Laura Delgado
I've been absent because I've had a flood of freelance assignments. We should all have my problems! I have also been cogitating a curriculum that I really want to write. The sites I am about to share should provide hints. They are also just darn great sites for any Catholic who wants a wealth of resources at her fingertips. What I have not been doing is laundry. In about 24 more hours that will prove truly problematic for Romula, the clothes-horsiest of my offspring...

The Church History section of the Theology Library website is amazing. Links upon links upon more links. I'm working on sorting through them. There are thousands.
  • This one, a Guide to Early Church Documents, deserves to be broken out of the pack. If you teach Theology, Church History, Religion, or have ever wondered what the Apostolic Fathers, the Patristics, or even Herodotus and Thucydides had to say, this is where you want to be.
We homeschoolers, especially of the classical persuasion, all know how important the almighty timeline is! How about this one, which makes the excellent point that the Catholic Church is nothing if not Apostolic. I really love this timeline. It will make explaining certain aspects of church history, and even many aspects of European history, so much easier when I finally get to that point with my children. Well, I'm already at that point. It seems that they aren't quite ready for this level of learning yet. It's just darn inconsiderate of them.

For your more traditional timeline, I offer you this site. So many of the wonderful timeline projects and timeline aids that you can buy or find free on the Internet don't include key Catholic events, much less the lives of the Saints. Your worries are over. Now your timeline can be both historically and Catholically complete. Actually, of course, history cannot be complete without including Catholicism.

I have come to the conclusion that I don't want my history curriculum to include Catholic history at all, even if it is a Catholic curriculum. I can't find one that takes an even view of history, Catholic or not. You won't find a more devoutly believing Catholic than me. Please understand, I didn't say that you won't find a better Catholic. Open your front door. You probably just found one. In terms of a deep and abiding Faith and, yes, knowledge, I rank up there, though. Having said that, though, I'll also say that Catholics are not responsible for everything that ever happened in world history, and too much of what I've read in Catholic history reads as if that were true.

My solution? A Catholic accompaniment to any history course. Catholic history, told separately, which dovetails with world history. After all, the two are really inextricable throughout much of history, but where they diverge (i.e., such a history companion does not need even to address eastern civilization or go into detail about the Wars of the Roses, etc), there are many wonderful curricula (no, it's actually not pretentious. Curriculum is a bona fide singular Latin noun. The plural is curricula.) already out there. I'll review them, and my final choice after using too many of them, tomorrow.

I have so many more resources to share, both Catholic and general. And (never start a sentence with a conjunction) I will. Next time.
2 Responses
  1. Lindsey Says:
    This comment has been removed by the author.

  2. Lindsey Says:

    Darn it, I wrote your name in the last post! Oops! Just wanted to say, thanks for the great links. I look forward to reading more when you're able to write. You're a wealth of information!


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