Catholic Home Education~

[Rebecca2009]

Hi,
I responded to an old thread on this subject and it seems to have disappeared.

I am thinking of educating my 12 year old daughter at home beginning next fall. She is having a very tough time at school emotionally and she's asked me a few times now if she could homeschool.

I am willing but hesitant. My youngest child has autism and is very demanding. But he is at school during the day and so most of the time it would just be my daughter and I at home. I homeschooled in the past and it was very difficult. However at that time I always had at least one baby or toddler in the house. I am thinking now it would be different since everyone is at school or work during the day.

Am I crazy for considering this (excuse my lack of punctuation, my son kinda broke my keyboard

[Brother Adam]

There are a lot of home school families here who will encourage and help you. I recommend logging into the family forum at the bottom of phatmass. They talk about home schooling a lot there.

[Rebecca2009]

The only family forums I see are locked, and they don't seem to be about this issue....maybe I am looking in the wrong section (I hate that my question mark key isn't working~

[Brother Adam]

This forum: http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/index.php?showforum=55

Just enter the password - iamanadult and search through the threads. There are a lot on home schooling.

[Papist]

You are not crazy...ahhh if you are then so am I.

My wife and I will be homeschooling our children, starting this September. The two main reasons are 1) we want to fully provide our children their religious and moral instruction and 2) we don't want our children immersed in the peer culture with its attitudes, language, conversation subject matter, view of sexuality; its overall cynical material worldliness.

When I mention that we plan to homeschool the number one response I get from people, especially family , by far, is how will your kids learn socialization...or something of that sort. I really think they mean socializing, not socialization. Look at the definition of socialization.

SOCIALIZATION - Merriam - Webster defines socialization as, "the process by which a human being acquires the habits, beliefs, and accumulated knowledge of society through education and training for adult status."

Socialization is a different creature all together. I am not talking about having time to hang out after class and talk about your latest crush or ball game. This is about training my children to function in a given way and instilling habits and beliefs. I can hear you saying, "You can't keep your children in a bubble! They should be able to hear differing views! They should be taught how to function as part of society!" I agree. I can not keep my children in a bubble and I don't want to. I do, however, believe that it is my duty to be the primary educator for my children. They will experience things and have questions about those experiences. My wife and I will fiddler those experiences through our belief systems and values. We interpret the world based on our "fiddler". Our job as a father and mother and as teachers is to help them develop a healthy fiddler with a Catholic perspective. One that will rely on Catholic truth and honesty and integrity to make decisions and judgments. While I do not have any problems with them hearing views and beliefs that are different from mine, I do have a problem with them being told the views that our family holds (e.g. our beliefs about the Catholic Church, objective truth, a Creator, or sexuality) are not "politically correct", especially by teachers.

Edited March 1, 2011 by Papist

[Rebecca2009]

Thank you Adam, and great post, Papist! Very encouraging to me. Thanks.

[tinytherese]

As far as socialization goes, you can get your kid involved in activities such as sports, dance classes, youth group, etc. Not to mention there are often homeschooling groups that get together so your kids will be able to interact with other people and the parents can better screen who their children spend time with.

As far as that complaint that you can't keep your kids in a bubble in terms of what other people believe, unless you live in a cave or desert island cut off from civilization, you'll learn about the world alright. Also, the parents have at least some control of what their children are exposed to. Keeping your innocence for a long time is a good thing, but that doesn't necesarily mean that you are naiive. The parents should use that time when the kids are at the appropriate ages to explain why we believe what we believe and part of that can involve looking at common objections that people have to those beliefs. In this way, the kids are better prepared to face the world's challenges.

I've never been homeschooled, but I want to do that for my kids.

[Papist]

Yes. Parents can keep thier children innocent[well the best they can] without having them ignorant. When my children are get a dose of the "real world" I want them to be mature as possible when they process it. For example, if a girl sends a naughty picture of herself via cell phone, which my son could not avoid, it would be better if he were 18 years old than 14.