Frequently Asked Questions

This is a very personal decision, which each family must consider based on their circumstances. Because natural law and the Church teach that parents are the primary educators of their children, it is the parents’ responsibility to assess as well as possible the best manner to educate their children within their means.

According to survey data from the National Center for Education Statistics, the overwhelming reason why parents homeschool is out of “concern about school environment, such as safety, drugs, or negative peer pressure.” This reason extends to bad spiritual and moral influences. The second and third most-cited reasons, respectively, are “dissatisfaction with the academic instruction at other schools” and “a desire to provide religious instruction.” Many Catholics choose to homeschool because they are looking for more traditional, orthodox teachings than their parochial school provides.

Most homeschool parents quickly discover that they can teach much curriculum themselves perfectly well or have within their means tutors, co-ops, and other aids to supply for their own lack. Homeschooling instills independence, self-discipline, responsibility, and proactiveness both in the parents and the children. It truly puts the parents back in control of their children’s education and gives them full supervision.

We understand many parents approach homeschooling with these fears of academic or social setbacks in mind. Fortunately, these stereotypes have been thoroughly debunked by the overwhelming consensus of the data coming in on homeschool successes from the past few decades. Homeschool students on average are ahead of their traditional school peers in every metric. Personal experiences of bad homeschool results are simply anecdotal and exceptions to the rule. Anecdotes evaporate in the face of statistical evidence to the contrary.

Homeschool success stories abound. In recent memory, OLVS has had a Junior Olympian sharpshooting graduate receive a full-ride scholarship to the US Air Force Academy, students regularly earning a 4.0 in their college studies, a graduate who pursued engineering at Notre Dame with a full-ride scholarship, not to mention numerous traditional priestly and religious vocations.

Check HSLDA to ensure you are abiding by your state’s homeschool laws. Then spend some time reviewing the curriculum and lesson plans to familiarize yourself with the content, layout, and procedures.

Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) is an organization dedicated to the protection of parent and family rights, specifically in the area of education. They monitor education legislation and keep their members up-to-date on any changes to their state’s education laws.

We recommend that all homeschool families join HSLDA, specifically if you are in a homeschool-restrictive state. Members can receive legal advice from their team.

Our program is a traditional school-at-home education consisting of books and workbooks, all with the goal of developing a deep understanding and love of the Traditional Catholic Faith along with a heavy focus on reading, writing, and arithmetic, which are the foundational intellectual skills for understanding, reasoning, and expression. Beyond these skills, our curriculum also requires classes in literature, history, and science from a Catholic perspective.

Parental involvement is very high and significant in homeschooling. In Our Lady of Victory School, the parents are the primary educators of their children. Because our program is a school-at-home model, the parents take on the traditional role of the teacher for their children. However, parents may certainly supplement their child’s education by making use of private tutors, co-ops, dual enrollment programs, etc.

Our Lady of Victory has a set curriculum laid out for each grade level. Our lesson plans lay out what needs to be taught in each subject. In grades K–6, these are formatted in a daily lesson plan; in grades 7–12, in a weekly lesson plan.

OLVS does not assign homework. Students should be able to complete their assigned lessons during their normal school day. However, in order to accommodate extracurricular activities, parents may choose to assign homework. Students may also review and study difficult concepts for homework at their parents’ discretion.

The length is dependent on your child’s grade level, motivation, and focus. In general, you can expect two hours for grades K–1; three to six hours for grades 3–6; and five to seven hours for grades 7–12.

OLVS sells standardized tests for grades 2–8. These are parent directed and graded, and no official test documentation is available. To see our standardized test offerings, visit our OLVS Store.

Our program is not designed specifically to provide a classical education. Today, classical education is typically understood in three broad senses: 1) a highly focused and directed curriculum founded on the mastery of a classical language, such as Latin or Greek, as the basis of developing the child’s intellectual abilities; 2) a Great Books approach that focuses on literary “classics”; or 3) a curriculum that models the structure of the liberal arts tradition of the trivium (grammar, logic, and rhetoric) and the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy). Often one finds a hybrid of any of the three above approaches under one “classical” label. Our Lady of Victory’s curriculum was not developed with any of the above three approaches in mind.

However, the purpose of a classical education is the development of the fundamental skills of the mind to understand, reason, and express itself persuasively. The Jesuits, historically the indisputable masters of classical education, followed the ancient Roman tradition by stating that the goal of classical education was to form vir bonus dicendi peritus (“the good man skilled in speaking”). But a classical education is not the only means to this goal of the good man who speaks well. Our program thoroughly develops in children those foundational virtues that perfect the ability of the mind in understanding, reasoning, and expressing itself.

Without a doubt, one may have a Catholic education that is not also classical. In fact, the vast majority of Christendom did not have the benefits of a liberal arts or classical education. Most people were taught at home, learning the knowledge and skills necessary for life in the context of their family and community. Many teaching religious orders offered free or affordable, non-classical Catholic education as well as training in the various trades. Pius XI summed up the essence of a Catholic education in his encyclical Divini Illius Magistri: “The proper and immediate end of Christian education is to cooperate with divine grace in forming the true and perfect Christian, that is, to form Christ Himself” (n. 94). Any education that accomplishes this goal is a Catholic education.

We do not offer online classes or any form of electronic-based instruction, such as video or audio courses. Our curriculum consists entirely of physical books, workbooks, and activity books, which may be adapted to suit individual family needs. If education were solely about the transmission of information, then online courses would make sense. However, we believe education is more than information: it is the formation of the entire child, intellectually, physically, emotionally, and above all, spiritually. Following Catholic tradition, this education of the mind and soul occurs best when it is conducted in person, engaged in the physical world.

All Catholic homeschool programs have the same goal of providing a Catholic education to their students, but there are different approaches to that goal.

One of the major differences that sets OLVS apart from other programs is that the Traditional Catholic Faith forms the foundation of our entire program as well as the personal lives of our staff. Our program exclusively promotes the Traditional Latin Mass, the ancient rites of the Sacraments, a love of the Saints and Holy Mother the Church, as well as traditional devotions, such as the Sacred Heart and the Rosary in its original 15-decade form.

We believe this foundation is critical because of the pervasive confusion and lack of education on even the most basic Catholic doctrines in our day. It is this foundation alone that can give parents true peace of mind as they guide their children to salvation. This exactly accords with Pius XI’s teaching that “religion may be in very truth the foundation and crown of the youth’s entire training.”

In elementary and middle school, the religion, history, and grammar books are all reprints of textbooks used in Catholic schools before the 1960s. Our literature program combines Saints stories, books by Catholic authors, as well as some classic novels that highlight virtue. We have produced our own spelling and handwriting workbooks, which are filled with Catholicism throughout.

The high school religion series, Our Quest for Happiness, was also originally published before 1960. High school history is also very Catholic with our most popular high school course being Modern History, which traces Communism and its spread from the early 20th century into the 1960s. The middle school and high school science is authored by Dr. Jay Wile, who follows a Creation and God-based approach to science, and we have had great success with his textbooks.

The program is faithful to the Magisterium of the Church; all of our religion texts have imprimaturs and nihil obstats, indicating that they uphold the dogmas of the Church and are fit for publication. Our organization has even been honored to receive a Papal Blessing from John Paul II, which hangs on our office wall as a “pledge of heavenly favors.”

For elementary and middle school, we use the Living My Religion series, which is based on the Baltimore Catechism; in high school, the Our Quest for Happiness series forms the religion curriculum. Both series are pre-Vatican II.

Our Independent Study and Books Only options allow parents complete flexibility to adapt our lesson plans and books to their family needs. They may be followed as closely as the parents wish.

For Full Enrollment, some adjustments are allowed. Any adjustments and/or substitutions need to be pre-approved by the school registrar.

OLVS does not offer any materials specifically designed for special needs students, nor do we offer special needs support. We recommend our Independent Study program for parents with special needs children as the parents can adapt the program as they see fit in order to help their child succeed academically.

Yes, OLVS accepts pre-approved co-op classes.

A co-op class is conducted in a co-op setting with an instructor other than the parent. OLVS will request that the co-op instructor complete our private tutor/co-op form. Upon completion of this form, the instructor will forward quarterly grades to OLVS, which will be added to the student’s transcript.

Parent-directed substitute courses encompass classes outside of our set course offerings. In this case, the parent will be required to develop lesson plans, grade all assignments, and submit weekly samples of work for review by the OLVS tutor. This review will enable the grades to be entered on the student’s transcript.

All private tutor/co-op classes and parent-directed courses must be preapproved by the school registrar.

No, Our Lady of Victory School is not associated with any diocese; religious order, such as the Dominicans or CMRI; priestly or apostolic society, such as the Fraternity of Saint Peter or the Society of Saint Pius X; or other Catholic organizations. We are an educational non-profit organization, founded and staffed by practicing Catholics in good standing with the Catholic Church. We also do not receive funding from other organizations.

The main difference is the level of support and interaction with our staff. In the full enrollment, we offer grading support, academic record maintenance, and official school records (quarterly progress reports, report cards, and transcripts). In the independent study program, the parents purchase the books and curriculum, but there is no interaction or support beyond receiving the order; the parents are responsible for all of the grading. We highly recommend full enrollment especially when the child begins high school for the accountability and official records provided by our accredited program.

You can find out more and begin the full enrollment process here.

Parents will need to submit the completed enrollment form for all fully enrolled students. If a student is transferring from another school, they will need to complete the Records Request Form.

Student transfers will require that you complete the Records Request Form, which will notify your current school that your student is enrolling with OLVS. Transcripts will be sent automatically at that time.

For grades K–8, if a student has completed their school year, transcripts are not necessary but highly recommended for academic placement purposes. However, for mid-year transfers, transcripts from the student’s previous school enrollment must be submitted for academic placement purposes.

For all students wishing to transfer into Our Lady of Victory at any point past 9th grade, transcripts must be submitted to assure that the high school courses completed at another institution will fulfill the requirements of our Catholic curriculum.

You may start your school year at any time. We recommend a standard academic year or that you follow your local district’s schedule; for example, our southern hemisphere families begin their school year in January. However, you may alter the start dates to fit your family’s schedule.

Typically students will progress into the next grade level from the previous year. However, it is not uncommon to find children who perform fairly well in one area and quite poorly in another. We recommend our standardized testing booklets to help determine the correct grade level if you are unsure.

See the prices for our different educational options here.

A payment plan is available for the tuition fees for full enrollment students. The down payment consists of the first month’s tuition and registration fee; the balance is paid over nine equal installments. A payment plan calculator is available when completing the full enrollment form.

Our high school curriculum offers a number of elective courses, including a variety of Literature courses, Latin, Philosophy, and Physics. A list may be found on our Curriculum & Courses page.

We allow substitutions for certain eligible subjects: Mathematics, Literature, History, Science, and Public Speaking. Substitute courses may be taken through our electives offerings or through co-ops, private tutors, or other accredited programs. In the case of co-ops, tutors, or other accredited programs, History is also excluded as an eligible subject for substitutions. There is no additional charge for a substitution although the cost for textbooks may vary. If you have additional questions on substitutes, please contact our office.

• Religion: 4 years
• English/Grammar: 4 years
• Math: 3 years
• History: 4 years (must include 1 year U.S. and 1 year Civics)
• Literature: 4 years
• Science: 3 years

Yes, graduates and their families are invited to the annual commencement exercises, held in Post Falls, Idaho near the school headquarters. Contact us by phone or email to find out the date for the next graduation ceremony. If you are unable to make the commencement exercises, you will receive your diploma through the mail.

You may contact the school office with any questions regarding the books and curriculum. Enrolled students can also receive academic support through the school office, connect with their tutor, and receive personalized feedback on their assignments.

Grading is completed by both the parent and the OLVS tutor as indicated on the lesson plans. Selections of the student’s work are sent to the school where it is reviewed by the tutor who keeps the student’s records and issues quarterly progress reports and a final report card. When the parent is required to grade an assignment, the grade must be recorded on the lesson plan, but you may still need to submit it for tutor review.

Students have 18 months from the initial enrollment date to complete their academic year. After that, a reactivation fee will apply.

After the first two weeks are received, the welcome letter will be issued and graded work returned within two weeks. Progress reports are issued within two weeks of receiving the quarter exams. All submitted work will be returned with the progress report.

For domestic students, work is submitted through the mail (USPS, UPS, FedEx, etc.). It’s the parent’s responsibility to have a tracking number, to ensure that the work has arrived at the school, and to have copies in case the work gets lost in the mail.

International students may submit work through Dropbox. Contact us via email for further details.

Our lesson plans are user friendly and indicate all assignments that need to be completed, space for grades, and submission requirements. You may view a sample of our lesson plans here.

The tutors’ main responsibility is record keeping and grading specific assignments. Their role does not include regular instruction or teaching sessions. Parents and students may initiate further communication with their tutors as needed, for example, for clarification on assignment requirements.

You will receive a welcome letter with the tutor’s contact information after enrollment. You may also contact the school office.

Answer Keys are available for all assignments parents are required to grade. However, if you need additional grading assistance, you may contact the tutor, and an additional grading fee will need to be assessed.

Students are allowed to begin their next academic year as soon as the report card from the previous grade has been issued.

Yes, our recommended course of study for high school is more than sufficient for admission to college and will set the student up for academic success. See our alumni page for success stories.

To date, Our Lady of Victory School’s diploma has not been rejected by any college or institution of higher education. In our experience, online-only schools require additional documentation and verification. For students in Canada, we recommend that you get in touch with ICAS to follow the correct protocol for Canadian admissions.

Email [email protected] to request your transcript. You will be required to include the complete college/university address as well as submission deadlines. There is a $5 fee per transcript that will apply. Please call the office to remit payment.

We have seen many of our graduates pursue a college education. For a list of some colleges and universities which have accepted our graduates, visit our alumni page.