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Bridget
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| Posted: June 04 2007 at 6:29am | IP Logged
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It has only been eleven years since I began schooling and going to hs conferences. Catholic homeschooling has exploded since then! The array of professionally published choices in curriculum is mind boggling today.
i remember those moms I knew in the early years of Catholic hs'ing. They made their materials, scoured the used bookstores for OOP Catholic books, pioneered the way.
Remember when CHC was Catholic Heritage Games? I love how they have grown but their offerings back then were so simple and sweet. Their catalogs were sprinkled with pictures of their lovely young family schooling. (I could kick myself for not saving those old catalogs.)
I am not complaining about all the fabulous options we have today. I was just talking with my friend about the 'old' days. A Catholic mom had few options in curriculum, extra activities, homeschool co-ops etc.
You just did it. You hunkered down every morning and stuck with your work. There was no computer, not a lot of distractions in decision making, not many options in schooling styles to tempt you and confuse you half way through the year... you just kept at it.
Maybe I am feeling nostalgic because my oldest will be starting high school work this fall, possibly in a 2 day a week tutorial program. Many of my friends have children going off to college and seminary, getting married and having babies. These are the moms who inspired me many years ago.
Catholic homeschooling is growing up.
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God Bless,
Bridget, happily married to Kevin, mom to 8 on earth and a small army in heaven
Our Magnum Opus
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ALmom
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| Posted: June 07 2007 at 3:23am | IP Logged
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Bridget:
I know I didn't inspire anybody, but I do remember the old days, even before Catholic Heritage Games was around. When I started, there was really not much Catholic and yes we scoured the used sales, did a lot of work on very old, poorly mimeographed copies of things and I made a bunch of math stuff. After we'd been at it for a while, I remember Our Father's House just getting a start - and Emmanuel Books too. It was hard because all the Protestant homeschoolers around us had nice, glossy looking materials that were much more beautiful to the eye than our stuff. It was a few years before CHC came along, even under the old name. It was years before I could use them much because my children were always a few grades ahead of the latest grade level developed. I must say I don't miss not having some choices, though I sometimes drive myself nuts.
Yes, I know schooling is possible without many resources at all - but when you have children with vision problems trying to read old mimeographed copies of things - well not much nostalgia there. I am so glad of the beautiful Catholic materials now - just wish some of my olders had some of the advantages and that I had known a bit more both about the faith and about teaching back then.
I do have one of the largest collections of Lives of the Saints and Bible Histories around because I was scarfing up everything I could get my hands on in the early days - not sure how long any of this would be around, all of it used or going out of print as I bought it up at bargain prices. We carried around lists of used book dealers - but you had to call cause nothing was computerized. Since I didn't know much, most of my calls were more of the "what kinds of stuff do you have for a x yo girl/boy" I wouldn't have known the names of the old books so most of these beautiful homeschooling moms - running used stores on the side because they were rescuing all the dumped treasures - willingly helped me try to select things sight unseen. They were very generous with their time.
I think we were aware of Seton and Our Lady of the Rosary school - that is it. Not to say there weren't more pockets somewhere but that is what we knew about here. We just hobbled along trying to do our own thing using some of the resources from these two providers.
There is some nostalgia for the lack of pressure in the early days when I didn't have any middle or high schoolers and nothing to choose from anyways - before we started struggling with the realization that mine just wouldn't read and we started scouring school supply store sales for manipulatives in the hope that this would help. Now my oldest has finished her first year of college and I have another highschooler. Now I have to figure out what to use with all these children, and somehow be available to all. There are days I feel very, very overwhelmed. But I'd never trade homeschooling these children and am so glad to be able to choose from things that fit better with my children.
Edited to add - I never have gotten the hang of computer research and still find myself frustrated even with the on-line card catelogues. I think this makes it extra hard for me to sort through the new materials coming out.
Also do you remember when Sophia Institute Press first opened their doors. Well, I collected their catelogues and ordered like crazy. But one catelogue I distinctly remember had beautiful pictures of classical art prints they were selling - and explanations of the prints and symbolism. I saved my catalogue for future use as an art appreciation course and was heartbroken when my dh decided to clean out my files for me and tossed all the older editions of catalogues. I've been waiting for them to make a book out of those old catalogues - I'll be first in line.
Janet
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momwise
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| Posted: June 12 2007 at 7:57pm | IP Logged
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Oh Bridget...yes, I do remember those days!! Nancy, I can't remember if CHG was around yet, but I remember their first offering...wasn't it a one page flyer?? And I bought one of the card games.
Nancy...I remember Seton and OLR as being the only providers too .My oldest was in 6th grade when I read those ads in the Wanderer for the first time & he'll be 26 in 3 weeks!!
I had all the first spiral editions of Learning Language Arts through Literature...the only Dictation and copywork program out there at the time; in fact I'm planning to pull them out and use them next year for my 2&5 grades (instead of buying yet another new program).
We used Warriner's for grammar ( and I'm going to pull that out again too) and Seton textbooks, even if we didn't enroll with them.
We had a meeting the first year I homeschooled and there were about 25 families in our entire metro area of 1million! Now we're hosting a regional conference
We drove 40 mi. out to the country the other day to have dinner with one of the first families in our local support group. We were talking about having a reunion of the first families in our group. The kids are all married with families or in college. I feel like I'm fading from one season to the next. What a great topic!
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Gwen...wife for 30 years, mom of 7, grandma of 3.....
"If you want equal justice for all and true freedom and lasting peace, then America, defend life." JPII
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ALmom
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| Posted: June 13 2007 at 4:58pm | IP Logged
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Well, Gwen, 25 families sounds like a lot to us. That is about the size our group is hitting now after all these years. Not a whole lot of Catholics in our diocese. I cannot even imagine what it would be like to have enough to host a conference! It would be fun to have a reunion - a few of the original homeschoolers here have dd making first vows in religious life and some now are married with children of their own.
Oh, those Learning Language Arts through ... Yes, ours are spiral bound. I didn't even know they bound them differently now. Our oldest used them. The rest of ours absolutely refused to do dictation or copywork -but those things are still tucked around here somewhere.
Yes, we have Warriners and Voyages - mostly sitting on the shelf now. Maybe I'm more nostalgic than I think as I cannot part with these even though no one is using them.
Janet
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mom2mpr
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| Posted: June 13 2007 at 5:28pm | IP Logged
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Funny. I came here thinking nostalgia related to the kids growing up I am getting nostalgic watching my 9 year old turn into a preteen. Here I am in my 40's and in the very beginning of my homeschool journey with a 4th grader and preschooler  Though they have never been to real school, I still think of myself as a newbie. Maybe I always will.
Anyhow, I am glad you all are ahead of me as I think I am going to be needing some insight in the next few years!!
Bless you all for paving the way for us!!!
Anne
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: June 13 2007 at 6:22pm | IP Logged
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I still have my spiral bound red LLATL book from 11 or 12 years ago!Along with OLRS 6th grade religion!from my 22 year old daughter!LOL!
I really need to let it go, right!
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Theresa
us-schooling in beautiful Fairbanks, Alaska.
LaPaz Home Learning
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mariB
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| Posted: June 17 2007 at 8:56pm | IP Logged
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Yes, those were the good old days when people would look at you like you had two heads when you replied to the question, "So where do your kids go to school?"...."Oh! We homeschool."
I love all the support now. But, I gotta say, with all the resources out there it can be really overwhelming come curriculum purchasing time.
I've decided to pull everything out of my closets, look at it all, AND USE IT!!!
What was good enough for my 15 year old and actually worked, should be good enough for my 7 year old.
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marib-Mother to 22ds,21ds,18ds,15dd,11dd and wife to an amazing man for 23 years
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alicegunther
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| Posted: June 18 2007 at 1:16am | IP Logged
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Yes, I do feel nostalgic remembering those days!
Things have gotten so much better now that homeschooling is more widespread and acceptable, but where did the time go?!
Great thread, Bridget!
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Love, Alice
mother of seven!
    
Cottage Blessings
Brew yourself a cup of tea, and come for a visit!
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Bridget
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| Posted: June 18 2007 at 7:52am | IP Logged
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When I was at our local conference the other night, I realized again that I'm a veteran! I knew so many people, including vendors and speakers. I hardly got any books bought because I was chatting so much, and several people brought someone to meet me with newbie questions.
There really is not a more enjoyable life than homeschooling is there?! We are SO blessed!
__________________
God Bless,
Bridget, happily married to Kevin, mom to 8 on earth and a small army in heaven
Our Magnum Opus
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4Real Forums : St. Anne's Tearoom: Growing in Wisdom over 40
Topic: Do You Get Nostalgic?
