Homeschool Sibling Bonds

My 6 year old daughter and her 15 year old brother...

THIS is one of the beauties of homeschooling. They get to spend time together that they wouldn't have had otherwise. They are building sibling bonds.

They have a sibling bond that is precious and devoted. A cursory look might indicate that they are sounding out a word starting with the letter "B" together.

What I see deeper in this image is a young man who helps teach his sister because he loves her...

...because serving his family is common to him

....because he is excited to see her excitement in learning, as learning is valued

....because spending time together is valued too




They'll remember this...and my heart swells with the goodness of a moment like this.

The Importance of Catholic Materials

Dr. Mary Kay Clark of SETON with Pope JPII ~from SETON's Home Study School newsletter....

Teaching the Catholic Faith to our children is our primary responsibility as Catholic parents. We must teach it mainly by good example, showing our children how to live our Faith each day in our daily situations. In addition, the Church declares we are to teach the Faith by “word.” This means we must teach it orally. Most of us use catechisms and other materials as well. What we must not forget, however, is that the Church is clear that all subjects should be taught from a Catholic perspective.

Back in 1864 and in 1875, and repeated in 1955, the Vatican sent instructions to the bishops of the United States, declaring that education in public schools was dangerous because of the lack of Catholic education. “To the Sacred Congregation, this method [of public education] has appeared intrinsically dangerous and absolutely contrary to Catholicism. Indeed, because the special program adopted by these schools excludes all religious instruction, the pupils cannot grasp the elements of the Faith, nor are they instructed in the precepts of the Church…”

In 1897, in the encyclical Militantis Ecclesiae, Pope Leo XIII declared: “A wide knowledge should go hand in hand with care for spiritual progress…religion must permeate and direct every branch of knowledge whatever be its nature…it has always been the Church’s intention that every branch of study be of great service in the religious formation of youth…” Obviously, in order for every branch of study to be of great service in religious formation, every branch of study must be taught with Catholic principles.

Pope Pius XI, in the great encyclical Christian Education of Youth, wrote of the need for religion to permeate the whole of the learning enterprise: “…it is necessary that all the teaching and the whole organization of the school, its teachers, syllabus and textbooks of every kind, be regulated by the Christian spirit, under the direction and maternal supervision of the Church; so that religion may be in very truth the foundation and the crown of youth’s entire training….” Obviously, every facet of education must be permeated with our Catholic Faith.

Christian Education of Youth continues: “It is therefore as important to make no mistake in education as it is to make no mistake in the pursuit of the last goal, with which the whole work of education is intimately and necessarily connected. In fact, since education consists essentially in preparing man for what he must be and for what he must do here below in order to attain the sublime goal for which he was created, it is clear that there can be no true education which is not wholly directed to man’s last end…. there can be no ideally perfect education which is not Christian education.”

Further on in Christian Education of Youth, Pope Pius XI declares: “From this it follows that the so-called ‘neutral’ or ‘lay’ school, from which religion is excluded, is contrary to the fundamental principles of education. Such a school, moreover, cannot exist in practice; it is bound to become irreligious.” In other words, if God and His Laws are left out of the instruction, ultimately students and the school deny God and His Laws. Certainly the American public schools are proof of the Pope’s warning.

Later in this paragraph, the Pope states that even if children receive Catholic religious instruction but receive other lessons that are not Catholic, it is not satisfactory. “Neither can Catholics allow that other type of mixed schools, where the students are provided with separate religious instruction, but receive other lessons in common with non-Catholic children from non-Catholic teachers.” The Pope here, under the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, states that we cannot expect to raise practicing Catholics by teaching God only in religion class but ignoring Him in the rest of education.

Immediately following, the Pope declares “…it is necessary that all the teaching and the whole organization of the school, its teachers, syllabus and textbooks of every kind, be regulated by the Christian spirit, under the direction and maternal supervision of the Church; so that religion may be in very truth the foundation and the crown of youth’s entire training; and this applies to every grade of school, not only the elementary, but the intermediate and the high institutions of learning as well.

“To use the words of [Pope] Leo XIII: ‘It is necessary not only that religious instruction be given to the young at certain fixed times, but also that every other subject taught be permeated with Christian piety. If this be lacking, if this sacred atmosphere does not pervade and warm the hearts of masters and scholars alike, little good can be expected from any kind of learning, and considerable harm will often be the consequence.’”

In many documents, the Church commands us to use Catholic materials. Weaving the Catholic Faith throughout all subjects shows the child that the Faith is necessary in understanding all areas of knowledge. The omission of God in any subject sends a message that this subject can be properly learned without reference to God or the Church.

Vocations

Pope Benedict and Pope John Paul II on Vocations -

"Rather, it is important to accomplish the communion of life which shows them how beautiful it is to be a priest. Only then, the young man will say, “Yes, this can be a future for me too; it is possible to live like this” (Insegnamenti I, [2005], 354). Referring to the witness that awakens vocations, the Second Vatican Council underlines the example of charity and of brotherly collaboration which priests must offer (cf. Decree Optatam totius, 2).

I like to remember what my venerable Predecessor John Paul II wrote: “The very life of priests, their unconditional dedication to God's flock, their witness of loving service to the Lord and to his Church - a witness marked by free acceptance of the cross in the spirit of hope and Easter joy - their fraternal unity and zeal for the evangelization of the world are the first and most convincing factor in the growth of vocations” (Pastores dabo vobis, 41). It can be said that priestly vocations are born of the example of priests, as a sort of a precious patrimony communicated by word, by example and by a whole way of life. "

~ from http://www.vocationsandprayer.org/?rub=news/news&newsid=n42f7edbf1adbe

Encouragement for homeschoolers from a Public School teacher

Certified teacher joins home-school world
Amy Travis


In 2006, I took the leap from public school teacher to home-school mom for my kindergarten daughter. I did what most home-school mothers do and joined a home-school group for support. To be honest, I thought I would be lending most of the support. I had the elementary education degree and many successful years of teaching under my belt. They should be so lucky to have me in the group.

Ego check! They didn’t need my advice on materials. There is a whole world of home-school materials that is every bit as good as public school curriculum. At first I found my refuge in the small overlap of curriculums used both by home-schoolers and the public school systems. I was overwhelmed by all the information, materials, activities and co-ops that these families were using.

As I made my way into this world, I was amazed at all the new options and ideas I had never seen or heard of as a public school teacher. These parents had a right to snub me and my ego. They may not have had an elementary education degree or even stepped a foot in a classroom, but these parents had nothing to learn from me, and I had much to learn from them.

Four years later, when I’m in home-school circles I don’t even mention I was once a teacher in the public schools. It means nothing in the home-school world, and from what I have witnessed, it shouldn’t. My home-school teaching (which now includes my son as well as my daughter) has taken place in the states of Arizona and Washington, where I have met hundreds of home-school families. I can’t recall a single family from either of these states that is doing a disservice to their children or their state.

Let’s take a look at what regulations are doing for public school teachers. They are overwhelmed with all the requirements and push for students to do well on standardized tests. I still keep in touch with old teacher friends. Many feel as if their days are filled with teaching the one almighty test. I can quote some as saying, “Teaching isn’t even fun anymore.”

How about instead of fighting for more regulations on home-school parents, we fight for fewer regulations on public school teachers? I had some great teachers 30 years ago who did not face the same government regulations. I’m not saying teachers shouldn’t be held to a high standard – just maybe not one, single standard: the test.

Do we really want to put these same crazy regulations on home-school families? These parents are enjoying what they do and not getting one government cent to do it.

There is a wealth of information that proves the benefits of home schooling. More government involvement isn’t going to solve the problem of some family in New Haven who is abusing the system for some reason. It is only going to hurt those good families that are doing what they should. As with anything, someone is always going to abuse the system, but all should not be punished for the few.

Sorry I can’t provide some dirt on the home-school community. Funny, they are just doing a great job – all without regulations.

I understand that not all home-school parents are great teachers, as not all public school teachers are top-notch. I assume that not all teachers in the public schools feel the pressure of standardized testing, but I can’t find one who doesn’t. I sure hope they are out there.

I received my teaching degree from Indiana University in Fort Wayne and continue to renew my certificate. I currently live in Arizona and stay connected with family living in Fort Wayne.

The above material comes not from researched evidence, but from the truth I have seen and from the heart.

Amy Travis is a former Fort Wayne resident and IPFW graduate who currently lives in Arizona. She is a former public school teacher home-schooling her two children. She wrote this for The Journal Gazette.

What about Socialization?

Web Sites About Socialization

http://www.redshift.com/~bonajo/socialization.htm <--- some tough and eye-opening words here.

A clip of it -

How is Socialization Best Learned?
Posted by Karen, Redwood Games

What About Socialization? For some reason, this is the main concern non-homeschoolers seem to have about homeschooling. They can't put down homeschool for academic reasons since studies show that homeschoolers do significantly better than PS students on tests regardless of their parents' educational level. So they fall back on this "concern."

It is precisely for this reason that I do homeschool. I wish to have my children be socialized so that they:

-take responsibility for their actions;

-can relate to all ages in a courteous manner;

-are not pressured into "lookism," materialism, precocious sexuality, drugs, gangs or violence;

-see themselves as individuals who control events rather than members of a group and followers to whom things happen;

-retain a close, mutually respectful relationship with their families;

-see themselves as an important part of the larger society, not some warehoused teenager with no role except consumerism.

And what do schools do to "socialize" kids?

-They group them according to age (a completely artificial grouping - when was the last time you only worked with co-workers within a year of your age?);

-they expose them to kids who have poor impulse-control and lack empathy

-they force the kids who missed a concept to go on at the group pace so that they NEVER catch up;

-they force the kids who already learned a concept to wait around wasting their time until the rest of the class catches up;

-they group kids in projects so that they can learn to work together, totally ignoring the fact that in the work place, your team-mates will be accountable for their work output and FIRED if they don't produce, thus the motivated kids do all the work and the unmotivated kids miss out completely. This is not a realistic reflection of how the "real world" works.

-they allow bullying, harassment and so on because "kids need to get tough" because they'll face it in the "real world." What a crock! If someone threatens to hit you (or does hit you) when you are an adult they are arrested! When someone steals your lunch money, they are arrested! Not only that, we adults choose our friends from people who are civilized. The people with whom we work have the self-discipline required for decent social interaction, or they are fired. We don't have to subject our children to these horrible conditions in order to ready them for a "real world."

Bottom line: The school world is a completely unrealistic place that brings kids down to the lowest common denominator.

P.S. If they are not convinced, then have them read, Reviving Ophelia. This is a book on teenage girls by a psychiatrist. She doesn't ever mention homeschooling but indicts the schools as "sick" and blames them for the problems of depression, anorexia, low self-esteem that her patients (from otherwise normal, loving families) experienced. She says that even the best of families cannot combat the effects of the constant harassment, sexual stereotyping and appearance judgement that occurs in the schools.

http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/articles/042998a.htm

http://www.amazon.com/Weapons-Mass-Instruction-Schoolteachers-Compulsory/dp/0865716315/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265486409&sr=8-1

Getting your "Homeschool Train" back on track

from Catholic Heritage Curriculum ~

The homeschooling journey shares some interesting parallels with a vacation by train; in fact, derailing of the ‘Homeschooling Express’ has occurred more than once in almost every family who is making the trip.

If your ‘homeschool train’ is wobbling on the rails, the following tips might be just the ‘ticket’ to put your train safely back on track.

1. Start with the Core
Particularly if this is your first year, stick to the basics. By so doing, your students will cover all the key subjects as you learn the ropes and they settle into your homeschool routine.

2. Use Lesson Plans.....at least for the first year or two. Lesson plans save preparation time and eliminate the uncertainty of that pit-in-the-stomach question: Am I covering all that needs to be covered? CHC lesson plans highlight core subjects for those who wish to begin with the ‘easiest route’ to the same destination, but also include all subjects as your family gradually ‘picks up speed’ toward implementing a complete curriculum, along with enrichment materials and attention-grabbing activities.

3. Don’t Add or Substitute
If you are stressed and confused by decisions about what and how much to teach, stick with the lesson plans. Additions and substitutions add to the expense, preparation time, and workload. The lesson plans are complete and thorough without confusing additions.

4. Don’t Compare Your Children.....to one another, or to children outside the family. This creates a fear of ‘being ahead’ or ‘being behind.’ Remember that God creates each of us as individuals, with differing abilities. Children in public school are rarely exactly at grade level in each and every subject; it is not uncommon for children to be a few grades ahead in one or more subjects, a few grades behind in one or more subjects, and right on target in the rest. Homeschooled children are no different in this regard. However, the significant difference between the two settings is that homeschooled children can move ahead at their own pace, and receive immediate, personally tailored instruction for those areas in which they lag.

5. Avoid Burnout……by adding too much and expecting too much, too soon. Enjoy each mile of the train trip, without expecting to arrive just after the train has left the station. Just as it is only at the end of the journey, when your family has returned from vacation, when you can truly assess the success of the trip, so also with homeschooling does a retrospective reveal the territory covered. Certainly, keep track of strides in learning, but don’t make a final assessment of progress from last year to this, until year’s end.

6. Without Discipline…...children may make a break for the door and take a flying leap from the train. If your children don’t listen or mind outside of homeschool, they won’t listen or mind during homeschool. It is impossible to succeed at homeschooling without discipline. [If you are having discipline issues, put all academics on hold and work on this pivotal parenting skill first. Click here for helpful resources.]

7. Combine Grades Where Possible
Do you have children who are close in age? Grades are somewhat arbitrary divisions that don’t necessarily reflect a student’s readiness to learn. [It is not out of the ordinary for parents to notice that, while Mom is teaching a kindergartener, the preschooler is catching on just as quickly.] There is absolutely nothing ‘wrong’ with having two children in the same grade, or using the same materials for two children. [One helpful resource is the Multi-Level Science Guide.]

8. Praise
Praise at least twice as much as you correct. Point out and applaud your children for the good points and improvement in their work before you suggest corrections or further improvements.

9. Pray
Begin each school day with a simple prayer for wisdom, guidance, and the desire to use skills learned to help others to the glory of God. Use the free Wednesday that is built into CHC lesson plans and make a mini-holiday/holy day of it. Assist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and take the kids to the park for a picnic, or go out to lunch.

10. Relax
Just as you would on that train-travel vacation, take photos and create a brief written record of those ‘ooh and ahh’ moments. Keep a portfolio of the year’s activities [and collection of best papers] so you can look back on all the happy times, surrounded by evidence of your children’s progress, and warmed by soul-satisfying memories.

Government schooling is .... Weapons of Mass Destruction

from Mama's Littly Ditty blog -

The following essay was published in the Wall Street Journal on July 25, 1991. It was written by John Taylor Gatto the same year he was he was the New York State Teacher of the Year and titled "I Quit, I Think".

It explained his reasons for ending his teaching career in spite of having no savings and no idea what to do with himself in his mid-fifties to pay the rent.

Government schooling is the most radical adventure in history. It kills the family by monopolizing the best times of childhood and by teaching disrespect for home and parents. The whole blueprint of school procedure is Egyptian, not Greek or Roman. It grows from the theological idea that human value is a scarce thing, represented symbolically by the narrow peak of a pyramid.

That idea passed into American history through the Puritans. It found its "scientific" presentation in the bell curve, along which talent supposedly apportions itself by some Iron Law of Biology. It’s a religious notion, School is its church. I offer rituals to keep heresy at bay. I provide documentation to justify the heavenly pyramid.

Socrates foresaw if teaching became a formal profession, something like this would happen. Professional interest is served by making what is easy to do seem hard; by subordinating the laity to the priesthood. School is too vital a jobs-project, contract giver and protector of the social order to allow itself to be "re-formed." It has political allies to guard its marches, that’s why reforms come and go without changing much. Even reformers can’t imagine school much different.

David learns to read at age four; Rachel, at age nine: In normal development, when both are 13, you can’t tell which one learned first—the five-year spread means nothing at all. But in school I label Rachel "learning disabled" and slow David down a bit, too. For a paycheck, I adjust David to depend on me to tell him when to go and stop. He won’t outgrow that dependency. I identify Rachel as discount merchandise, "special education" fodder. She’ll be locked in her place forever.
In 30 years of teaching kids rich and poor I almost never met a learning disabled child; hardly ever met a gifted and talented one either. Like all school categories, these are sacred myths, created by human imagination. They derive from questionable values we never examine because they preserve the temple of schooling.

That’s the secret behind short-answer tests, bells, uniform time blocks, age grading, standardization, and all the rest of the school religion punishing our nation. There isn’t a right way to become educated; there are as many ways as fingerprints. We don’t need state-certified teachers to make education happen—that probably guarantees it won’t.

How much more evidence is necessary? Good schools don’t need more money or a longer year; they need real free-market choices, variety that speaks to every need and runs risks. We don’t need a national curriculum or national testing either. Both initiatives arise from ignorance of how people learn or deliberate indifference to it. I can’t teach this way any longer. If you hear of a job where I don’t have to hurt kids to make a living, let me know. Come fall I’ll be looking for work.

His latest book is again receiving acclaim - http://www.amazon.com/Weapons-Mass-Instruction-Schoolteachers-Compulsory/dp/0865716315