Catholic Education: Homeward Bound - Useful Guide to Catholic Home Schooling Paperback – February 1, 1996

This is my first review for Amazon. I just started homeschooled my sons for seven months. Homeschooling is one of the great decision I have ever made in my life as it is still rare and uncommon in our country at the moment. When people hear that my sons don't go to "school", they will scream and shoot me with thousands of questions.Before I decided to pull out my kids out of school, I have read a lot of homeschooling books to help me with the questions I will get from people around and to confirm myself. I am very sorry that I didn't read this book as my first reading. Although it was published 16 years ago, it really makes me charmed and amazed with the wonder of home education toward children.This book contains 4 parts:Fact Finding - the basic reasons to choose home education. I am really interested with the natural reasons of home education as family mission.Decision Making - the most common questions might be asked by parents before or when deciding to home educate children. Some of those questions might appear after we decide to home educate.Extra Consideration - the challange of home educate some different ages of children, ho to get help from society, and deeper FAQ regarding home education in some cases.Catholic Education - Homeward Bound, Catholic tradition, philosophy, "teaching" to strengthen family life.I have been Catholic since I was a baby, but I have never thought how essential Catholic home education for my sons before I read this book. I can see the example of Catholic home education "result" when I browse into Ms. Hahn's family facebook. It is very nice to see how those five children pictured at the back of cover (and plus one more) have growned up and made families which might immitate their parents' family. It can be a duplication of teaching for the next generation.Thank you very much Ms. Hahn and Ms. Hasson.

I have purchased several copies of this book over the years. Most recently, I bought a gift copy for a dear friend who lives overseas, where homeschooling is actually illegal. This review is written with particular kudos to the seller: hippo_books/ Hippo Books Online. The gift was lost during transition from the US to UK postal systems and never arrived. Nonetheless, Hippo Books provided a FULL refund and were exceedingly courteous. I DO recommend this book to anyone considering a Catholic homeschooling education for their children as it is an invaluable resource for curricula and guiding principles for a classical Catholic education. Thank you Hippo Books, as well, for supporting the homeschooling community.

I found this a very informative material for a beginner mom who's considering homeschooling. I truly realized how spirituality can be applied in educating my children which is a God-given right to every parent. The authors gave much of their personal experiences in homeschooling plus an extensive list of bibliography of resources. I wish they can update some of them. I wish they would also include solutions for parents and children who had experienced typical school life.

First off, I know of and completely respect the authors. After reading this book I felt encouraged to begin this journey with our two youngest children. I wish I had had this when our three older children were in grade school. I felt called to homeschool, but afraid to take the first step.

Homeschooling grows in popularity every year and parents need all the best resources available - this book is one of the tools that parents need to use.

I kind of miss having page numbers, but this book was an encouragement. May still get a paper copy of the book.

A helpful guide for home schooling.

As a practicing Catholic and as someone who is interested in homeschooling, I checked this book out from the library. I am so glad I did not buy it. I do have to disclose, however, that my perspective is pretty liberal for a Catholic and that's a product of my upbringing and my parish.THE GOOD: The authors are very encouraging of mothers, telling them they are the best teachers for their children. Indeed, the Church teaches that we are the first teachers of our children, something with which I agree. However, there are great teachers in public and parochial schools, and the authors make the reader feel as though it would be a sin to put a child in a school environment outside the home. It is not always possible to homeschool and yes, sometimes parents need to put their faith in the school system while at the same time, being their children's first teachers and aware at all times.The list of places to purchase curriculum, if the reader chooses to do so, is probably out of date as the book is 13 years old, but it's a great starting point while doing Internet research.I really liked the blank schedules and logs at the back of the book. They are easy enough to adapt to one's schedule.THE BAD: I did not like the part about discouraging homeschooled children from participating in the local public school's sports teams and at the end of the book, quoting a report by Phyllis Schlafly on education. If I had known about the Schlafly part, I would not have even checked this book out of the library.As a person who is biracial and not born in this country, and for whom English is not a first language, I object to the authors' dismissal of curriculum that includes a multicultural perspective. I realize this book was written in 1996 (I don't know of more recent versions) but even in 1996, surely anyone could appreciate the wealth of diversity in this country, something that cannot be denied. We're here and we're everywhere. How would the authors deal then with the issue of racial minorities who are Catholic? In my children's school, the majority of the students (~75%) are Asian. Would the authors have the parents of these students present a white, western perspective?Finally, while I realize that mothers provide the majority of homeschool education, with fathers playing a lesser role, I felt that the authors were very focused on traditional male-female roles in the home. There was an imbalance of power between the parents which reinforces the view that dad goes out to work and when he comes home, he expects his home to be clean, that dinner be on the table and the children well-behaved. It promotes the notion that the mother is not working a multitude of jobs (child reading, child educating, cleaning, cooking and chauffering, etc.). I felt like I was reading a book from the 1950s.