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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Subject Topic: oh... the "s" word again... Post ReplyPost New Topic
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seeker
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Posted: Aug 05 2010 at 1:33pm | IP Logged Quote seeker
But in searching the forums I haven't found the answers to my particular situation...

Our county is extremely rural, extremely anti-homeschooling, and extremely anti-Catholic. There are about 17,500 people that live here with a population density of about 35 people per square mile. Of that number of people less than 1% homeschool and none of those are Catholic. The majority are Pentecostal or Southern Baptist (the anti-Catholic kind). To give you another idea about how rural it is here: the two high schools have a combined population of about 800 students...

I talked to a lady at our parish (which is in the next county) a couple of days ago to see if there are any Catholic homeschooling families there. She had actually homeschooled, but her sons were grown. She took my information and said she did know of a lady in the parish who homeschooled and had youngers like mine (mine are 6 and 3). She said she'd forward on my information to the lady so I'm waiting now to hear from her.

There is a co-op in that town that meets every Friday from 8:15 to 1:45 (various classes, and I'm sure they wouldn't require someone to stay for the whole thing) at a baptist church. I thought about asking dh if it would be okay to check it out this fall with my 3yo (we aren't yet in agreement on homeschooling so my 6yo will be in ps 1st grade this year).

Socialization is a big issue around our house as dd1 is a little social butterfly (which actually concerns me because she worries so much about what people think about her). To me personally, I think that CCD on Sundays, weekly trips to the library and possibly this co-op (barring any requirement of signing a problematic Statement of Faith) are more than enough socializing for any child.

Am I missing anything? My girls are still so little... I thought about getting Haystack Full of Needles but wasn't sure it could help given my location/situation.
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guitarnan
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Posted: Aug 05 2010 at 1:54pm | IP Logged Quote guitarnan
I lived in a remote county like yours (with only one high school!) and it was indeed challenging to find ways for my children to make friends with other homeschoolers. For a while I was the only Catholic homeschooler in the county (and I held the same honor when we first began homeschooling at an overseas location). I found co-ops in both locations that didn't require statements of faith and we did participate in them. Still, it was tricky at times to get past the differences in beliefs; I handled this by explaining our beliefs to my children as each situation came up, but now I would discuss it all ahead of time if I were doing a multi-faith co-op because my children are older.

I'm hoping you will hear from the mom from your parish, particularly if the co-op you mention 1) does require a statement of faith or 2) has a "let's evangelize the co-op members" undercurrent.

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Carole N.
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Posted: Aug 06 2010 at 5:25am | IP Logged Quote Carole N.
In our previous location, we belonged to a co-op that was largely protestant/evangelist. They did have a statement of faith, but we told them we could not sign it. They seemed to be okay with this although it did mean we could not be in an elected position (which was fine with me).

Later it evolved into a group of moms who were looking for educational experiences for their children. We had IEW classes, took some field trips, and eventually were able to start a symphonic band. This was a great experience for my children and my oldest ds is very good friends with one of the boys from a Baptist family.

The moms used to get together to scrapbook as well. One of the moms sold Creative Memories materials. We had a healthy respect for each others differences and when the discussion wandered into faith, I learned very quickly to be able to defend our beliefs. I can honestly say it was an educational experiece for me as well.

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