Refrain

Their lady they name thee,
Their mistress proclaim thee,
Ah, grant that thy children on earth be as true
as long as the bowers
are radiant with flowers,
as long as the azure shall keep its bright hue

Refrain

Sing gaily in chorus;
the bright angels o'er us
re-echo the strains we begin upon earth;
their harps are repeating
the notes of our greeting,
for Mary herself is the cause of our mirth

Refrain

• click the link below for the sheet music
  
• http://www.udayton.edu/mary/resources/flower.html
  

Mother's Day

Prayer for the Graces of Motherhood

Powerful is your intercession with God Mary, for you are His mother.
Tender, too, is your love for us, for you are our mother.
Confidently then, I come to you as a child, poor and needy, to seek your aid and protection.
In every trial of motherhood, I beg your aid.
For the grace of a happy delivery, I come to you.
For your holy assistance in guarding and directing each tiny soul with which God entrusts me, I call to you.
In every sorrow that comes to me in my motherhood, I confide in you.
That I may have strength to bear cheerfully all the pains and the hardships of motherhood, I lean on you.
That the sweetness of motherhood may not through my neglect be embittered in later years by pains of regret, I trust in you.
That the will of God may always be fulfilled in me through each act of my motherhood, little and great, I beg your aid.
Never forsake me , dear Mother, my hope, my consolation, my confidence, and my trust, but ever be at my side to aid and protect me, your needy child. Amen.

Mother of Love, of Sorrow, and of Mercy,
Pray for us!