Let me give you some background for how our chapter began.

In April of 2015, a group of seven Catholic homeschooling moms had a desire to have their children participate in a Catholic co-op. Over 3 months, we prayed, discerned, discussed, and looked at different options together.  After much prayer, we felt led by the Holy Spirit to begin a chapter of Catholic Schoolhouse.

The Catholic Schoolhouse program meets the major goals most of us wanted:

• Authentically and faithfully Catholic
• An existing program that has been used; creating our own co-op from scratch seemed too complicated given our particular obligations to our families, church, and community
• Support at the national level (e.g., regular conference calls for director training, tutor training materials, resources for tutors, Facebook support groups, etc.).
• Content deep enough to challenge our oldest students, yet adaptable to the youngest students
• A program that could grow with our children as they get older (e.g., Grammar, Dialectic, Rhetoric stages)
• A program that was relatively easy to implement at home and at a co-op because of available support materials (e.g., website, blog, timeline cards, CD’s, etc.)
• A program that was reasonably priced for  the quality of the materials and support provided
• Something we could all agree on! This was very important to us.

It has been a huge blessing to find a program that meets our needs!

We are now almost through our first year, and I am amazed at how well integrated the program is. The history really lines up with what type of art we are studying. The music lines up with the timeline. There are a ton of connections between the content. There are no conflicts with our faith; in fact, it supports our faith. The children are truly learning the content, forming friendships, and we moms are feeling a lot of support and success in homeschooling our children. We value educating our children well, and we value having a place for our children to see their friends in a weekly learning environment.

Catholic Schoolhouse has a 3-year cycle. Every three year, the cycle repeats. For 2015-2016, we have been studying Year 2.

For 2016-2017, we will cover Year 3.

In 2017-2018, we will study Year 1.

All Catholic Schoolhouse co-ops across the country study the same materials each year. This allows for more cohesiveness among chapters. Studying during the same cycle provides incredible support for those of us who plan the co-op. Each year, more individuals willingly donate their time to improve Catholic Schoolhouse; in turn, more and more resources become available to home educators (e.g., printables, videos, teaching strategies, etc.). We are truly blessed to use Catholic Schoolhouse as we educate our children and help them strive for holiness!