Let’s switch gears now for a minute. I’m going to yap, for a change, not about my weird ideas, convoluted inner musings, and little fascinations, but about my actual, physical IRL everyday life; namely: homeschooling.
(This turned into a long post! Click here to skip the rambly background and jump straight to the actual curriculum.)
A bit of background: I had no idea what I was getting into, when I decided to homeschool. I just knew I didn’t want my kids getting shot (we’re in the USA) or being force-fed any of the propaganda and nonsense that’s taught in public schools today, or being exposed to the myriad soul-rotting evils that spread there. A private Catholic school wasn’t an option, financially, so: homeschooling it was.
I’m not a natural teacher, though, and before having kids, never really cared to learn about pedagogy or any kind of philosophy of education; it’s just not something that interested me; I didn’t honestly even really know that such schools of thought existed. Learning was learning, I figured, and the more rigorous the better, because smart children (which all of mine are) ought to be academically challenged.
My eldest child has always been highly advanced for her age. (She’s also my healthiest kid — which is really funny, because she’s the only one of my kids who was strictly formula-fed practically from birth, and everyone says breastfed kids do so much better in everything; but I digress, that’s a post for another day.) At 4.5, she was already reading, counting beyond 20, trying to write letters, drawing people with features, stuff like that. She has always had this ability to focus very intensely, enjoyed sitting at the table working on things, and has never been what I’d call “hyperactive.”
Furthermore, her dad, my husband, started kindergarten when he was four, and says that it worked out great for him, he never felt behind even though he was always the youngest in his class; meanwhile, I was the opposite, I wasn’t placed in kindergarten until I was a week shy of six, so I was forever the oldest kid in my grade, which I always hated. For all of these reasons, my gut told me that my child was ready to start school at 4.5 rather than 5.5.
I’ve since realized that this is a cardinal sin, in the world of traditional/Christian homeschooling; formal school really shouldn’t be started until age seven, they say. Oops! I had no idea! I hadn’t delved into the whole vast online world of homeschooling theory, yet. I just assumed it was best to give intellectual stimulation, to challenge her. Like I said, I never really read up on pedagogy. I just thought school was school, and therefore, when the time came, went and purchased a “curriculum in a box” from a reputable, accredited Catholic institution — namely, Seton. Someone on a mommy forum introduced me to its full enrollment home education program, I scoped it out, and it sounded legit. Sold!
Catholic moms!, if you’ve used Seton, you know that its full enrollment is pretty intense! It’s great material, but it’s a heck of a lot of bookwork, for a kindergartener! We had a weird time with Seton’s kindergarten curriculum. It was, at once, way too easy for my daughter (like I said, she could already read and understand basic math concepts, but Seton had her studying the ABCs and 1-2-3s), and way too advanced (even though she was great at focusing on things that interested her, she struggled with being told to sit and complete pages of a workbook). So, we didn’t exactly finish that curriculum. We just ended up kind of using the materials at our own pace, finishing some early, others late.
The following year we used Seton full enrollment again, but this year I traded some of the Grade 1 subjects for Grade 2, because by now my daughter was reading full books to herself independently, all alone, and had no need to waste time with Phonics 1. We loved using the beautiful vintage second grade readers (These Are Our Neighbors and This Is Our Parish, etc.), however the paperwork load was still a lot for my child, and by now her stubborn independent streak was full-blown, so after some episodes of head-butting, I ended up once again backing off from the rigorous lesson plans and just gently using the materials in a way that worked for us.
I had figured out, by the end of that school year, that Seton full enrollment wasn’t a good fit for us at this stage.
I figured I’d just switch it up a bit. I did some reading about other programs, which led me to Mother of Divine Grace, which led me to Laura Berquist’s Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum, which led me to researching classical education in general… meanwhile, some other moms at my parish exposed me to Charlotte Mason and a program called The Children’s Tradition, which as far as I can tell, implements elements of both Classical and CM in a very organic, integrated, “whole-person” style, which appealed to me but was so different from what I was currently doing that, as of this past spring, I didn’t feel ready to dive in and commit quite yet. I needed to do some more research first. (I’ve been listening to the TCT podcast a lot, and it’s super legit! I’m leaning towards purchasing their full text for the 2027-28 school year; stay tuned.)
I spent much of the summer doing research and coming up with a plan. I figured assembling my own little curriculum using some of these ideas, piecing together these different philosophies, couldn’t be too hard!
Joke’s on me! Turns out, assembling a curriculum, even for little kids, is really hard! Whew. This summer gave me a whole new level of deep respect for teachers and what they do.
Homeschooling is a staggering responsibility, to make yourself the sole custodian of your little humans’ whole entire development and formation; and figuring out the best way to do this is one of the most overwhelming things I’ve ever taken on. I’m not sure what I’m doing yet. But, I had to start somewhere. Here’s the approach I decided to take this year for my two students (and their three-year-old brother, who likes to be in on the fun). Please feel free to chime in let me know your thoughts, even if you’re not a homeschooler of any kind!
(I’ll go by subject matter, even though, per a Charlotte Mason understanding, subjects shouldn’t be so distinct, but rather seamlessly interwoven. I’m trying to do that, as you’ll see, but am very much still figuring this all out.)
Virtue & Character Formation: which is, after all, my primary goal for my kids, as a homeschooling mom. I’ve selected a “Virtue of the Month” for each month, pulling them straight from the beloved Book of Virtues, which is a real treasure-trove of poems and stories; my own grandfather gifted me a copy when I was a kid, but I never fully appreciated it until now. What we’re doing is talking about each virtue and how the characters in our literature either demonstrate it or don’t. Then we have a Virtue Jar going where each kid gets to put in a colored paper “chip” when I catch them demonstrating the virtue in daily life (color coded for each child). At the end of the month we’ll tally up the chips and some kind of prizes (TBD) will be given.
As a supplement, I checked out from my library a copy of Everyday Graces (Karen Santorum), and it’s such a beautiful tool for teaching good behavior! Definitely going to buy a copy of our own.
Read-Aloud: We’re doing a ton of reading together, mainly — this is the bulk of our school this year. Tbh when I was researching MoDG, I checked out their supplementary reading lists for grades K-2, and just shopped for a ton of those titles online at places like ThriftBooks. So I bought us a veritable mountain of quality picture books, fairy tale collections, chapter books, religious books, and CM-style “living books.” Our curriculum is decidedly literature-based.
So, I start each day with read-aloud time, about 20-30 minutes, during which we read a new picture book (one or two each week, which I planned to loosely align with our Virtue of the Month), some poems or stories from the Book of Virtues pertaining to our monthly virtue; also, from Grimm’s Fairy Tales and other classic fairy tale collections, fables, and some old story volumes from the early 20th century. I’ve also been reading stories from the Burgess Bird Book, an acclaimed CM homeschool resource, and my kids like it but tbh I’m not really loving it because all the birds in it are specific to England and we are, as mentioned, American; still nice stories, though. After reading I will ask my 6-year-old to recite one of the stories back to me (a CM practice).
Poetry: Also during reading time we rehearse our weekly poems. My goal is for my first grader to memorize a poem a week. I planned them out to go with our weekly and monthly history/science/virtue/literature studies, and have selected them from One Hundred Best Poems for Boys and Girls compiled by Marjorie Barrows (1930), as well as Laura Berquist’s own The Harp and the Laurel Wreath. At the end of the week, we’re trying to copy the poem down into our poetry notebook. My first grader is doing great with this so far, although the writing down requires more effort from her than the memorizing.
For my kindergartener, I’ve been using Seton’s Art & Poetry K. I loved using this with my older daughter (it was my favorite part of Seton’s kindergarten curriculum), so am using it for art & poetry again. Even though I don’t have Seton’s lesson plans anymore I still remember a lot of the art project ideas and little games that they suggested to go with the paintings/poems in this text. So, this part ties in with our art course. My five-year-old, however, is not super interested in learning poems verbatim (but prefers to make up nonsense rhymes of her own, which I love!). So the poems in the Seton text are kind of auxiliary, at the moment.
After read-aloud (and, if weather/time/my energy levels permit, a morning walk together), we do:
TABLE TIME SUBJECTS (>45 min for my first grader, >15 min for my kindergartener, and I don’t force her to do it if she’s not interested on any given day):
Religion: I’m just using the Baltimore Catechism. It’s perfect for home instruction, with one topic per week. At this age, I’m mainly focusing on getting my kids to memorize the answers to the questions, at least the most important ones. I also have purchased Seton’s Religion for Young Catholics books, K through 2, but these are basically just derived from the Baltimore Catechism anyway, so I just went with the OG.
My kids’ religious instruction at this point is really just part of our everyday life — our house is a very Catholic place, and we observe all the liturgical seasons and many saints’ days (including their own name days) and say the Rosary daily, so, they are mainly learning the Faith organically. My two eldest are also in weekly catechism classes at our church.
Another fun resource I’ve been using to aid our efforts at liturgical living is the Catholic Kid’s Cookbook (from Word on Fire). Granted, this is a modern book, with all the feast days listed per the modern calendar and some days categorized under “Ordinary Time,” which I don’t love (we follow the Traditional calendar). But the recipes are really fun (St. Charbel’s spicy smashed potatoes were my favorite so far!) and really good hands-on teaching aids. So we’ll be doing lots of those this year.
Phonics: As mentioned, my first grader isn’t in a Phonics course; she no longer needs one, she is a very advanced reader. For my kindergartener, I purchased Seton’s Phonics K course, the full set with workbook, flashcards, and mini reader booklets. I like its structure and think it will be helpful for my 5-year-old, who is not quite reading yet but getting really close. Plus I like how Catholic it is and how neatly it lines up with Seton’s Handwriting course for kindergarten. Which brings me to:
Handwriting: Seton’s method of teaching manuscript is simple and effective. It’s all I know, as a teacher, and it worked fine for my eldest, so I’m sticking with it for her little sister.
My first-grader has by now completed Seton’s Handwriting K and 1, but I don’t feel she’s quite ready for cursive yet; she needs to neaten up her print first and really master it. So, this year I purchased for her the Copybook 1 from Memoria Press. (It does have a small cursive section at the end, which we may introduce at the end of the year if all goes well, but I’m in no hurry.) I have mixed feelings about Copybook so far. I love the idea, but, figuring out exactly how to fit the lesson structure into our curriculum was pretty awkward for me. Some days of the week, Copybook focuses on language and memorization rather than writing, which is cool and all, but on those days I’ll be supplementing with some of the dictation passages from The Harp and the Laurel Wreath, so that my child can get a bit of writing practice each day. In a way Copybook’s method feels a bit overwhelming, since we’re already doing some other poetry memorization and religion studies; I may or may not decide to proceed with it. On the plus side though, it is a beautiful book, and I do like that it really encourages perfection and tidiness. My student’s handwriting has become so much neater already, it’s awesome to see!
If we run out of material for handwriting and need something a little beefier, I also purchased Our Lady’s Copywork for the Catholic Homeschool. I love this book!, it’s stunning!, but, I think the passages might be slightly overwhelming for my six-year-old at this point; we might save it for next year.
Math: We’re using Seton’s Math K and Math 2, respectively. My kindergartener does one page a day, and loves it, always begs me to do more, but I’m trying to keep the lessons short and sweet and focused. It’s really just a fun little activity for her, thus far. My 6-year-old does about one page, or 15 minutes (whichever comes first) of math a day. Just like me, she is naturally quite good at math but doesn’t find it as thrilling as art or literature, so doesn’t really care to exert herself in it. I’m still trying to figure out the right balance, in this area.
After table time, we do a 15-20 minute “brain break”, which constitutes
P.E.: okay, I’ll admit: this was the only part of our curriculum that I got help with from stupid old ChatGPT.
P.E. has never been my strong suit; I love exercising, but am by no means an “athlete” nor do I really know that much about “fitness” (I exist mainly in the realm of imagination and theory, and don’t really identify with nor particularly like my physical body). But, it was brought to my attention how important physical education is, even for little kids, so, not feeling confident at all, I asked Dr. Chat for general advice. Chat suggested practicing a different skill each month, such as “balance” or “strength” or “jumping,” playing little games related to that skill, and setting little goals to try and meet by the end of each month. Sure! Sounded fine to me! I generally don’t trust Chat with serious matters (would never go to it for advice on teaching literature or music), but, I figured there was no need to overcomplicate things, as long as my kids are getting a bit of healthy movement each day. In addition, they take weekly horseback riding lessons, which also provides physical training.
…so then, after brain break and lunch, we have our loop subjects, which are more free-form and rotate by the day:
Art: We’re doing weekly crafts, which as mentioned I’ve mainly borrowed from Seton’s Art & Poetry K suggestions; they go along with paintings in the book, and once again I’ve planned out which lesson we do each week to loosely align with our literature/virtue/science topics.
In addition, we’re doing art appreciation, using both Seton’s text and the Memoria Press Art Cards for K-2 (I bought all three stacks because I love them so much!). I went through and selected one art card per week to go with our Seton Art lesson; whether it’s same artist, similar theme, same artistic style, or whatever. Just so that we have a painting on the board to discuss, enjoy, and learn about. This has been a massive hit so far. In week one we did John Constable paintings, and my three year old is now obsessed with Salisbury Cathedral and learning about tall churches around the world. In week two we looked at “The Thankful Poor” (Henry Ossawa Tanner, from Seton) and “The Old Stagecoach” (Jonathan Eastman Johnson, from the Memoria stack), and we discussed being grateful with a little, not needing too much stuff to be happy — and our craft to go with this was assembling “blessing bags” for the local homeless (and decorating the bags with stickers). Stuff like that.
Music & Music Appreciation: I bought from Angelus Press a nice little book of Essential Latin Hymns, and aim to teach some of them to my kids this year, during the appropriate liturgical seasons. They love singing the Salve Regina and know it by heart, so I thought why not learn some more. We learned “Sancte Pie Decime” (the anthem of the SSPX; yes, we’re in the cult) as part of our novena to St. Pius X leading up to his feast day. That one was nice and easy, they loved it. Next I was hoping to teach them the Angelus (my fav), but they find that a bit overwhelming (“too much blah blah blah,” my 6-year-old said), so, we’ll see how it goes with the Latin hymns, going forward.
We also listen to the CDs that Seton provided for music class for kindergarten and first grade — I especially love the Catholic Songs for Kids album they give you for first grade music, it’s from the ’50s. It’s so charming, and the songs are stupid catchy (especially this one, which is pretty much never not stuck in my head nowadays). So, we listen to and sing these all the time. Music appreciation is also something we do just as part of our daily life, like I play a lot of baroque music in our van whenever we drive anywhere.
(I also have a copy of Memoria Press’s Music Enrichment supplement for K-2, and we used that some last year, but, tbh… I kind of don’t love a lot of the songs in it, lol, sorry, I just can’t with opera. I’ve really tried but I just can’t.)
One of my goals for this school year is to acquire a keyboard and start learning the piano together, too.
Nature Study/Science: I try to have my first-grader do nature journaling at least once a week. CM wanted kids nature journaling daily and outdoors six hours a day, but, for a suburban first grader, this just doesn’t feel super feasible. But we are doing some nature journaling and learning about our natural surroundings as our main science course.
As an addition, I saw a suggestion on Pinterest for weekly science unit studies for little kids that I thought sounded super fun! Each week we have a topic such as “weather” or “apples” or “magnets,” and I have a little activity/experiment based on that theme (again, Pinterest). I also check out a few kids’ library books on the topic for us to read together throughout the week.
I did buy both Science 2 from Seton and Kindergarten Science from MoDG, but honestly don’t really think I’ll be using either of these this year — they don’t feel super necessary.
History & Geography: For history we’re mainly doing “living books,” i.e. fun and engaging, high quality stories about historical people and events, which get us talking about history. I did also buy Seton’s Great Saints in World History for grade two, and that’s a nice little supplement! It allows us to learn both some saints and some geography together. I tried to plan out our bi-weekly chapters to go with other topics we’re studying that week, e.g. Saint Nicholas during the week of December 6th, St. Francis during the week of October 4th, etc.
Each saint in the book goes with a particular country that’s under their patronage, so we spend one week learning about the saint and one learning about the country. During the country week, we make a recipe for a food from that country, and read library books about that country.
I also bought CM’s Elementary Geography, and plan to read relevant chapters from it to go with our science & geography topics throughout the year… however, I’m not loving this resource yet; much like the Burgess Bird Book, it’s very English, and needs to be adapted for American kids.
Like music and religion, geography is something my kids learn about for fun, organically. We have a globe as well as a colorful map and a US map in our living/learning/playing space, and we look at these and talk about them at every opportunity! My 3-year-old loves to sing the continent song while looking at the map, and my 6-year-old studies the globe for fun while eating her meals. Seton’s first grade geography text was a really fun one for her last year, too, so I just might break that one out again at some point.
Safety: One day a month we have Safety Day, in which I review the important things they’re already familiar with, such as body safety, special safe adults, what to do if lost in public, Mom and Dad’s phone numbers, how to call 911 in an emergency, etc.
Supplements we’re enjoying: the Catholic Children’s Treasure Box series, a reprinted set of vintage (1957) books that include stories, poems, games, and crafts. I hand one of these to them at the end of the school day every three weeks or so. Also, the 12-volume boxed set of Fr. Lovasik’s Books of Saints (love his little books).
“But what about socialization?!”: Yeah, yeah. I have a lot of thoughts about the whole “what about socialization” question, which can be summed up in the relevant chapter of Mary Kay Clark’s Catholic Home Schooling. Long story short, I don’t think the “socialization” that kids get at public school is at all necessary or beneficial.
But, at the same time, I do want my kids to have social experiences, and don’t want to isolate them from the world. So, in addition to the social exposure they get at church and the various library events and activities we attend, we’re also getting involved with a couple of local homeschool field trip meetups.
We also practice social skills at home: how to behave when meeting a new person, how to greet someone, etc., including role-playing games that my kids love.
So, this sounds like a lot, I guess, but even on weeks when we get everything done, it’s really not.
And what I’ve described here is the perfect week in which nothing gets in the way. That doesn’t usually happen. I also have a one-year-old, and life is always hectic. Lately I’ve been sick, and haven’t been checking every box every single day; morning walks fell by the wayside, last week, as did trips to the library. Other days we have appointments out of the house. I always at least get table time and some read-aloud done.
And just because we’re practicing social skills and virtue does not mean we’re a super virtuous family or that my kids are little goody two-shoeses in every situation, lol that’s so far from the case. We are just a weird and chaotic little family who’s doing our best. I am NOT one of those trendy traddy aesthetic crunchy homeschooling mommy influencers who gets everything right, as you very well know if you read this blog. So, yeah, advice is welcome, and please don’t take anything I say too seriously — this is just the best that I’ve been able to piece together, on my own, at this point. It’s not perfect by any means, and looks pretty rough around the edges most days — but hey, it beats public school. At least I’m confident of that much.
