I grew up in Rio, Brazil, where I graduated  with an Art degree from a small Catholic college. The seventh of a noisy, large and happy Catholic family, I came to the USA to pursue graduate work and met my husband Geoff, now a university professor and international scientist. Our seven children range from 8 to 21 years oldand the two oldest attend the University of Notre Dame.  Our family lives in a 1880s farmhouse on 18 acres north of Sioux Falls, SD where vegetable gardening is taken seriously and where a quite accurate number of outside farm cats is seldom known. Here we attempt to slow down the passing of these joyful years...

I have homeschooled for fifteen years and has used a variety of sources and materials. I feel privileged to be able to use Catholic materials and I remember when there was very little available. I am very involved in my local homeschool group, where I teach Art at co-op, and History and Latin to small groups of elementary school students. I also head our Tutoring Center where my Lit/Writing class is probably the noisiest one.

 Writing and literature have been a passion since primary school in my native Rio de Janeiro and  I have done professional translation from Portuguese and reviewed children’s and parenting materials for ParentCouncilTM for almost a decade. My B.A. is in Art and my M.A. is in Aesthetic Studies: Art, Literature & Translation. I am on the editorial board of Mater and Magistra and love writing about the Catholic homeschool life. I have written a few homeschool materials including a series of three children's Ancient World plays and a workbook for my favorite children's World History, which I plan to make available soon.

 I also write and direct drama for both elementary and high school levels. My last production was a one-act play celebrating the 150th anniversary of Lourdes. I have participated and spoken at the Minnesota Catholic Homeschool conference for the past few years. Future projects include expanding my master's thesis for publication and writing a couple of books: one about what I am asked most often: how to achieve confidence and good academics in the seemingly daunting mission of Catholic homeschooling, and the other on the beautiful faith story of the popular Marian shrine in Brazil.