TESTIMONIAL

HOME AT LAST

by Alice Rhea

Despite our seemingly ideal lifestyle, we still experience those less-than-perfect days. Perhaps God sends home schooling parents those impossible word problems so we can realize that there is room for growth, especially in our spiritual lives.

It was my first day of home schooling. I was in tears; my fifth grade daughter, Jenny, was in tears. We were working on question #1 in her math book, a dreaded word problem. We had been working on this question for over an hour and we still had eight other subjects to cover. I hadn't even started teaching my other children and my babies were awake from their morning nap and wanted lunch. Besides thinking that tomorrow I would enroll the girls in the nearest school, I was pondering how I had ever started home schooling.

My husband, Pat, and I did not come to home schooling easily or naturally. In fact, the process was a long journey. I was initially introduced to it through a Protestant friend who home schooled her children. I told her that home schooling really interested me, but that I didn't think it was a Catholic option because of the availability of the diocesan schools. She just told me that God had not yet spoken to me. I was rather indignant that God should speak to her and not to me. However, my husband and I, both products of Catholic schools, felt that our children should also attend them. Sadly, though, over the years we discovered that the Catholic schools were no longer teaching the Faith as we had been taught it and as we wanted our children to learn it.

So, while we searched and prayed for the right solution, our children attended three different schools. I was, by God's grace, introduced to another home schooling family, the first Catholic one I had encountered. One day, after visiting this family, my seven-year old, Colleen, asked me in her sweetest voice, "Mom, can we home school too?" I stared at her in disbelief, thinking - knowing - that I could never handle such a daunting task. Yet, I could not stop seriously considering it, now that I knew it was a Catholic alternative. A few months later, my husband and I attended a Catholic home schooling conference in order to become better acquainted with and knowledgeable about this system of education. After more research, and abundant prayer, we decided to try home schooling. I called my Protestant friend and told her that God had finally spoken to me. She said that God had been speaking to me all along, I just hadn't been listening.

The next major decision, and perhaps the most important one, was which curriculum we would use in teaching our children. As parents and the primary educators of our children, we are responsible for raising the next generation of Catholics. Our children, whatever their vocation may be, must be well-educated in both academic and religious subjects. And in this modern, secular world, they must know their Faith thoroughly. So, Pat and I knew that we wanted a program that incorporated the Catholic Faith into all of the subjects. Raising informed Catholics can only be accomplished by permeating all of their studies, not just religion class, but history, literature, science, and yes, even arithmetic, with the Catholic Faith. I found such a curriculum in the Seton Home Study School program which we continue to use today, supplemented by other appropriate books and materials.

Six years later, looking back on that first day of home schooling, I am now able to laugh. Jenny, a junior in high school, is a straight A math student and word problems are no longer so upsetting. Our oldest daughter is a recent graduate of Notre Dame Law School practicing estate planning and our second daughter is attending Franciscan University of Steubenville. I am currently teaching four children at home and my husband helps me with science and math. My 18 month old, Brigid, keeps herself busy by having tea parties in our schoolroom! Pat and I strive to give our children the blessings of a true Catholic life: the morning offering, the Angelus, the Rosary, daily Mass (weather and baby permitting), First Friday and Saturday devotions, reading the Lives of the Saints, enthroning in our home the Sacred Heart, and following the Church's liturgical year. Our city has been blessed with a Latin Mass which we attend every Sunday. Always a close family, home schooling has brought us a togetherness never before experienced. Our children play and pray together and my son often reminds us that we should "offer it up" or that it is time to say the Rosary.

Home schooling gives us more time for many other activities which afford our family greater unity. The younger children are being taught piano by their older sister. In keeping with our family's Irish heritage, the children take Irish step-dancing lessons. We live in the country and enjoy gardening, fishing, family field trips and camping together. We also have wonderful home schooling friends and an active support group in which we participate.

Despite this seemingly ideal lifestyle, we still experience those less-than-perfect days. Perhaps God sends home schooling parents those impossible word problems so we can realize that there is room for growth, especially in our spiritual lives. Our main objective in choosing to home school our children was to provide them with an authentic Catholic education. But, with the grace that the Sacrament of Marriage continues to provide and the help that God gives to all home schooling families, we have found so much more than we ever expected.

Alice Rhea, a home schooling mother of seven, resides in Kansas City, Missouri.