Our classical Catholic homeschool curriculum is gaining popularity as homeschooling becomes a popular choice for Catholic families who want to provide personalized, faith-based education to their children. The classical Catholic homeschool curriculum emphasizes a deep understanding of language, reasoning, communication, and mathematics, as the foundation for all academic pursuits in the Catholic life. In this article, we will discuss the contents and value of the classical Catholic homeschool curriculum.
It is a Curriculum
Modern schools arrange students into groups based on their birth dates, purchase books for them to study in disconnected subjects, and give them grades. They do not have a real curriculum. Likewise, homeschool programs are organized like modern schools and sell bundles of disconnected books, but they do not have a real curriculum. The first and most important thing to know about the classical Catholic homeschool curriculum is that it is a real curriculum
A “curriculum” is not a list of disconnected subjects, but a course of study that begins in a child’s youngest days and continues steadily through to the end of his studies. A real curriculum has a true beginning, middle, and end, and every piece of the curriculum works with the others to lead the student to its goal. The students themselves can explain what role each part plays and how it is helping them to the end of their studies. The classical Catholic homeschool curriculum is a real curriculum.
It is a Homeschool Curriculum
Modern schools are designed to serve large numbers of students sorted into groups of the same age. Modern homeschool catalogs sell lesson plans that serve this grade-level system of public schools. This is not appropriate for a homeschool family.
A homeschool family is not made up of groups of children of the same ages, divided into grade levels. A homeschool mother serves a small number of children and each is a different age. It is nothing like a modern school, and the books and lesson plans of a modern school will not serve her family well. These programs may call themselves “homeschool” programs, but they are not designed to serve a homeschool family.
The classical Catholic homeschool curriculum is a homeschool curriculum. It provides for children in a family to work on the same subjects at their own pace. A homeschool mother should not try to manage dozens of different grade-level books with children studying separately. She should lead her children together through subjects that extend through years of study. The family should study together. Only such a program can rightly be called a homeschool curriculum.
It is a Catholic Homeschool Curriculum
Most school publishers are seeking to make money by supplying school supplies to large, state-funded public schools. These books are not Catholic books but are written by secular authors for secular schools. Modern Catholic schools use these secular books because there’s nothing else being printed.
Homeschool programs, having no real curriculum, bundle books together from all different sources–some secular, some Catholic, some Protestant! Despite this obvious confusion, they box them up and sell them together as a Catholic homeschool curriculum, but they are no such thing. Why would any Catholic family go through all the work of establishing a homeschool, only to teach children from study materials that have never been studied or recommended to us by the saints?
Fortunately, the classical Catholic homeschool curriculum doesn’t follow this error but provides students with a complete system of study materials that have been studied, taught, and praised by wise men and saints throughout history. They have been used by Catholic students for centuries. There is never a moment where a family studying the classical Catholic homeschool curriculum will ever have to read anything that is not in agreement with Catholic teaching. It is a thoroughly Catholic homeschool curriculum.
It is a Classical Catholic Homeschool Curriculum
It’s no secret that modern society is terribly troubled. Without even mentioning the sexual and racist propaganda being pushed on children, modern schools are failing today because they are constantly being disturbed by fads and politics. Every teacher has his own theory about how children should be raised and taught, though he has no children of his own. Catholic schools often require that teachers have modern teaching licenses, but not that they are members of the Catholic Church! All the treasures of the history of Catholic education have been lost and we act as if we have no idea what to do. This is the folly of modern education, and homeschool programs only pretend to offer something different.
The classical Catholic homeschool curriculum is free from all of this immorality, confusion, and corruption. It is timeless and trustworthy. The authors the children study every day are history’s wisest and best men and women, models of virtue. The content of the books we study has been studied and refined for hundreds and hundreds of years. The methods of study are proven and give all students a clear path to success. Every student may pursue wisdom through the same excellent studies, at his own individual pace, just as students did all through history.
We can get into the details of what it really means for the classical Catholic homeschool curriculum to be “classical”, but it is sufficient to know that it does not make an experiment of our children’s education.
This Curriculum is Our Curriculum
In the Classical Liberal Arts Academy, nothing looks like a modern school or homeschool program. We do not burden families with bundles of books and endless expenses. Enrollment costs a simple fee of $25 per month per child, everything included. We do not ask parents to separate their children into grade-level studies that make no sense in a home with siblings of the same family. We do not study books that were forbidden to be studied among Catholics when their authors lived, which replaced the books written and taught by saints before them. We do not chase after modern fads and try to keep up with the world which does not seek first the kingdom of God or observe the traditions of the Catholic faith.
In the Classical Liberal Arts Academy, we offer the one and only classical Catholic homeschool curriculum–and we can prove it.
God bless your studies,
Mr. William C. Michael, Headmaster
Classical Liberal Arts Academy
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The Classical Liberal Arts Academy works to research, restore, publish and teach the classical Catholic curriculum that has been enjoyed by wise men and saints through history. We invite you to study in our self-paced online courses and enjoy the benefits of online quizzes, written assignments, progress records and more. Get started with a free 30-day trial.
Mr. William C. Michael is the founding headmaster of the Classical Liberal Arts Academy. Mr. Michael is a Lay Dominican in the Catholic Church and is a homeschooling father to ten children, all of whom have studied in the Academy. He graduated from Rutgers University with an honors degree in Classics & Ancient History and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Mr. Michael has worked in private education as a Classics teacher and administrator for over 20 years. Mr. Michael is known for his talks on the Academy YouTube channel and his sponsorship of Classical Catholic Radio.