Originally Posted by Oblio I've not had to research it yet as our little Anna is just 2+ mos old. But
AFAIK there is no prohibition against it. I know Iacobus/Theodora (Anna's Godmother) homeschool, perhaps one of them will be by with details/resources. If we don't get a local Orthodox school up in the next 5 years we will be looking into it.
Yep, we have homeschooled for about the last 6 or 7 years -- since our oldest (now a junior in college) finished the 7th grade. To my knowledge, there is no prohibition on homeschooling. We have run across a number of people who homeschool their kids.
Hopefully with time, there will be Orthodox materials developed. For our part, we relied heavily on a curriculum by a company called Sonlight Curriculum. They are at
www.sonlightcurriculum.com. They are heavily literature based, which was perfect for our kids. There is reading, reading and more reading. For little kids, I think they design it so that books are read aloud to the kids. They have good lesson plans and we found the whole experience pretty good.
A warning -- Sonlight is expressly and heavily Protestant and missionary in its outlook. In fact, I believe it was originally developed so that missionaries overseas could homeschool their children. You will have to make some deletions and modifications to the program. Still, having said that, I would still recommend them.
Ironically, Sonlight was responsible for a whole slew of conversions to Orthodoxy several years ago. In their 8th grade program, they concentrate on Church history. One of their books used to be Father Peter Gillquist's "Becoming Orthodox". That was our first exposure to Orthodoxy, and I bet we've run across a dozen other families who converted after using that curriculum. I think that book is now optional.
Having said all that, if we were starting over again, I would look for an Orthodox school. Few and far between, but I think it is a developing movement. There is a network of such schools in Northeast Ohio. In the Atlanta area, my priest (ACROD) and Father Jacob at St. John the Wonderworker (OCA) have a school up and running at St. John. There is talk of a second school on the north side of town, and I have heard that the Serbs have a school on the east side. You may want to check in your area and see if anything is going on that way. I wish we had that option when the kids were younger. Talk about great exposure to the life of the Church!
If you have other questions, let me know.
James
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