Visit us on our other site. Click image below.
Southern California Catholic Home Educators (SCCHE) serves as a network of homeschooling support groups dedicated to Catholic families in Southern California. SCCHE began its wonderful journey in the late 1990s when a group of four dedicated moms, along with their children, gathered at a local park for support and friendship, creating a sense of community. They grew from these social gatherings into organizing an annual homeschool conference and officially became a non-profit organization in 2009. The primary aim of SCCHE is to offer support and resources for both new and experienced homeschool families while sharing valuable information for those exploring homeschooling. Each year, our homeschool conference features an ‘Introduction to Homeschool Talk’, which covers California homeschooling laws and provides guidance on how to get started. Additionally, our website hosts a network through the ‘Support Groups’ page, facilitating connections among members. Southern California Catholic Home Educators (SCCHE) are committed to fostering a Catholic education within the homeschooling context, emphasizing the importance of cultivating virtues, sanctifying the day through prayer and actively participating in the liturgical traditions of the Catholic Church.
Our mission is to build up Catholic families and culture by providing support and encouragement to homeschool families for the greater glory of God, under the kingship of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and with faithfulness to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church.
- We see this mission arising from the sacrament of marriage and parents’ solemn obligation to educate their offspring and be the “primary and principal educators of their children,”(Vatican Council II, Gravissimum Educationis, 3).
- We aim to fulfill this mission by providing community-building opportunities for the whole family and intellectual and spiritual resources for homeschool parents.
- We welcome families who choose to spend most of their academic days in the home building a domestic church—where children first learn and practice their Catholic faith and where parents promote growth in holiness through a school of virtue and Christian charity. (CCC 1666)
- Our hope is that through this domestic church, families will not only raise good citizens for society, but also cooperate in bringing all souls to God’s Kingdom.
Southern California Catholic Home Educators generally are expected to uphold a Code of Ethics that centers on the well-being and development of their children, as well as their commitment to the values and teachings of the Catholic Church.
Canon law 793 §1. Parents and those who take their place are bound by the obligation and possess the right of educating their offspring. Catholic parents also have the duty and right of choosing those means and institutions through which they can provide more suitably for the Catholic education of their children, according to local circumstances.
SCCHE promotes this primary right of parents to educate their children in religion, moral, physical and civic education, by directing parents to resources that are in line with the wisdom of the Catholic Church.
The Christian family as the "domestic church" is a community of faith, hope and charity with an evangelizing and missionary task (CCC 2204)
The family is the community in which, from childhood, one can learn moral values, begin to honor God and make good use of freedom (CCC 2207)
The role of parents in education is of such importance that it is almost impossible to provide an adequate substitute. The right and duty of parents to educate their children are primordial and inalienable (CCC 2221)
Parents must regard their children as Children of God and respect them as human persons...they educate their children to fulfill God's law (CCC 2222)
Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children...creating a home where tenderness, forgiveness, respect, fidelity, and disinterested service are the rule. The home is well suited for education in the virtues (CCC 2223)
Parents should teach children to avoid the compromising and degrading influences which threaten human societies (CCC 2224)
Through the grace of sacramental marriage, parents receive the responsibility and privilege of evangelizing their children and should associate them with the life of the Church (CCC 2225)
Education in the faith begins with parents witnessing a Christian life, teaching their children to pray and to aid in discovery of their vocation as children of God (CCC 2226)
Children in turn contribute to the growth and holiness of their parents (CCC 2227)