Homeschooling and the Sacraments

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I have been told that one of the best things to do as a homeschooling mom is to take my kids to Daily Mass. Indeed, most articles about homeschooling say that our goals depend upon it. However, my parish (I am in a rural community so going somewhere else is not an option) only gives daily Mass Monday through Thursday and offers it (Monday and Wednesday) too early in the morning for the kids to make or (Tuesday and Thursday) during my two-year-old’s nap time. She does not do well with a later nap time, and will not take an earlier one.

Consequently, I ask other homeschooling parents, do you skip nap times to make Mass, or do you skip Mass (except on Sunday of course) to get your kids sleep? Any suggestions?
 
We were a homeschooling family but rarely attended daily Mass. The logistics of getting six kids into the car every morning made it very difficult. That said, we did occasionally attend evening daily Mass.

Is an evening Mass available in your area? If it’s not too late, that may be a better option. Daily Mass is not a requirement under Church law. Natural law requires that you take proper care of your children, and that includes ensuring they get enough rest.
 
Thank you. Evening mass would be nice, but we do not have a large enough parish for that. We only have one option per day, and not even every day at that. Mondays and Wednesdays we have Mass at 7 AM (logistically speaking I’d have to have the kids up before six to make sure that we could make Mass on those days and they don’t function well if they don’t sleep in until at least six). Tuesdays and Thursdays Mass is at noon, and my two year old pretty much has to go down for a nap at 11:30 until one or later, or she turns into a monster.

If taking them to daily Mass is that important to a successful homeschooling experience (and your reply suggests it is not of such extreme importance), I will skip nap time, but I hesitate to do so otherwise, as screaming children do not make for a fun time at either Mass or even home.
 
I don’t think daily Mass is essential to raising kids in the faith. If it was, it wouldn’t be optional.

Secondly, just because the Mass is prayed daily, doesn’t mean you are required to go daily. With very young kids, I would be tempted to pick once a week and go to the early morning Mass. Ask hubby for help getting them up and dressed. Give the little guy some milk, go to Mass, and then go out to a special breakfast afterward. Is there a McDonalds near you that has the tubes? My kids will do pretty much anything to play in the tubes.

Lastly, you could always watch Mass on the internet. If your kids are too young to receive anyway, that might be a good alternative.

I would probably avoid skipping naps on a daily basis, but you might be able to hold him off for a couple hours once or twice a week.
 
I was homeschooled and while we didn’t go to Daily Mass every single day, we did try to got at least once or twice a week. It all depends on how well your kids do, how old they are and the time of the Mass.
 
I would not try too hard to take a two year old to daily Mass. Watch the Mass on tv or the internet.

Is there a Catholic homeschoolers group in your area?
 
I was home-schooled, and we did not go to daily Mass. We lived too far away from Church to do so.
Although daily Mass is a very important thing, do not feel that you are under any moral obligations.

It’s probably not a good idea to take your two-year-old to daily Mass if skipping a nap will make him cranky and grumpy all through Mass. It might make him upset with Mass.
 
Thank you all for your opinions and suggestions. I saw a couple of recommendations that mentioned watching the Mass online. Where and when can I find Mass online? I was unaware of such an option and it may be the best fit for my family.
 
If you have EWTN or Salt + Light you might be able to view the Mass.
 
Do those have web addresses? I’ve heard of EWTN, but I thought that was a TV show. I have no TV.
 
Ah, okay. Salt + Light is a TV channel. EWTN is also a TV channel (Eternal Word Television Network) but they do have a web site and you might be able to stream some things from there.
 
Have you thought about taping or streaming Mass from EWTN? You cannot participate in the Holy Eucharist, but you will get the graces of the scripture readings. The Passionists web site may also have a daily Mass, as does St. Pat’s Cathedral in NY.
 
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Google Sunday Mass online, St. Pat’s Cathedral or EWTN (Eternal World Television. Also, you can Google the Passionists.
 
We homeschool, and we do not do daily Mass. It is common for my wife to take the kids to Mass at least once during the week, but that will depend on a lot of things, including weather and academics.

When my now college aged son was in early high school, we also encouraged him to bike down to Church to serve noon Mass, and he did that pretty regularly as a ‘break’ for a few years, but then stopped as high school progressed and the classwork became more difficult.
 
Your two year old will not be taking naps forever. Once the little one stops taking naps, start going to the noon masses.

How long does it take you to drive to the Church? Daily mass is usually far more informal (dress wise) so unless it take a while to drive there, perhaps you could always have them throw on clothes and rush out the door for 7am mass (without having to wake them up before 6am), and then have breakfast after you get back home?

Or even if you just make it once a week (for example the Wednesday morning), it could be helpful.

However, it is optional, so don’t beat yourself up. But if you can make it at least once or twice a week, that would be awesome (even if that’s after your 2 year old stops napping)

God Bless

BTW - one of the great things about 7AM masses (7 days a week) is that helps to train you and your kids to be morning people. There are studies that say that morning people tend to be more successful. I wish I could make it to 7am masses because I’m not a morning person at all. 😔
 
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EWTN is a very orthodox Catholic TV network. You can stream it online at www.ewtn.com

And if you have a Google Chromecast, Roku, Amazon Fire Stick, etc; you can stream it live (or on-demand) via those appliances.

There are two other major Catholic TV Networks in North America (all of which can be streamed):

Salt & Light network out of Canada is: http://saltandlighttv.org/
Catholic TV (from Boston) is: catholictv.org

The rest appear to be regional channels.

Finally, if you don’t have FORMED.org, I highly recommend it. It’s a like a “Catholic Netflixs” or “Catholic Amazon Prime Videos”

God Bless
 
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My mother was a homeschooling mom who taught 11 of her children (she’s still teaching 3 of them who are not old enough to go to college yet). She did try to make the effort to start the school day with Mass. Of course it is not obligatory to do this. She also had some of us older kids to help with the younger ones. It was her personal belief that starting the day off with Mass seemed to make the day go better. We also tried to pray the rosary every night as a family. This would help the little ones to go to sleep.
 
Just a thought, but i’m not a parent, are you able to watch the mass on EWTN?
 
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