love2learn.net

Melissa Wiley is a homeschool mom of five and the author of a number of children's books, including the Charlotte and Martha prequels to the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Melissa blogs at Here in the Bonny Glen.

Brendan is a homeschool graduate and runs the Humanities Program site.

Cat Hodge's bio is pending and will be added here.

Alice Gunther is mother to six children and blogs at Cottage Blessings

Alicia Van Hecke is the editor and webmaster of Favorite Resources for Catholic Homeschoolers. After attending a Catholic elementary school, she was homeschooled for all of highschool and became Kolbe Academy's first homeschool graduate in 1988. Alicia went on to receive her B.A. in Liberal Arts from Thomas Aquinas College. She has experience teaching Math, History, Literature, Religion, Latin and Music for a variety of circumstances and ages.

She has given talks and workshops on a wide variety of educational and spiritual topics at homeschool conferences in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kentucky and Tennessee. She did a webinar on "Choosing Worthwhile Homeschool Materials" for Homeschool Connections (which can be viewed through this page).

She contributes to mater et magistra magazine and has an essay entitled "Apologetics: Sacraments, Service and Study" in A Catholic Homeschool Companion (Sophia Institute Press).

She and her husband, John Van Hecke, homeschool their six children who range in age from 6 to 17.

Alicia's personal blog: Chez VH

Listen for her "Love2learn Moments" daily on Relevant Radio in Milwaukee.

Favorite Authors: (in no particular order) Pope Benedict XVI, Pope John Paul II, G.K. Chesterton, J.R.R. Tolkien, William Shakespeare, Fr. James Schall, S.J., Hilda Van Stockum, C.S. Lewis, St. Athanasius, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Homer, Rumer Godden, Frank Sheed, Fr. Thomas Dubay, Barbara Cooney, Evelyn Waugh, St. Thomas Aquinas, Tomie de Paola, Jane Austen

You can contact her by e-mailing love2learnmom at gmail dot com.

Ana Braga-Henebry has seven children with her husband, Geoff Henebry, a research scientist and university professor. They live in the country north of Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Ana has an art degree from the St. Teresa d'Avila College, Brazil and a M.A. in Humanities/Aesthetic Studies from The University of Texas at Dallas. In her thesis Ana discussed the poetry of a prolific Brazilian Benedictine monk, translated a hefty selection of his poetry, and elaborated on the process of translating poetry.

Ana and Geoff have been homeschooling for over fifteen years with a classical approach, using a variety of curricula. Calvert School provided wonderful and supportive materials in the beginning, always completed by the Faith and Life religion catechesis series, which is the one curriculum element that has remained identical since day one. Of course back then they could only dream of the plethora of Catholic materials available today. Catholic Heritage Curricula and Kolbe Academy are two of their favorite resources. The published volumes in the Catholic Textbook Project and Dr. Leek's Our Roman Roots are also mainstays.

Ana grew up as the seventh of ten children in a family in which dinner table conversation revolved around physics, foreign films, or linguistic curiosities, depending on the day of the week. Taught by her mother to read and write and only then attending half-day school (as all Brazilian children do), Ana likes to believe she was homeschooled herself in a time and age when the movement did not exist. Ana's parents speak four languages, have traveled the world, and exhibit an untiring desire for learning and teaching.

Ana and Geoff were married during graduate school and were blessed with two children before their dual graduation in 1989. The family has lived in Texas, Kansas, Brazil, New Jersey, and Nebraska as they followed Geoff's career in academia. They were blessed with more children in every state, adding to a chaotic and wonderful total of seven children. Today they are experimenting with acreage life, collecting fresh eggs daily, and attempting to care for vegetable, herb and corn and potatoes gardens in South Dakota, which is a long way from Ana's childhood years in the very big city of Rio de Janeiro.

Ana reviewed children's and parenting materials for Parent Council, LTD. from 1994 until its closure in 2002. She has enjoyed reviewing for Love2Learn since March 2006. She blogs vignettes of family and acreage life with pictures, recipes, and occasional favorite books or opinions on contemporary issues at http://anabragahenebrysjournal.blogspot.com.

Andrea Chen and Jay, her husband of 15 years, reside in the southern tier of New York. They
are the parents of 1 boy (13 years old) and 5 girls (10 years - newborn). They met at the
university where Jay was a visiting student from Taiwan working on his MS in computer science and Andrea was working on her MA in Psychology.

Andrea went on to complete her Ph.D. in Psychology with a research emphasis in learning, memory and development. She worked for several years as an associate professor at the university before her promotion to motherhood. During her children's early years she worked as a freelance writer for publications such as "Growing Child" and also developed behavioral programs for children.

The Chen's homeschool adventure began a few months after their son began Kindergarten at a Catholic school, and 8 years later they still enjoy sharing their faith and love for learning with their children 24 hours a day. Through the years Andrea has tried several approaches to
homeschooling and has now settled into the Classical approach with an emphasis on living books for history studies and science.

Andrea set up the website Catholic Scholars Online back in the days when the majority of the homeschool web sites were Protestants. She still maintains that site and also moderates the Catholic homeschool and women's message board Oro Et Laboro.

The Chens are daily communicants and are actively involved in Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration at their church. Andrea is a third order Carmelite and also spends spare moments studying apologetics. Jay has recently begun his journey as a third order Franciscan.

D.D. "I have been homeschooling for 9 years. I have taught every grade at least 2 times if not more. I have four graduate children and next year I will have 4 students grades 1,4,7, and 9 along with two pre-schoolers."
(as of ~2000)

D.E.S. has been homeschooling for eight years. She has three children with special needs and high intelligence.

D.G. has been married 11 years. "God has given us three wonderful and very active children and we are praying for more. Kyle will be 6 this month and is in first grade. Casey is 3 1/2 and he primarily just plays all day. No formal schooling at all except for fun number games and manipulative play. Mercy at 6 months makes sure we don't school too long without taking a break. ;-) We started Catholic homeschooling August 1997 with Kindergarten and started using the Classical Approach a year later."
(info current as of ~1999)