Image: Aulnoy, Madame d’ (Marie-Catherine), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

An interview with an amazing homeschooling mum. Anonymous.

Why did you choose to homeschool?

The sex-education in schools – too much information for little people! I thought “I don’t want my littlies to have their innocence taken away sooner than it has to be, thank you!”

Faith. I could see the trends; so many children were losing their faith and I wanted my children to keep their faith.

And I wanted to like my children, and I wanted my children to like each other and to get on. I didn’t want to be a parent that said “I’m so glad my kiddies have gone to school today; oh no the holidays are coming on.” I didn’t want to have that kind of thinking.

What did homeschooling look like for you on a day-to-day basis?

I can freely admit I wasn’t a very good homeschool teacher for a start off, because I had no teaching background. I just went with the principle that generally any kind of teaching was better than being at school, and most mothers could manage it [homeschooling]. I went with that. Over time I found it wasn’t that simple, and it was much harder than I thought it was!

I did try a variety of curricula. In terms of the children learning their Faith, one book we used was Christ the King, Lord of History. And Seton, I wanted to go down that path too, but that became too hard and to expensive. The other one was Saxon math. I used a few others ones. In the way of science we didn’t get a lot achieved. We did quite a lot of activities outside of home.

What did socialization look like for your family?

We spent so much time socializing we had to reign ourselves in and come back and do some paperwork!

Soccer, swimming, ballroom dancing, cycling, gym. Quite a lot of music. Junior choir, flute, piano, violin, sewing, and basketball.

How did you bring the Faith into your day-to-day life?

It was the rosary, really. Going to Mass, and learning about the Traditional Mass. Then Stations of the Cross, and adoration.

What was the best thing about homeschooling?

Watching the children grow in their Faith. And also their singing.

I had said a prayer to Jesus one time when we were at Mass in the Cathedral. I said to our Lord, “if they can only use their voices to praise you and to honor you, then it’ll all be worthwhile,” and indeed that became the case. God really heard that prayer.

What was the hardest thing about homeschooling?

Getting the paperwork done, getting the schoolwork done, and figuring out what they needed for their future.

What advice would you give to other homeschooling mums?

If you have to pay for tutors, pay for tutors.

The children need both religion and education.

Pay attention and encourage them in their strengths!