Kolbecast

AMDG.  Advent is a time of active waiting, preparation, and reflection.  In this episode, guests Katie Bogner and Shari Van Vranken share their educational and artistic perspectives on Advent drawn from their professional backgrounds and their recent authorial collaboration in All About Advent and Christmas: Sharing the Seasons of Hope and Wonder with Children.  The group discusses how experiences...

AMDG.  Think about the idea of being the answer to someone else’s prayers.  Does that seem humbling or overwhelming, frightening or appealing...or maybe a mix of all of those?  In this episode, Sherry Weddell of the Catherine of Siena Institute visits with Bonnie and Steven about the idea of charisms.  These gifts are different from sanctifying graces in that they are given to us for us to give aw...

AMDG.  Last week, you heard from a few Kolbe-connected dads about their kitchen adventures.  The theme continues this week as Kolbe instructor moms Laura Roselli Insall and Christina Davin join us to talk about cooking, upcoming holidays, and kids in the kitchen.  The conversation covers vegetarian and food allergy accommodations, the utilitarian and joyful aspects of cooking, make-ahead meal stra...

AMDG.  Gather in our metaphorical kitchen with Bonnie, Steven, Tony Guzzaldo, Everett Buyarski, and Craig Lengyel as the men don their oven mitts and talk food and cooking.  From stories of learning to cook early in marriage to discovering the chemistry of cooking, the group muses on how the kitchen can be a place of socializing or of solitude, the importance of feasting as a foil to fasting, and...

 AMDG.  Family dynamics understandably influence the day to day of homeschooling.  When crisis comes—be it separation or divorce, job loss, health emergencies, anxiety and depression, relationship issues, or other trauma—feelings of isolation and stigma can cause ripple effects in a family. In this episode, Bonnie and Steven visit with homeschool alumni mother Anne DeSantis of the St. Raymond Nonn...

AMDG.  Professor and translator Dr. Matthew Minerd joins Bonnie, Steven, Jordan, and Everett in this episode about making connections across rites, languages, and disciplines.  Starting with a discussion of various Eastern rites of Catholicism, the group explores the blend of traditions throughout the Church, the art of finessing words from one language to another in translation, and the endeavor...

AMDG.  Kids in the kitchen can be enriching or unnerving for all involved. In this episode, Katie Kimball of Kitchen Stewardship and the creator of the Kids Cook Real Food course shares her passion and expertise for collaboration among family members in feeding and nourishing a household.  Building from her four pillars of health and nutrition, time, budget, and environment, Katie highlights some...

AMDG. Writer, theater maker, game designer, and alumnus of Kolbe and Yale University Alexi Sargeant joins the Kolbecast in this episode to discuss community and storytelling in the past, present, and future.  He speaks with experience as both a student and a teacher about encountering Shakespeare and other dramatic works meant to be spoken, highlights the intersection of theology and culture, and...

AMDG. Personality encompasses both nature and nurture, from biological traits and education to family of origin and cultural background.  Temperament is one important piece of personality.  In this episode, Art and Laraine Bennett describe the four classical temperaments, their long Catholic tradition, and their pragmatic applications for homeschooling families.  Working from the foundation that t...

AMDG.  University of Dallas president Dr. Jonathan Sanford joins Bonnie, Steven, and Chief Academic Officer Megan Lengyel in this episode to discuss how students flourish at UD, particularly when they have a Kolbe foundation. Dr. Sanford describes how the school is a thoroughly Catholic university with a bigger set of offerings than most and how multiple charisms present on campus help preserve an...

AMDG.  Our patron St. Maximilian Kolbe is known for the heroism of his final days, but those acts were the culmination of the virtuous life he lived before his internment at Auschwitz.  In this episode, visitor to the Kolbecast Anthony D’Ambrosio shares his special perspective on St. Max, which is based on his work developing the film  Kolbe’s Passion and the intimate connection he forged with the...

AMDG.  Good Catholic priests come from good Catholic men, and many good Catholic men begin as little boys with lots of energy.  Kolbe alumni Fr. Ambrose Dobrozsi and Dcn. Charles Ohotnicky visit with Bonnie and Steven in this episode about their Kolbe educations and their vocations.  From standout memories of their Kolbe years to the current lives they lead, today’s guests share their insights on...

AMDG.  Keeping young minds wondering, active, and curious can sometimes feel like a struggle.  With pop culture always debuting new ways to capture attention, strewing our homes with examples of the good, the beautiful, and the true is one of the best ways to raise well-rounded young adults who are in the world without being of it.  In this episode, writer Philip Kosloski— often found on Aleteia.o...

AMDG.  Many of us aren’t familiar with what the Catholic Church teaches on money, finances, and possessions.  We think of missionaries as being poor, but that isn’t always the case—from hair shirts to heiresses, the saints have had a wide range of financial situations and gifts.  In this episode, Jonathan and Amanda Teixeira of WalletWin join the Kolbecast crew to discuss handling money virtuously...

AMDG.  Thinking well is important.  Communicating those thoughts well is too.  As the school year kicks off, English and Literature department teachers Kim Crawford, Amanda Hayes, and Beth Dobrozsi share insights and tips for helping students learn to put thoughts to paper.  They describe the progression of writing approaches and skills throughout various grade levels, challenges for students with...

AMDG.  Kolbe teachers educate their students, sure, but their bigger role is to help their students’ formation.  Today mathematics chair Wes Stratman and theology teacher Brendan Murphy share their own roads to Kolbe and how those roads prepared them to help their students explore for themselves rather than check boxes in class.  Along with their teaching philosophies and a few favorite stories, W...

AMDG.  If the saints have ever felt inaccessible or unrelatable to your family members, hearing their stories in a different format may help them come alive.  In this episode, Melissa Dee—homeschool graduate, mother, and producer of the Saints Alive podcast —joins the Kolbecast to share how she, her husband Alex, and their team produce episodes that she describes as watching a movie in your mind. ...

AMDG. How we respond to meltdowns and dysregulation is as crucial to family life as praying together, eating together, and extracurriculars. Catholic licensed professional counselor Johanna Seagren visits the Kolbecast on this episode to describe the importance of emotions and the Interior Kingdom program that she developed to co-regulate emotions in parents and children. The conversation highligh...

AMDG.  John Cuddeback, a philosophy professor at Christendom College, family man, and homesteader, visits with Bonnie and Steven this episode about relationship, friendship, and home life.   With the insight of an ethics professor and the experience of a family leader, Dr. Cuddeback describes the importance of living well together, the distinction between education and academics, and the richness...

AMDG. The conversations we started at Kolbe’s commencement events in Atlanta a few months ago continue to yield fruit. Today’s guest, Jennell Kvistad, joins us to continue one of those conversations today. The group first discusses helping teenagers and newly 18-year-old offspring ease into adulthood. From there, Jennell shares both her family’s road to homeschooling with Kolbe and her personal ro...

AMDG.  Today an experienced Kolbe parent named Lindsey, mother to four sons between eleventh grade and kindergarten, shares the reasons behind her loyalty and enthusiasm.  Speaking from her decade of ups and downs (but mostly ups), she describes the pragmatic and profound benefits her family has seen from Kolbe, how she juggles schedules for students in multiple grades, and the factors involved in...

AMDG. Our three-part series on language study wraps with a delectable flourish and an insightful conversation as Jenni Mammola, Kolbe’s language department chair and online French instructor; Therese Prudlo, Kolbe’s history department chair and online history instructor; Megan Lengyel, Kolbe’s chief academic officer; and Mary, incoming co-president of Kolbe’s French club, reminisce about a recent...

AMDG.  In the second installment of our linguistic trifecta, Bonnie and Jordan revisit a conversation begun long ago on the Kolbecast, and Steven and Maggie Hayden join in.  More specifically, Jordan and Maggie share their enthusiasm for and expertise in Latin: what drew them toward the language, the hidden benefits of learning it, the practical benefits of knowing it, the correlation between stud...

AMDG. In this first of a three-part series on language study, Kolbe advisor and alumna Agostina Cavasotto, whom Kolbecast listeners met in episode 154 Passport: Argentina , returns to discuss her love of languages, the connections she makes among them, the value of studying a language in depth, and the way language study helps cultivate a habit of thinking that serves a person well in many facets...

AMDG.  Newly minted alumni, siblings, and parents shared their time and thoughts with us at graduation in Atlanta, Georgia on May 25, 2023.  This episode features some of their excitement, wisdom, and insight as they describe different perspectives and common experiences.  Topics range from why it was important to make the trip to Atlanta to conversion stories, with themes of loving learning, find...