L
leonie
Guest
I suggest attending a Catholic homeschool conference.
setonhome.org/conferences/
I, too, advocate homeschooling as the best option for kids for moral, academic, and social formation. If I didn’t believe that I wouldn’t do it. It’s not that I think schools are necessarily horrible, sin laden institutions, it’s more that I think a family is the best opportunity to find teachable moments. That doesn’t mean that kids spend all their time at home though.
There are lots of options for socialization. The perception that a child who is homeschooled is stuck at home being bored and lonely is not true.
My kids have the following activities in addition to play dates: 4-H (two different clubs), a library teen leadership club in which they have monthly meetings and other events in which they volunteer, a high school youth group, a middle school youth group, CYO sports, softball/baseball little league, a homeschool math club, an academic co-op, a girls club in which both my dd have participated and been junior leaders, 4-H camp, Challenge and Conquest camps.
I’m proud of my oldest dd who has planned and organized several teen events including two murder mysteries and three dances in addition to organizing more casual get togethers like flashlight tag and canoeing trips. She loves it so much that she has decided to study event planning in college. She also designed and taught a class at our homeschool co-op.
There have been many other opportunities that we have declined to do because of the busyness factor. We have friends with kids in year round swim clubs, dancing programs, boy and girl scouts, YMCA programs including homeschool p.e. I don’t care for fieldtrips because of the time commitment and hassle, but our homeschool group sponsors several a year. My kids really like playdates in which no organized activity takes place. We try to do those very often.
I have a largish family (8 kids), so I don’t do everything I long to do. But if I had just one child to homeschool, I’d love to volunteer with her, take classes together, organize events for her age group. It’s often hard for moms with lots of little ones to organize socials. Our local museums love to have a parent and teen come in and volunteer.
My experience with priests at parishes with schools is that their main focus (as it should be) is to support the parish school. So, I would expect most pastors to promote Catholic school.
In Indiana, homeschools are considered private schools. In our case, our private school is Catholic. However, I don’t think my pastor understands that. He keeps pushing CCD for homeschool kids even though we probably do more religious ed than than the parish school.
I strongly encourage you to “go for it.” But, also be proactive in arranging social activities with other homeschool girls her age.
setonhome.org/conferences/
I, too, advocate homeschooling as the best option for kids for moral, academic, and social formation. If I didn’t believe that I wouldn’t do it. It’s not that I think schools are necessarily horrible, sin laden institutions, it’s more that I think a family is the best opportunity to find teachable moments. That doesn’t mean that kids spend all their time at home though.
There are lots of options for socialization. The perception that a child who is homeschooled is stuck at home being bored and lonely is not true.
My kids have the following activities in addition to play dates: 4-H (two different clubs), a library teen leadership club in which they have monthly meetings and other events in which they volunteer, a high school youth group, a middle school youth group, CYO sports, softball/baseball little league, a homeschool math club, an academic co-op, a girls club in which both my dd have participated and been junior leaders, 4-H camp, Challenge and Conquest camps.
I’m proud of my oldest dd who has planned and organized several teen events including two murder mysteries and three dances in addition to organizing more casual get togethers like flashlight tag and canoeing trips. She loves it so much that she has decided to study event planning in college. She also designed and taught a class at our homeschool co-op.
There have been many other opportunities that we have declined to do because of the busyness factor. We have friends with kids in year round swim clubs, dancing programs, boy and girl scouts, YMCA programs including homeschool p.e. I don’t care for fieldtrips because of the time commitment and hassle, but our homeschool group sponsors several a year. My kids really like playdates in which no organized activity takes place. We try to do those very often.
I have a largish family (8 kids), so I don’t do everything I long to do. But if I had just one child to homeschool, I’d love to volunteer with her, take classes together, organize events for her age group. It’s often hard for moms with lots of little ones to organize socials. Our local museums love to have a parent and teen come in and volunteer.
My experience with priests at parishes with schools is that their main focus (as it should be) is to support the parish school. So, I would expect most pastors to promote Catholic school.
In Indiana, homeschools are considered private schools. In our case, our private school is Catholic. However, I don’t think my pastor understands that. He keeps pushing CCD for homeschool kids even though we probably do more religious ed than than the parish school.
I strongly encourage you to “go for it.” But, also be proactive in arranging social activities with other homeschool girls her age.
