Now that a few of my boys are in the 11-14 year-old range, homeschool is getting fun!

My wife has to do the bulk of the teaching, and all the monotonous courses (e.g., math, grammar, sciences, etc.), but I get the fun stuff, now that they're getting old enough:

1) American History: We just started "Puritan's Empire" by Charles Coulombe, and even though I am an historian by education and practice, I'm learning things I never knew in this book.  For example, right now, WE'RE learning about America's European roots, and the 3 purposes of monarchy (to protect the Faith; to administer courts of justice; to defend and protect the realm).  Since I love being a student, I love teaching and learning at the same time (and that makes the kids look forward to the classes too).  I picked Coulombe because, as a Feeneyite, I know he will not gloss over Americanism as so many others do.

2) French: We're about to start this on the Rosetta Stone course.  It will open a new world to them.  So many great Catholic books are available in French, but not in English.  They'll be able to go to a French-speaking seminary, and not encuмber the double challenge of learning French and Latin at the same time. 

3) Composition: Teaching them how to organize their thoughts, and write in a coherent, cohesive, and persuasive style.  For persuasion, I'm starting them on the IRAC method I learned in law school (i.e., Issue, Rationale, Analysis, Conclusion).  That style has the benefit of simultaneously helping them develop and cultivate critical thinking skills.

4) Religion: Starting with apologetics (i.e., Mostly refutation of the Protestant errors, for starters; future years will progress into modernism and all the other -isms).

All in all, a very enjoyable process, which let's me learn again alongside them.  If you have dreaded homeschooling, it is not all chaos and drudgery!

They'll get to learn all the stuff I never learned in school or college: Ecclesiastical history and Patistics; History of the Ancient World; European History to 1517; 1517 - Present; etc., and all of it from the Catholic worldview.  I'm excited for them.

My last summer as a seminarian, we had Charles Coulombe as our tour guide for our 2003 East Coast trip. It was very interesting and I learned a lot, because there was a theme to the whole thing. Most of the sites we saw were chosen for a reason. We learned about America's protestant/Puritan roots, transcendentalism, the various "utopias" that were attempted, and we visited many national landmarks with Catholic eyes pointing out all the good stuff. I think they threw in some destinations that were close and/or cheap. For example we saw the Edgar Allen Poe museum (his home?), the national Freemason museum, the head temple of the Mormons, Williamsburg, Ground Zero, and many other interesting venues.

We started in Boston, but then slowly worked our way south and ended up learning about cινιℓ ωαr stuff in Virginia. We spent a day at the Fortin ranch, and even did some clay target shooting.

I'm glad I got to have the experience. I found it all fascinating. But I wouldn't have learned as much if I had just gone by myself, or with my family. The real benefit was the seminary professor and our historian tour guide. The red-pilled, Traditional Catholic educated, Catholic eyes were critical to getting the most out of the experience.

Why not Latin instead? Certainly much more useful in my opinion and they will likely want to learn it at some point. Better to start early. Orberg's book is best. There's also the primer of ecclesiastical latin which is good for kids.

The 14 year-old has already had a couple years of Latin; the 11 and 12 year-olds are on deck, but French is way easier than Latin, so wanted to build their confidence before diving into that.  Plus, my own Latin is weak (ie., the 14 year-old got it at the SSPX academy, but I myself could probably only teach Latin I until we get to subjunctives, and then I’m sketchy).  

We homeschooled too, Enjoy!