For Homeschool Families: Questions

[gam3rchic]

1) Do you have a separate room in your home only for “class” or do you have class in the family room, kitchen, etc.? I would think for the kids to have a more structured environment that a separate room would be needed so it can be ‘decorated’ for school purposes and that way they could focus more on learning than on other distractions around?? Again, I am asking for ideas here.

**2) Do you have school desks? Or table and chairs? I just don’t want the kitchen table to be looked at as a school table and then have the kids have to have class and meals at the same table, know what I mean?? **

3) Curriculum ideas? Seton, Kolbe, CHC? Angelicum? Have you ever participated in a co-op program for homeschooler families? Any ideas that you may have or advice, please offer it.

**Thanks in advance for your help/advice:thumbsup: **

I don’t homeschool but my mom does with my two younger siblings so here is what she does:

1.) it is recommended to have a separate room, but my mom doesn’t. they homeschool in the dining room and use the dining room table for my brother and my sister has her own desk in the dining room as well. She minimizes distractions when she is homeschooling by telling my other siblings to not make loud noises (music, games, etc) and to not wander around the house either.

2.) answered above re: having separate table. it’s really not a problem to use the dining room table for both school and meals. When homeschool is done for the day, she has some shelves that she stores all the school stuff on behind the table and gets it out daily. No biggie.

3.) my mom has used seton from the beginning and they have been great…no complaints here. I think I’ll probably go with them when I homeschool one day hopefully (just waiting on a darn kid to come along, but that’s a rant for another day )

 

[gam3rchic]

Hope this doesn’t interfere with the original post, but just wondering how many of you teach only one subject per day, instead of several/most subjects each day?

I’m thinking of doing this year in that manner (one subject per day), but wondering if my son will “forget” what we learn in each subject if we’re only doing it one day per week.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Meeshy

It depends person to person. My brother does several subjects a day and that works out fine, but my sister actually benefits from doing just one subject a day. You see, she was having trouble concentrating on her math and now that she has a whole day put aside for math, she doesn’t get distracted as easily and “gets in the math mode” so to speak and can really excel, whereas before she kept making stupid mistakes by getting side-tracked with other topics. Try it out and see if he does better…if not, try something else. Hence the beauty of homeschooling!

 

[mom27]

We have homeschooled for over 11 years now. I have had times that I have put some in school, public and Catholic. I prefer homeschooling. It is the best formation I can give. Even though some of my kids are not academic, they are good Catholics, with a strong moral grounding. You just can’t get that anywhere, no matter what you pay. In our family we are working on growing in holiness all the time. If I had them away for 6 or 7 hours a day, it would be very difficult. We have had rooms dedicated to school and we have used large tables, or desks. Really, I let them sit at the table, we do school in the early morning, take short breaks and do chores together. I would suggest a cart on wheels for your books, so your table doesn’t get cluttered and when its time for a meal, it is an easy clean up.

For curriculum, it really depends on your style of teaching. I love OLVS, it is very traditional. However, we gleen from many different places. I love the NEW Math at Seton. It is very Catholic and comparable to MCP. I use some of CHC also. The main thing for me is good, solid, Catholic and Traditional.

Feel free to contact me if you need additional help.

 

[mamacita]

We have homeschooled for over 11 years now. I have had times that I have put some in school, public and Catholic. I prefer homeschooling. It is the best formation I can give. Even though some of my kids are not academic, they are good Catholics, with a strong moral grounding. You just can’t get that anywhere, no matter what you pay. In our family we are working on growing in holiness all the time. If I had them away for 6 or 7 hours a day, it would be very difficult. We have had rooms dedicated to school and we have used large tables, or desks. Really, I let them sit at the table, we do school in the early morning, take short breaks and do chores together. I would suggest a cart on wheels for your books, so your table doesn’t get cluttered and when its time for a meal, it is an easy clean up.

For curriculum, it really depends on your style of teaching. I love OLVS, it is very traditional. However, we gleen from many different places. I love the NEW Math at Seton. It is very Catholic and comparable to MCP. I use some of CHC also. The main thing for me is good, solid, Catholic and Traditional.

Feel free to contact me if you need additional help.

**
Can I ask what made you put some of them in school (public or Catholic) at different times?? Are any of your children in high school and being homeschooled? We have a long ways before we think about that but just curious! **

 

[Mirror_Mirror]

**Thanks to all for the replies and words of encouragement, it really means a lot to me.

Keep them coming!!!

DH is all for it. **

I am the DH that is “all for it!”

Just wanted to express my thanks also for the words of encouragement. We know we are not the only ones that want to do this and I was talking with someone today that there is an “unofficial” statistic that some 1 million children are being homeschooled. WOW!

Just wanted to reply to thank everyone (and to have a subscription to this thread so I can continue to read the posts )

 

[apologist]

Mamacita,

Hi, just wanted to let you know why our family chose to homeschool, public & Catholic: We started out public - what a disaster. That’s when we had the internent threat and the police involved because someone wanted to kill one of my kids. End of that story…Homeschool - 4 yrs. went by. Kids did great, but the eldest(now 18) not getting friends because there are no homeschool groups around. Also, I am a mom with many serious health issues, which doesn’t help my kids’ states of mind.
That’s another story…Catholic school - nightmare! Priest didn’t even have his faculties! No one knew. I investigated some things he said during Mass, priest got upset me with me (VERY) ya da ya da ya da - went to Bishop, couldn’t get to him, went to his aid and they said they’d never heard of him; investigated, priest out of school for 3 weeks or so, school had to get visiting priest to say daily Mass, news spread that I was the “squealer” - scary looks at me (who cares). Now the academics there was great. It was the religion that scared me. Can’t even trust a Catholic school…
Pretty sad if you ask me. Homeschool came next, again. Daughter just graduated from Seton, other child going in 10th grade. So - all is not well in the “world”. Better to keep them (kids) within earshot and know what they’re doing and learning - especially about our faith. Just wanted to share. Sorry such a long story.

 

[mom27]

Well, we have moved at different times, so I was feeling like I couldn’t do it, put them in a very small 3 room school house( public) had Catholic teachers, but the students were not the best examples to my children. There was another time that we had moved, I was very behind, had just had our youngest and put them in Catholic school to try and catch up… Mistake! The 1st graders were reading Max Lucado for religion. Yes, Max Lucado!! The majority of Catholics at the school are in name only, the other population was not Catholic. Not a place to grow in Holiness for sure! Not only that but it is my firm belief that all schools, no matter how good are really about teaching independence from your family. They undermind the families authority and the children begin to buy into that. Soon, you have rebelous children that don’t take mom and dads word for something… instead they have to run it by their teacher!

Yes, I have homeschooling 2 now through highschool. They did very well, were highly motivated and very active in learning to run our home, take on outside jobs, and most of all grow in thier faith.

I am a strong advocate for Homeschooling. I think everyone can do it and if you are interested in learning about ways to be a successful catholic homeschooler, I recommend going to a website called keepingitcatholic.com You can read all kinds of articles by many advocates,curricula reviews and red flag lists to avoid. I would also recommend reading the articles from Fr. John Hardon. He was a HUGE proponate of Catholic homeschooling. Future vocations and conservative catholics will come from this homeschooling movement!

God Bless!!

mom27

 

[tpraines]

POST 1 of 2
Let me post here from a dad’s prospective…

At first I was opposed to the idea of home schooling… Nice thought, but so is world peace and tree hugging, so I was initially opposed to it. I had always dreamed of sending the kids to a ‘prepy’ boarding type school (dead poet’s society) minor seminary or convent.

Strangely enough when we moved to Jacksonville, FL our first really dependable baby-sitter was a fabulously bright and responsible home schooled teen aged. We were impressed with her maturity and intelligence. As it turned out her mom was the leader of some local home school co-op and was frequently cited in newspaper articles, especially when the Colorado ‘caged’ kid or the national spelling bee winner issues came into public focus. If you recall those were all opportunities for the media to blast home schooling.

Anyway it planted a seed… Then the lovely parish that we attended just happened to be the “home school’ hub for a large group of home school families in the diocese. It is a more conservative parish and the home schooler just seemed to gravitate to that pastor. He actually went to bat for the home school families who wanted to home school CCD and confirmation classes when our diocese said no! As an aside, I would bet on any Seton religion student against any diocesan CCD class, hand down… More on curriculum later…

After we started home schooling, each night I would quiz my son at the dinner table… I admit I though mom would be light on him and let him slide… I was wrong! After a few months of reviewing his workbooks, retesting him, etc. I gave up! Now we have 3 children and the 2 school aged ones are home schooled. They consistently place one grade level above the local school board on all their standardized tests. I am very pleased with home schooling.

After convincing me, my wife had other obstacles… Let me first say that other people’s opinions don’t matter. Period. It is your right and duty to educate your kids! Too many parents outsource that responsibility and don’t follow-up on the progress. Some parents are involved with their kids public/parochial education, but some are not. Sad.

Anyway our families were easily convinced that home schhol works since my kids are obviously smarter and better adjusted than my sibling’s kids… haha just kidding! But my wife has a very best friend (since high school) who is an elementary school teacher. She was vocally opposed to the idea. Even to the point where she told us that it didn’t matter if we had master’s degrees (which it doesn’t – because I have seen many successful home school mom with just a high school education) but that we didn’t understand the mechanics of teaching. The great thing about Seton and others is that they provide the lesson plans… Do not go at it alone… Use a curriculum and ask around…. But once her friend saw my son’s progress she was convinced and supportive. Her friend is now posting resumes to leave teaching altogether… Says there is too much internal school politics and very little teacher time. Keeping the principal and parents happy and not complaining is worth more than teaching kids. She is done with the school system in FL.

Since Home schooling is so flexible, my son has become interested in underwater ships, sinking, submarines, marine life, etc. We can adapt most of his curriculum to things he really finds interesting. Now we have to keep it broad to make the education well rounded, but when it come to math and fractions he can tell you the percentage of first class passengers aboard the Titanic to live and perish versus the third class passengers to live and perish. He is a Titanic expert. We constantly get complimented on his knowledge and intelligence. He is smart than anyone else, maybe, but the point it we have supported something that he is interested in and he learned exponentially more quickly when he enjoys the topic.

Anyway enough support of home schooling… PLEASE SEE POST #2

 

[tpraines]

POST 2 of 2

We initially used the kitchen table. It works fine; many other families do the same thing. But you need some regular place of instruction and normal place for all your supplies, etc. You cannot have the kids studying all over the house and your books scattered. Organization is key! Stay on course as best as your can with the lesson plans. We even send the kids to grandmothers for the week and they take their books and lesson plans. The kids do their 3 pages of math each day and then go play. It works well because we try to stay on target. When we have an emergency and can’t do it, at least we know where we left off and can get back in step later. Set up school in one place and stick to it, even if its the kitchen table and the books are all in one closet. We have now converted a spare room into a school room and put shelves in the closet for books and supplies. We got an over-sided executive desk so that mom could teach from one end and the kids sat at the overhang on the other end. Works great! We also got a used dry erase board from another home school family when they moved (but these are available at office depot) the bigger the better. A local catholic school is renovating so we just got some school desks and separate chairs. Slowly work into creating that learning environment that works for your kids, you don’t have to do it overnight. Some kids graduate from the kitchen table right into college so don’t think you have to have a separate room. Just separate space.

We started with Seton. Paid the fee, got the big shipment of books, done. But now that we have slowly expanded our contact with other home school families we now trade books, swap curriculum, posters, manipulatives, etc. Seton religious appears to be the best (IMHO) but their math is a huge amount of repetitious work, so we tried MCP. This year we are going back to Saxon math because it comes with instructional DVD’s and computer software to compliment the math. Since math is our son’s weakest subject we need the extra re-enforcement. If your kids pick up on math easily then Seton or another curriculum would work better, just ask around and see what works.

I would encourage you to affiliate and socialize with other families. Especially for sports, high school courses, etc. Many of the other high school aged home schoolers in our area tutor the younger kids in the more specialized subjects such as: Latin, chemistry, etc. That is a big benefit and gives mom or dad a break. We have a doctor who takes a day each week to teach biology, etc. Each mom has their own specialty. My wife has her master’s in psychology so she tutors high school psychology. I have tutored high school Algebra and Geometry as needed. Some groups have special days for certain subjects such as Mrs. Smith teaches English on Monday; Mrs. Paul teaches Math on Tuesday, etc. We don’t. We are just available so that if anyone needs help with a particular math problem or Psychology test they call us and come over for a few hours.

My wife is also the local guidance counselor for our home school academy. In FL we needed (but not required) a legal entity to help with the local school board, maintain grades, etc. So we joined several other families who are part of this group and we have families from all over our area. There are others in our area and we all try to let each other know of home school opportunities. For example, our local zoo has a home school day! Who would have thought! But you get a discount or free admission and they have special educational programs all day! It is a great event. We would have never known about that had we not been included on an e-mail from another mom!

So you are well on your way! Posting to this forum and to others will get you in touch with other families and give you the support you need. Do not underestimate the internet. For the high schoolers you may be eligible for Dual-enrollment and maybe virtual schools which are programs offered in FL free of charge! All this is worth checking into. You are on the right track. I wish you luck… P.S. this post would have been more informative had my wife wrote it! So if you want more, please feel free to private message me.

 

[Mirror_Mirror]

POST 2 of 2

We started with Seton. Paid the fee, got the big shipment of books, done. But now that we have slowly expanded our contact with other home school families we now trade books, swap curriculum, posters, manipulatives, etc. Seton religious appears to be the best (IMHO) but their math is a huge amount of repetitious work, so we tried MCP. This year we are going back to Saxon math because it comes with instructional DVD’s and computer software to compliment the math. Since math is our son’s weakest subject we need the extra re-enforcement. If your kids pick up on math easily then Seton or another curriculum would work better, just ask around and see what works.

I would encourage you to affiliate and socialize with other families. Especially for sports, high school courses, etc. Many of the other high school aged home schoolers in our area tutor the younger kids in the more specialized subjects such as: Latin, chemistry, etc. That is a big benefit and gives mom or dad a break. We have a doctor who takes a day each week to teach biology, etc. Each mom has their own specialty. My wife has her master’s in psychology so she tutors high school psychology. I have tutored high school Algebra and Geometry as needed. Some groups have special days for certain subjects such as Mrs. Smith teaches English on Monday; Mrs. Paul teaches Math on Tuesday, etc. We don’t. We are just available so that if anyone needs help with a particular math problem or Psychology test they call us and come over for a few hours.

My wife is also the local guidance counselor for our home school academy. In FL we needed (but not required) a legal entity to help with the local school board, maintain grades, etc. So we joined several other families who are part of this group and we have families from all over our area. There are others in our area and we all try to let each other know of home school opportunities. For example, our local zoo has a home school day! Who would have thought! But you get a discount or free admission and they have special educational programs all day! It is a great event. We would have never known about that had we not been included on an e-mail from another mom!

So you are well on your way! Posting to this forum and to others will get you in touch with other families and give you the support you need. Do not underestimate the internet. For the high schoolers you may be eligible for Dual-enrollment and maybe virtual schools which are programs offered in FL free of charge! All this is worth checking into. You are on the right track. I wish you luck… P.S. this post would have been more informative had my wife wrote it! So if you want more, please feel free to private message me.

As the husband of the wife that is considering homeschooling here, I thank you for your time in posting that and for sharing. That is every reassuing! Fortunately she and I are on the same page and know that once we get into this it will be a great blessing for us, but we just have to get over that initial hump. I have had to put aside a lot of my thoughts about how I went to school and realize that this is what will be best for our kids. Things could change, but for now, this is the direction we are moving. Thank God our oldest DS being (what we feel is) advanced and he will be able to adjust easily to this.

 

[leonie]

**
Can I ask what made you put some of them in school (public or Catholic) at different times?? Are any of your children in high school and being homeschooled? We have a long ways before we think about that but just curious! **

We tried a independent Catholic school for a year when my older kids were in 3rd and 4th grade. It seemed ideal–religious and parents teaching, daily Mass, small classes with both my kids in the same class. the tuition was about half as my parish school. I had five kids under ten at the time and I thought this was a good solution so I could give my younger kids more attention.

What I found out was we were spending almost the same time on homework that I would have spent on homeschooling. sigh. And, then, there were the obligations that come with school. Because it was an independent school, I had to also do the transportation and make lunches daily. My dd thrived–was a teacher’s pet. My ds struggled with the transition.

I was able to give my younger kids more attention, but evenings were torture with school work and hustling to get ready for the next day. I didn’t want to give them chores because they had so little playtime.

Anyhow, I found the relief wasn’t worth the work. I hated being tied to a school’s schedule and homework demands. I missed the freedom and flexibility of hsing.

But, every January, I decide to put the kids in school. I often find hsing very draining–esp during the first few weeks and the time after the holidays. I think it is important for moms who homeschool to have a really good support system, regular time for exercise and time to unwind.

Before you start hsing, consider working these things into your schedule. One thing that made a big difference for me 2nd semester was using Managers of Their Homes.

titus2.com/ecommerce/products/prod_listing.php/1100

 

[mamacita]

Mamacita,

Hi, just wanted to let you know why our family chose to homeschool, public & Catholic: We started out public - what a disaster. That’s when we had the internent threat and the police involved because someone wanted to kill one of my kids. End of that story…Homeschool - 4 yrs. went by. Kids did great, but the eldest(now 18) not getting friends because there are no homeschool groups around. Also, I am a mom with many serious health issues, which doesn’t help my kids’ states of mind.
That’s another story…Catholic school - nightmare! Priest didn’t even have his faculties! No one knew. I investigated some things he said during Mass, priest got upset me with me (VERY) ya da ya da ya da - went to Bishop, couldn’t get to him, went to his aid and they said they’d never heard of him; investigated, priest out of school for 3 weeks or so, school had to get visiting priest to say daily Mass, news spread that I was the “squealer” - scary looks at me (who cares). Now the academics there was great. It was the religion that scared me. Can’t even trust a Catholic school…
Pretty sad if you ask me. Homeschool came next, again. Daughter just graduated from Seton, other child going in 10th grade. So - all is not well in the “world”. Better to keep them (kids) within earshot and know what they’re doing and learning - especially about our faith. Just wanted to share. Sorry such a long story.

**

Oh, don’t be sorry!! Thanks for taking the time to share! I have heard a similar story from a lady at our parish. Hers were homeschooled, then Catholic school and I just saw her at the gas station recently and she told me she is going to homeschool them again this fall. So it seems kind of common… **

 

[mamacita]

POST 2 of 2

My wife is also the local guidance counselor for our home school academy. In FL we needed (but not required) a legal entity to help with the local school board, maintain grades, etc. So we joined several other families who are part of this group and we have families from all over our area. There are others in our area and we all try to let each other know of home school opportunities. For example, our local zoo has a home school day! Who would have thought! But you get a discount or free admission and they have special educational programs all day! It is a great event. We would have never known about that had we not been included on an e-mail from another mom!

So you are well on your way! Posting to this forum and to others will get you in touch with other families and give you the support you need. Do not underestimate the internet. For the high schoolers you may be eligible for Dual-enrollment and maybe virtual schools which are programs offered in FL free of charge! All this is worth checking into. You are on the right track. I wish you luck… P.S. this post would have been more informative had my wife wrote it! So if you want more, please feel free to private message me.

**
Thank you for all of the detailed info. It’s great to hear different families stories of homeschooling.

We have several close friends in our area (rural area) that already homeschool. They are the reason that I am wanting to do it more than ever. I have actually tossed around the idea since DS was in Kindergarten however never had the ‘supportive people’ around to make me feel that it is the right decision. I mean I have always felt it is the right decision however it was the whole not having any supportive friends or family to help/encourage us along the way. But now we do!!! The families that I know locally that homeschool are just such great people. Not that non homeschool families aren’t but when I was growing up the homeschoolers were honestly always looked at as being “odd”, “weird”, “holy rollers” etc. However now, I look at the homeschoolers and realize how great their children are, how well rounded in the Faith they are, how responsible they are, etc.etc. etc.

The people that I know locally that homeschool are starting a
co-op this fall, I don’t have all the details yet, but I look forward to learning more about it. Also, the YMCA that we go to I just found out that in the Fall they will be having a “homeschoolers only” science and art program. I thought that was also a neat idea. Never heard of that before.

Thanks again to all of you for sharing your stories. If you know anyone else with a story, send them over to this thread to share it:thumbsup: **

 

[reganq]

Hey Mamacita,

We are getting ready for our first year of homeschooling. We are all very excited about it! We moved to a rural area with a lower cost of living (and closer to family) so that we can afford to do it.

With the move, we purchased a much larger house which has 5 bedrooms. So, we have converted a bedroom into our school room. A few weeks ago, we were at an auction and found a dining room table and buffet. So, our old table is now our school table and the buffet is for books and school supplies.

As far as programs go, we have signed up with St. Thomas Aquinas Academy. I did a TON of research and had planned on using a different program, ordered some of the recommended books off of ebay and realized that said program didn’t feel quite right for us. After speaking with another hs mom in our parish, I looked back over STAA and felt that it’s the right fit for us.

I have been reading Dr. Mary Kay Clark’s book. I think it’s titled Catholic Homeschooling and it has been a tremendous resource. She goes into great detail (and cites numerous Church documents) about the responsibility of married persons is not to just procreate, it is to educate.

I have wanted to hs our children since I found out I was pregnant the first time. Thankfully, the Lord has given me several years to pray for family members and work on proper ways to articulate my responses. The funny thing is that I haven’t needed to use the responses with my family members because of all of the prayer.

Good luck in whatever you decide to do. In my experience with decisions like these, you received the inspiration from God, go for it and let Him work out all of the details. He always does a great job and it cuts out a lot of headaches and stress!