Hi, my name’s Maria and I’ve been home-schooling for  10 years. I’ve done some uni study in the biomedical sciences, but never finished a degree and my husband teaches the humanities. We’ve therefore been blessed with quite a good background for homeschooling our 7 children, and yet, I’m only now starting to get things together after all these years. I thought I’d share some of the things we do and hope they might help someone.

Firstly, the primary years of schooling can be very complicated because there is so much on offer for homeschoolers. You can get overwhelmed by what the best choice is for you. With secondary schooling the opposite is the problem – there are very few resources tailor-made for homescooling and many parents feel that the curriculum is so specialized that it is beyond them.

With primary, most parents can probably find a state maths programme to follow. We use Go Maths as it has daily work and tests. My main contribution is helping out when kids get stuck on something. English also has numerous primary aids, from Soundwaves for spelling and phonics and grammar practice to comprehension type books and editing and essay writing books. You can often pick up cheap ones from Book World or newsagents’ unsold stock when they have their sales. For science I use the Pace’s. They cover the whole of science, are a wonderful preparation for secondary science and are in a format of read the story and fill in the blanks -- which means no work for me. I do however give the children a little extension project at the end of each booklet.  This allows them to do one aspect of what they’ve learnt in greater detail, summarize material or give a talk or complete an experiment etc.

For social studies -- History or geography -- I read books to the children. I have found this a great way to incorporate their Catholicism on a daily basis, apart from our weekly religion lesson. For example, at the moment I am reading Dear and Glorious Physician, by Taylor Caldwell on St. Luke. From his life story we are learning about history at the time of Jesus, the Roman Empire, its extent, how the Romans lived, and the other people’s mentioned in the book. We are learning geography as we read about all the places St. Luke traveled. We have an atlas handy and can trace out his journeys and listen to the descriptions of the various towns and places. We are learning about a man’s search for God and obstacles to that search. Moreover, we are being exposed to incredible literature with difficult vocabulary, which I can explain as I read. The book would be too difficult for the children, but with me reading, it becomes comprehendible. I can also skip over adult sections so that it is more age appropriate. I’ve found children never forget the things they’ve learnt in stories, and they really bond with me as I read to them.

Our school day comprises the main teaching subjects in the morning. After we’ve done chores, we take about 2 hours doing Maths , English and electives (eg. Music, Religion, German, Art or Craft or Sport. After a break, the children then do set work for one and a half hours -- principally pace’s, and Mahts and English they haven’t finished. I don’t help them with this, which frees me for the little ones. After another break, we then have our reading time, which they have looked forward to all day. They still do their own reading before bed in the evening with their own level books. I find that ages 7 to 13 are fine altogether for the afternoon reading session with me.

Maybe some other parents like this idea or are already doing something like this. It would be good to exchange book titles with each other. Saint biographies are great (eg. St. Dominic, St. Martin de Porres, Mary Mackillop and John Paul II).  Geography, History , English and Religion are all potential  projects in a good book. Think also of  books from Christian book stores (eg. The Silver Chalice, Bold Galilean or novels like the Endless Steppe, To Kill a Mockingbird or other books that have really helped your own spiritualrowth eg. Paul Glynn’s books). Normally primary children would find these too difficult, but with a parent reading, they come alive and challenge them intellectually and spiritually. The focus on primary is to get these children enjoying learning and equipped for secondary education, where more formal Geography and History programmes are taught.