The family is the foundation of early education of a child, since a child is born into the family. The family is therefore the center of early formation and of orientation for the wider society.

THE FAMILY AS THE FOUNDATION FOR A CHILD’S EDUCATION AND FUTURE
WHAT IS FAMILY?
Family is the smallest unit of a society made up of father mother and their children. The family just as the cell which is the smallest unit of an individual which amalgamate to form tissues and in more complicated order to form organ and entire human system, the family as well plays a major role in the formation of the society. The family is the nursery bed on which every society is nourished and established. The first environment through which an individual is incorporated into the society, which grants the individual an opportunity to integrate into the life of the society is the family.
The family is a community of persons and the smallest social unit. As such it is an institution fundamental to the life of every society. The family is a basic social group united through bonds of kinship or marriage, present in all societies. Ideally, the family provides its members with protection, companionship, security, and socialization. The structure of the family and the needs that the family fulfills vary from society to society. The nuclear family—two adults and their children—is the main unit in some societies. In others, it is a subordinate part of an extended family, which also consists of grandparents and other relatives.
WHAT IS CATHOLIC FAMILY?
The catholic family is a family that is established by the sacrament of matrimony. In matrimony and in the family a complex of interpersonal relationships is set up-married life, fatherhood and motherhood, filiations and fraternity-through which each human person is introduced into the "human family" and into the "family of God," which is the Church.
Christian marriage and the Christian family build up the Church: for in the family the human person is not only brought into being and progressively introduced by means of education into the human community, but by means of the rebirth of baptism and education in the faith the child is also introduced into God's family, which is the Church. In the catholic family the new child is introduced into the first teachers the parents who are entrusted with the role of moral upbringing of the child. The parents in the catholic family are bestowed with role of formation and restructuring of the child socially and spiritually thereby exposing the child to the reality of the society.
INFLUENCE OF THE FAMILY ON THE CHILD
The English philosopher and political theorist John Locke regarded human brain at the point of birth as a tabularasa, a blank slate by which experience is imprinted. The family as the first contact of the child becomes a platform through which a child gains access to the norms of the society. The family initiates the child into to the society by impacting its teachings on the child which comprise of; the language of the people, the culture and other forms of moral codes which the child utilizes to be a full member of the society. The entire community relies on the family in its role of building and restructuring of child and above all in its work of integration which if not well implemented affects the growing child socially and psychologically.
The family is the earliest companion of a child and exposes the reality of the society which might be obscured to a child. The father in his protective role protects the child from dangers and takes time to unravel the history of the society to the child. He provides the needs of the child physically, socially and morally. The mother on the other hand in motherly love implants a sense of belonging in the life of the child. She teaches the child on how to embrace the world with love and with courage with the view that the world is not a hostile place but a habitable place which gives ones opportunity to actualize his potentialities.
THE FAMILY AS A FOUNDATION FOR EARLY EDUCATION
Knowledge is power according to the great Philosopher Francis Bacon. Every institution is therefore obliged to actualize knowledge so that humanity will be able to go beyond illusion and embrace realities of life and thereby improving human social relationship. Our relationship as human is strengthened when there is adequate knowledge enhanced by education in human institutions. The family is the primary institution of humanity and thereby entrusted with this precious role of human formation.
When spouses become parents they automatically become the first educators of their own children. “Parents are the principal and first educators of their children” (CCC 1653). This education is not simply a question of behaving and being good. The parents are the first teachers of their children. They are the ones who teach the children how to do the sign of the cross; how to kneel down besides their bed and say their evening prayers; how to say always “please”, “thank you” or sorry. It is the duty of parents to initiate their children into the system of the community by teaching them moral codes of the community which they imbibe for a better social relationship. The children social relationship, theological relationship and sexual relationship are influenced by the parents who are the earliest teachers of the children and companions as they grow up to appreciate the society where they are born into.
The blessing of offspring, however, is not completed by the mere begetting of them, but something else must be added, namely the proper education of the offspring. For the most wise God would have failed to make sufficient provision for children that had been born, and so for the whole human race, if He had not given to those whom He had entrusted the power and right to beget them, the power also, and the right, to educate them. For no one can fail to see that children are incapable of providing wholly for themselves, even in matters pertaining to their natural life, and much less in those pertaining to the supernatural, but require for many years to be helped, instructed, and educated by others. Now it is certain that both by the law of nature and of God this right and duty of educating their offspring belongs in the first place to those who began the work of nature by giving them birth, and they are indeed forbidden to leave unfinished this work and so expose it to certain ruin. But in matrimony provision has been made in the best possible way for this education of children that is so necessary, for, since the parents are bound together by an indissoluble bond, the care and mutual help of each is always at hand.
Since, however, We have spoken fully elsewhere on the Christian education of youth, let Us sum it all up by quoting once more the words of St. Augustine: "As regards the offspring it is provided that they should be begotten lovingly and educated religiously, - and this is also expressed succinctly in the Code of Canon Law - "The primary end of marriage is the procreation and the education of children."
Nor must We omit to remark, in find, that since the duty entrusted to parents for the good of their children is of such high dignity and of such great importance, every use of the faculty given by God for the procreation of new life is the right and the privilege of the married state alone, by the law of God and of nature, and must be confined absolutely within the sacred limits of that state.