Some thoughts to keep in mind if considering a switch to full time homeschooling - full time homeschooling is a huge commitment on behalf of the parents to educate their children - it’s a commitment - it’s a passion - yes it’s a full time job of sorts of its own - it’s parents knowing they are responsible for the education of their children.
Start out slow - keep in mind, you’re learning how to home school too.
There’s no perfect curriculum and it will take a while to figure out what works - but you’ll figure out real quick what doesn’t work - so be prepared to make changes in curriculum and yes be prepared for stubborn kids.
Remember - they’re used to you as their parent, not as also their teacher.
Take it slow, make it fun ... these are your kids ... enjoy the education as you’d be surprised what you wind up learning too while you’re teaching them ... maybe you’ll learn certain aspects of ancient civilizations that you never even learned about it in your own education from youth ... maybe you’ll surprise yourself in laughing at oh yeah that’s the sound of that vowel ... maybe you’ll discover your kids can learn a lot about the earth just being outside and talking with them about the different types of trees and leaves and soils and rocks etc ... maybe the kids have things they’d like to learn about, so find out their ideas and turn those into fun immersed studies (unit studies) ... take the time to learn about the saints and yeah life wasn’t so easy for them either!
Yes, have fun, keep it simple, start out slow ... homeschooling is a journey for the family, not grueling work making everyone unhappy - it’s life changing, make memories ... these are your kids.
You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. You may love the notion of homeschooling, but you might have a child that fights it ... they might eventually like it, but they also might wind up hating it more ... then homeschooling becomes a fight and the fight isn’t worth it ... you’ll have to be prepared to make changes and try something else ... these are your kids and you have to remember what’s best for them, not what’s best for you.
Make memories along your homeschooling path, the kids and you will remember the journey a lifetime ... the good, the bad, the ugly, and the fun!
Many Catholic homeschooling resources and topics and curriculums and ideas are actually on our website.
We don't have all the answers - each family is uniquely different from the other - and what works with one family or even one child, might not work for the other. Homeschooling is trial and error, it's a path the family takes.
Get a cup of coffee or tea or wine, plan to spend some time browsing through our site - there’s a lot on there that you could take time to read more about homeschooling and all that’s available for homeschooling resources - Catholic resources - yes, pretty much mostly Catholic, after all, we are a Catholic homeschool site here in Maryland!
Our name says it all ... Maryland Catholic Homeschoolers. Visit us on FaceBook too!
Many of y’all might be tossing homeschooling around as a legit option. As a former homeschooling mom of ten years, I am still in plenty of homeschool groups. One gal put this together after sourcing links from one of the largest Catholic homeschool groups on FB. I told her I’d share it once it was done, so here we are. Share far and wide, friends. Hot links easily accessible on FB, so hop on over to link through. Full text available on FB as well because IG word limits. ~ M
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With so many new friends joining our homeschool communities this year, I thought it was important to share some Catholic Homeschool options!
Listed on the graphic below is a wide variety of wonderful curricula that is faithful to Church teaching and will meet a variety of needs. This list is not meant to be comprehensive but is meant to be a jumping off point as you explore your homeschooling options. Some of these sites offer full boxed curriculum, some of them offer individual classes, some work as more of a supplement.
If you have questions, I highly recommend that you get in touch with someone who you can chat with and ask questions. If you don't know someone, ask me! Or join a group here on Facebook. I can heartily recommend the groups "Catholic Homeschool Moms" and "Heart of a Mother: Catholic Homeschooling Moms".
If you aren't sure what type of homeschool curriculum will best fit your family, check out this blog post from Jenny Bales. It also shares how to access her much more comprehensive curriculum list! https://bit.ly/catholichomeschoolstyle
(I chose to include stand alone options for history and religion on the list because sometimes families, for a variety of reasons, will choose a secular or general Christian curriculum or will piece together a curriculum from various companies but they want Catholic recommendations for these particular subjects. These give you options for add ons! Again, this is not an exhaustive list, just some that I’ve seen suggested most often.)
The best (and often the most daunting thing) thing about homeschooling is that you get to tailor make your curriculum to fit your family! I'm praying for you all as you jump in!
Traditional
Catholic Heritage Curricula- www.chcweb.com
Our Lady of the Rosary- https://olrs.com
Seton Home Study*- https://www.setonhome.org
Our Lady of Victory- https://www.olvs.org
Eclectic
Homeschool Connections*- https://homeschoolconnectionsonline.com/ (Really - in a category all it's own as it contains hundreds of online classes in a variety of categories with quality Catholic teachers!)
Charlotte Mason
Mater Amabilis- http://materamabilis.org/ma/
Salt and Light- https://sacredbythesea.blogspot.com/p/catholic-lamp-light-c…
Classical
Aquinas Learning- https://www.aquinaslearning.com
Kolbe Academy*- https://kolbe.org
Mother of Divine Grace*- https://modg.org
Angelicum Academy*- http://www.angelicum.net/homeschool-program/
Queen of Heaven Academy*-https://queenofheavenacademy.org/
Catholic Schoolhouse*- https://www.catholicschoolhouse.com
Classically Catholic Memory- http://ccmemory.com
Rolling Acres/Schola Rosa- http://www.scholarosaonline.com
Bellarmine Studies- https://bellarminestudies.com
Catechism Options
Faith and Life- https://www.ignatius.com/Faith-and-Life-C1422.aspx
My Catholic Faith Delivered*- https://www.mycatholicfaithdelivered.com
Seton Home Study- https://www.setonhome.org/elementary/Religion/
Baltimore Catechism
Didache Series
Saint Anne's Helper- saintanneshelper.com
Spirit of Truth- https://sophiainstituteforteachers.org/…/spirit-of-truth/ho…
Catholic Brain- https://www.catholicbrain.com
Stand Alone History
Story of Civilization- https://www.tanhomeschool.com
Connecting with History- https://www.rchistory.com
Catholic Textbook Project- https://www.catholictextbookproject.com
Catholic Friendly Special Mentions (both of these companies are highly loved and supported in the Catholic homeschool communities even though they are not strictly Catholic. I know there are others. Feel free to share them as well!)
Memoria Press*- https://www.memoriapress.com
Institute for Excellence in Writing- https://iew.com/
* online schooling options available
Considering home schooling your children? Or changing programs? Here’s the rundown on faithful Catholic home-school programs and supplementals.
Though it is not a definitive list, the programs discussed are some of the most popular Catholic programs.
Homeschooling is about raising children, forming them in the right way, academically and spiritually, and achieving these goals with the children's cooperation. Without the children's cooperation, these goals can't be achieved, because the goals are primarily realized in their hearts. So acquiring the cooperation of your children, in the right way, becomes a matter of grave importance.
Maryland K-12 location meets in Westminster - contact anytime during school year to make a shadow date.
Applications for academic school year are currently being accepted. Click below to learn more about the admissions process and to access the family application:
There are several smaller but more private chapters around Maryland. Catholic Schoolhouse offers local chapters of a national program that provides a flexible, classically-based curriculum for grades PreK to 12. Chapters can meet once or twice a week for classroom-style learning led by paid, trained tutors, and for fellowship and mutual support. Catholic Schoolhouse works with any style of homeschooling and is explicitly and unapologetically Catholic. Virtue and family unity are paramount.
Saint Peter the Rock Catholic Home School Tutorial
for grades 8th-12th - meets in Bowie Maryland
St. Bede’s is a Catholic homeschool cooperative that utilizes a classical curriculum to educate our children in academics, virtue, and faith. We meet Tuesday mornings in Laurel, Maryland. We offer classes covering grades K-8. We follow the Catholic Schoolhouse curriculum, featuring science experiments, art projects, music, and memory work in religion, Latin, history, and geography. Our upper grammar students (grades 4-8) also meet in a seminar block for a history-based literature study.
www.saintbedehomeschool.org
St. John Paul II Academy Co-op (Severna Park)
A full-day spiritual, academic cooperative for the entire family (Nursery – 8th grade). [To participate, families must have a 2nd-grade or older student.] We offer a structured curriculum that fulfills all requirements for History, Literature, Writing, Science, and Art, as well Logic/Grammar. In addition, there is a half-day pre-school program for families with children ages 3-5.
We meet on Thursdays, Sept – May, 8:00am – 3:30pm, beginning with Meditation and Mass at St. John’s and classes held at Our Shepherd Lutheran Church. For more information, visit our website www.StJPII.org email StJPIIcoop@gmail.com
St. John Paul II High School Tutorial (Severna Park)
Full-time and
part-time classes offered
Meets on Mondays
and Wednesdays from Sept-May
St.
John Paul II High School Tutorial is the
resource you are looking for to provide support in educating your high
schoolers in a Catholic community. Emphasis on Catholic character
development is of utmost importance. Prayer
and meditation are incorporated several times throughout the school day. Encouraging an atmosphere of Catholic
morality, our motto is Enlighten the mind, Foster the heart, Train the
will and Model the Truth.
Our tutorial provides the opportunity for tutors to
guide and support your homeschooling endeavors using a hybrid of classical and
traditional curriculum. We
accomplish this by having tutors available twice each week on Mondays and
Wednesdays from September through May. Parents
remain the primary educators of their children and ensure work assigned by the
tutor is completed. Through
our tutors we offer a variety of core classes for *grades 9-12: English,
Science, Math, History and Religion as well as enrichment classes: Latin, Logic and Speech/Debate. * 8th grade students may enroll in
a Math class and enrichment classes.
Website: www.StJPII.org Contact StJPIItutorial@gmail.com for more information
Homeschooling Experts Affirm Parents’ Primary Educator Role despite Government Oversight
from the Cardinal Newman Society, by Kimberly Scharfenberger, 20 January 2015
The government should support, not usurp, the role of parents as primary educators of their children, agreed two Catholic homeschooling experts in an interview with The Cardinal Newman Society about the current state of regulations imposed on families that elect to homeschool.
“The educational benefits [of homeschooling] are many,” said Dr. Mary Kay Clark, director of Seton Home Study School. This includes the student’s ability to “proceed at the pace that is best for him in each subject” without being hurried along or held back by classmates. Additionally, Dr. Clark noted that nationally-standardized tests “have proved over the years that homeschooled students consistently outperform in-school students” with average homeschooled students scoring in the 85th percentile.
Laura Berquist, founder and director of Mother of Divine Grace School, said that homeschooling is a natural way “to provide a thorough and consistent intellectual, spiritual, and moral formation for our children.” Catholic parents are able to “tailor educational instruction to the individual child” and ensure that children are raised “within the shelter of a living Catholic culture.”
Yet for many homeschooling families across the country, government oversight has presented considerable difficulties, both experts argued.
In the school district of Goochland, Va., Christian homeschooling families, as well as children ages 14 and up, have been subject to interrogations by the school board in order to evaluate whether the families had sufficient grounds for a religious exemption, according to Todd Starnes in a recent Townhall.com article.
The intrusive policy was recently repealed following opposition from homeschooling families, including the Pruiett’s, who fought against the policy’s violation of the family’s “right to an exemption from school attendance based on the religious training the parents are providing to the child - regardless of what the child believes.”
“We are Christians and we homeschool our children so that we can instill in them Christian values - from an educational standpoint so that they will acknowledge God in every discipline of life,” Douglas Pruiett told Starnes. “You’re not going to find that in public schools.”
“We know from various Church documents, especially Rerum Novarum by Leo XIII, that the role of government with respect to the family is to foster parental authority, not to usurp it,” Berquist explained to the Society.
“Parents are clearly in a better position to know their children’s needs than the state is, so parents who want more oversight should be free to seek it, but to enforce more rules and regulations from the top down is contrary to the right role of government,” Berquist contended.
“We all recognize that there are times when children need the protection of the state due to parents who are not properly caring for their children, but that is not the norm and should not be standard on the basis of which laws are made,” Berquist continued. “Such ‘oversight’ weakens the whole fabric of society, which is only strong when families are strong.”
Dr. Clark told the Society that state regulations often do little more than inconvenience homeschooling families. “Oversight can mean many things, but with bureaucrats, it usually means time away from what is important and it also means plenty of paperwork,” said Dr. Clark. “Homeschooling students outperform in-schooling students on standardized tests in states that have minimal oversight as well as in states that have more oversight.”
According to a recent Houston Chronicle piece, the number of homeschooled children in the country is currently at an estimated 2.2 million, and states are beginning to relax certain restrictions. Pennsylvania, which required homeschooling families to register with their local school district and submit lesson plans, has reportedly “eased its regulations” as a result of homeschooling support.
Throughout Berquist’s experience in homeschooling, she has “never seen that more government regulation produced better schooling.” Instead, “good schooling in any venue comes from a desire on the part of those in charge to give the great good of truth to their students.”
Dr. Clark explained to the Society that Seton Home Study has students in all 50 states and noted that families in states with demanding regulations - like New York - “put up with the situation but work with groups who are trying to make the regulations less burdensome.” Sometimes, Dr. Clark said, the burden “is not so much due to the law as it is due to local officials who try to make families go even beyond what is required by law.”
“Society and government ought to respect the family community and do its best to help parents to educate their children, rather than merely increasing oversight through paper work and other forms of control,” Dr. Clark stated.
Is College Worth It Anymore?Why is homeschooling becoming more popular? Glenn Beck talks to Matt Walsh:
Posted by TheBlaze on Friday, February 13, 2015