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Rachel May
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| Posted: Jan 10 2006 at 9:31pm | IP Logged
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I had a hard time coming up with a topic name for this, but I am very interested in what others have to say on this topic. I started a little of the conversation here in Starting Over.
For a quick background, we started discussing Catholic Heritage Curricula and Mother of Divine Grace.
My only exposure to CHC has been through looking at the catalog. We currently are using MODG for 1st grade formally and K informally for the subects included in our syllabus (Religion, Language Arts, Art, and Math) and basically unschool the rest that the state requires.
Part of what has held me back from using CHC is that it seems a bit overly Catholic. I dearly want to raise my kids to be fully believing active Catholic Christians,
but I want to do it gently by feeding their faith not overwhelming it. The reason why I have worried about this is that lately I have watched Catholic parents who had rediscovered their faith as adults crush their children's faith through over enthusiasm. This was especially true of the teenagers although the 10 yo did at one point yell, "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus! That's all you ever talk about!"
So, I am interested in specific comments on CHC (which I found confusing also, but I realize there could be many reasons for that) or MODG. I think even more I wonder how people balance their own personal faith with the need to carefully nurture their little ones' faith. Do you feel like there is an over kill point? How did you come to it? Should I just stop talking and start listening now? 
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Thomas and Anthony (10), Maria (8), Charles (6), Cecilia (5), James (3), and Joseph (1)
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Jenny
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You can force religion down your children's throats or you can honestly & sincerely live your faith & they will want to join you. My example is...Everytime we drove my a cemetery I would say quietly to myself "Eternal rest grant unto them O Lord & may perpetual light shine upon them, may their souls & all the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace amen." I would then make a small sign of the cross. My oldest daughter (7) noticed one day & asked what & why. Now, everytime we pass a cemetery she does the same; only loud enough for her sisters to hear in the back of the car.
Of course this specific example is not an obligation of our faith.
I used OLOV when we started hs'ing b/c I wanted really old school lessons in the faith; we attend the TLM. I found it to be more talking & less living. We just started w/CHC this month after a yr & a half w/MODG b/c I just loved how "Catholic" they were. Catholic in a very natural & livable way. I had purchased their science text 2nd grade & couldn't believe how they could easily, naturally & beautifuuly incorporate being Catholic into science. It wasn't obvious, they didn't "stick in" something Catholic for Catholics sake. It is more like, "Isn't our faith so beautiful. God had a plan for all this...etc" Things I would naturally say on my own, or maybe just think & forget to share it w/my kids.
Sorry to be so long 
Jenny
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Jenny
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guitarnan
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| Posted: Jan 11 2006 at 8:57am | IP Logged
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Rachel, this is a great topic. My son (almost 14) really dislikes Catholic textbooks. I think part of the dislike stems from wanting to feel just like his peers (except for the learning at home aspect). He has seen their schoolbooks and knows they don't cover God and salvation history. The other part is that most of the Catholic English, history and science textbooks are 1950's reprints. This truly annoys my son. It annoys me, too. (I used some of the same books in school!)
The new history text From Sea to Shining Sea really pleased my son last year...but it only covers U. S. History to 1900! So, we're on our own again this year. IMHO there is a critical need for more up-to-date spine texts like this one.
My real concern is high school next year. I will be very interested to discover what other families are planning to do, or are doing now.
In terms of passing along our faith, I do try hard to live the faith and allow my children to follow rabbit trails as much as I can (such as my daughter's new interest in Our Lady of Guadalupe and St. Elizabeth Ann Seton). I grew up in the time when we switched from memorizing the Baltimore Catechism (which I despised) to the "make a bookmark for Jesus" type of textbooks (which I equally despised). I certainly don't want my children to feel the same way about their religious instruction that I did about mine! We are strict about attendance at Mass, of course, and try to celebrate the feast days and special saints' days in a meaningful way, with a more relaxed school day if we do school at all, and with art activities (picture study, discovering statues or icons, our own craft/art time, etc.) and other unusual things. I've found that my children really enjoy these activities.
Right now, we use a mixture of Kolbe-recommended and other secular books for my son. We discuss the textbooks at the end of each year and my son and I come to an agreement about what worked and what didn't. We've gone almost entirely to CHC books for my daughter because she likes them. (As you can see, I go with the "if they like it, they will do the work" philosophy!) So, my son's curriculum is pretty non-Catholic, and my daughter's is almost entirely Catholic. I guess I'm a fence-sitter!
I have no idea if anything in this post is helpful. I think Rachel's concern is very valid. I am certainly in need of guidance myself, especially for my teenage son. This is a great thread topic!
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Martha
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Well, I would say my curriculum is very Catholic, but I don't use the providers you mentioned exclusively.
I use a combination of Seton and CHC, which a small bit of "other" thrown in at odd points.
By doing this, I find 95% of my subjects are Catholic materials and content.
I don't think that's too much, but I think what you are dealing with has less to do with the materials than a major change in life philosophy in the families. Anytime a family has a major change - the children have a tendency to rebel against it and be a bit resentfull. If these parents are waiting until the dc are older , either by ignorance or because of late callings, to live a strong faith life - it stands to reason that the children are not always going to follow them on that change of path. Especially, if the kids feel it is a "do as I say not as I do" attitude or if the children are being overly influenced by the world outside the home.
However, when you start young it isn't a big deal. It's just life as they know it. I do find some of the materials at times to be a bit "sappy" and that annoys me and a few of my kids. I don't know that has anything to do with the religious aspect though as just our rather rough around the edges personalities.
I doubt I've been any help at all here...  Just my ramblings on this topic...
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Meredith
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| Posted: Jan 11 2006 at 9:29am | IP Logged
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Well, the way I like to characterize our home school is we are a Catholic Charlotte Mason family that as a result of *real learning* we practice our faith everyday. By example we are infusing our faith as a living element into the lives of our children in such a way that it isn't viewed as a subject but just another part of discovery in our day.
I do have concerns about cramming information into my dc, so I really prefer a more relaxed approach. I like many Catholic materials offered to home schoolers and have used and do use many of them now, but so far it's never been overkill and it's one of the dc favorites parts of learning at home, and they've not been to ps, they just know other kids aren't getting this at school. 
Just FYI, and you probably already know aboutthis thread on CHC from a few months back, it's very helpful if you're looking for specifics on them.
Thanks for bringing this one up, it's a great topic
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Bookswithtea
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We use parts of CHC. I think the Catholic infusion works better for some children than for others. My ds would NOT have responded well to the K-4 manuals that CHC has written. It wasn't so much the Catholicism per se as they just felt too crafty. He's a "no nonsense, let me just do my stuff and be done" kind of personality. We are following more of their suggestions in the Middle School Lesson Plans, though. I like these a lot! :-)
My dd's all seem to do well with the K-4 CHC. I should say we don't follow the LP's exclusively though.
I was very resistant to buying the grammar and spelling books because of their titles... "My First Catholic blah blah." It just sounded so hokey!  Frankly, I wish they would rename them. I finally caved and bought the spellers this year and I really really like them. The two old enough to use them are learning well and its not hard or overwhelming like Spelling Power was for us. I'm debating for the Spring whether to buy the next one for my 4th grade daughter or to use ILL, which I also love.
I don't know if this helps much, but I would say that CHC is at least worth a try. Its not as hokey as it looks, imho. 
Blessings,
~Books
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Sarah
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If we believe that the Catholic Church is based on truth then teaching your children "truths" would be Catholic.
For example, it wouldn't be un-Catholic to say "A" is for apple and not "abbot" or "B" is for ball instead of "bible." It seems overly done to do this, to me, and I think some kids gets really sick of it.
Children learning to write don't have to copy Bible passages and quotes from the saints to be Catholic.
If being Catholic means following the truth and obeying Natural Law, then simple truths would also be "Catholic," and since my kids know we're Catholic, I hope they understand anything I teach them is through the eyes of a Catholic and thus "Catholic."
However, that doesn't mean you would have to get rid of a good curriculum if it has this component, maybe just temper it.
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ALmom
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| Posted: Jan 11 2006 at 6:32pm | IP Logged
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I have been pondering this very topic over and over - and so glad it got brought up here. I don't know what you would call us for our schooling - using CHC for youngest, mostly CHC for middles, CHC and Kolbe woven for 8th grader and Kolbe our own way for our 12th grader. I am not 100% comfortable with unmodified Kolbe but it is not the lesson plans or the support or flexibility - it is the classical aspect. For whatever it is worth, I'll share some of my ponderings with you.
I have trouble with anything that compartmentalizes learning - I never could relate what I was learning in one subject to what I was learning in another because they were so disconected in my secular education and the faith "had nothing to do with any of it". Our society and what we have been fed for at least the last 20 -30 years is that our faith should be comparmentalized - (almost for Sunday only except in the very privacy of our home) and has no say in the public arena - a distorted seperation of church and state. This is the world our dc are in now - the world will constantly shout anti-religion at them. How do our children learn to relate to the faith in all they do - to actually form this habit of mind? How do we best help them see the truth of the faith in all things - faith has something to say in science and in history and literature. I firmly believe that our faith should permeate all that we do - study, play, politics, etc. It certainly should not be contrived or forced. I have found CHC to be very natural in this. I have also found it very respectful of the child's time. Here are a few reasons:
1. lessons are short and meaningful (do not seem to be condescending to child)
2. if something can be done together with something else, it is, rather than coming up with another workbook to do it. IE A child must learn basic grammar and spelling and something has to be used to demonstrate these things. In grammmar, sentences are used from a simplified story of one of the saints - but each new grammar page continues the story from the day before, making it a more interesting exercise and providing the mind with something useful to ponder. In spelling, words must be used in context in order to clarify meaning. I think CHC does an excellent job here - they don't pick a bunch of Catholic words but when they must be used in context, they do use the words to reinforce the faith. Perhaps it is overt for some, I find it very sweet and beautiful. In Behold and See, they have created the most beautiful and accurate science I have ever seen. It is permeated with a gratitude to God for his creation - but is very natural and uncontrived. Our world shouts faith or reason not faith and reason - but here in studying science, we are forming a habit in our dc to use faith and reason.
Another thing I have been pondering is why I like CHC so much and really disliked other Catholic programs reportably trying to accomplish the same thing. Some of it is the short and simple - but another aspect is the tone. The tone in CHC is very positive and does not come across as triumphalistic or defensive. In my mind there is a big difference between the two. In CHC, controversial topics simply aren't introduced in the younger grades. The history is all map reading and geography and allows a great deal of freedom for the parents to supplement with what they think is appropriate. By middle school years, you see a gradual introduction of more controversial ideas - many of their short 5 answer questions suggest the use of an encyclopedia. There is a gradual unfolding of different points of view while preserving our own point of view exclusively in the younger grades without any dishonesty. There is nothing in their program that doesn't allow parents to introduce other aspects as they see their own dc mature and ready to tackle it or as dc asks for it.
Which brings me to another pondering - when should certain things be introduced. Every parent must pray for prudence in the particulars but I think there is a point of shielding our young dc from the ugliness and error of the world. I think it is unhealthy to give a K a heavy dose of pagan myths before the gift of faith they have received at Baptism has had time to really root and grow. I think it healthier for them to grow up believing without questioning for a while - let things take good root first. I do not think it healthy to approach this in a fearful way but there is a real difference between assigning a pagan myth as part of what you are holding up to dc as an example (ie what is assigned in the curriculum) and what you happen across in everyday living. For instance, I would not pull out all my art books and show them the various nudes and talk about them in the elementary (and maybe not in older years depending on a lot of things in the individual dc). I'm not going out of my way to show them to dc. However, I'm not going to act appalled and rush them by if we happen by one in an art museum, neither are we going to linger unduly and awaken curiousity. We establish habits of virtue in the home (try to change diapers in private, etc and take care to be modest etc forming habits of these things but when a 3 yo streaks through the living room it is handled very matter of fact) Failing to establish these habits and failing to protect the environment can desensitize dc and be harmful; overreacting and nitpicking can also cause harm. I love the balance CHC strikes.
I can give a few examples - the use of the Lord's name in vain. This is sinful and against the commandments. I grew up with little supervision over the movies we saw and never noticed the preponderance of using the Lord's name in vain in movies, conversation, etc. We had been careful in our dc younger years that their exposures were wholesome (we basically did not watch any TV and have only been to the movies for St Therese and Lord of the Rings). Now that dc are older, they have been pointing out to me the bad language in movies for general audiences. Now, there is some discernment - the commandments are clear that taking the Lord's name in vain is sinful. We are also cautioned to avoid the near occassions of sin. Do we forbid the watching of this movie in our home, do we set limits on it, etc. It might not be a big deal if all our dc were older with formed habits - but we also have a 3yo in the home who imitates everything he hears. He has already told us things we have no idea where they come from - like "Go take a walk". I was convicted that we have some sort of obligation here to our 3 yo. Perhaps this is an after littles are in bed movie - or my ds had older dc take certain movies over to grandmas so youngers weren't exposed. Because of my exposure to this sort of thing as a constant - it wasn't even noticed by me, I had become desensitized to sin. We are responsible for the environment in our home, the exposures our dc receive, etc. Habitual ways of thinking are formed in the younger years. Neither do I want dc to think we must reject everything that has the slightest taint of sin (any novel would automatically be eliminated if we go so far). It all depends on age and quantity of exposure and in what context.
I do not think protecting the environment or the exposure is what is harmful - it is the fearfulness or overreaction aspect. CHC, imo, avoids this problem. There is also a certain recognition of maturity and the need to answer some of these issues at an appropriate age. You don't go through life always avoiding the Inquisition or the Spanish explorers. If the dc are well established in faith, and are at a maturer age then tackling these is more appropriate. I still say balance is important - we still want things to reinforce our faith in a pagan world but not from fear. More later - got take oldest to her job.
Janet
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Rachel May
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These are some great posts for me. Thank you for the link to the CHC thread. I didn't read it before since it wasn't of interest to me.
I'm curious about the moms who have teenagers. Can you see how your curriculum choices or how you have infused your faith into your family has come to fruit in them?
By the way did anyone see the survey that the HSLDA had a link to? Someone is doing research on the topic of how effectively faith is passed to homeschoolers (I think. I didn't qualify for the survery).
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Rachel
Thomas and Anthony (10), Maria (8), Charles (6), Cecilia (5), James (3), and Joseph (1)
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ALmom
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| Posted: Jan 11 2006 at 9:45pm | IP Logged
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Sorry - here I am again. I asked my oldest dd about this question on the way to her job and here is her response. (Remember she never got to use CHC, it wasn't available for her) (By way of explanation our oldest is 18 and did experience some annoyance in 10th grade Seton year from too much "Catholicism")
It is not offensive to have Saints stories or things from the faith in the grammar sentences being analyzed or in spelling context. This is stuff that has to be done anyways. It is when they create more work in a subject just to add the stuff in that it becomes a problem.
If the history and science texts seem more like religion texts, it is a big turn-off. It is not a problem if they are solid in the subject matter and informed by the faith. Preachiness is what annoyed her the most.
At some point, you are ready and wanting to tackle the controversial stuff and you want to feel free to think - not be told what to think. (In discussion she talked about how Kolbe asks leading questions so that you are led to the truth so she is not talking about a free-wheeling type of thing. I think she is reacting more to the constant preachiness that wouldn't even allow a question to be asked about something controversial - why/where is the evidence for this particular statement in the text.)
She has looked at her younger siblings materials and sees nothing particularly annoying in them. She really liked the history used in 5th grade - and it does address controversial issues in a balanced way from a Catholic point of view.
She also made a comment about being turned off by mimeographed books, nothing of beauty in the text, and a sense that they were slapped together in a hurry without much thought. This compounded the annoyance at the lack of balance - as if the concern for her education wasn't as real as it seemed because it wasn't worth putting a beautiful text together. She really liked Faith and Life for that reason (we read it and discussed orally - not the exercises/workbook)
Actually she did a much better job succinctly stating things than I did. But to sum up - I don't see any reason to think CHC materials would cause later resentment. Their program is the bare bones so the dc is equipped to do whatever God leads them to and allows plenty of room for real life supplementation.
Now for another of my related questions - I am grappling with how much classical is too much. I understand the importance of classical works and how foundational they are for understanding later literature and there is even the arguement that it is easier to tackle modern literature on our own, while we may need more assistance with ancient literature. But can too much classical lead to an arrogance of thought equally harmful (I think about the Renaissance period and how enamored folks got and got led astray in cleverness of thought and rhetoric without truth). Where is the balance - and at what age? Do we do an entire year on ancient Greece and then another on ancient Rome (per Kolbe high school recommendations). What about solid Catholic authors, what about authors like Jane Austen and what about all the rather bawdry type things in Shakespeare. Mind you, I'm not saying we shouldn't do some - but what and how much. Our oldest just read Midsummer Nights Dream and commented that she certainly wouldn't have the music from this played at her wedding (which is traditional in U.S. but frowned on by the church), so yes, it is not corrupting her. But she is 12th grade and about to move on to college, it was not assigned but something she read because she wanted to know the story behind the music. I'd be leary of assigning something like this as then the dc might feel unable to put something down that was too tempting or too much for them. Hope you don't mind me expanding your discussion a little - as I grapple from both sides trying to discern what to do as we approach high school with dd #2.
The other area of concern for me is an environment that supports our views - it isn't found in much outside the home. Even in church related activities the dc are faced with disobedience of liturgical norms, an attempt to draw in or keep kids in the youth program by making their program look like the world, etc. For many on this board, the result of this kind of thing is noted in the heroic faithfulness of some of our teens, but also a great deal of lonliness. We experienced that here as well. What equips them to stand firm (in addition to the grace of God and solid family life permeated with the faith and clear teaching in a way that reaches the dc). I wonder if it isn't some of the ground work set in those very early years - and even a little balanced controlling of the environment so they have a chance to adopt values from home before the world's tugs are so strong. Our dd certainly experienced some annoyance with a program and even with some of our rules - but it was interesting to me that she didn't complain about the ways we strove to protect her environment and only gradually gave over the decision making (it was an art and exercise in prudence with mistakes on our part at times and even some annoyance back and forth between us, but we do not regret the caution.
Just some thoughts.
Janet
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Marybeth
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This topic is so interesting! The 4 children I know ages 15, 11, 9 and 7 who are most interested in learning anything about their Catholic faith are my nephews and niece. They go to the local public school and love love love studying their faith(at home). They get mad at my sister in the car if she doesn't play the Catholic radio station!!!
I think the faith is so enriched in their lives by simply living it. They don't have any curriculum which is Catholic~yet they are so enthused to learn from my sister, bil or me through CCD. It has certainly taken the pressure off me to feel like every book and paper needs to be Catholic for my own ds to learn and love his faith.
My nephew who is 15 is really getting enjoying working on service projects through their church. He is happily serving others in the spirit of Christ.
We had a day of reflection for cathechists at our parish last Saturday. Father told us we have to give children the "stuff" of our faith first before we ask them to serve others as Jesus did. They won't understand fully the love of Christ without knowing Him in context of our Catholic beliefs and practices. It is just something I am thinking on last few days.
Great thread you started Rachel!
God bless,
Marybeth
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Jenny
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| Posted: Jan 11 2006 at 10:28pm | IP Logged
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Janet,
I really enjoyed reading your thoughts & experiences w/CHC.
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Jenny
Chris' wife and momma of 7. My blog: The Littlest Way--Bible Journaling, Inspiring Bible Quotes, Daily Affirmations, Prayer Journaling & photography
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Cay Gibson
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| Posted: Jan 11 2006 at 10:53pm | IP Logged
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4mothermary wrote:
Janet,
I really enjoyed reading your thoughts & experiences w/CHC.
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I have too, Janet.
I'm still reading but wanted to give you a  and a thank you.
I really appreciate your comments.
What nuggets for us to read and learn from.
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Cay Gibson
"There are 49 states, then there is Louisiana." ~ Chef Emeril
wife to Mark '86
mom to 5
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Elizabeth
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| Posted: Jan 12 2006 at 6:34am | IP Logged
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I don't have time to do this thread justice, but I will try to answer Rachel quickly. Until about three years ago, we used an ecletic curriculum that was more CM than anything, with some KONOS thrown in. THe KONOS was done in co-op with four other devout Cathlic moms and we made every effort to infuse it with Catholicism. When my seventh baby was born, we stopped co-opping.We also switched parishes from a very solid, orthodox parish to one in our neighborhood that is much more laid back. There is reverence for the Eucharist there but no devotion to the hBlessed Mother, no emphasis on any other feasts or devotions, and homilies that lack grounding in the Magesterium.
Katie's birth really levelled me.In addition to the parish switch, We started unschooling in a pretty big way. What ensued was a downward spiral. While we certainly had some shining moments--a whole semester of nature study and some amazing First Communion notebooks stand out in my memory--our focus was definitely hazy and the general quality of life suffered.
But, your question was,
Rachel May wrote:
| I'm curious about the moms who have teenagers. Can you see how your curriculum choices or how you have infused your faith into your family has come to fruit in them? |
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Last summer, my two teenagers came to us and pretty much insisted we go back to the old parish. They saw that their siblings weren't getting what they got. They were involved in church life but it wasn't overtly Catholic. And they missed the liturgical year and the insistence on the teaching of the Magesterium. They were restless and wanted to go home.
My dh and I had been talking about this pretty much since we had begun working on Easter Vigil notebooks and John Paul II notebooks with the children last spring. We began to recognize how an overtly Catholic subject matter was spilling into all areas of our lives. And we wanted to "go home" to that Church we knew and loved.We also wanted to take a look at curriculum and project choices to be certain that they had a distinctly Catholic flavor.
In the fall, after making parish switch, I began to look at curriculum. I couldn't co-op again. Honestly, it exhuasted me. As I was playing with ideas, I agreed to watch a friend's todddler four days a week while she went to nursing school. This little girl wailed in my arms the whole time she was here for the first week. I sent out desperate emails to homeschool buddies. And several said "CHC." I ordered the whole kit and caboodle. The next week,that toddler was as sweet and mellow as can be. Turns out she had been cutting four molars! And I had a box of CHC. It's a blessing--absolutely NOT school in a box because we don't use it that way, but a Catholic spine for me to embellish.
My big boy is beyond CHC but he is nodding approvingly. And he was all over the Pope notebook last year and is making the Blessed Mother notebook with us this year.
My kids love it! They eat it up! Even my reluctant reader/writer isn't objecting to the subject matter or the presentation. He's just objecting to paper and ink in general. The exception--only with him--is All Ye Lands,and it's not the Catholicism he objects to it's the droning of the textbook. After years of sifting through KONOS, it's sort of nice to have the Catholic angle spelled out.
I know what you mean about counting rosary beads. That was one of the things that turned me off of Seton many years ago.This doesn't have that feel to me. Instead, this makes me remember a summer afternoon when I was about seven. I was spending the day with a large family. We sat in the little girl's bedroom and she showed me her books from the just finished schoolyear. Her reader was filled with stories of the saints. One, in particular, stands out in my mind. It was about a saint who showered roses from heaven. I had no saints' stories at home. I went to a public school and never heard of saints there. But that story stayed with me. I chose Therese as my confirmation name and later gave the name to my youngest daughter. My devotion to Saint Therese has grown exponentially--all begun by one book on one afternoon. Imagine if I'd been immersed in stories like those?
Now, I can be. That's the beauty of home education. We can have the education for which we always yearned.
__________________
Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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Bookswithtea
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| Posted: Jan 12 2006 at 12:48pm | IP Logged
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Thank you, Elizabeth, for sharing your experience. We had several discussions on the SL Cath. list last summer about how many were feeling drawn to a more Catholic education. Perhaps the Holy Spirit is up to something.
If I may, I was wondering if are planning on using mostly CHC next year too, and if you are modifying it very much? You've mentioned several times you like to learn as a family, unit study style, and CHC is designed to be more grade based. If you've had any luck overcoming this, I'd be grateful to hear how you did it.
Also, I got an email from CHC a few days ago. The new program, High School of Your Dreams is supposed to be available for purchase soon! I can't wait to see it.
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time4tea
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| Posted: Jan 12 2006 at 5:37pm | IP Logged
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Elizabeth (and All),
What a great post!
When we began homeschooling again in earnest 3 years ago, we began by using a secular curriculum. While the material was academically challenging and well put together, something about it was unsatisfying, and I noticed this lack of satisfaction beginning to poison our whole homeschool experience in general. Dh and I sat down and began to re-think our priorities regarding homeschooling - why were we doing it in the first place, when it would be so much easier to just send the kids to public school like many other families in our neighborhood were doing. After much discussion and prayer over the course of several days, one particular theme emerged for both dh and me - we wanted to be able to freely and openly share our faith with our children, each and every day. As a result, we made the switch to Catholic curricula and have never looked back. I cannot tell you how much it has enriched the lives of dh, myself and our children to deepen our faith by learning more about Jesus, the Blessed Mother, the Saints, and the Church throughout history. For example, my two oldest sons were so thrilled last Spring as we all watched and waited for the election of our new Holy Father! My oldest has been studying Blessed Junipero Serra in his CHC Stories of the Saints, Vol. 3 book, and he has really gotten into it, making drawings, writing reports, and so on. He was so excited when EWTN ran the "Super Saints" episode about him! We pray daily as a family for distant family members, frineds, relatives, and neighbors. Yes, I suppose we could do all of these things without using Catholic materials, but I have to tell you, the Catholic materials have many times been the spark that has led us to do these things in the first place.
One of the "goals" of the 4 Real Learning Website, as I believe I recall, says something like this: "we want to get to heaven, and we plan to take our entire families with us." Using Catholic educational materials is one way we have found to help our family realize this goal.
God bless,
~Tea
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Elizabeth
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| Posted: Jan 12 2006 at 5:38pm | IP Logged
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I am planning on using CHC next year and I look forward to looking at high school...
We still study as a family. Nature Study still happens about once a week and we're all together, even Michael.
I try to pull together a low key picture book unit every week. I have my little ones choose one book from the Five in a Row box and I go from there. I try to read two or three others along the same theme and do a couple of the suggestions in the FIAR manual or something we come up with on our own. Generally I include everyone from my 9yo down and sometimes, my 11 yo wants in on it. There's something in a picture book for everyone. I still believe that.
My middle schoolers started out doing CHC together. My 13 yo is behind and my 11yo ahead, so I split the difference. But I quickly discovered that it didn't work for them to work on all the same things. I lined up All Ye Lands with Bethlehem's Living History timeline and your help . But if we were working on a chapter in AYL and I'd chosen a living book to go with it, they both needed that book. So few of Bethlehem's books are available in the library that it just wasn't working to have them "on the same page." Besides, they compete terribly and it's not pretty. .
So, I separated them. Ahhhh...
We worked on the Easter Vigil notebooks together and then the JPII notebooks. Everyone (all seven of them) is making a Blessed Mother notebook.
I'm combining some science because we've really done no formal science, only nature study. So, we'll all study the human body together ala CHC and we're all working through Appologia botany this year.
Everyone is doing Prima Latina. And everyone is learning American Sign Language.
I think that's about it...
__________________
Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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ALmom
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| Posted: Jan 12 2006 at 6:30pm | IP Logged
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Elizabeth - thanks for the info on how you do things all together. That is one area that we have always found difficult for some reason (perhaps the big difference in ages and abilities in our family). I will say that as our dc hit middle school, we generally find it harder to do any strictly academics all together and when I tried to have "lessons" together it just seemed to degenerate. Our 8 yo is racing through stuff and very hungry for more, while our 6 yo just cannot cope with close work yet (vision therapy is the priority with him). Our 11 yo likes to have books to puruse by himself and has really had to struggle with everything(books and sports) and it is difficult for him to be juxtaposed to his 8 yo brother for whom everything comes easily (he would rather be given the leisure to work at something on his own until he felt he has figured it out - only then is he confident enough to share it) and then our 14 yo had real vision difficulties that have been corrected but for a while she took a large part of my time just working on the vision and reading but now is an instigator of projects and art and a 18 yo who is passionate about music and blazes through academics to have more practice time (didn't like being slowed down by discussions with mom and siblings when we tried to do it and was totally uninterested in projects)and a 3 yo who wants all the attention on him (does fine with me reading him and 6 yo stories but pretty much wrecks havoc when there is discussion, projects, etc.
I will say that I have noticed some things in CHC that have lent themselves to encouraging interaction among siblings even if they are not strictly working in the same books. Since CHC it seems to happen more naturally - not sure if it is CHC itself or me just being more relaxed.
Grammar workbooks follow a certain sequence in all the grades so if you were trying to pull an activity out to do with elementaries together on a grammar topic - they'd all be basically studying the same thing.
5th and 7th do American History but you can juggle the plans easily to have all children studying the same topic if not using the same book - then projects, extras that are pulled in and discussion naturally occurs with all. We generally have all our dc studying the same time period in history - keyed to the oldest dc. but all use seperate books and follow some of their own trails - but we all end up learning from each other and sharing and getting drawn in to each others tangents, projects, etc.
In the real early years, you can pick a science and use it so we did do Behold and See with 2nd and 4th grader together. Now, 3rd grader is going back to it and expanding it with experiments from brothers 5th grade Kolbe book and other experiment books around the house. Once he gets off on an experiment, the others are generally drawn in.
If you have back to back grades (even if didn't and wanted to do the unit), you could pick Tour the Continent one year and Tour the Country another.
The Faith and Life 1st and 2nd grade cover the same basic concepts - one is just more detailed so while you may have dc read in their own books, the discussion, activities, etc. could be based on older dc. Also I went through lesson plans in religion and found the living components in different grades - tried to fit them into the liturgical calendar so we all did them together (ie liturgical wheel, posters, etc.) I generally would write it out in one dc lesson plans with a request that he gather siblings and me (otherwise we'd never get to it). While the high schooler doesn't always join in on these (she is often not even home), she does do a lot of listening in and commenting on things. She is very enticed by 11 yo science and if she has extra time this summer, she wants the 8 yo to do science with her so he can help her fill in the gaps. (The 8 yo was listening in on her chemistry questions and always there to watch her chemistry experiments - often explaining the chemical reactions).
Guess, somehow we do more together now with CHC than before even though everyone has their own independent work.
Janet
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Bookswithtea
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| Posted: Jan 12 2006 at 8:49pm | IP Logged
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Thank you so much for sharing, Elizabeth. This hasn't been my most successful year, but we seem to have fallen into a pattern of using CHC with Sonlight and www.readingyourwaythroughhistory.com for literature that seems to be working (I switched out the Faith and Life though...I just can't get into those, for some reason). I can't seem to keep up with everyone's CHC manuals, but I do like the idea of taking one of the projects and doing it as a family.
Honestly, I feel like a real dope, but I am terrified to take on the Notebooking projects y'all rave about. I'm afraid it will be one of those things that I never seem to be able to get to and then leave me feeling guilty for not keeping up with it.
I'm thinking we might all do the Rosary project from CHC 3 during Lent, though. I think if I know the project ends by Vigil, maybe I will stay faithful to it.
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time4tea
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| Posted: Jan 13 2006 at 9:07am | IP Logged
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Elizabeth,
I am interested in learning more about the notebooking ideas that you have mentioned. They sound like something my gang here might be interested in, but I am a total novice to the idea and am, admittedly , a little overwhelmed with the idea of beginning.
Thanks in advance and God bless!
~Tea
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: How Catholic is your curriculum?
