Seton Magazine Catholic Homeschool Articles, Advice & Resources
It upsets me that our pastor is not happy about our homeschooling.
Many parish schools are under significant financial pressure. The economic problems over the last several years have caused many families to struggle financially. Since parishes rely on donations from their parishioners to keep going, struggling families often mean a struggling parish.
The bishops are closing schools and even churches because attendance and finances are so low. So, it’s not hard to understand that pastors may look at homeschoolers and see lost income to the parish school.
That being said, your first responsibility must be to your children and your family as a whole. You are the one who has to make the choice of what is best for your children. Even though the parish priest might like your children to be in the parish school, he does not have the information you have, or the authority you have, to decide on the best educational situation for your children.
In any case, the decline of parish schools can hardly be blamed on home schooling. In 1965, there were 4.4 million students in Catholic elementary schools. By 1985 this number had dropped to just over 2 million—and there was no appreciable level of Catholic homeschooling during these years.
In 2014, Catholic elementary schools enrolled a little less than 1.4 million students. There are perhaps a few hundred thousand Catholic students being home schooled in the United States. There are millions upon millions of Catholic children who are enrolled in public or non-Catholic private schools.
One would think that just out of sheer numbers, the children enrolled in non-Catholic schools would be a more fruitful population to target for enrollment in parish schools.
How important are the videos for the high school courses? We don’t have a computer at home and we would need to go to the library to see them.
After the student watches a video, he is asked to rate the video and offer comments. It is very rare for any student to say a video is not helpful, and most say Very Helpful.
While the videos are not essential to doing well in a course, they not only offer further understanding, but they also provide more “inspiration” for learning the material. The presenters tend to provide a certain amount of “fun” and enjoyment while learning the material.
My friends are pressuring me to join a support group. What do you think?
Many home schooling moms feel they can use the support from a group, as well as benefit from different teaching ideas through having discussion meetings with other home schooling moms. For many moms, it is very helpful, but for some moms, they just want to take their own path.
My suggestion would be to try a few meetings and see if you find any help, or any special friends whom you might call simply to talk over ideas. Even if you don’t glean a great deal of home schooling help, you might meet some good Catholic families who can support you in your family vocation. If you try a group and it’s not right for you, you can always stop going. But if you never try, you’ll never know.
I feel a little depressed that this year has not gone as well as I would have liked; my children are just now finishing up last year’s work.
It is important for you not to feel depressed about your schooling because you might be conveying that attitude to your children. First, remember that even if things don’t go perfectly, you are still saving your children from the secular influences that are dramatically affecting the children attending the schools.
Second, in this society, being a mother is being heroic!
Third, we never guarantee that our efforts will meet the optimal outcome we hope for. All you can do is just keep trying and encourage your children to keep trying.
Fourth, there’s no inherent relationship between your children’s learning pace and the calendar. Children learn at different rates, and they learn individual subjects at different rates. The point is to keep moving ahead with learning at the best pace for the child. With home schooling, we are using the most sensible approach to learning for children. Seton’s lessons are to serve as a guideline, not a command. They certainly are not meant to make you feel guilty for not having done enough in a certain period of time.
Stay calm and just keep trying. You and your children will accomplish more, and live more happily, if you don’t put yourself under such pressure.
Discipline is a real problem in my home. My kids will only do their work if I am sitting with them. If I turn my back, they start playing a game.
Discipline is often a difficult problem in home schooling families. In fact, it seems that more people stop home schooling because of discipline issues than for any other reason. The lack of discipline in homes mirrors the overall culture, in which the idea that sometimes we need to obey authority is seen as contrary to our human rights.
The fact is, people who are undisciplined are people who are unlikely to succeed in life. People who lack discipline will find it difficult to hold a job or to raise a family. In the worst case, they may even lose the Faith.
However, many families have been able to turn around the lack of discipline and create a workable and peaceful family life. It can be done, although it is not easy.
For help with discipline issues, consider attending a homeschool conference. Homeschool conferences feature speakers regarding discipline, such as Dr. Ray Guarendi.
Seton sells a number of books regarding discipline. Visit us at www.setonbooks.com then search for ‘Discipline’. Remember that authors of these books offer suggestions, but it is up to you in the end to find what works for your family.
I am not sure if I’m seeing all the grader comments on a high school English essay.
We have found that sometimes students and parents do not actually “see” the grader comments for book reports or essays submitted over the internet. You need a computer or internet browser that supports PDF comments. If you don’t have it, you can find directions on how to get it in the Frequently Asked Questions section of MySeton.
High School English graders always make some comments, so if you don’t see any comments in red on the essay itself, you should find comments embedded into speech bubbles and/or highlighted text. When the student places his cursor over the speech bubble or highlighted text, a comment box will pop up.
