Help! My child is not thriving . . . should I homeschool?

Question: My child is not responding well to school. I want to consider homeschooling, but homeschooling feels very overwhelming. How can Catholic Schoolhouse help me?

I have been in your shoes. After a year of praying and resisting, our family finally said yes to God’s calling and pulled 5 kids out of school, with a baby on the way 🙂 and jumped into the deep end of the pool of homeschooling. We were suddenly so blessed, and it began a life-long adventure for us.

Homeschooling can be a wonderful gift for students and parents. We understand you want to find what is best for your child’s education. Homeschooling can also be stressful and overwhelming. Being in control gives you the flexibility to adapt to the changing needs of your children and sudden life events.

You don’t have to go it alone. We have ideas, tools, and communities that can help.

Catholic Homeschooling is a Calling

Homeschooling is best when it is a calling to something, more so than a calling from something. From a Catholic perspective, lots of prayer is a must! God may be giving you strong signals that He wants you to homeschool, or it may be a little more subtle, in the form of signs that the current path is not the right one . . . and God wants something else. Learn more about what Catholic Schoolhouse offers families.

Which homeschool style is best?

The daily routine of homeschooling can have so many permutations, thus you can easily find a style that works for you. Everything from a school-at-home, correspondence-school-type approach to completely free-style child-led learning is available. And, of course, every blend in between.

Homeschooling Flexibility that Grows with your Child

Catholic Schoolhouse is a flexible, classical program that fits in the everything-in-between category. With memory work that creates a trustworthy scope and sequence, It allows you, the educator, to have ultimate curriculum control. 

So, your child loves workbooks, add more workbooks! If your child hates workbooks, avoid them. Or sprinkle in just one, such as for spelling. Maybe, your child loves hands-on activities–go for it. If you don’t have time for all-day hands-on, choose just one subject for fun interaction and supply books, videos, or solo activities for the rest. 

And remember, that because Catholic Schoolhouse doesn’t require a list of books, it means you can source your favorite approach from other Catholic publishers, without being locked into one methodology.

For some ideas about how to begin to approach the planning stage, check out Get Started – Planning for the Grammar Student.

Find Support from a Homeschooling Community

Finding a local community for support reduces the feeling of being overwhelmed. The other educators will not only guide you to greater success but will help calm the storm of fearful thoughts and unknowns.

Visit catholicschoolhouse.com/chapters to see if there is a Catholic Schoolhouse community near you–driving a bit is OK if it gets you a great community. If there is not, search for local Catholic “co-ops” or cooperative groups that get together. They may be social or academic, but either will get you plugged in. Really try to seek out a Catholic group–as your child (and parent) grows, being surrounded by others growing in the Faith becomes increasingly more important and it is hard to lose friends to switch to a new group later.

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I have been so blessed by my homeschool journey. I am happy to pay it forward and answer any questions you may have!

Blessings!

Kathy Rabideau
Co-Founder of Catholic Schoolhouse