Why homeschool preschool? Part 1

The Best Teacher is Forever

By Contributing Mama Writer: Barbara Curtis

Barbara is a seasoned homeschooling mommy of 12 (yes, twelve blessings), now a grandmother of ten, and a happily married wife. Barbara is a “revert”, she was baptized Catholic then Evangelical for many years and has come back to our beautiful Faith! Barbara and her family are a ” Family-First kind of family.”

It’s that time of year when some of you may be wondering about preschool. There’s so much cultural hype and social pressure – with many states actually considering mandatory preschool – that even moms who love having their kids at home wonder if they’re doing the right thing.

Mothers who could be encouraged to find fulfillment in a very fulfilling calling – after all, isn’t that why people go into teaching?- are instead made to feel inadequate and second-best. It’s disappointing to see a nation denigrate the role of motherhood and to see individual mothers lose confidence in themselves.

Helping to restore that confidence is what my writing is all about. I believe in the power of mothers to launch their children into a lifetime love of learning – as well as good character and strong values. By translating practices from my Montessori teacher training into a philosophy along with specific strategies and activities for the home, I hope to encourage, equip and empower moms so you never feel that you “have” to send your children to preschool for them to have the best.

Believe me, the best is you – especially when you understand a few basic principles that will revolutionize your motherhood and help you find the joy in each day with your children.


Over the next four days, I’m going to run four parts from my book Mommy, Teach Me!: Preparing Your Preschool Child for a Lifetime of Learning. Taken from an introductory chapter “Why Your Preschooler Can Thrive at Home,” these show why learning at home in the preschool years is the best choice of all:

The Best Teacher is Forever

For several years, we’ve enjoyed the special gift of a family of sparrows each spring. In spite of the hustle and bustle and comings and goings of our larger-than-life family, two birds have prepared to welcome the next generation by building a nest right over a lamppost hanging from our garage.

The cycle is fascinating as the eggs are laid and hatched and then Mama and Papa Bird feed their babies until they’re strong enough to fly. The process almost seems over before it’s begun.

And that’s true throughout the animal kingdom, as relatively little time is required for babies to reach adulthood. Animals are born with drives which compel them toward the behavior appropriate to their species: how to hide from enemies, build nests, protect, feed, and care for their young, finally to teach them to run or to fly.

Compare human infants, who take almost a year to walk independently to horses that walk and run within minutes of birth. In the world of animals, the young are helpless for only the briefest period and their own development is governed by instinct. All their instinctual behaviors would be released even if they were kept in a solitary condition.

Not so with humans. We don’t have many instincts. We have potentials which can only be released if certain requirements are met within our environment. Unlike animals, human infants are completely dependent on their parents for many, many years.

Could it be that God had a plan in mind?

I believe so. Throughout centuries and over a wide range of cultures, parents have been their children’s primary teachers in the early years and sometimes longer. Which leads me to believe that since every child has the potential to learn, every parent has the potential to teach.

If this sounds like a radical idea today, it’s only because we’ve established a very compartmentalized model of education which includes the idea that only professionals truly know how to teach.

On the contrary, I believe that any parent with a desire to teach can learn to do it and do it well. So while the not-so-new “news” that the first six years hold the greatest learning potential may cause some parents to send their kids to preschool, there is another, far better alternative – and that is to learn how to be a good teacher yourself.

Just as we moms learned how to care for and feed our babies, we can learn how to care for and feed the developmental needs of our young children. Once you know these “secrets” you will be confident that you are the best teacher your child will ever have.

Because you are, you know. You are the one God created to be fully tuned into your children, to understand their strengths and weaknesses, to love them unconditionally and to be there forever.

No preschool teacher can lay claim to that. A preschool teacher will have numerous other kids to concern herself with. Her time with your child is limited to a certain number of hours per day – how deeply can she understand each individual then? And when the preschool years are over, your child will have to say goodbye and move on. All that part of your child’s life invested in relationship with another temporary stand-in for you.

Many readers of my blog have asked me about preschool. The bottom line for me – as a former teacher who enjoyed the adoration of numerous preschoolers year after year – is this: Why send your child off to fall in love with his teacher when he can learn at home and continue focusing his love and building his trust in you?

The longer the time you share and the greater your investment in these years, the stronger the bond will be when your children are grown. Take it from a 36-year veteran mother who’s launched half her children into adulthood: In a world where teens are facing such great challenges , this bond can make a world of difference in your child’s future.

Notes on the pictures: As I was writing Mommy, Teach Me! and Mommy, Teach Me to Read! I asked readers who’d used my ideas to submit pictures for the books. The picture below is from Aggie, who’d read my very first book Small Beginnings when it was published in 1997 and had incorporated many of my ideas into her three daughters’ preschool years. Here she is, showing her daughter an exercise I described in both Small Beginnings and Mommy, Teach Me! which encourages order, eye-hand coordination, pincer grasp, and concentration.

And here is her daughter, showing the results of her mom’s efforts:

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For more information, see my website Mommy, Teach Me! or click on Categories, then Montessori, Preschoolers or Homeschool above. Come back tomorrow for Part Two.

Love,

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I’ve been following Barbara’s blog for the past couple of weeks and she has brought some perspective to my homeschooling journey. It has been a breath of fresh air for me in moments when I felt so overwhelmed with decisions for my children. To quote her, “that’s what readers can look for from me – something simple, something real, and something with hope in it.” For more neat ideas by this Blogging Mama, please visit her Homeschooling journey: Mommy Life.

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This Week’s Featured Mama Blog

This week we will begin implementing a new idea: Featured Mama Blogs! Here we will feature a Catholic Homeschooling Mama’s blog that we think has fantastic ideas in many different areas: faith, family, home education, planning, healthy living, and more! For now, they will be posted/featured in no specific order. So without further adieu, here’s our FIRST Featured Mama Blog:

(click on the image above to visit this featured blog)

If there is a blog that you follow, and you’d like us to feature, please e-mail me a link: raisinglittlesaints at gmail dot com or leave a comment below. Come next week for another neat Catholic Mama to visit. Thank you!

Pax Christi,

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Organizing the Liturgical Year

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By Guest Blogging Mama: Liz

Liz is a homeschooling mommy to four lovely children ages one to eight and a happily married wife. She and her husband have a little baby boy expected to arrive in August of this year. Liz and her family “find daily inspiration in the Holy Family and look to Jesus, Mary and Joseph for guidance.”

One thing I never have done, is organize all the wonderful things you can do throughout the liturgical year. The main problem is that by the time I realize a feast day is coming up, I don’t have enough time to look for celebratory ideas, gather craft supplies, and have everything ready for the kids to do. After realizing that celebrating the liturgical year is very important to me and my family, I’ve decided to do something that will hopefully simplify my life in this aspect as well as make it easy for me to do activities.

My first step in creating a system was to GOOGLE!! If you look up “organizing the liturgical year,” I guarantee that you won’t get a lot of good sites. But I did stumble upon some excellent ideas from other Catholic bloggers, like myself!

My first visit was to By Sun and Candlelight. She has a great file folder system set up for all her homeschool, household, and liturgical needs. I like that she uses a crate because of the openness of it…easy to put stuff in and take stuff out. I tend to ignore our filing cabinet and only keep things in there that I don’t really use frequently (think copies of birth certificates and old tax returns).

Another great post to check out for organizational ideas is Catholic Mom’s Journey. She was also inspired by the file folder system (above) and tweaked it so that it worked for her. I like that she divides her system into 12 folders, one for each month of the year. She further divides each monthly folder into 5 separate folders, one for each week of the month.

Finally I visited Wildflowers and Marbles where Jen not only has FABULOUS pictures of her school room, but she also briefly mentions her liturgical organization. She divides each month into two. Each monthly folder holds two separate folders: one for liturgical plans and the other for seasonal plans.

After trying to decide what was going to work for me, I decided that Jen has the most simple and user friendly system. So in order to get my own act together, I went out and got supplies to start organizing my own liturgical year. Here is what I did.

1. Purchase a file box for the files (I need something with a lid in order to keep little hands out!).
2. Label 12 hanging files, one for each month.
3. Label 2 folders for each month. One for seasonal plans and the other for liturgical plans.
4. Label 3 additional hanging files for the liturgical seasons of Advent/Christmas, Lent, and Easter.

To clarify what I would put in the folders:

  • The seasonal folders would include things not associated with the liturgical calendar. Holidays such as 4th of July, MLK Day, Father’s Day, etc.
  • The folder holding liturgical plans might include holy cards for that month’s feast days, instructions to crafts, prayers, coloring pages, book lists, etc.
  • Liturgical season folders would also hold things that just mesh from one month to another, like Advent activities.

I hope this sheds some light on organizing your own faith filled year!! It took me about 20 minutes to put this simple system together once I had all my supplies ready. It was mostly using my label machine that took me longest.

For more neat ideas by this Blogging Mama, please visit her Homeschooling journey: Holy Family Classical Academy.

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Looking for a Few Good Blogging Catholic Mamas


We thank the Lord that we are rapidly getting this blog going (with the help of my “tech guy” AKA my DH). In the meantime, we are in need of, and are looking for, a few good blogging Catholic mamas who would be interested in posting great ideas on any of the Menu topics above. If you have already posted something on your own blog or wish to write about something new and innovative you have tried and tested at home with your children, please contact us at raisinglittlesaints@gmail.com. Your blog will also be listed on our homepage as well as part of your article submission! (You help us, we help you!)

We welcome all Catholic Mamas (seasoned and new) that homeschool. Happy blogging!


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Rappresentanti in Terra: Encyclical on Christian Education: Pope Pius XI

Encyclical on Christian Education
His Holiness Pope Pius XI
Promulgated on December 31, 1929

To the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, Bishops and other Ordinaries in Peace and Communion with the Apostolic See and to all the Faithful of the Catholic World.

Venerable Brethren and Beloved Children, Health and Apostolic Benediction.

REPRESENTATIVE ON EARTH of that divine Master who while embracing in the immensity of His love all mankind, even unworthy sinners, showed nevertheless a special tenderness and affection for children, and expressed Himself in those singularly touching words: “Suffer the little children to come unto Me,”[1] We also on every occasion have endeavored to show the predilection wholly paternal which We bear towards them, particularly by our assiduous care and timely instructions with reference to the Christian education of youth.

2. And so, in the spirit of the Divine Master, We have directed a helpful word, now of admonition, now of exhortation, now of direction, to youths and to their educators, to fathers and mothers, on various points of Christian education, with that solicitude which becomes the common Father of all the Faithful, with an insistence in season and out of season, demanded by our pastoral office and inculcated by the Apostle: “Be instant in season, out of season; reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine.”[2] Such insistence is called for in these our times, when, alas, there is so great and deplorable an absence of clear and sound principles, even regarding problems the most fundamental.

3. Now this same general condition of the times, this ceaseless agitation in various ways of the problem of educational rights and systems in different countries, the desire expressed to Us with filial confidence by not a few of yourselves, Venerable Brethren, and by members of your flocks, as well as Our deep affection towards youth above referred to, move Us to turn more directly to this subject, if not to treat it in all its well-nigh inexhaustible range of theory and practice, at least to summarize its main principles, throw full light on its important conclusions, and point out its practical applications.

4. Let this be the record of Our Sacerdotal Jubilee which, with altogether special affection, We wish to dedicate to our beloved youth, and to commend to all those whose office and duty is the work of education.

5. Indeed never has there been so much discussion about education as nowadays; never have exponents of new pedagogical theories been so numerous, or so many methods and means devised, proposed and debated, not merely to facilitate education, but to create a new system infallibly efficacious, and capable of preparing the present generations for that earthly happiness which they so ardently desire.

The rest of this lengthy and informative encyclical can be read at:
http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Pius11/P11RAPPR.HTM

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Curriculum: Catholic, Christian, or Secular? Which Route to take?

There are so many programs or texts to choose from out there: Secular, Christian, Catholic, which to choose? Many Catholic authors (and experienced homeschooling moms) believe that if you are Catholic and homeschooling, you should NOT use Christian material as they sometimes have text that directly attacks the Catholic Church and it’s history. I’ve seen it first hand in a History book for 6th grade published by A Beka (a Christian publisher). The problem with secular books (of which MANY Catholic Parochial schools use these days) is that they bring in too many outside world views. Many times VERY contradictory to the teachings of the Bible and Jesus Christ as well as the Catholic Church (one in the same). The BEST route is to use a Catholic text. Unfortunately, there are slim pickings when it comes to this because of the decline in Catholic Publishers for children.

This author suggests that if you can’t find Catholic books to use, you should use Christian books and then supplement the Catholic perspective/component instead of using a Protestant text. What are your views on this? Do you think it is safe to use secular books? Do you think it is better to go secular than to go Christian? Also, do you recommend a Catholic Publisher which you have had a good experience with (price, quality, etc.). Give us your two cents! In Christ,

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Welcome Homeschoolers!

+ JMJ +

Welcome to Catholic Blogging Homeschooling Mamas!!!
Raising and Teaching Little Saints in small ways but with big love! One Day at a Time…

Oh, how exciting! I’ve had this idea on my mind for weeks now. I’ve been thinking, breathing, sleeping, eating, praying all things homeschooling. Well, not just homeschooling but CATHOLIC homeschooling – there is a difference you know? A Catholic Homeschooler’s main focus is on raising little saints, don’t you agree? (I’m sure great scholars will also come out of this deal, but that’s just an indirect outcome of the low teacher to student ratio and the individualized lesson plans!)

I MUST confess that this whole topic was pretty foreign to me up until about ten months ago. I mean I knew what it meant to home-school, I have my share of friends who are involved in it. What caught my attention is how much they (and their children) love it! I also liked how it became part of their way of life. It wasn’t just a set time for schooling, it was raising and teaching children…oh goodness, could it be proper parenting? LOL!

Even with eleven years of teaching experience, I feel like such a newbie when it comes to this. It’s such a different world! Thanks to so many blogging mamas out there, I have learned so much; oh, they have NO IDEA how much my world has changed thanks to them! Also, the amazing new friends the Lord has sent our way from the local Co-Ops and Play Groups which have guided me (and continue to guide me) in our homeschooling journey.

So now that I am here, trying to plan and learn and get ready for the Fall, I realized that I had too many tabs on my browser open, why? Simply because all of the wonderful resources that are out there are in many different sites but NOT in a single site, which is what planted the seed in my mind that there was a need for this blog/site.

I did pray about this little dilemma and suddenly these wonderful ideas started popping in my mind and as each idea intertwined with the other, I knew it was God talking back. Don’t you just love how perfect His plans are? I do! (now if only I was a little more patient, lol). I have had this stirring in me about creating a place were all these fantastic ideas would meet. So, our main goal is to create a one stop blog site for all things homeschooling (with a special emphasis on Catholic homeschooling). Think of this as a guide to make the transition smoother for mamas and papas out there that want to begin homeschooling but don’t know how, why, where, etc. (like me, ten months ago, lol). Also, a resource for parents out there who aren’t sure which program or book to use. For those who are seasoned home schoolers, this would be the place were you can share your wisdom with others. This would be an online community that would serve as a resource for others. We would have an expert panel, guest speakers, book suggestions, etc. The possibilities are endless!

There are a couple of things that I’m not familiar with but my tech support guy, AKA my DH, will help me with. Such as formatting templates, HTML coding, you know all the techy stuff that I don’t know about but fortunately, my better half does. So sit back relax and follow us as we build this great online community from the ground up. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to leave a comment.

The ideas in my head are still (and slowly) materializing in this blog. Please sign up for updates on posts or just simply come back and see us again soon! In God’s time not ours…GBY!

PS: Thank you, DH, for your patience with my million questions the past couple of weeks, you are such a saint! See we raise little and big saints as well (the very important Papas) – a two for one deal! Yet another perk for the homeschooling Mama! 😉

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Catholic Homeschooling Resources & Blog