Catholic Books

The local public library is good for a lot of things, but  it is not usually a good source for Catholic books.  Fortunately, quality Catholic books can be found online through various used book sellers.  I like to use hardback books whenever possible so that they will last year after year.

For reading practice, we use the Catholic National Readers .  These are old readers similar to the McGuffey Readers which are popular among homeschoolers.  Kolbe Academy and Our Lady of Victory School use these readers in their curriculum.  The antiquated language causes children to pay close attention to the words (great when children first start reading to prevent them guessing at the words) and the stories are charming.  An example of the language used is this sentence from the Catholic National Readers Primer, "Has Ann a fan?"  instead of "Does Ann have a fan?" Kolbe Academy sells guides for the Catholic National Readers.

Our Lady of Victory School  is the publisher of Catholic National Readers as well as many other old Catholic school books.  Their Voyages in English is a popular choice for grammar and composition.  I try to get these books used through websites like Abebooks and Alibris or from cathswap, a yahoo group for buying and selling used Catholic homeschooling curriculum.

Religious Studies

First things first! In order to keep my homeschool Catholic, I need to integrate Catholicism into our daily activities.  For formal religious studies I look primarily to these areas:

1. Regular prayer times.  We aim to say at least a Morning Offering together before we begin, the Angelus at noon and prayers before meals.  Our evening prayers vary with our seasons; a nightly Rosary is ideal, but if we can't do that, we try to say all of our basic prayers before bed time.
2. Familiarize the children with the Saints and the Bible using good children's books. 
3. Teach the catechism.  The Baltimore Catechism is an old standby which is well suited to homeschooling and is widely available and inexpensive.  Catechism study can be easily incorporated into handwriting or copy work practice. 
4. Celebrate the Liturgical Year.  www.catholicculture.org is an excellent online resource for this.  They have a daily liturgical calendar available complete with prayers, readings, activities, recipes and songs for the various feast days.  

Beyond the formal religious studies,  I use good catholic books wherever possible and will make up our handwriting worksheets using prayers, catechism, Bible quotes and other Catholic-inspired passages.

Publish Post

An Initial Investment

I am going to start printing out my own worksheets and putting them into binders for the children, and so I will need a printer that gives me a low cost per page.   The Robinson Curriculum website has a page devoted to economical printer recommendations and what it boils down to is that it should be a duplexing, black and white laser printer.  They recommend the Brother HL-5370 DW. 

The Robinson Curriculum is a good and economical choice for homeschooling, but it is not for me.  I do like many aspects of the program, especially the idea that serious study of science should wait until after the student has mastered mathematics through Calculus.  Dr. Robinson is a university professor of science and his ideas on education are very thought provoking.  There is a yahoo group for Catholic users of the Robinson Curriculum at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MOCatholicRobinson/

Welcome!

I have been homeschooling since my almost 13 year old daughter began Kindergarden, before my "reversion" to the Catholic faith.  I had three girls at the time and I quickly found that workbooks were the key to consistency for me.  After years of researching, I had so many aspirations for beautifully planned out lesson plans that thoroughly integrate subjects and leave my children drenched in knowledge.  Well, that just didn't happen, and so I turned to workbooks- boring, I know, but I loved being able to just "open and go"  and my children loved them.    I found that covering basic skills with workbooks kept my kids on track with essential skills and still left time for them to explore learning on their own.

About three years after I began my homeschooling journey, I came home to the Catholic Church and not long afterward, my husband and I decided that we would leave the planning of our family size up to God.  So homeschooling three became homeschooling seven (or more, God willing) and it became plain to see that my workbook addiction was going to break the bank.

So here I am, exploring ways to educate my large family on a small budget. 

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