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Our Family Read Alouds from 2017: an Annotated List

We make time most school days to read loud. A friend recommended the blog Read Aloud Revival (completely worth your time), and after listening to even one podcast, I was hooked on the idea of reading aloud as a way to create bonds within families, to increase literacy among children, and to teach moral values in an organic manner.

Because we read aloud, we have stockpiled literary characters we all know and love. Our literary adventures have given birth to inside jokes and one-liners. Even the five-year-old references lessons from books we read long ago that are stored in the recesses of my mind but that are still very much alive in his.

When we read aloud together, it is almost as though we have gone on an adventure together as a family. It’s time spent together in about the most convenient, comfortable, economical and pleasurable way I can imagine!

Here is the list of what we read aloud in 2017. Given the fact that we rarely read aloud on weekends (for no good reason; we are just out of our routine) and allowing for sick days, laziness in summer, and days we simply didn’t fit it in, I would estimate that we operated at 35% of our full read-aloud potential. That being said, look at how much we plowed through!

One of the best pieces of advice I have ever received was along the lines of “If you want to be a mom who takes her kids outside, put down whatever you are doing and take your kids outside. You are now a mom who takes her kids outside.” The same is true of exercise, crafts, or read alouds. If reading aloud is something you want to start doing, go pick up a children’s book off of the floor–picture book or otherwise–and start reading aloud. Trust me, if you read it out loud, they will come. Even when it’s a picture book, the 8- and 9-year olds gather around. There is something magically enticing about hearing a story read aloud.

Chapter Books

Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink

Caddie is a feisty Civil-war-era girl who lives in the wilds of Wisconsin with her family. We had tried Little House on the Prairie a year ago as a read aloud, and no one got into it (an experiment I hope to retry soon). This book is heavy on action with endearing (and enduring!) characters. A great, great read. My kids aged 9 to 4 (at the time) would name it the best book of the year!

Caddie Woodlawn’s Family by Carol Ryrie Brink and Marguerite Davis

As soon as Caddie Woodlawn was finished, my kids begged for another one. Looking around, I discovered this sequel. It isn’t quite as good as the first, but it was still a good read and filled our hearts that were begging for more time with Caddie Woodlawn and her family.

A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond

These are adorable stories about the talking bear from “Darkest Peru.” My children found the first Paddington movie to be too frightening. In these stories, unlike the movie, there is no villain–just a lot of mischief and unintended consequences. This book is a lot of fun.

Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan

This is a lovely, spare book about life on the prairie, the loss of a mother, and a new family in the making. Heart-wrenching without being sentimental, the storyline of this book will stay with you–and it comes out all right in the end, too.

The Mercy Watson series by Kate DiCamillo

At first the illustrations to this series and the premise of a doted-upon pig living in a house were jarring to me. Once I began to appreciate the retro style, however, I find both the illustrations and the books to be hilarious. My 3, 5, and 7 year olds can’t get enough of them!

How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell

I remember reading this book as a child and really enjoying it. This book, like so many books I read in my childhood that had been penned in the ’70s, failed to live up to memory. Perhaps some parts of it went over my head back then. It’s a decent read, but nothing that I would particularly recommend. I had to edit some parts of it as I was reading aloud.

The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes

This book is about school cliques and bullying. Told from the perspective of one of the less mean-spirited girls in the clique rather than the girl who was ostracized, it touches on the pain of bullying without being overwhelming for a sensitive child. It has worthy reflections on “what I should have done” and the hidden person beyond appearances. A deep book, really, without being pedantic.

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

We read this book as part of my son’s book club. It is a fantastic book–but not one that is particularly well-suited to reading aloud to young children. Much of the book is wordplay so that the spelling needs to be seen–or at least read aloud to someone who will get the joke. However, put it on your booklist for older children because it is not only a great adventure story, but it is also a delightful, whimsical, and thought-provoking book that not only forces you to think about how we use language but also about how we live our lives. A fellow mom and I both agreed that it changed our perspectives! 4th grade and up.

Five Children and It by E. Nesbit

This book was remarkable in its day as the first that featured magical realism–that is, magic that happens in every day life as opposed to magic that is embedded in another world unlike our own. Four children (the fifth is a baby) come across a wish-giving sand fairy and find that asking for wishes that work out as anticipated is a difficult thing indeed. A classic book for a reason and beloved by our family.

The Amelia Bedelia series by Peggy Parish

Does it get any better than the literal Amelia Bedelia? This is one series from my childhood that absolutely lives up to its memory. All of the children from 3 to 9 love these books, and we have a blast following one another’s instructions in Amelia-Bedelia style (such as “Time to hit the road, kids!” “All right, mom, I’ll get the stick”). Do not get the newer books that feature Amelia Bedelia as a child; stick with the original Peggy Parish books.

The Little Bear series by Else Holmelund Minarik

What lovely books for the young child or the emerging reader! Even I can’t get enough of Little Bear. Simple stories told well.

The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden

This is a perfectly charming book about the friendship of three animals, the value of place, and music. You won’t regret reading it, and you might even shed a tear at the end like I did.

Stuart Little by E.B. White

We love E.B. White–but we didn’t love this book. Despite a couple of amusing chapters, the book’s ambiguous ending, the main character’s utter disregard for his parents, and its tired ’70s trope of “finding yourself” wore thin even with the children. Stuart Little was not particularly likeable, and the book seemed to have no point. A flop with us.

The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White

Here’s an E.B. White book that we DID enjoy. While there is a small amount of the old “irrelevant parent” trope, the themes of overcoming obstacles, the value of all life, and the eloquent descriptions of nature trump it. The talkative and vain Old Cob, while rather annoying at first, ended up being our favorite character, and we now love to talk in Old Cob style. We found the resolution at the end to be less than satisfactory, but it afforded good discussion.

From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg

This is another title I dredged up from my childhood library. The premise is so engaging–run-away children make their home in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art–but their disregard for their parents is dismaying. It read better when I envisioned myself in the place of the child than it does now when I picture myself as the adult. Even so, it gave good fodder for discussion and has a little mystery thrown in.

The Bravest Dog Ever: the True Story of Balto by Natalie Standiford

The true story of a dog who led his sled team through a blizzard to get medicine to sick children in a remote part of Alaska. It is suspenseful without being scary. Good for emerging readers to read alone, but we all enjoyed the story read aloud as well.

The Courage of Sarah Noble by Alice Dalgliesh

This book, says the epilogue, is based on the true story of a young girl who stayed with Native Americans while her father left to get the rest of the family. It is a memorable book and showcases the deep wells of courage found in children while at the same time not villianizing the adults. Highly recommended. “Keep up your courage” is now a tag-line at our house.

Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

This book was a step into more mature material for my children. The mother in the book has willingly abandoned her husband and her daughter. Until this book, my children had never fathomed that such a thing could occur. The writing, as is always the case with DiCamillo, is so spectacular, though, and she handles the subject so sensitively that I would highly recommend this book for all but the most sensitive of children (and my children are quite sensitive!). Great characters and a satisfying reconciliation between the hurting daughter and father. Ages 6+.

The Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series by Betty Macdonald

The original Mrs. Piggle Wiggle books can’t be beat. Her creative ways to deal with the typical misbehaviors of children are not only wise but rollicking. While the first books generally utilize natural consequences (though the reader must suspend disbelief), later books often use “magic powder” to solve the situation. While my children still love those, I personally prefer the earliest books of the series and never tire of reading them! Children 3 and up love them.

All of a Kind Family by Sydney Taylor

This is a simple book about a large Jewish family and their everyday life. It is so innocent that there is even a chapter on mother finding a way to teach her daughters to dust the house better via hiding buttons around the room–and my kids ate it up. It has a somewhat unbelievable, though satisfying conclusion. My children (3 to 9 years old) would rank this as one of the best of the year.

Half Magic by Edward Eager

The author wrote this book in the manner of E. Nesbit’s Five Children and It and even references that book in the text! Four children find a magic coin and discover that their wishes come true only by half as much. It’s fun, has a great ending, and relatable characters.

Frindle by Andrew Clements

What a hilarious book about the power of words! This book features an intelligent and somewhat mischievous protagonist who renames a pen a “frindle.” The character, however, is not malicious and is respectful both of his parents and toward school authorities–a welcome reprieve from the usual theme of “adults are stupid.” It was thoroughly entertaining and had the kids (5 and up) begging for more.

Picture books

We read aloud many, many more picture books than are listed here. The ones below are especially worth highlighting, though! They brought us joy (or brought us to tears) and are all now beloved friends.

Boxes for Katje by Candace Fleming

Get your Kleenex ready before you sit down! This is a picture book that is memorable. It can be understood by children at least 5 and older, but the emotional impact will hit the older children (7 and up). It is the story of two little girls, one of whom is in post-war Europe, and their connection across the sea.

It Could Always be Worse: A Yiddish folk tale by Margot Zemach

This is one of those books that we quote all of the time: “It could always be worse!” my kids will chortle no matter our circumstance. It’s an entertaining book about being grateful for how good you really have it.

The Seven Silly Eaters by Mary Ann Hoberman

This book, about seven children with strong culinary preferences and a mother who caters to them, gently shows children the absurdity of both the children and the mom. I love that the family has more than 2.5 kids, and in the end, a solution is found that is reasonable. It’s just a lot of fun and has great rhymes!

The Mary Celeste: an Unsolved Mystery from History by Jane Yolen

This is a picture book for older children, about 7 and up. It is the true story of a missing ship. My children enjoyed reading the facts and coming up with their own theories as to what happened. For one of my children in particular, the fact that we don’t “know” for sure what happened was a little unsettling, but I think it is a good introduction to being comfortable with mystery.

Good Dog, Carl by Alexandra Day

This book is nearly wordless, but it makes a big impact. We continue to fabricate situations that star the inimitable Carl the Dog. The illustrations are gorgeous to boot.

Perfect Christmas: a Carol of Calm in the Midst of a Mess by Gary Bower

Each year I think about which new Christmas book I would like to add to our collection. After checking out about 20 from our local library, this one is the winner. It is a universal story about the preparations for Christmas going wrong–and remembering that even so, it is a perfect Christmas. Maybe it’s because I read it when I was knee-deep in Christmas preparations, but it brought me to tears. It also has beautiful, painterly illustrations!

Corduroy by Don Freeman

Corduroy is beloved by all of my children, but was a particular favorite of my 3 year old daughter this year. “Cordur-bear,” as she calls him, is now a sleepmate with her in the form of a stuffed animal. I remember loving this book as a child, and I’m pleased my daughter does too!

For Grown-ups

Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child by Anthony Esolen

This book was a life-changer for me. I recommended it to a friend, and she concurs: this is a book we will want to read year after year. It is written in satire, as if we really want to destroy the imagination of our children, and it is a scathing cultural commentary on everything from our educational system to our predilection toward cutting down heroes by focusing on their faults. It’s convicting, enlightening, and inspiring–and it will change the way you parent!

(This post first appeared at www.inaplaceofgrace.com. Text (c) by Amanda Woodiel [2018]. Photo by Mystic Art Design [2015] via Pixabay, CCO Public Domain.)

Playing the Ordered Toward Game

By Amanda Woodiel

God bless the woman from our parish who comes to my house weekly to help out with the children. Not only does she give me a half day out of the house, but she, who also happens to be incredibly well-read and steeped in the Catholic faith, enriches my home with a wisdom culled from years of mothering and reading Catholic philosophy.

So when my six year old son asked her if he could stack a doll stroller on top of a mini folding chair on top of a dining room chair and so on to see if he could eventually get his Tower of Babel to touch the ceiling, she was armed with a much better answer than I would have given when he asked, “Why not?”

“Because,” said the sage. “That is not what those things are ordered toward.”

When I came home, she told me the anecdote, laughing that she had given my budding six-year-old philosopher something to chew on.

But she gave me something to chew on as well. While I outwardly nodded and smiled, my inward self was as happy as a child treated to a new flavor of candy. I quickly saw how brilliant this tack is, calculating how very often I can use this line of reasoning to forestall disaster and reasonably answer questions.

Why can’t I swing this metal pole around like a baseball bat? Because that’s not what it is ordered toward.

Why can’t I climb the door frame like an American ninja warrior? Because, my dear, that’s not what the door frame is ordered toward.

Why can’t I step on the baby’s sippy cup? Because. That. Is. Not. What. It. Is. Ordered. Toward.

****

I’ve been reading the book The Benedict Option, in which the author traces the historical shift in the metaphysical understanding of matter from something that possesses inherent meaning and structure to something that has no meaning at all until a person assigns meaning to it. We see this shift dramatically demonstrated in our current culture’s (dis)regard of the sex of a human body.

Before recent times, a person’s body informed the person’s identity. The body itself had inherent meaning and structure. My body has female parts; therefore, I am a woman. Compare this with the present-day “understanding” of the body as something that has no inherent meaning whatsoever. The fact that I have female sexual organs, runs this way of thinking, in no way determines my sex. Instead, I assign meaning to my body based upon whatever I want for that day.

How extraordinarily confusing is this way of thinking! To live in a world in which everything has no inherent structure, no inherent meaning, no inherent order is to be lost at sea in a cosmological ocean–and lost at sea alone. For if nothing has inherent meaning, then what common ground is there for two people to stand on?

So as a way to bulwark against the prevailing cultural view, we play the Ordered Toward game at my house. It is a simple game, born of that day when my wise friend introduced the concept to us.

Everyone from the 8 year old to the 2 year old loves this game. We simply name things around us and talk about what they are ordered toward. Sometimes I name the object (what is a car ordered toward? To get us from one place to another), sometimes I play the game silly (is spaghetti ordered toward decorating your head? Noooo!), and sometimes I name the purpose and the children name the object (This is ordered toward giving us shade and oxygen. A tree!).

It’s a fun game to play in the car or in a waiting room to pass the time. The children giggle because children instinctively know that objects do have inherent meaning.

Start this little exercise at your house and you will be amazed by how useful it is. When someone throws a toy: “that toy was made to spin; it’s not ordered toward throwing.” When someone sticks his feet in another child’s face: “is that what your feet are ordered toward?” When a child tries to put his sister’s underwear on his head: “that’s not what it is ordered toward!” [Are you getting a picture of life at our house?]

At the same time, I’m laying groundwork for Theology of the Body before I get anywhere close to teaching about the mechanics of sex. The point is that our bodies are ordered toward something. We already talk about what our stomachs are ordered toward (to digest food) and what our eyes are ordered toward (to see), so when we get to the point of talking about our reproductive organs, for example, we will have a solid foundation upon which to lay the Catholic theology of the body, which is to say, that the reproductive organs are ordered toward creating and nourishing life.

Of course, as the children grow older and enter into the rhetoric stage of life, I’m sure we will have conversations about secondary uses and innovative uses of existing things, at which point we will discuss ethics and morality. The first place to start when one encounters something, though, is in discovering what its primary purpose is–and this is a fun way to begin.

Catholic Halloween! It’s our feast, and we’re going to enjoy it!

By Lisa Mladinich

Catechists and parents, Halloween is a Catholic feast that not many of us know the history of–or how to truly enjoy it–so I’d like to recommend a resource for celebrating with our children, whether in our Catholic schools, homes, parishes, or homeschool networks. I talked about it on Relevant Radio, this morning, with Glen Leverenz. (Listen here.)

This self-published resource (sorry about my poor photography) was created by two brilliant women in the Immaculate Heart of Mary homeschool network, here on Long Island, and it’s called, Celebrating Catholic Halloween. It was written by Patricia Bissex; graphics were provided by Lynn Mary Wilson. I’ll give ordering information at the end of this post.*

This magazine-sized, roughly 40-page booklet includes not only the history and delightful traditions of All Hallows E’en (including begging for soul cakes on the vigil of All Saints Day) but helps us and our children to embrace the majesty and beauty of our traditions as a Catholic family: a family that never stops loving each other, even after death.

Celebrating Catholic Halloween provides:

A deeper appreciation for the Feasts of All Saints (November 1) and All Souls (November 2)
Historical context for understanding the development of trick-or-treating, based on the Catholic tradition of begging for soul cakes on the vigil of All Saints (October 31)
Religious customs and the importance of praying for the Holy Souls
Fascinating symbols from nature (and food!) that reconnect us to the beauty of our faith
Lessons in various academic disciplines, including lovely catechetical games, activities, word games, traditional liturgies, coloring pages, crafts, recipes, litanies, processions, vocabulary lists for various levels, recommended resources, prayers, insights into related sacramentals, and simple but beautiful songs for increasing the joy and reverence of your celebration.

With this simple but value-packed resource, you will be empowered to help children and adults experience the thrill of learning about the lives of the saints and the Holy Souls in purgatory–their family and friends in the Communion of Saints.

A final note and prayer request:

In the traditional calendar of the Church, Mondays are devoted to the Holy Spirit and the Holy Souls, so I’d like to close on this Monday morning by asking for prayers for the soul of Carmella R. Kosinski, a wife, mom, and teacher, who died last week. She is the very beloved mom of John Harper, the host of Morning Air, on Relevant Radio. He treasured and cared for her in his home, for years. Please say a Hail Mary or an Our Father for her soul and ask the Holy Spirit to comfort John and his family.

I’ll close with two beautiful and powerful prayers for the Holy Souls in Purgatory:

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May their souls and all the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen.

This one is from St. Gertrude the Great and is believed to release 1,000 souls from purgatory at each recitation:

Eternal Father, I offer You the most precious blood of thy Divine Son, Jesus,
in union with the Masses said throughout the world today,
for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory, for sinners everywhere,
for sinners in the universal Church, for those in my own home,
and in my family. Amen.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that our prayers for the Holy Souls not only helps them to get to heaven faster but enables them to pray for us–and their prayers are powerful. These are friends we want to have and want our children to know and love.

958 Communion with the dead.

“In full consciousness of this communion of the whole Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, the Church in its pilgrim members, from the very earliest days of the Christian religion, has honored with great respect the memory of the dead; and ‘because it is a holy and a wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from their sins’ she offers her suffrages for them.” Our prayer for them is capable not only of helping them, but also of making their intercession for us effective.

Please share your favorite All Saints and All Souls resources, including prayers, lessons, and activities, in the com boxes!

* Order Celebrating Catholic Halloween, $25 postage paid: make check payable to Lynn M. Wilson, P.O. Box 432, Huntington Station, NY 11746

Lesson Idea for Teaching Trust in God

By Gabe Garnica

Objective: Children will be able to recall and recite three important things that we can offer to God…1) Harms….our sins 2) Hopes…the things we would like to do/receive 3) Hurts….people/things/situations that have hurt us

Materials Needed:

3 medium-sized cardboard boxes/cartons, with labels Harms, Hopes, and Hurts on the front respectively. Box should be large enough so that it cannot be held in one hand easily
Items to place in boxes, such as books or rubber balls etc (optional)
4 volunteers

Grade Level: Grades 3 to 6, but the delivery can be simplified or amplified for lower or higher grades

Scripture: 1 Peter 5:7 “casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.” Matthew 6:26 “ Behold the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not ye of much more value than they?”

In the interest of brevity, I will summarize this lesson so that any catechist will be able to modify his or her presentation as needed.

Have one child play God; that child will stand to one side for most of the lesson
Remind the children that just as Jesus offered His cross to God, we can also offer all the good and bad things that happen to us to God also.
Explain to the children that, in addition to our thanks, praise, and requests, we can offer three other things to God
Give the box labeled “Harms” to one child and explain that this box represents those times that we hurt God, others, or ourselves by not obeying what God wants us to do.
Ask the children what we call those times…invariably someone will say “sin” and so ask the children how we “let go” of our sins….confession.
Give the box labeled “Hopes” to one child and explain that this box represents those things we want to do in the future, such as passing a test, getting on the soccer team, or becoming an athlete. Explain to the children that while we can prepare for these things, we have to trust in God and leave it up to Him if we will get what we want because He knows what is best for us.
Give the box labeled “Hurts” to the last child and explain that these are the times we have been hurt by people or when things do not go our way. Explain that, just as Jesus forgave those who hurt Him, we too should forgive people for hurting us and ourselves when we cannot do the things we wanted to do.
Ask the children to try to hug or shake hands while holding their box. Now ask the children with the boxes to give their boxes to the child playing God.
Close by telling the children that they cannot love and help each other as God wants them to until they give their boxes to God as well.

2016 Gabriel Garnica

Review Terms with Penance Bingo!

By Lisa Mladinich

The attached Penance Bingo Cards and definitions sheet were created by a wonderful catechist, Mary Elise Eckman, who teaches in The Narnia Clubs in New York City. I share them with permission.

Instructions: Read out the definitions as students cross off the term described (or mark them with checkers, dried beans, or buttons). You might also laminate the cards and re-use with wipe-off markers.

Make sure to keep track of the definitions you call out to your students, so you can verify the winner’s card.

Have fun!

Attachments include six different cards and a definitions key:

Preparing for Miracles: Inspiration for Your VBS

By Lisa Mladinich

“The consolation was for us, not just for the children,” says Corinne Addiss, a remarkable catechist from New York, recalling a day last summer when she and her Vacation Bible School team received a beautiful sign of God’s presence working powerfully through the children.

“We were in the second day of our program. Almost a hundred children nursery school age through sixth grade children enrolled, with another thirty-something junior counselors, grades seven and above. My energy was uncharacteristically low. I wanted to just get through the week. This day’s focus was the Eucharist, and one of our ‘stations’ was Adoration.

“As a teacher was finishing up with a group of about twenty little ones, they all came out of the pews and she showed them how to genuflect properly in front of the Blessed Sacrament–on both knees. As she watched, one child suddenly went down on her belly, prostrated in adoration before the monstrance. And then, one after another, the children followed until all of the children were lying with their hands extended in front of them, adoring Jesus — in a position no one in the program had taught them.”

The teacher, Corinne remembers, knelt in silence, tears streaming down her face as she gazed in awe at the sight. “There was no ‘earthly’ explanation; it was something within the children. It was their faith in God.”

It would seem the program received special graces that day. She says, “There are always graces. But that day, there were graces being accepted.”

Corinne has created many programs in her diocese over the years and has a reputation for doing creative, effective work.

“We are in competition with the world which attracts minds and souls through the senses,” she explains. “We try to appeal to the senses of sight and sound as well. Jesus used visuals – coins, mustard seeds, mountains, boats, etc. We decorate everything in an imaginative and cost-effective way using rolls of plastic table covering, brown paper bags, things from home, paint and lots of creativity! A visual teacher can produce great fruits by helping children ‘see’ and learn the truths of faith. It’s about busting the myth that faith is no fun. When great stuff is taught in fun, interesting ways, it bears fruit.”

“Most often I am flooded with ideas when I’m sitting in church in front of the Blessed Sacrament,” she says definitively. “If I try to force them, it’s useless. I’ll go to Adoration and sit with my list of projects and say, ‘Okay, God, I need your help,’ and I just start jotting down ideas. Once I’ve got an outline for the VBS, I talk it out with others and together we finalize the plan.”

Here are some of the activities that prepared the children to appreciate the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist:

Saint Anthony and the Donkey. “A month before the VBS program, I visited all the religious-ed classes. I told the children the story of “Saint Anthony and the Donkey” (the story of a miracle that affirms the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist), but I didn’t finish it. The kids were howling in protest, begging to know how it turns out. I ended with ‘Come to VBS next month to hear how the story ends!’ and they did! On the day we taught the Holy Eucharist we began with a re-enactment of the story. We had a barn, town square, cobble stone road, haystacks and all. Junior counselors dressed as St. Anthony and his donkey.”

Spiritual Survival Kits. “In every program we do the children make Spiritual Survival Kits. They love them! They decorate a box and put their name on it. They make their own rosaries, scapulars, and prayer books to put with the holy water, holy cards and miraculous medals we give them for the kits. We explain, ‘If we always carried a survival kit with us that was filled with the tools (flashlight, food, water) we might need in our daily lives, we would be better prepared when an obstacle or even an emergency happened upon us. But for survival and to be better prepared to deal with obstacles and emergencies in the spiritual life, we need the tools in this Spiritual Survival Kit which are called sacramentals. They help us to be more open to the sacraments — especially the Holy Eucharist, which is the source and summit of our faith.’”
Mass Confusion. “We created a game that would teach about things that are used in the Mass (chalice, paten, vestments, etc.). We put beautiful color photos of those things on 10 x 14 foam board. Each junior counselor, standing side by side, would hold a picture. In a big basket were smaller cards with names of the items. Each junior counselor gave a hint and might say, ‘I am what is used to hold the water and wine before it becomes Jesus’ Precious Blood.’ Once a clue had been given for each item, the children divided into two teams would scramble through their basket for the correct word to place beneath the corresponding picture. It’s fun and it helps them when they go to Mass to make the connection!”
Saint Tarcisius. “While they ate their snack of crackers/matzah and grape juice, they watched a video of Father Benedict Groeschel telling the story of Saint Tarcisius. They sat and watched in awe.”
Spiritual Bouquets. “We had the children decoupage flower pots with beautiful images of sunflowers and an image, in the middle, of a monstrance with angels bowing (from a vintage prayer card). Using the theme ‘Follow the Son,’ we told them that, like the sunflowers, they were ‘turning toward the Son’! We also said that priests, in a very special way, follow the Son. As they planted sunflower seeds in their pots they were reminded that sacraments and sacramentals are some of the ways God waters the seeds of faith. Then on the back of a picture of a sunflower they wrote, ‘Dear Father, Thank you for being a priest! I will pray a Hail Mary and an Our Father for you.’ We prayed the prayers all together and we encouraged them to continue praying for our pastor and all the priests. They glued each of their flowers onto a popsicle stick and at the end of the week at the offertory of the Mass, we presented a decorated pot with all the sunflowers in it – a bouquet from all the children in the program to our pastor, who was new. He kept the spiritual bouquet on the side altar of the church for a good many months afterward with the children’s promises on them.”
Tug of War. “We prepped our junior counselors to tell the children a story of good vs. evil that would make it very apparent what was good in the story and what was evil. Then we told them that the Holy Eucharist gives us strength to resist evil and had them play tug of war.”
Scavenger Hunt. “We wrote little poems that provided clues, and each one brought them to a different location on parish grounds. Finally, the last one led them to Jesus in the monstrance, their final destination. We told them, ‘We’re all looking for something, searching – but it’s really Jesus we’re looking for.’”
Adoration. “When each group came for their lesson in the church, I would kneel with them and speak in simplistic terms about the consecrated Host. I’d say, ‘That’s really, truly Jesus in what appears to be a round piece of bread.’ And then I’d ask, ‘Does that make sense to everyone?’ As some were nodding their heads with an emphatic ‘yes,’ and some just shrugging, I’d say, ‘It doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t understand it, but I believe it, I just believe it!’ Instantly a weight would slide off their shoulders as they just accepted! The relief is almost instantly visible in their faces, as is their belief as they gaze upon Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.”
Fatima Prayer. “We prayed the Fatima prayer taught to the three shepherd children by an angel during our time in from of the monstrance. [‘My God, I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love Thee! I ask pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope, and do not love Thee.’] The day closed with a skit by junior counselors of the Angel of Portugal appearing to the children, and Our Lady, Mother of the Eucharist.”

“All we want is to do is His will,” Corinne says, in conclusion. “And I know from experience not to expect consolations. ‘Your reward will be great in Heaven.’ But for those, young and old ‘who have eyes to see and ears to hear’ the consolations in this program are many…as are the graces which give us the energy to continue – next time!”

So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law,
or by your believing what you heard? (Galatians 3:5)

Catholic Crafts and Games for CCD – Arma Dei & the Inklings

By Jennifer Fitz

I’m not crafty but my 11-year-old is, and that’s how we ended up with a gig preparing demo models of Arma Dei’s Catholic craft kits for our local Catholic bookstore. I’d seen these before but never used them. Putting a set together has let me see how much catechesis these kits offer, and how well they’d work with any religious ed curriculum.

The two sets we’ve been working with are Color Me Catholic and the Journey with Jesus kits. The first is great for first-communion age — nice easy coloring crafts that teach the basics of Catholic vocabulary.

Color Me Catholic – 1st – 3rd Grade

Journey with Jesus – 5th – 8th grades

The second set lines up perfectly with the study of the sacraments that was the mainstay of our parish’s 5th grade class, and the activity pages are substantial — so much so that we didn’t have time to look up all the answers, and had to put together a demo using just the easiest pages. The craft itself — putting together an accordian-style booklet– is a little complicated. We simplified by using staples rather than glue, and there’s a scrapbook-style option as well. The Journey with Jesus set would be appropriate for students from about 5th – 8th grade.

The Arma Dei kits are reproducibles, and the copyright gives you permission to make copies for either one class or one family. The pricing is in line with that: One appropriately-chosen kit is enough to keep your class busy for a full year.

Not all students are wild about crafts, so I’d recommend offering an alternative learning activity, and letting students pick whether they want to be in the craft group or the game group. A recent find that I really like is Cactus Game’s Inklings board game. The game is designed to be friendly towards those of us who don’t know our Bible as well as we ought, but let’s be honest: Some of your students aren’t going to have the slightest clue about some of the questions.

I’d recommend first playing the game by just using the quiz questions to let members of the game-group learn and test each other. Then play for points after students have been introduced to all, or most of, the cards. You the catechist may want to flip through the question cards and do some previewing — some questions are more obscure than others — and decide which cards need previewing, and which students will be able to guess without help.

Enjoy!

Catholic Family Fun – Sarah Reinhard

By Ellen Gable Hrkach

Amidst the busyness of family life with small children, some parents can miss the numerous opportunities to simply have fun with your kids. These are the memories your children will treasure.

One of my favorite things to do with my own children (even those who have reached adulthood) is to play games with them. I’ve always enjoyed a fun game of “Life,” “Scene It” or video games. When they were younger, my sons loved to play pretend games based on movies (like Aladdin, the Wizard of Oz and Return to Oz) and of course, as the only girl in the family, I always got to play the female parts (like Dorothy or Jasmine). As my sons have grown into young men, we still enjoy playing games together (Boggle is our favorite game).

Sarah Reinhard is no stranger to fun. Anyone who reads her columns, blog posts, Tweets or Facebook messages, knows what a wonderful sense of humor she has and what a great writer she is. She has taken two of her strongest talents and made them into a book on how families can have more fun together, not only fun, but fun with a Catholic twist.

Catholic Family Fun: A Guide for the Adventurous, Overwhelmed, Creative or Clueless is a terrific resource that includes nine chapters ranging from a series of light-hearted activities to suggestions on how one can draw deeper into the Catholic faith. Each section lists the activity, the “faith” angle and a way to make the activity your own. It’s filled not only with great ideas for family fun in general, but also specific ideas. I especially enjoyed seeing each activity from a “Faith Angle” and ideas for making the activity your own.

The Appendix is packed with a categorizing of the activities organized by prep time, activities organized by duration and by cost.

I highly recommend this wonderful resource for any family looking make their family time more fun and enjoyable.

Catholic Family Fun has a website where families can enjoy more Family Fun ideas. The book is available through Pauline Books and Media.

Also, Catholic Family Fun has a Facebook page and I highly recommend you “like” it!

Catechist Chat: Substitute Survival Skills

By Dorian Speed

Sometimes, as educators, we have to do things that make us uncomfortable. Set aside our nervousness, our need for control, our desire for a safe and predictable outcome.

In other words, we have to substitute teach.

I remember when I was in Teacher Grad School, and our professor was giving us all sorts of helpful tips for managing behavior, planning engaging lessons, etc. I raised my hand and asked, “Do you have any specific for suggestions for being a substitute teacher?”

She looked me straight in the eye: “Never sub.”

I have a friend who is a permanent substitute teacher for a small school district, and she’s terrific at it. She has an easy rapport with the students, she gets them to do their work, and she has fun with it all. She enjoys the unpredictability of getting to visit a new classroom every day and she thrives on the challenge.

I couldn’t do it. I get so nervous when I’m subbing, EVEN if the students are MY OWN STUDENTS. At one school, we all covered one another’s classes during our planning periods when needed, because there was no budget for substitute teachers. So occasionally I’d be monitoring a room full of students I’d just seen for 55 minutes in my own classroom. I *still* felt apprehensive. I just like to have a plan, going in.

(I also have to say that it was far more often the reverse – my fellow teachers having to cover my classes – because I was both pregnant and migraine-attacky all year long. I still owe them my appreciation and probably a batch of cookies.)

It’s probably my perfectionism that makes it so stressful for me, and I’ve certainly gotten more laid-back about it. (Here I do not mean “perfectionism” as code for “it’s because I’m so awesome.” It means “I labor over minute details that are irrelevant to the big picture.”) I’ve also learned a few things along the way:

1. Try to learn the kids’ names. You won’t get it right. They know that. Show some effort. I like to repeat the students’ names one after the other, then keep starting at the beginning. “Carlos. Carlos, Amanda. Carlos, Amanda, Mikayla. Lawrence.” Even though you’re just going to be there for one day or one hour, making the effort gets things off to the right start. Use humor. If you don’t know a student’s name, make up a ridiculous name from the planet Randomia. Look the child in the eyes as you attempt to remember his/her name. It helps.

2. Break the ice. Amanda Brunet at Suite101 provides some clever ideas for getting to know your students as a substitute teacher. I particularly liked this one:

Unique Quirks
At the beginning of class, the substitute teacher can ask each student to write down something unique about himself on a small piece of paper. Subs can provide their own personal examples such as: “I like to eat pickles and peanut butter” or “I have sky dived three times”.

Teachers then collect the pieces of paper and place them in a hat. Throughout the class time, the sub can pull out each piece of paper and read it out loud. Students should guess which unique quirk belongs to each classmate.

The suggestion to space this activity out over the course of a class period is great, as it helps you dangle a carrot in front of the class periodically to remind them “okay, let’s stay on task for another ten minutes and then we’ll try to guess some more of the quirks!” You would, of course, want to make sure you read through all of them in advance yourself…especially if you’re teaching middle schoolers.

3. Follow the lesson plan. Sometimes, you’re subbing because the teacher suddenly collapsed in the break room with chills and fever, and the lesson plan is “I don’t know, because she was going to write the lesson plan for today during her lunch break but then she started to feel nauseated.” Fair enough – we’ll come back to that. But often, there’s at least some semblance of a lesson plan. Follow it, and don’t make comments about the caliber of what they’ve been assigned.

4. Be ready for the unexpected. Perhaps there is no lesson plan.

Bring a book to read aloud to the students – something with lots of voices and action, that will hold their attention.

Take a set of logic problems – most kids enjoy these (along the lines of “There is a room with no doors, no windows, nothing and a man is hung from the ceiling and a puddle of water is on the floor. How did he die?”) and they can easily be turned into a class discussion activity with students raising their hands to make guesses.

Have some kind of prizes/rewards handy. I have lamed out on this the last few times I’ve subbed, and resorted to giving quarters to the winning team in Jeopardy. It was ridiculous, and yet – they were motivated. (Stickers are a perfectly adequate reward.) (I also promise them “thirty thousand imaginary dollars” in instances where I am truly unprepared to give any semblance of a reward.)

5. If it’s not working, change the plan. Last week, I tried to do a game of Make Your Own Bingo as a review with a class of second-graders. They were very excited about it, but I realized that I hadn’t allowed enough time. They were still painstakingly writing words from the chalkboard on their papers when I decided to scrap that plan. They…were displeased.

You can go with this, or you can go with that So I stood them all up and announced we were going to play a game called “This Way, That Way.” An awesome, incredible game that I…would make up on the spot. Awesome.

“I’m going to give you a clue and two possible answers. You stand on the side of the room you think is the right answer. Ready?” (It helped that this classroom had a large open space up front with a rug.)

“This word means the special super-food for your soul that you receive through the Sacraments. If you think the answer is ‘grace,’ go stand over here. If you think it’s ‘Psalms,’ go stand over here.” Patter of little feet, keep it moving, keep it moving. We went through 20 vocabulary words in five minutes. Was it the most in-depth, profound review experience of their young lives? No. Did thy pay attention? Did we salvage those last 10 minutes of class? Yes.

So – how about you? Do you like subbing? Fear subbing? Got any good tips?

Catechist Chat: Make your own Jeopardy Game

By Dorian Speed

If you’ve got the technology available to you, JeopardyLabs.com is a quick way to make an interactive Jeopardy game for class review. But if you need a low-tech version, this one takes about 20 minutes to create and can be reused throughout the year.

You’ll need: a piece of foam-core project board, some Velcro tape, index cards, Post-Its, and markers.

Lay out the board with however many categories you want – I used five – and create “tiles” with the index cards. Attach the velcro tape to the back of the cards and to the board, and – that’s it.

I write the categories on Post-Its, because that way I can switch them out each time I use the review game. You can also do an even more-low tech version of this idea using only Post-Its and the wall.

Run the game just like the show, perhaps with a bit of flexibility on the “must give your answer in the form of a question” thing because you want to spend your time going through questions, not arguing about whether or not an answer was phrased correctly. If a team answers correctly, take the card off the board and hand it to them. That way, it’s easy to tally points at the end and the game flows more quickly.

If I were a better-prepared person, I’d write up the questions ahead of time, but I usually just make them up off the top of my head as we go along, making the difficulty of the question correspond to the point value.

Last – it has occurred to me today that using this game would be an easy way to involve your classroom aide in teaching. If you had the questions made up ahead of time, your aide could easily run the game. I hate it that I usually have my aide doing stuff like taking attendance and passing out papers and don’t find more ways to have her actually leading the class.

You can find more great review games at The Religion Teacher’s 7 Ways to Review for a Test and on CatholicMom.com,

Catechist Chat will be an ongoing series of posts for teachers in religious education programs. It is based on my personal experience and not on any statistical evidence of the effectiveness of my advice. Suscribe to my feed to follow along, and Caveat lector, which is Latin for “your mileage may vary.”

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