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Beginners, catholic homeschooling, Catholic Schoolhouse, Catholic Schoolhouse at Home, classical liberal arts education, CSH at Home, CSH for Beginners, CSH@Home

Catholic Schoolhouse at Home for Beginners

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As we wrap up our second school year using Catholic Schoolhouse and interacting with many educators on Facebook interested in the program, I thought it would be helpful if I went through and wrote out some of the things I have learned about how to use this program at home only or in conjunction with the Chapters.  I do not want anyone to start using or be confused on how to use this REALLY SIMPLE and amazing program. Even though I had five children at the time in our school, only my smaller children used this program.  My oldest was a junior in high school when we started and I didn’t want to uproot him at this point so he completed his studies with Our Lady of Victory School but unenrolled. So my children at the time were ages 4, 6, 8, and 9 when we started using Catholic Schoolhouse.
Last year was our first year using Catholic Schoolhouse, we started with Year 1 so that we were following along in the Blog and the Chapters even if there wasn’t a chapter near me.  We started mid school year because we ALL needed something different (burnout and all that jazz).  It was totally a leap of faith and after begging DH about doing this mid year, he agreed and we did it.  
BEST. DECISION. EVER!
Since it was our first time using it I decided to keep it simple and just follow the program.  We did, we loved it and this year continued on to Year 2 but this time I  went ALL OUT and got WAY TOO MUCH to do, some of which we didn’t even touch.  Mid Year (it’s like the Heavens open for me in January that I always have AHA moments during this time) I read Dorothy Sayers’s The Lost Tools of Learning.  HA!  I should have read this FIRST!  Then I’d realized I was trying to do too much. We minimized and voila! found our happy medium!  We learned SO MUCH and had SO MUCH fun! So what do you need to do to get hooked like I am?  Here you go, an easy to follow, step by step approach to using CSH at home.:


STEP ONE: Read this First!

If you are new to Catholic Schoolhouse, before doing anything else, please read Ms. Sayer’s free pdf article entitled The Lost Tools of Learning.  It really helped me grasp the bigger picture about what Classical Education really is and what I wanted for my homeschool and my children, to enjoy educating them. 

STEP TWO: Decide on the Year to Work on!

Here is the Scope and Sequence broken down by year.


STEP THREE: What to Buy?

As a new Catholic Schoolhouse parent, you only need the Tour Guide, the Timeline Cards, and the Music CDs.  You can build your ENTIRE curriculum around these three items.  If you want the Science experiments that line up with the Science memory work, get the Supplemental Science Guide. (If you are like me who never got around to doing hands on science, this is a MUST!).  If you want Art projects that line up with the History memory work, then get the Supplemental Art Guide. (If you are like me that left ART for the very last and never had time for it, this is also a MUST!). So in addition to this, please DO NOT think you need to spend more money or your sanity on other things that you may not have.  You will need to decide which Year you want to start with.  I highly suggest you do the same year as the chapters even if you are not in one yourself (or yet).

STEP FOUR:  Check your bookshelves!

You will be surprised to find you probably have many living books that line up with CSH already.  Add these books in gradually and do not be like me and over do it!  šŸ™‚ Keep it simple, one book per topic should cover things.  If you are set up in quarters, one read aloud per time period is fabulous.  Read it together and have LOVELY discussions with all your children.

STEP FIVE: Add math and Language Arts/Phonics
You will want to add a mathematics book of your choice and also a Language arts program and Phonics book of your choice.  Use what you already invested in or what you already have at home.  Chances are you will not need to switch out of this OR eventually decide you want to do something simpler as I did for Language Arts. You can also check out Kathy’s “What Else Should I Use?” PDF
So the bottom line is you DO NOT need to supplement to this program if you don’t want to with just one exception, you will want a Math book and a Reading program.  You can, however, just stick to the memory work and do your separate math and language arts and phonics lessons and you and your children WILL still walk away with an amazing classical education and an incredible love of learning.  
Make sure you follow my blog as I work through my series of blog posts on using Catholic Schoolhouse At Home.  Next time, I will be writing about What CSH at Home looks like.
Have a beautiful day!
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catholic, catholic homeschooling, high school, high school curriculum, homeschooling, socialization

{Catholic} Homeschooling through High School

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Have you homeschooled through the high school years? My son is a senior this year and I have written an article of what I faced at the beginning and in retrospect, the successful experience he has had since we took on the challenge of homeschooling him through the high school years. This is our story. I would love to hear what you did different? What did you like from our experience? Please share with others as they too might be just as afraid of this journey as I was four years ago.

One of the scariest tasks I have had to endure is homeschooling our oldest child through high school.  He is currently a Senior and it is only early November and boy have we had a busy year!

One of the things that I worried most about was, ahem, the social issues.  I did not want him to miss out on Prom, and band, and any other great opportunity he might have had at the local public school.  So for the first time, my husband and I when finishing the eighth grade, offered him the opportunity to go to a brick and mortar school.  His reply was quick, short and to the point and completely convinced me that he was spot on.  He said, ā€œwhy would I want to expose myself to things that would damage my soul?ā€ and went on to list things that on a moral level, would not be healthy.  He was right and since we did give him this choice, we honored his very mature response.  I should add, at this point he had only been homeschooled for three years as he went to a Catholic School from Preschool until the fifth grade. So once I let it sink in that I had to figure out his high school curricula, I got started on researching what we wanted to do.  I had taught in the past for fifteen years but always avoided jobs at the high school level. 

Since he wanted to study music and I am not musically inclined, this was a bit of a daunting task.  In hindsight, I can tell you even an area where mom is not familiar with is definitely possible.  Through speaking with people and asking for help from those in our area we were able to supply him with ample opportunities to train, participate and perform in many areas of music he was interested in.  Here are the examples of what we did to make this happen for our son:

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catholic homeschooling, Catholic Homeschooling 101, Catholic Sistas, Composition, Journal, Journaling, Raising Saints, Teaching Writing

Teaching the Love of Writing in {Catholic} Homeschooling

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Writing has always been a priority in our Catholic Homeschool from when we first started, Iā€™ve always

provided our children with papers and writing utensils of all kinds.  I have basically been very informal about it.  Always making sure that the children from the moment they can grasp a spoon that they are given ample opportunities to explore with writing.  Yes, I do start them out very early.  It is a very natural approach to teaching the love of writing to my children, even if at the beginning the writing utensils spends most of its life drowned in drool.  At first, this is a messy task but eventually my children learn that putting marker, pen, chalk, crayon, or colored pencil to paper, chalk board, dry erase board, notebook, or construction paper means we write letters and then words which together turn into sentences which eventually will make paragraphs with wonderful stories.  Equally important is matching these words with pictures, beautiful colorful ones and even simple pencil drawn ones.  We are constantly writing and my children donā€™t even notice that I am sneaking in some very important future writing skills in to them from early on.


As we started day two of this, our fifth homeschooling year, I am able to see how much this has helped my children be comfortable with writing.  This year I am formalizing our writing a little more as my eldest little is in the third grade.  I do realize when I was a school teacher children in the first and second grade were composing paragraphs, which is fine but I wanted to try a different approach.  In my way of teaching I wanted the children always exposed to writing and drawing.  As a Reading Specialist I thought it would be a great way to help children with reading comprehension in the future.  I have noticed that when I read to my children they are constantly examining the pictures on the page as I read the lovely little stories they have been exposed to.  This, in turn, helps them create images in their minds as they are reading to better understand and remember what was read.  It is a known fact that children who write before they read become better readers than those who do not.  So, to me, providing so much writing so early is a win-win situation.  (This does not mean I am not providing reading opportunities either, reading to my children is equally important for both reading and writing.)



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catholic homeschooling, Catholic Sistas, curriculum, curriculum selection, education, elementary curriculum, high school curriculum, preschool curriculum

10 Steps to Selecting a {Catholic} Homeschool Curriculum

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Selecting a curriculum can be a truly overwhelming task each year for homeschooling mothers.  So many times I have said to myself, ā€œif I could see that book, Iā€™d know if I want it!ā€  Right?  Then you hop online look through blogs of perfect homes, with perfect mom teachers, that have the perfect school rooms, and then there is Pinterestā€¦then you are headed to Confession, jealousy is a lousy sin.  No seriously, is it not just frustrating?  šŸ˜€  How do these women just *KNOW* thatā€™s the right Math book?  Why did it not work for *MY* child?  šŸ™‚  Well, hereā€™s why:  There IS NOT one set curriculum that is perfect for everyone.  There I said it.  So hereā€™s another secret that lady that introduced you to homeschool forgot to mention, the beauty of homeschooling is that you are able to create a custom curriculum that is beneficial to *YOUR* family.  What works for another family may not be the best fit for another, or *gasp* what works for one of your children may not work for another.    Okay, so now lets take a deep breath and investigate how these ladies on their blogs look so with it.  I confess many times I have said, ā€œwhen I grow up I want to be just like Jessica from Shower of Roses.ā€  Donā€™t laugh, I have said it..even to her.:D
Over the years our family has tried a variety of things ā€“ ranging from being an eclectic homeschooler, to using a complete curriculum package to creating things to use, and it has morphed into a combination of pieces that we now use together as a family and components that we use individually to round out the various subject areas.  So how do you decide what is the right fit for your family/homeschool?
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