L.P.H. Resource Center On-Line Courses
for Catholic Homeschoolers
| List of courses | cost | dates | ages | how it works | supplies | safety | teacher | address | parents' comments |
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L.P.H. Resource Center On-Line Coursesfor Catholic Homeschoolers |
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Since the Spring of 1998, the L.P.H. Resource Center has offered classes for Catholic homeschoolers over the World Wide Web.
The idea behind it was to duplicate, as much as possible, what used to be done in person at the L.P.H. Resource Center when it was in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, over the internet.
(The LPH Resource Center was set up in Pottstown in 1992 for helping Catholic homeschooling parents with teaching their children.)
The classes are intended for Catholic homeschoolers, but are open to everyone, whether homeschooled or not.
The classes for 2008-2009 will be starting the week of September 15, 2008.
Last September's classes started the week of September 17, 2007. The summer-session classes started the week of January 7, 2008 and will end in the last week of August.
There is a Calendar for the classes for the 2008-2009 school year that will be starting the week of September 15.
There is a Calendar for the current classes that started last September,
and also a Calendar for the 2008 summer session classes that shows the dates of the lessons for students who start in January.
Enrollment in the classes (when enrollment is ready in the spring) is done by sending a check for the correct fee to the Address below, or using a PayPal account or a Credit Card through PayPal,
then going to the sign-up page and filling in your information (please pay first, then fill out and send the form).
The signup page will become available when enrollment starts.
After you have paid and filled out the signup page, you will see a web page with the URL web addresses for the courses you have selected, with some instructions. These URL's will get you the lessons each week once they start.
The courses are developed & tested with IE and Firefox with Windows on a PC.
Before enrolling, please test your web browser, and read the course descriptions.
There are also three 10-week courses:
You can read a description of all of the courses to find out more about them. Please read it before signing up for the classes!
Creative Writing is only available for the classes that start in September.
The classes for the 2008-2009 school year begin the week of September 15, 2008.
The classes for the 2007-2008 school year began the week of September 17, 2007.
The Winter-Summer 2008 full-year classes began the week of January 7, 2008.
The Greek Alphabet, Hebrew Alphabet, and Art Projects courses also started the week of January 7, 2008.
The lessons are weekly, except around major holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter).
A lot of people are busy or go away during those times, so there are breaks in the weekly lessons at those times.
Each lesson is on-line for a week, starting every Monday.
They may be done at any time on any day within that period.
The courses have 31 or 32 lessons.
A URL (web address) for a special web page will be given at the beginning of the year to each family that has enrolled, for each course. This should be bookmarked and/or written down and kept in a safe place. Each week (except during vacations) that URL will bring up the current week's lesson!
The address of that web page must not be given out shared with anyone else, so that the safety and security of the web site (especially the discussion boards) can be maintained.
Calendar for the lessons for the 2008-2009 school year.
Calendar for the lessons for the 2007-2008 school year.
Calendar for the lessons for the Winter-Summer 2008 school year.
It is possible the calendar may change slightly.
This is only a recommendation!
Children younger than this may give the classes here a try.
Older students are also welcome to take the classes. Many High-School-age students have taken classes here.
Even adults are welcome to take any of these classes, but the classes are intended and designed for children.
Each lesson starts with a web page containing the lesson.
For most of the courses, this is followed by a series of "Discussion Topics".
These are questions usually with no specific answer, which are intended to help facilitate discussions within the family on the material which has just been learned in the lesson.
Then there is a link to a quiz, which is a web form.
A grade point average for the quizzes will be available in September for whoever would like one.
At the end of the year, a Certificate of Completion will be available (in pdf - Adobe Acrobat - format) for students who complete at least 75% of the quizzes with an average of at least 70 on the quizzes for the year (for the Creative Writing class, all the lessons must be completed for a certificate).
During the course of the year, important announcements regarding the classes and activities may be sent to all the families taking classes here.
They are in e-mail messages with the Subject: LPH Announcements... These should always be read right away.
QUIZ. This shows how the quizzes work! This is the quiz for Lesson 10 of the Bible History course (on Samuel and King Saul). After you select your answers, you can click Send the Quiz and it will mark it and show the results, with the score in square brackets.
COMPOSITION DEMO. This is not one of the actual music composition pages, but this will demonstrate how the Music Composition portion of some of the music lessons works.
Because of that, the classes here are kept as flexible as they can possibly be.
They may be done at any time during the week they are available.
Families may choose to use the quizzes included in the lessons or not. (They must be done if a certificate at the end of the year is desired.)
The lessons may be used as the complete content of the course,
or they may be used as supplements for the main lessons,
or may be used simply as a guide.
The second half of the payment for the classes starting in September is due around the end of January or beginning of February.
The second half of the payment for the classes starting in January is due the beginning of May.
The total cost for each of the three 10-week courses is $22 per course.
calculate the total cost by going to the middle of the signup page.
The payment goes to 
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After paying, fill out the Signup form.
The full amount for the year ($44: double the cost for half the year) may be paid all at once at the beginning of the year, so there's no danger of not getting the fee for the second half sent on time, but it's not a good idea unless you are sure you will be using all the classes for the entire year.
For families outside the U.S.: Payment must be in U.S. dollars, by PayPal, or by Postal money order (no checks outside the U.S.).
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Some classes use .PDF (Acrobat) files, so the (free) Foxit Reader for Windows or Acrobat Reader program to read & print those files should be installed on your computer.
A separate notebook should be used for each of the language courses. At least one notebook is required when doing any of the language classes.
For the music class, a notebook with musical staff lines drawn in is strongly recommended.
A Bible is needed for the Bible History course (and sometimes for other courses as well) and access to good, contemporary maps for the Geography and History courses is expected.
For the Science Projects and Art Projects, the materials will be listed one week in advance.
In order to keep these lessons perfectly safe, there is never any link to any outside location on any web page in any lesson.
Everything in the lesson is on-site, so everything is kept under complete control.
Graduated summa cum laude from West Chester University, West Chester, PA
with a B.S.Ed. in Elementary Education, 1987
(National Dean's List, Teacher Education Scholar Award 1987, Kappa Delta Pi Honor Society)
One year at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas (Angelicum), Rome, Italy, 1983-84
One year at Christendom College when it was in Triangle, VA, 1977-78 (the year they opened)
A year as a seminarian at the FSSP seminary in Nebraska, 2002-2003.>
I started working with homeschoolers around 1979-1980, and it's mainly all the years of experience I've had with homeschoolers in many different families which has made these on-line courses possible.
You can find out more about me by going to my personal web page at http://RickMK.com
| If you pay by check, please make the check out to Richard Kephart or "L.P.H. Resource Center", and send your it to this address:
RICHARD KEPHART
(Please write your e-mail address on the check!) In addition to sending a check, you should also send an e-mail message to You may download a FORM when you sign up that you can print out and send with your check if you like. It is in pdf Acrobat format; you can get it directly if you have the Acrobat plug-in; otherwise right-click and Save Target As... If you send a check or money order, please don't make it out to "LPH". Make it out to "LPH Resource Center" or to "Richard Kephart".
You can also pay through PayPal. After sending your check, or paying through PayPal, you must go to the signup page and fill it out to receive the web addresses where you'll be able to get the classes throughout the year. |
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I wanted to thank you for the great classes. This past week [April 2005] one of our 6th graders, John, participated in the Pennsylvania state geography bee at Shippensburg University. There was one question he got that dealt with Africa (the geography course he is taking through LPHRC)..and he got it right!! [There were many other questions about Africa, but, just not his to answer.]
It was exciting enough just to be at the state competition...the top 103 in the state were there!
— Raissa in Murrysville, Pennsylvania
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| As a homeschooling Mom with eight children, I highly recommend Our Lady of Perpetual Help Resource Center. It is great to have online courses for my middle school children so I can spend more time with the younger children. The courses are interesting, stimulating, very Catholic, and the friends my children made with other Catholic students online was a lot of fun for them. I just wish I would have found this resource sooner!!!
— Teresa in Cambridge, Idaho
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| I love the LPH classes particularly the History courses because they are so very Catholic in perspective.
— Carol in Silver Spring, Maryland
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| I love your American History class because it keeps us on track. I use it as a framework and add historical fiction and non-fiction and activity books for those areas we want to study in detail. This way I know the kids aren't missing anything pertinent. It is also refreshing to obtain a Catholic perspective after what would be considered a nationalism perspective for years.
— Sue in Grove City, Ohio
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| What a pleasure to have my son enrolled in your program! I thought the weekly lessons would be just a "supplement" but we have found the lessons are thoughtful and present an excellent detailed view of the topics covered. History is John's current favorite, but the Church Latin complemented his knowledge of the Latin as an altar server for Tridentine Mass. The graphics are great and what a great idea to have sound "bites" for the pronunciation and cultural aspects of the lessons... even songs!
— Ann in Purdys, New York
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| The courses that we have taken - American History and Greek have been excellent. I like the fact that they are all prepared for me and I don't have to do any preparation, esp. helpful for a busy mom. The American History course could be taken just as it is or added to with library books to supplement and enhance the topics that one finds more interesting by doing reports, which my daughter did. My daughter really liked the bonus questions and enjoyed doing the "extra" research that was involved. The course had a nice combination of historical facts and cultural information.
I took the Greek course for my own enjoyment. I feel I have gotten the basics and I am astonished that I have been able to translate passages from the Bible from Greek to English. In the past we have also taken the Bible History and World History, they were also excellent. They were all written presenting the Catholic contribution to history. Thanks so much for your help for Catholic home-schooling families. — Claire in Norristown, Pennsylvania
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