Let's talk curriculum!

As mentioned in the past here, our curriculum choice is one of the reasons we homeschool; I fell in love with the content, its pace, and the many wonderful products they offer. Our curriculum of choice is Catholic Heritage Curricula. We have used it exclusively since the very beginning. It is classic and faith based, but also simple and easy to use. 

Kids love to unwrap their new books! there is nothing better than this for a homeschooler 😇

CHC caught my attention from the very beginning by the innocent overall theme. If you look at their catalogs you will see that they are motherly and classic, so my first impression pointed me to the innocence of the program. I wanted that in my homeschool! besides, it was faith based: most of their books are enriched by the truths of the Faith and the Magisterium. For example: their spelling, handwriting and grammar, add bible verses and apologetics early on. Their science and social studies approach, is outlined with a strong faith and reason perspective, that walks paralleled with the history of the church! it is truly careful and intentionally crafted, I love that! Also the gentle approach and their rigor allows you from the First to the Fourth grade to have a four day schedule, giving you and your students a break right in the middle of the week! 

I liked the fact that offers pre-made planners, that organize your subjects, lessons and daily activities within a 32-36 week range for you! in addition includes teacher manuals and tips to help you introduce the concepts to your students. This  is a great plus when you have no teaching background!

I am just learning the homeschool world and I am not very familiar with the variety of products and latest reviews, so I try to play safe and go with what I like and began to know.  CHC shaped my days and the goals of our homeschool, I have learned to expand my resources to my rhythm and comfort. To begin, I started with the core subjects and as we grew confident of what we were capable to do, we explored their enrichment books. We love their art program, music studies and Latin readers series.

One of my biggest fears at the beginning - speaking truth here- was teaching my kids to read. As you know by now, my English is a work in progress, so to even imagine teaching my children to read correctly, was a reason of concern. CHC has the sweetest books and an easy program for readers to introduce phonics and spelling. As a matter of fact it help me, to improve my pronunciation and spelling -one is never old to learn new things from the basic places- yes! the kids and I were enriched by this very program.

I have nothing but great things to say about CHC, we used it exclusively for now, but we are open to enhance in other places too, we help ourselves with online resources, library books and such. I can recommend it for all elementary, we just began middle school with my oldest and so far we are enjoying it very much. They are always improving and updating their programs so there is much to explore yet. 

CHC is not an online school, so there is not a tuition or enrollment fees to pay, they simply offer families a great selection of curricula to educate your children at home; the heart of their philosophy is mainly to cultivate the life of your "domestic church".

I am sure there is plenty of other methods and curricula out there that are great too. We have for now found a solid base, it has been fruitful for our family, not only because it has taught our children the subjects in the light of the Catholic Church, but it has renovated our faith as an adults in the process.

The less traveled road: Our Homeschool Quest Story

Maybe not the less traveled road anymore; the choice of homeschool seems to be growing by the numbers lately, but it was a very foreign land to me when back in 2009 I began this "quest" of homeschooling my first child.

Let's begin with a little background; many people seem to have a profile for homeschoolers here in the US; homeschoolers are timid, nerds, religious fanatics or even strictly reserved to the outcasts. Personally I was unaware of what homeschool was until I met my husband. I graduated from a private Catholic school in Bogota, Colombia. Where I am from, our youth studies in a private or public school, period, maybe some tutoring on the side but, I never heard before of mothers schooling at home their children; so with that in mind I had no prejudice or rehearsed opinion about homeschool when I made my choice.

As I mentioned before, the first homeschool person I met was my husband. So when he explained to me what it was, I was in awe to think that it was an education choice this country offered their people. Odd to me, but fascinating. Why fascinating? Because it brought​ back the classical tutoring school from the colonial times to one of the most advanced countries in the world! So It took me a while to wrap my head around that.

Only when my first born turned three I began to explore my school options. I was disappointed from the beginning, I wanted a private school but it was for our family astronomical impossible to pay. There was not middle. We did only the Pre-K year, but public or even charter did not end up convincing me. I wanted to offer the quality of education that I had: classical yet updated with out the costly tuition.

As we finished her VPK year in a local Christian school, I continued to search online for private education. Trying to get lucky I came about an appealing Catholic curriculum that brought back memories and new hopes of forming my children in the faith, but wait... What? Homeschool? What do you mean? I would have to do it all? like the whole thing? Uhmmm ... Nope. Next link please! I wasn't qualified... I continued to scroll my google search but not one local institution fit my needs, that one link called to me; my only problem? my job. I did not have the time, neither the preparation to educate, but as I looked back through the site I read how gentle approach their curriculum was meant to be and also how they offered a planned teacher manual that guided you to  teach your child the subjects! uhmmm... I liked that! why not? maybe we could try it for the summer and be ahead by the time we found a "suitable" school ...

I know that they are many schools that could fill the gap of getting my kids educated, I also know personally many amazing teachers, but what that summer did to my family has no price, that curriculum gave us wings! we shared remarkable milestones that as a working mother I would never witness if it wasn't for homeschool. It made our days fulfilling, we became involved, we shared our faith, we got a new view of what our family could become.

As time went by, I became more familiar with the curriculum and got the hang of it. I began to teach my child and learned to see every occasion as an educational opportunity. I still worked but decided I could do both. By the time my second baby came along I took a break and explored strongly the possibility of doing this full time. So  I did!

Exploring through this less traveled road: "homeschool" doesn't reveal the many challenges one has to go through.  Challenges like: how to homeschool your child plus a baby, how to homeschool different ages and grades, to burnout and exhaustion. This quest for fulfillment is hard! I had come close to quit millions of times; as I mentioned it before, I fell in love with this curriculum and for what it did with my family life. I was not going to quit then, and so far I haven't quit. Bottom line... the full picture at the end keeps my heart with homeschool.

Whatever your choice for education is for your child, remember: we are not meant to fit a cookie cutter, there is beauty in homeschooling, like there is in kids going to an institution, just keep in mind as a parent to enrich and witness as much as you can of these forming years with your kids. Each time of the day, each milestone they accomplish, be present, engage and celebrate!

This is a window through my choice, if you see you can relate I hope you enjoyed this reading, if you cannot relate at all, take the heart of it, and know we share motherhood, and even though we approach this subject differently we care immensely for our children and go through number of choices that define the shape our families.

I celebrate each one of you! Thanks for taking the time to read this post.