For Catholics looking to home school their children, Seton home school offers quality Catholic faith-based curriculum products on the market. With Seton home school curriculum, you can teach your children not only the subjects that they need to learn, but also the values and catechisms of the Catholic Church. Seton home school curriculum is not a curriculum for all home schooling families, as it is specifically designed for Catholic home schooling families.
In the Seton home school curriculum, every subject is studied based on the Catholic faith. For example, the third grade English curriculum is based on story of St. Josaphat. Each exercise in the workbook contains a portion of this man’s story. Handwriting books also contain sentences for the students to copy that are based on Catholic faith and contain words and phrases from the Catholic Bible.
The curriculum includes not only standard subjects such as math, English, history, and science, but also “extras,” such as music, art instruction, handwriting, and religious instruction. Health and manners are presented as well in order to teach children how to sit at a table, use the proper words with people, and behave properly in public.
Science in the Seton home school curriculum is taught from a Creation viewpoint. Christian Liberty Press is one publisher, among several, that the program uses for their science curriculum. The science books are definitely creationistic, but they are not Catholic specific as the other subjects are.
In the early grades math books come from a Catholic perspective. However, as students advance into higher-level math concepts, Seton home school curriculum uses the secular Saxon math textbooks. In fourth grade children transition from the Catholic based math instruction into the secular instruction. In fifth grade the Saxon book is introduced. Saxon is an excellent math curriculum that uses review throughout the year to encourage retention of previously taught subjects.
Seton home school curriculum believes that reading should be taught through a phonics based approach. Children are taught the sounds of each individual letter, and then progress from there to the sounds of the letter blends. These tools allow them to sound out any word they come across that is unfamiliar to them. Many modern public schools advocate a “whole word” approach to reading instruction. Whole word overlooks the importance of phonics, and as a result many children who come out of the program are poor readers. Children in the Seton program work through both phonics workbooks and reading textbooks which incorporate the phonics rules taught throughout the program.
Not only do the people at Seton offer Catholic based curriculum components, but they also have standardized testing that they offer for those in their program. They use the California Achievement Test, or CAT, and offer scoring for those home schoolers that use the tests. This is an excellent resource for home schooling families to help them determine in which subjects their children are scoring at grade level, and which they need extra help and study in. The CAT tests children in math, language, and reading. Even though this is a California based test, most states accept the results. Children should be given the test that corresponds to their current reading level, even if their math ability is a little ahead or behind this level. The test is available for those in grades K through 12.
The Seton website also offers parents with resources designed to help them educate their children at home. This is a great resource for those Catholics who are new to home schooling. It also provides access to advice for those looking to step up their current home schooling program. If you are a Catholic parent looking to home school, you might want to consider Seton for your curriculum needs.
