Maureen Wittmann - Catholic Homeschool Companion

Selected and Edited by

Maureen Wittmann and Rachel Mackson

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Chapter One

Core Subjects

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Chapter Two

Enrichment Subjects

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Chapter Three

High School

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Chapter Four

Homeschooling Styles and Strategies

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Chapter Five

Children with Special Needs

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Chapter Six

Homeschooling in Unique Circumstances

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Chapter Seven

The Father's Perspective

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Chapter Eight Finding Inspiration

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Chapter Nine

Homeschooling Community and Support

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Chapter Ten

Home Management

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Chapter Eleven

Homeschool Students and Graduates

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The authors who contributed essays to The Catholic Homeschool Companion have our warmest thanks. They took valuable time from their families and their homeschooling endeavors to share their stories, but their contributions do not stop with the publication of this book. They have inspired us to be better homeschoolers and better mothers. We hope they will inspire you as well.

Many others donated their time and talent, especially Nancy Carpentier Brown, who spent her Christmas vacation proofing the manuscript and finding all of those little errors that somehow missed many layers of editing. We are indebted to her.

The list does not end there. Sue Crawford and Sheila Pohl graciously offered their secretarial skills in transcribing several essays from audiotapes. Without them, we would have been lost.

Several Catholic publishers provided review copies of books and texts, so that we, in turn, could share them with you. We are especially grateful to Bethlehem Books, Neumann Press, Catholic Heritage Curricula, and Laura Berquist.

Alicia Van Hecke stepped in and helped verify the resource information found in the appendices. Her time and Internet savvy are fully appreciated.

We would also like to express our gratitude to those who offered their advice, support, and prayers, including the Aquilina Family, Patrick Baker, Dawn Smith, Joan Stromberg, the Wissner Family, and the members of the Catholic Writers' Association.

For help with our websites - www.catholictreasury.com and www.homeschool.mackson.org - Maureen owes a great debt to Michael Aquilina III and Kaleb Nation, and Rachel would like to thank her brother, Jay Riley, Jr.

But no appreciation would be complete without a mention of our families: Maureen's husband, Rob, and her children, Christian, Mary, Laura, Joseph, Gregory, Margaret, and Brendan; Rachel's husband, Dave, and her children, Philip, Grace, and Emily. We are grateful for their patience, their support, and their love.

Most important, we give thanks to God for the grace necessary to be writers and editors, in addition to wives and mothers.

Bishop Carl Mengeling

As you pursue your God-given responsibility for the education of your children, allow me to offer some encouragement.

You have made a choice, you have a right to make that choice, you believe in that choice, and you are committing yourself to that choice: to be homeschoolers of your children. Others do not make that choice, and that is their business, but you have made the choice and you are proud of it, and the Church is also proud.

That choice was made by today's saint, Thomas More. If you know his life, you know that he was a homeschooler in every sense. At the heart of his family was nothing but the total education of the human person centered, above all, in religion. As one of the great leaders in Europe, he brought to his home a great renaissance of learning and a renaissance of faith. He taught his daughters languages. He taught them political science. He taught them music. He taught them, above all, religion. That is why the choice he made, when put to the test by King Henry VIII, ultimately recalls the fullness of Scripture.

You and I must never expect that what happened to Jesus is not going to happen to us. We, too, are going to be put to the test. We are being put to the test now, and the Church has always been put to the test. The Lord separates the goats from the sheep. He summons us in these times of trial and testing to measure up and to rise higher and higher. This is the time, as it was five hundred years ago in Europe, when we need saints. Saints are the solution. That is the Church's solution to everything, and that is what you want. You want your children to become saints.

Education has a twofold objective. Number one is to become citizens of the kingdom of heaven. Number two is to become effective citizens here, while that kingdom is taking shape in this world. Citizens of this world, citizens of the next: that is our vision.

I do want to stress something very important, and that is the absolute centrality of religion in the entire education program. Without that, it is merely preparing people for what they are going to do in this life. That is important, but secondary. Far more important, my dear Catholics, is not what we are going to do, but who we become; that we become men and women of God and saints of God, the presence of Christ in this world. That is the object of education: who we become. You and I are not done with it. That is why we keep coming to the Eucharist. That is why we keep going to Confession, because we are not yet the person we can become by God's grace.

Maria Montessori said that the whole essence of her educational program lay in two words: milk and honey. You may not have thought of it that way, but Augustine, who died in the year 430, said that the milk stands for all the fundamental needs we have in this life - the need for food, shelter, and clothing. Augustine said that is important, but the milk is not enough by itself.