Homeschooling 101

Since beginning our homeschooling journey, I have had several women message me to ask me questions. When you're interested in homeschooling, I think you seek out anyone who may have some been there, done that experience, and ask them all of the questions you can think of. I felt like doing a blog post may be helpful to others as well.

One of the first questions I get asked is, What curriculum do you use?
Well, since we're Catholic, I wanted a Catholic curriculum. I did a lot of research, reading, browsing, talking to others, etc. I wanted a curriculum in a box for our first year, something that told me exactly what I needed to teach when, while I was still getting my feet wet. I went with Catholic Heritage Curriculum (CHC) for this school year, and have loved almost every minute of it. I love that it's very simple, and has a theme for each month. For example, the first month's theme was "I am happy when I obey." Many times when my kids were not obeying, I'd say "What was our theme for the month?" and drive that back in. I love the way it teaches our Catholic faith to my children at such an early age, where Hannah goes around and does things saying "Mom, that was a good image/reflection of God... Mommy, doing that was loving my sister, just like God loves me." These are all things I wanted to teach them, but wasn't sure the right way to go about it, and our curriculum helps greatly with it. I'm not a fan of their math program, MCP. I may be investigating to see what other math program to use instead for next year. My kindergartener has just finished reviewing all his letters and will begin learning to read after Christmas. I'm noticing a lot of problems with writing his letters wrong, so I'm looking in to Handwriting Without Tears, and may begin to use that as well. I still need to sit down and figure out what I'm going to be doing for the 2nd half of the year during Christmas break.

With that said, most people ask me when they're beginning to look at preschool. I have been using this program with Hannah for preschool, but she's basically the age of PreK 3, doing PreK 4, and I don't think she'll be ready for K next year, so I may be reevaluating what to teach her next year. Also, the curriculum for the PreK and the K religion is the same, and I think she's done a great job grasping what I've been teaching, so I MIGHT do 1st grade religion with her next year. One of the joys of homeschooling right there.

But, preschool... One of the most important things to realize when they're still 3-6 years old or so is that 'school' involves a lot more than books. We honestly spend about 1-3 hours for about 3-4 days of schoolwork is all right now. Why? Because imagination time and play time are VERY important still at this age. So, I let my kids have a lot of play time. Sometimes I'll lead the imagination play, other times I just let them go. I hand out play scarves or princess dress up and let them dress up.I give them their Little People manger scene and watch them act it out. Give them a puzzle, or craft supplies, or a game. This is all VERY important at their age still, and is schooling, even if you don't feel like it is. Also remember to not push too much. They have 13 years of schooling ahead, they don't have to be doing multiplication by the time they're 6. I have found websites that say "What your child should know before K" or "What your child should know at the end of K" and used those as a guide. Many children go to K not knowing their ABCs or not knowing how to write them. Don't push your children too hard.

Before I picked out a curriculum, I was going with the basic "Letter of the Week" idea. There is a website with it, but I did not like the flow of their program at all. So, instead, I took the idea of a letter a week, and just looked online for ideas. I would search around my house for items that started with an "A", put them in a bag, and let the kids pull it out, tell me what it was and what it started with. I looked for a Bible story that started with that letter, like "Adam and Eve" and then a Bible verse to work on memorizing that began with "A" as well. I began by searching for  "ABC Bible verse" or something of that nature. This website and this one were helpful for some Bible verse ideas. I also used these verses through our week, such as "Be kind one to another." When they weren't being kind, I'd say "What's our 'B' Bible verse?" We'd also do crafts for the letter of the week. I'd take a word that we'd learned, such as "Butterfly" and just search for "butterfly craft", and we'd do that together. As I was researching things in the beginning, I found several websites that had wonderful ideas, and I'd just use their ideas, and went for those sites almost every time, with just a bit more research if I didn't care for what they offered that week. I'd share these sites, but my computer crashed over the summer, and I don't recall what sites I used at all. But it's easy to research and find what fits what you want to teach.

What led you to homeschool?
Ha! THE question. I grew up in Catholic school (As a Southern Baptist) and then in public middle and high school. (Part of the reason I was open to dating my Catholic husband in the beginning). I always swore my kids would go to school and they would not be homeschooled. Besides, I did not have the patience to homeschool. And really, when I met Jon, I did not even want kids. He was homeschooled and swore our kids would be. I figured "We'll cross that bridge when we get there." That all changed, and by the time I had my second child before our 2nd anniversary, I was Catholic, wanting lots of kids, and planning on homeschooling. God has a way of slowly changing my heart and mind. What changed my mind? I really began to understand the fact that it was my JOB to teach and train my children, to make sure they knew the faith and understood it. I knew that there was no way a public school would do this. I also knew that Catholic schools were expensive, and my experience with Catholic schools is that even those schools aren't best with behavior, etc. I also knew that in a way, it was my job to protect my children, and if that meant sheltering them to a degree, I was fine with it.

Now hear me out when I say sheltering my children. I don't feel that I should keep them locked in my house with no outside experiences. I mean, I should shelter them from learning about sex at 7 years old from kids in their class who know what it is. I will teach my children what sex is when I feel it is age appropriate for each of my children (may be 12 for one, 15 for another! We'll cross that bridge down the road ;-)) I should shelter them from bullying in schools, from bad behavior of children who are not raised the way we raise our children, from hearing things that contradict our faith at such a young, formative age. I should shelter them from hearing things from others that I think they should be learning and hearing from me first. For example, many parents have currently been talking about the CT shootings and how they will tell their children, because they want to be able to talk to their children about it, as a parent, guiding them, teaching them, etc. through this situation. That's how I feel about all situations.

Aside from this, we move with the military usually after schools have begun. And it's a better time than it is during the summer when everyone else is moving. Homeschooling allows this. It also allows for my parents to visit for 3 weeks in Nov., or for us to go home in March, without worrying about school. Either I can take school with us, or we school through the summer. Either way, we're more flexible and don't feel so trapped by the school system.

Will you ever send your kids to a public or Catholic school?
This is not up to me. I pray that this is not the case. But, if situations arise that caused us to need to evaluate it, we'd pray about it long and hard, and pray God would guide us in the right direction. For example, a woman we know who did a fabulous job homeschooling her children, ended up having to put some in school because one of their children got very sick and needs lots of treatments. Those are the type of situations that surely we can't control, and we'd do what was best for our family.

With that said, I think it's important for me to point out that I think no less of anyone who does not homeschool. I strongly feel homeschooling is a calling, and just like He doesn't call everyone to be a doctor, He doesn't call everyone to homeschool. I also realize that like above, there are sometimes issues that require you to put a child in school. And, the trick is, I also think He calls some people, but they try to ignore or fight the call ;-) But anyway, I know each and every family is different and is making the best choices for their children they can.

What websites do you recommend? 
Well, I don't know haha! I knew of a Catholic homeschooling forum, so I began there. They told me about a few Catholic curriculum to look in to. There is CHC, Mother of Divine Grace (was my 2nd choice), Kolbe Academy, Seton, and many more. These four were the ones I researched the most. I love CHC but I'm unsure if I'll use it forever, as it's unaccredited. At this point in our lives, it's ok because our kids are still so young. We'll reevaluate it as they get older and closer to middle and high school. But my first point would be do research. There are books and websites you can find. Type in what you're looking for "Catholic Homeschooling, Baptist Homeschooling, Preschool homeschooling, Homeschooling 2 children at once." There is a wealth of information. Look on Amazon and type in "Homeschooling" and see what comes up. Because I've ordered so many Catholic books, it tends to give me Catholic homeschooling books first ;-) Unfortunately, I can't give much recommendations for curriculum that are not Catholic, but I know there are thousands of wonderful resources out there. If you are catholic, CathSwap is a great place to buy used books from.

One website I do love is education.com  They have tons of printable worksheets. My kids were really not coloring in the lines, so I started to print some color-by-number worksheets from there to have them work on. I do not like it though at the same time, because it's very politically correct. All their Christmas stuff is snowflakes and stockings, nothing Jesus related.

I've used starfall.com for Zach to play on, and heard good things about cookie.com but haven't used it much.

How does your day run?
HA! This one is funny. This year began with me not sure if I'd do K for Zach or PreK. Technically he would not start K if he was in our local school because he missed the cut off by less than a month. So, I got involved in things like I'm use to- MOPS, Bible Study, etc. This has been a huge struggle in getting our schooling done. I'm pretty sure I won't be involved in as much next year. But on a good day, we begin our day with prayer- VERY important. Then we do our music class song "Good day", the theme of the month, the Pledge of Allegiance, our Bible verse and prayer we're working on memorizing. Then we do a few more songs from our music lesson plan, then religion. I use to have religion at the end, but realized that if I have to cut the day short, religion is most important. Then we do another song or two, and do our reading/writing and math work. Then we end with the "God Bless" song we use in our program, and end with a prayer. If we have gotten through our work quickly, we'll read a bit before lunch. Usually we end just in time for lunch, and sometimes I am making lunch while they are doing their math and reading work. In fact, while they are actually working on a subject, if I am not having to hang over them to make sure it's done right, then I'll get the kitchen cleaned, dinner going, etc. The afternoon, both of my girls usually still need naps, so our afternoons are 'quiet time'. Sometimes I'll do some extra work with Zachary, or some specific reading with him, or i'll give him some kind of busy work he likes while I do other house cleaning. Then we try to read together in the evening, or I ask my husband to. This gives him a chance to work on homeschooling some with them and me a chance to clean up from dinner or get other things done around the house.

"I don't have the patience to homeschool. I don't know how you do it."
It's not about me. It's about my kids, and ensuring they get what God has called me to give them. I don't have great patience, but as my husband often points out, we can't grow in patience if we don't have things to put our patience to the test. I think my patience has grown a bit. I still struggle with it, but I'm learning many ways to help my children better listen and understand, and other days, I just have to walk away and pray a Hail Mary, or say "Lord have mercy" before I actually respond to them.

These are the things I usually get asked and can think to share at this moment. Do you have any other questions you may wonder about homeschooling? It's an overwhelming thing to consider, but there are tons of sources out there now. Just begin to research and see what there is! :) Good luck if you are considering it!!