Unfortunately, since both the thematic_postfooter and thematic_belowcontent don't seem to function predictably (and no other way has been brought up), I was obliged to opt for the old-fashioned solution of creating a new home template file.
It's messier and redundant and requires me to remember that it's there if I change the home page, but at least it works.
FYI on what I did to make it work in Thematic:
I decided to add a block of three more home widgets below the entry content on the home page.
So I created a basic raw page.php file that matches Thematic and added the widget section just below the content hooks at the bottom of the entry-content div like so:
<?php
/*
Template Name: Custom Home
*/
?>
<?php get_header(); ?>
<div id="container">
<div id="content">
<?php the_post(); ?>
<div id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>" <?php post_class(); ?>>
<h1 class="entry-title"><?php the_title(); ?></h1>
<div class="entry-content">
<?php the_content(); ?>
<?php wp_link_pages('before=<div class="page-link">' . __( 'Pages:', 'your-theme' ) . '&after=</div>') ?>
<?php edit_post_link( __( 'Edit', 'your-theme' ), '<span class="edit-link">', '</span>' ) ?>
<div id="home_widgets">
<div class="wrapper">
<?php if(function_exists('dynamic_sidebar')): ?>
<div class="hr">_______</div>
<div class="home_i">
<?php if(dynamic_sidebar('Home I')) :else: ?><!-- widget_home_i --><? endif; ?>
</div>
<div class="hr">_______</div>
<div class="home_ii">
<?php if(dynamic_sidebar('Home II')) :else: ?><!-- widget_home_ii --><? endif; ?>
</div>
<div class="hr">_______</div>
<div class="home_iii">
<?php if(dynamic_sidebar('Home III')) :else: ?><!-- widget_home_iii --><? endif; ?>
</div>
</div><!-- #wrapper -->
<?php endif; ?>
</div><!-- #home_widgets -->
</div><!– .entry-content –>
</div><!– #post-<?php the_ID(); ?> –>
<?php if ( get_post_custom_values('comments') ) comments_template() // Add a custom field with Name and Value of "comments" to enable comments on this page ?>
</div><!– #content –>
</div><!– #container –>
<?php get_sidebar(); ?>
<?php get_footer(); ?>
Next, I went in to the static home page I had created in WordPress and selected "Custom Home" as the page template. Of course, static home pages must set in WordPress' Settings -> Reading -> A static page (select below) radio button with the home page (or whatever you're calling it) selected in the Front page drop menu.
Almost forgot: I did use the child theme functions.php for registering the home widgets:
// Adds three widget areas on the Homepage just below content in confunction with custom home.php template file
if ( function_exists('register_sidebar') )
register_sidebar(array(
'name' => 'Home I',
'before_widget' => '<div id="%2$s" class="widget">',
'after_widget' => '</div>',
'before_title' => "\n<h3><span>",
'after_title' => "</span></h3>\n",
));
register_sidebar(array(
'name' => 'Home II',
'before_widget' => '<div id="%2$s" class="widget">',
'after_widget' => '</div>',
'before_title' => "\n<h3><span>",
'after_title' => "</span></h3>\n",
));
register_sidebar(array(
'name' => 'Home III',
'before_widget' => '<div id="%2$s" class="widget">',
'after_widget' => '</div>',
'before_title' => "\n<h3><span>",
'after_title' => "</span></h3>\n",
));
