Our Homeschooling Story, Part 2, and Favorite Sources

Part 1 is here.

And so our journey began anew.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I found an awesome online support group: Catholic Charlotte Mason (aka CCM — they still exist, if you would like to join).  I also had the local support group plus several other online ones, but CCM became my lifeline.  Every single question I had on homeschooling philosophies, materials, parenting, motherhood, Catholicism, etc. was answered there. There is/was so much collective wisdom that I wish I could bottle up and hand on to my kids when they have their own.

The group switched to forum format in 2005, which you’ll find here. Although there were people who stayed at the YahooGroup or did both, and both the forum and group have continued to grow since then. At the forum, we are about 2500 strong globally, so you’ll meet all kinds of lovely Catholic homeschooling moms from all over, and you can ask just about any homeschooling question you need answered (among other things).  We love to help!  I’m there as “stefoodie” and I help moderate the “Our Lady’s Loom, Larder and Laundry Board“.

One of the founders, Elizabeth Foss, wrote the book Real Learning. It contains much of the advice you’ll find at CCM or the 4Real Forums, plus stories, booklists, and practical tips on how to homeschool Catholic Charlotte Mason-style.

Vatican Documents and Papal Encyclicals that helped solidify our family and homeschooling philosophy:

• Casti Connubii
• Ex Corde Ecclesiae
• Divini Illius Magistri
• Gravissimum Educationis
• Familiaris Consortio

After that first year of our eldest being enrolled at Angelicum and me absorbing and learning everything I could from “the moms”, we started designing our own curriculum.   I’ve listed my favorite homeschooling resources here.

Needs organizing, but I also have some of my kids’ curricula/booklists linked at my old blog.

More of our favorite resources through the years, by subject:

Religion/History/Geography:

• The Catholic Textbook Project – used by everyone from Paco (19) on
• Faith and Life Series – my favorite years are 7th and 8th while preparing for confirmation
• Beginning Apologetics – used by all the kids starting around high school
• RC History – all ages
• LOTS of historical fiction and nonfiction, many of which we found via Reading Your Way Through History – my go-to reference every single year for history living books
• Bethlehem Books – we LOVE these
• Kingfisher History Encyclopedia (elementary) – not my favorite resource, but we keep it around for when we need a quick look into something
• lots of saint books from Ignatius Press and Tan Books – love love love these; can start reading around 3rd grade, but good until middle school; a literature guide is also available so you can get more out of them
• The Catechism of the Catholic Church – Mom and Dad read, as well as high school students — I’ve used a “Read the Bible and Catechism in a year” guide
• Baltimore Catechism — traditional, and does the job well!
• The Holy Bible – we keep several versions at home:  Douay-Rheims, RSV-CE, NAB, and Navarre
• Catholic Mosaic – (You’ll find my recipe for Filipino Embutido in the Christmas Mosaic.)
• pilgrimages to Churches and other religious sites
• Lent and Easter in the Domestic Church; Advent and Christmas in the Domestic Church
• Miniature Mass Kit – the boys really liked this, except I now need to replenish some of the pieces that we’ve broken/lost
• Michele Quigley’s Liturgical Wall Calendar – I keep this for me
• Liturgical Calendar Poster

– we put this up on one wall that’s visible to the whole family

English/Literature:

• Bravewriter Online Courses – our favorites are the Expository Essay writing classes
• Hillside Education’s Literature Guides
• How to Read a Book by Mortimer Adler – I haven’t made this a requirement bu so far the kids who read this really benefited from it
• Lots of living books from wordless ones, to high school reading level — specific suggestions can be found at the 4Real Forum
• Format Writing (for high school)
• Classical Writing (had to give up this series as it was way too mommy-intensive, but I loved Aesop and would have loved to continue if it had been the right time/season in our lives)
• narration (when they’re younger, they dictate and I write or keyboard) and journaling/blogging when they’re older, and if so inclined, NaNoWriMo

Math:

We’ve used just about every Math curriculum there is, so I don’t really have a favorite.  Whichever one works for the kids is the one we go with.

• Saxon Math – used by all of them at one point or another
• Right Start Math – used by Paco, 19
• Singapore Math – used by Paco, 19 and now by Nino, 6
• Math U See – used by Aisa, Paco and Migi at one point or another
• Teaching Textbooks – used by Migi and Yena
• Life of Fred – used by Yena
• variety of manipulatives

Science:

• MacBeth’s Opinion
• Home Science Tools – I buy kits and other science materials here, often letting the kids pick age/grade-appropriate ones for themselves
• Apologia Science – used by Yena, 13
• Peterson Field Guides – for all ages, we take these on nature walks
• Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia – IIRC, I had two kids who “hated” science just read every single entry and write summaries into a notebook
• Nature Journaling – we’ve done some of this over the years, but never enough
• K’Nex, Lego, Snap Circuits, and we want to try Laser Pegs as well as Little Bits – who doesn’t love these materials?
• Trips to Science Centers

Latin and Greek:

• Prima Latina
• Lingua Angelica – my favorite “entry” into Latin songs
• Henle Latin – at one point we were doing this as a family, great fun and prevented us from getting bored
• Latina Christiana
• Visual Latin – Yena used this one semester
• Basic Greek in 30 Minutes A Day – Paco and Yena have used this sporadically, as have I

Languages:  

This is one area we haven’t been really successful with. Our kids struggle with Tagalog even though it’s my husband and my first language, because we just weren’t consistent through the years. Our latest attempt is to read Tagalog books aloud at dinner time, one paragraph per person, until they get the pronunciation right. I don’t know if it will stick or how successful it will be in terms of them learning grammar at the same time. In the past we’ve used Rosetta Stone for Spanish and French, but while that was fun none of the lessons stuck, because there was no consistent practice. The most effective method we found was immersion/travel, like when we stayed in Italy for a bit for husband’s work and the kids picked up the language quickly.

Music:

• Daily exposure to classical music

For years we used the “The Story of” series: this is the Beethoven CD, but these days we play from old CDS we’ve collected or Spotify or YouTube.

• Musical instrument of choice and/or choir – I’ve taught the kids basic piano, and most of them know guitar (self-taught)
• Voice lessons, participation in choir
• Our music plan which we were following for a while

Physical Education

Various things through the years. Individual sports/lessons: Martial Arts, Ballet, Gymnastics, Swimming.

Art:

• Artistic Pursuits – used by all of the kids – obviously we love this program
• Local art classes
• Trips to Art Museums
• a list of some of my yearly plan, which we’ve followed off and on through the years

 

A peek into our shelves.

More than the nitty-gritty, though, of curricula and booklists and lesson plans and daily schedules, what I’ve received from these moms are priceless gifts of their time, experience, advice, and (most importantly) prayer, because you’ll find that as you begin/continue your homeschooling journey, PRAYER is the number one thing that will sustain you.  There will be difficult days, some when you will feel burned out and totally spent, and there are days you’ll want to throw up your hands and say, ENOUGH!  Public school will be so much better than this!  (That’s a lie. Don’t you believe it.)

I have been mentored by some of the “best” (for want of a better word) homeschoolers out there, and I cannot possibly share every single thing I’ve learned from them.  In Part 1 I said “You don’t need a homeschooling group to homeschool your child.”  That is true.  You need God, your spouse, yourself, and your children.  BUT I believe you need a homeschooling group (and I highly recommend CCM and/or the 4Real Forum Moms) to homeschool YOURSELF.  No man is an island and I wouldn’t be the homeschooler I am today if not for these moms.  I’m a better child of God, wife, mother, homeschooler, Catholic, because of them.

We’ve been homeschooling a total of 16+ years now. We have one child successfully graduated from college and working as a chef/sommelier. The next child is 19 and in his second year. He just completed a summer internship of 13 weeks doing engineering work. The next one is 16, a senior in high school, though he’ll be taking some college courses starting this fall at the local community college. So far, no regrets, and if we had to do it all over again, we’d have homeschooled from the beginning. I hope that tells you something about our experience.