Summary
Our children need strong faith formation to understand and navigate today’s world. Ginny and Mary Ellen provide seven rules to do just that.Forty years ago, Ginny Seuffert began homeschooling to protect her children’s innocence. She sensed that the culture was shifting.
Today, that shift has become a tidal wave. Children are exposed to ideas, images, and influences earlier and more intensively than previous generations could scarcely have imagined.
Yet Ginny remains hopeful.
On a recent episode of the Stay-at-Homeschooling Mom podcast, Ginny and Mary Ellen Barrett drew on their experience to present a practical, faith-filled roadmap for Catholic families.
Here are the highlights of their Seven Rules Navigating Your Family in Today’s World Podcast. You can hear the episode here.
1. You Know Your Child Best
No one knows your child as you do.
You are the best judge of your child’s maturity level and when information, tailored thoughtfully, prayerfully, and individually, should be presented.
2. Ask Before You Answer
When your child asks a challenging question, pause and begin with a gentle question of your own: “What made you ask that?” or “What have you heard?”
Clarifying their understanding helps you provide an accurate, age-appropriate, and proportionate answer.
3. Limit Internet Access
A child who retreats behind a screen may lose opportunities for creativity, physical activity, and genuine conversation.
Encourage outdoor play. Encourage hobbies. Encourage boredom — because boredom often leads to imagination.
Children may need phones for practical reasons, but they do not need smartphones. There is a difference.
4. Encourage Prayer
When children are too young to process complex issues, the simplest response may be the most powerful:
“Let’s pray for them.”
Prayer teaches children to first go to God in confusion, sadness, or concern and steadies hearts — yours and theirs.
5. Don’t Kid Yourself
At some point, exposure will happen. It may come through sports teams, scouts, cousins, neighborhood friends, or casual conversations. Difficult topics will surface.
Questions will grow more complex.
Parents cannot eliminate every encounter with the world. But they can prepare. Awareness is not fear. It is readiness.
6. Make Dinner Conversation a Habit
Start simple in younger years, try:
• Name three things you’re grateful for.
• Tell us about someone you helped today.
• What would you change about your day?
This builds the habit of reflection and communication.
By their teenage years, conversation at the dinner table will feel natural. When serious matters arise, they will already be accustomed to talking with you — not away from you.
7. Anchor All in Christ
When confronting cultural confusion or moral questions, return to Scripture and Church teaching. Say clearly and confidently:
“This is wrong because Our Lord taught…” or “Catholics have always believed…”
Children need to see that faith is the lens through which we understand life.
Teach the Faith — Every Day
At Seton, Catholic truth is not an add-on. It is integrated into literature, history, science, and every subject. Strong formation equips children to navigate confusion with confidence.
Our children need strong faith formation to understand and navigate today’s world.
And parents need courage — the quiet, steady courage to lead them there.
The Stay-at-Homeschooling Mom Podcast
Ginny’s article shares highlights from Seven Rules – Navigating Your Family in Today’s World, released on December 24, 2025.
We’re excited to announce the new season of the Stay-at-Homeschooling Mom podcast, where we will explore the real questions homeschool families face.
This season, we’re answering your questions from choosing the right curriculum to daily routines, and the joys and challenges of motherhood.
We hope to share practical advice, encouragement, and honest conversations to support you wherever you are in your homeschooling journey.
Join Ginny and Mary Ellen at setonhome.org/podcast/ for the complete list of over 100 episodes including Discipline in the Early Years, Ten Rules to Raise a Reader, and The 5 Worst Pieces of Homeschooling Advice. And always with tips, humor, and encouragement to support your homeschooling journey.
