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Homeschooling families refine skills at conference
By Mary Moore, news@catholicsun.org
July 18, 2008
With an estimated 2.5 million children being homeschooled in the United States, it’s no wonder many homeschooling parents want to narrow down the ever-growing resources available to them.
The right kind of support geared to each family’s mission is crucial. That is just what more than 250 Catholic homeschooling parents found June 27-28 at the Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Homeschool Conference.
The two-day event, which was held at the Diocesan Pastoral Center, offered a chance for new and veteran homeschooling parents to hear speakers, browse curriculum, and visit with representatives of Catholic universities.
Patrick Madrid, a renowned Catholic apologist and homeschool father of 11 children, was the keynote speaker. He called homeschooling an “arduous job, full of unique challenges.”
For those who choose to educate at home, he said, it’s a way to evangelize and spread the truth to a world swept up in moral relativism.
“We must never be afraid to speak the truth, live the truth and suffer for the truth,” Madrid said. “In order for us to do that, we must know the truth and teach it to our children.”
Dominic Blanchard of Flagstaff came down for the conference with his family and especially enjoyed the part of the conference that was directed toward teens.
A candlelit rosary procession with live music by Craig Colson, a Pure Fashion Show, and a vocations panel featuring Dominican sisters, seminarians, priests and deacons highlighted what Blanchard called a “very cool and prayerful” evening.
“The panel was pretty informative and exciting, especially because most of the people on the panel were under thirty,” said the 16-year-old San Francisco de Asís parishioner.
For many, the highlight of the conference was a private Mass with Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted.
“Thank you for the way you recognize your vocation from God, to be the first educators of your children,” he said. “Those who homeschool are building, with God’s help, a culture of life and a civilization of love.”
Christy Swingle, a St. Mary parishioner and mother of five, said the conference offered her the kind of reassurance she needs when educating at home seems daunting.
“This really confirmed for me that God is asking me to homeschool my children. It was just that shot in the arm that gives you the ‘why,’” said Swingle. “We have a unique view of homeschooling as Catholics. We are forming souls, and that is an awesome responsibility.”
Tracy Bryant, a parishioner of Resurrection in Tempe and owner of “Totally Catholic” apparel company, has been homeschooling her children through elementary school for the past nine years.
The conference reminded her that homeschooling gives parents a unique opportunity to fight against the culture of moral relativism.
“We’re not trying to keep our kids in a bubble,” said the energetic mother of eight. “We are just trying to raise authentic human beings, and to give them the tools to set the world ablaze.”
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