What makes a distinctively Catholic homeschool experience? We know that one of the top reasons families opt to homeschool is to provide religious and moral instruction. This is certainly true for many Catholics. Because of the concern for religious instruction, Catholic homeschool parents are often concerned about successfully incorporating the faith into their home education.
The reality is that there is no one “right” way to homeschool as a Catholic family. Here are a few ideas to inspire your unique Catholic homeschool.
Attend Daily Mass (But It Doesn’t Have to be Every Day!)
As we have previously discussed, one of the great benefits of homeschooling is the ability to make your own schedule. You are not required to have all the kids dropped off by 7:45 every morning, and every day of the week does not need to look the same. Because of this freedom, Catholic homeschoolers can choose to attend daily Mass. If you have early risers, you might make it to the 6:30 AM Mass with some of the children before your spouse leaves for work. Or you might bring everyone to 9 o’clock Mass.
It's important to remember, however, that attending daily Mass is not a requirement. For your family, you might discern that daily Mass is not feasible for certain seasons. If you do not have a church close by, getting to Mass while meeting the academic demands and household chores for the day might not be prudent. With napping babies and fidgety toddlers, getting everyone to Mass may not be a reasonable goal. Instead of aiming for every single day, you might pick one day a week or find an evening mass to bring the older kids to when the littles are in bed.
Develop Family Devotions
Beyond daily Mass, there are so many beautiful devotions that you can make part of your daily life with your kids. A simple Morning Offering prayer at the breakfast table can mark the start of the homeschool day. Taking time each afternoon for the Divine Mercy Chaplet can be a way of pausing and transitioning from one activity to another. If you’re part of a homeschool co-op or extracurriculars, you might spend quite a bit of time in the car. Saying a Rosary as a family while on the road can be a wonderful way to pray together.
Whatever devotions you decide to try, continue to nurture your own spiritual life and your marriage. As the saying goes, you cannot pour from an empty cup, and inviting your children to pray with you requires that you have an active prayer life to share.
Celebrate the Liturgical Year
Being Catholic means that the Church provides seasons of preparation and celebration throughout the year. We have previously shared many simple ways of bringing the Liturgical Year alive in your home to become part of the instruction in your homeschool. Taking time out of regular instruction to honor special feast days can be a memorable way of bringing liturgical living into your family life. Every school needs breaks, and you can choose to have yours coincide with important holy days in the Church calendar.
As with other opportunities for busy homeschool families, the liturgical living does not need to be complicated. Making family traditions around special feast days can be a fun and enjoyable way to acknowledge our faith throughout the year.
Incorporate the Saints in Your Curricula
There are many good curricula available, or you might choose to make your own. There is no obligation to choose only Catholic products (a good math program will be good whether or not it is printed by a Catholic company). For certain subjects, however, we have an exciting opportunity to teach our faith.
There are excellent history programs that put an emphasis on saints in each era. There are also supplemental programs designed to introduce the Theology of the Body in age-appropriate lessons. Learning about the lives of the saints and finding areas of Catholic teaching to emphasize in your home can be a great way to offer your children a distinctively Catholic worldview and go deeper on subjects that it might otherwise be hard to devote time to.
Take Field Trips to Catholic Landmarks
One of the most powerful ways to teach is through experiences. When we go to holy sites, our faith can take on new dimensions and history lessons are more than just stories in a book. Looking up the closest Catholic landmarks can give you great ideas for field trips or road trips. Do you live near a historic mission church? Is there a pilgrimage site or monastery in your state? Do you know someone who works at the local seminary who might be able to arrange a visit? Has your family visited the nearest Cathedral?
If you live in Texas, the Painted Churches are a treasure trove of Catholic history. The dozens of churches across Texas, built between the late 1800s and early 1900s, were the product of German and Czech immigrants. While the churches may not seem like much from the outside, they are each unique masterpieces of ornate, handmade decoration on the inside. Arranging a visit to some of these historic Catholic landmarks can immerse your family in local history and the Catholic faith.
However you choose to incorporate the faith into your daily homeschool life and throughout the year will be unique to your family. The needs of different aged children and the demands on individual parents will determine what is feasible for you. The good news is that there are as many ways to live a vibrant Catholic homeschool life as there are families.