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Alicia Van Hecke

Alicia with two of her six children

Alicia Van Hecke is the creator of Favorite Resources for Catholic Homeschoolers, and was its longtime editor and webmaster. After attending a Catholic elementary school in California, 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 and her husband, John Van Hecke, have homeschooled their six children from the beginning. Their oldest child is a graduate of Thomas Aquinas College and is now working at the Newman Center of a large state university. Number two is currently a junior at Thomas Aquinas College. Number three has just started out as a probationary member of the local fire department. And finally they have three children still at home and homeschooling, a junior in high school, a freshman in high school and a seventh grader.

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 (and especially enjoys speaking on the topic of preparing children to engage the culture) at homeschool conferences in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kentucky, Tennessee, California and Colorado. She works part-time at her local parish as a liturgical assistant and proof-reader.

Various writings, projects and interviews:

"100 Things You Can Do To Make the World More Pro-Life (and Catholic) No Matter Who is President"

8 Heads Are Better Than One - A Van Hecke family blog in which we all take on silly story-related pseudonyms and write about movies.

"Apologetics: Sacraments, Service and Study," an essay in A Catholic Homeschool Companion (Sophia Institute Press).

Architecture for Kids

The Catholic Home: Authentic Catholic Identity In The Family A Podcast with Deacon Jeff from The Catholic Cafe

"Choosing Worthwhile Homeschool Materials" and 'Preparing Homeschool Kids to Engage the Culture" - webinars for Homeschool Connections.

Homeschooling: Educating Across the Generations An Interview with Il Sussidiario

Living Differently: A Catholic Parent's Guide to Changing the World (An online project currently in progress)

Studeo (personal blog)

Love2learn Moments - Thoughts on education, parenting and homeschooling that have played for a number of years in several Catholic Radio markets.

"Was Incarnate of the Virgin Mary: Professing the Creed for the Year of Faith" at The Wine Dark Sea

"Why Study Heresies?" - an essay in Why Should I Learn This? A Guide for Homeschool Parents and Students by Erin Brown Conroy

Favorite Authors: (in no particular order) Pope Benedict XVI, Norton Juster, Pope John Paul II, Kathryn Forbes, Cervantes, Caryll Houselander, St. Augustine, Willa Cather, G.K. Chesterton, Regina Doman, Mark Twain, J.R.R. Tolkien, Gretchen Rubin, William Shakespeare, J.K. Rowling, Fr. James Schall, S.J., Hilda Van Stockum, C.S. Lewis, St. Athanasius, Ben Hatke, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Carol Ryrie Brink, Homer, Rumer Godden, Frank Sheed, Suzanne Collins, Flannery O'Connor, Fr. Thomas Dubay, Bill Watterson, Fr. Michael Gaitley, Barbara Cooney, Evelyn Waugh, St. Thomas Aquinas, Tomie de Paola, Jane Austen

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

Ana Braga-Henebry

Ana Braga-Henebry has seven children with her husband, Geoffrey, an international research scientist and university professor. They live in Brookings, South Dakota, a stone's throw from Laura Ingalls country. 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 Brazilian Benedictine monk, translated a hefty selection of his poetry, and elaborated on the process of translating poetry. Ana grew up as the seventh of ten children in a noisy, happy home in which dinner table conversation revolved around physics, film & literature, theology, 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 spoke four languages at home, traveled the world, and exhibited 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. They range from 16 to 29 years old and as they grow into adulthood they enjoy activities like sending their parents postcards from all the continents of the world. Including a recent sent from the single Post Office in Antarctica! For eight years the family experimented with acreage life, collecting fresh eggs daily and tending multiple vegetable & herb gardens in the most beautiful 18 acres north of Sioux Falls, complete with a creek running through it. They have since moved to Brookings, home of South Dakota State University, where they purchased an 1890's colonial house smack between downtown and campus. If it were not for the brutal winters, they could bike just about everywhere in town. As a mother at home, embracing Catholic family life centered on both faith and academics, Ana has been active in myriad ways as she watched their children grow in virtue and in excellence. They have grown to be geography experts, piano and voice virtuosi, young software developers, dedicated teachers, classical language scholars and budding artists. Ana and Geoff have been homeschooling for over twenty 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 consistent 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. Catholic Textbook Project and Dr. Leek's Our Roman Roots have also been mainstays. Ana has always been very involved in local homeschool groups, for example teaching Art, Geography, History, and Latin to small groups. She has taught NFP and has written Catholic plays for children, as well as articles and features for national Catholic periodicals. Ana is the author of the Catholic Textbook Project workbooks, and wrote the chapter on Geography in the the book "Why Should I Learn This?" (edited by Maureen Wittman, 2015). She has been a book reviewer for 20+ years for various sites including Amazon.com. In just about every place she lived (and there were many of them!), Ana has led book clubs for women. An very occasional poet, she was recently awarded a national poetry prize from the Catholic Daughters of the Americas. With the two youngest now quite self-propelled as part-time homeschoolers, Ana is greatly enjoying being involved in her parish and community, doing volunteer work of many sorts. Writing has been her passion since primary school days in South America, and she has a few writing projects in the back burner, plus a supportive husband who wants to read her stuff. Ana is deeply thankful to God for a life filled with adventure and fulfillment, and continues asking everyday for His guidance and His blessing. 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. Ana has enjoyed reviewing for Love2Learn since March 2006.

Andrea Chen

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.

At Home Science Biography

Kris--At Home Science
Kris Correira is a homeschooling mom to 3 boys. She is an adjunct faculty at a community college and is a physician assistant that worked for over 16 years in a busy emergency department; she is also a volunteer science teacher for her homeschool co-op. Her blog, At Home Science, is all about books, tips, and resources for teaching science at home.

D.D.

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.

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

D.G.

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)

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