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Natalia
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| Posted: May 01 2005 at 10:00am | IP Logged
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I was thinking about this last night. Do also unschool religion? How do you go about teaching the doctrines of the faith to your children? I know that a lot of teaching the faith is living it but, some doctrines need to be taught, right?
Natalia
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tovlo4801
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| Posted: May 01 2005 at 12:15pm | IP Logged
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Natalia,
Thanks for asking this question! I was thinking about this same thing this morning and almost tagged it on my question.
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Willa
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Well, I hope others will say something. But I was thinking that probably 80% or more of my "teaching religion" is unschooling, and I don't even call myself an unschooler. Actually, make that 90% now that I think about it.
There is character and moral formation, which comes through how we, the parents live, and how we teach the kids to live.... just informally, in real life situations. Prayer, devotions, teaching the GOlden Rule, talking about moral situations in the car, or after reading books or watching movies. Trying to run our domestic church so that it is conducive to developing virtues in all of us.
We have lots of saints books and religious books around, religious artwork, an altar.... again, nothing there that would be off limits to an unschooler.
We read Scripture and Catholic stories. The kids like those and if they complain, we try something different.
Probably the only thing we really DO for religion that isn't part of "real life" is some catechism memory work., and we tend to do that seasonally (fall or summer). Even memorizing prayers tends to come under our family prayer time -- we meet around noon and say the Angelus, and then a couple of other prayers .... after a few times, they have them memorized.
So basically, I think day to day life (habits), strewing and environment covers the bulk of what we've done through the years. My daughter had a difficult time explaining to the religious director who interviewed her for confirmation -- well, everything we do is Catholic in one way or another. We don't use just one book and call it "religious education" -- it's part of everything we do in one way or another.
Oh, and also I think it helps that both DH and I are very interested in learning more about our faith and read a lot of religious books and discuss a lot of doctrinal issues. Our children would have a difficult time NOT learning something about their Faith and again, that's probably the way unschooling works too.
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Willa
hsing boys ages 11, 14, almost 18 (+ 4 homeschool grads ages 20 to 27)
Take Up and Read
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Cindy
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| Posted: May 04 2005 at 6:20pm | IP Logged
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WJFR wrote:
There is character and moral formation, which comes through how we, the parents live, and how we teach the kids to live.... just informally, in real life situations. ...
Our children would have a difficult time NOT learning something about their Faith and again, that's probably the way unschooling works too.
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Hi Natalia and Richelle! What a great topic. This will probably be too long of a post. Oh well... lol
Willa, I think you said it perfectly. In fact, if I was told I had to give up unschooling in every way but one subject, my hold out would be religion/faith!! It is the essense of our lives and really a part of everything we see and do, as you wrote so well.
I have used books as guides.. F&L, St. Joseph's Catc. and of course the CCC and Bible. I found this a good way to introduce the doctrines, as you mentioned, Natalia. But truly real life situations are what cements them. Having books and guides ready as a reference is very helpful, to look things up together when we don't know. And to just talk about the faith and its doctrines and what they mean. How these doctrines relate to REAL LIFE. That shows our children that our church is not outdated... JPII was holding onto these things in modern times because they are sound. That is what doctrine should be... and shown that is it always current with life today.. I think.
Also listening to great tapes, good homilies, EWTN, books, etc. I had fund one year reading portions of Mother Angelica's book to them.. as well as many other great ones- Padre Pio, Fulton Sheen, John Paul II, oh there are so many resources.
Here are a few examples of how we reinforce doctrine with real life experiences..
We volunteer at a local crisis pregnacy center. We have had many conversations about abortion, the girls that come in (who we don't meet, we do the newletter when the office is closed) the country's laws on abortion, what God says about it, why people consider it ok, etc.
I taught a coop class on dogs. (yes, dogs..  )-- we read the CCC about man's responsibility to care for the earth and it's creatures. We read Gensis when Adam named all the animals. We talked about how animals fit into our faith. With all the new age stuff around, I found this was a very timely doctinal subject to discuss.
Last Friday night we went to a lecture by Alex Jones- a Pentacostal preacher to converted to Catholicism. We talked all about his decision and the influence of the early Church fathers on his journey.. I am now doing a self study on the ECF and sharing it with my boys as I go. Amazing all the wonderful saints that protected our Church and its doctrine those first centuries...
Members of our family are not Catholic- we discuss what the Church says about that and how we can pray for them.
What is Church doctrine on that... who is saved? Great subject...
My dh is involved with a guy at work who is anti Catholic but bringing up really dumb resources that don't even make sense. This is causing my dh to research and work through these issues with the man, in a charitable fashion.. and he comes home and tells the boys and me all about it.. what he is learning as he goes. He is exlporing all sorts of doctrince.. the primacy of Peter and the popes, the role of Mary, confession, the communion of saints.
I thank God for this man, because he has challenged my husband to delve deeper than he has in his life into his faith. (my dh is a CCC- comfortable cradle Catholic!  -- and what an example is being set for my boys by my dh's examination of faith. That is real life and could not be matched by any class or curriculum!
I am a convert, too.. so am learning all the time. As Willa said.. if we learn, too, with our kids I think it becomes more real.
Almost every aspect of life can be brought in line with our faith and our teachings. (even weight loss... another thread... ---
Having the St. Joseph's Catc. at hand to read through and bring to mind doctries that maybe don't come up, or run through as a survey of our faith... perhaps have them memorize key ideas and prayers is good, too. And the CCC is wonderful to delve into things more deeply.
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Cindy in Texas
It Is About The Journey
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tovlo4801
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Makes a lot of sense guys! I love the examples so much. It always helps me to have a picture of how things actually look in practice.
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mommylori
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I think I unschool religion, we do a daily rosary, so my kids learn there prayers from that, and we go to daily mass so they learn alot about religion from that, I have Saint Story books, we read and I have the Saint Storys on CD we love to listen too! And I have bible coloring books I keep around, I also try to read a bit of the bible during tea time.lol But with religion incorporated in almost everything we do, from the Angelus at lunch, to the devine Mery somewhere imbetween to me doing my personal prayers, to my children sitting at church during my confession.lol So I kinda am at a loss on what else to add on.lol Plus the oldest is 5.lol But when my 2 year old knows most of the Hail Mary, the sign of the cross, and how to bless the house with Holy Water.lol I think I am on the right tract.
Lori
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Marybeth
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My Mom unschooled us in religion. It was always just a part of our family life. We did attend a Catholic grammar school, but since it was the 1970s and 80s it wasn't the best in terms of teaching doctrine.
We were taught to stop and pray when we heard sirens, bless ourselves with holy water before leaving the house, say grace before meals, pray for the saints intercession ( I think St. Anthony lived in my brothers' room). 
These are just a few of the devotions my Mom shared with us. It was a hot summer day, and I was complaining about being hungry and thirsty....my Mom took that moment to explain about purgatory and offering up our small sacrifices for the Holy Souls.
There is such a richness to our faith and so many small ways to show our faith to our children. I think how much my ds knows at only age 4.
When we are faithful to God, He takes those small efforts and blesses our families tremendously. Marybeth
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4Real Forums : Domestic Church
Topic: Do you unschool religion?
