Oh, Dearest Mother, Sweetest Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness. You are our Advocate and to you we recommend our needs. You are our Teacher and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all of the love of our hearts. Receive, dearest Mother, our offerings and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.



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madre.magu
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Posted: Dec 22 2007 at 7:52pm | IP Logged Quote madre.magu

Hello, My name is Mary Anne. I am 53 and the mother of a 3-year old and one on the way. (You may have guessed that these children are heartgrown.)

We want to homeschool. I haven't a clue where to begin.
Help me, please. We are pretty traditional Catholics and hope to base our homeschool on that.
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MaryM
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Posted: Dec 22 2007 at 9:01pm | IP Logged Quote MaryM

Welcome, Mary Ann. The threads are full of all kinds of ideas and resources to help with homeschooling so reading back through the past topics that interest you will be a help. As you have specific questions feel free to ask.

I just wanted to let you know that you registered right as we are getting ready to take a break for a few days for Christmas. The forum will be closed for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (and we are regularly closed on Sundays - Saturday night through Sunday night). See you when everything opens back up next week.

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Mamamoon
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Posted: Dec 22 2007 at 9:09pm | IP Logged Quote Mamamoon

welcome~
you have found a beautiful place here. when i first began, i read everything i could get my hands on from the public library.

good luck on the journey!
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Posted: Dec 22 2007 at 9:12pm | IP Logged Quote Angie Mc

Welcome, Mary Ann! Thank you for the intro. You are already off to a good start by looking for information and asking for help. Enjoy your time here and I'll look forward to hearing more from you.

Love,

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SallyT
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Posted: Dec 27 2007 at 11:49pm | IP Logged Quote SallyT

Welcome, Mary Anne, and congratulations on your upcoming adoption.

You know, without realizing it, you already ARE homeschooling your young child(ren). Playing together, reading together, doing chores and errands, cooking, etc etc etc, and of course, praying and going to Mass -- your child is soaking up learning just living with you. A fun little exercise might be to pay attention, or even jot down in a log, everything you and your child do as you move through your day, then look back at it and say, "Is there anything we did that counted as math? (cooking, measuring, talking about how much things cost in the store, telling time, counting beads on the rosary) reading? (do you point out stop signs?) history? (a story set in the past)," and so on. The odds are very good that as an attentive and loving mother, you are already laying a far better foundation for your child's education than he or she would receive in a preschool, so you can take heart that already you are doing more, and know more, than you think you do.

I don't have the years of homeschooling that some of the mothers here do -- I have four children, ages 14, 10, 5, and 4, and we have been homeschooling since my oldest was 9 (so this is our fifth year). But I do have fairly vivid memories still of our first year, and of my preparation to homeschool. The thing that helped me most was to read about homeschooling and various philosophies of homeschooling, to see what resonated with me AND seemed to be relevant to my children's personalities and learning styles. Paying attention to my children to see, for instance, whether one learned better by hearing or seeing something, sitting still or moving, etc, was very helpful as well.

If you haven't already, you might check out the "educational philosophy" forum here for reading recommendations and ideas regarding some of the major paradigms for home education (classical education, Charlotte Mason, unschooling, etc). Even if you end up being something of an eclectic, as many of us are, it can be very, very helpful to have ideas and models to work from -- if nothing else, having a paradigm in mind can save you lots of money in curriculum and materials which are not a good fit for you and your children.

I can honestly say that homeschooling has been the best decision our family ever made (well, besides becoming Catholic) -- not that it's been easy every step of the way, but my only real regret is that we did not homeschool from the beginning with our oldest.

God bless you in your discernment.

Sally

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