My Sunday Best: Politics and Catechist Fun!

Well today was a little insane! I'm not sure whether I have shared that I work in hospitality or not but I work in a restaurant. My certification for Serve Safe Alcohol just expired so I had to retake the class this morning at 7am. To make things super exciting, my husband also works in the hospitality industry and he didn't get home until 4am from work and couldn't possibly get the boys ready for CCD and Mass. So I had to bring my children along with me! It was just as stressful as it sounds and I honestly felt a little rushed taking the test because I was so nervous that the boys would bother someone while they were taking their test. I would appreciate some prayers that I passed the test because I REALLY don't want to have to do it again so soon.

This was my Sunday Best: White Blouse with black pencil skirt and black heels. I rocked my glasses because I've been struggling with headaches and the glasses seem to help some. Might be time for a new prescription.

Moving forward welcome to the Catechist Corner:

I mentioned in my last post that I would be sharing some Catechist ideas and tips during My Sunday Best so I decided I had a few ideas to toss around to my fellow Catechists today. First, do you remember your most favorite CCD teacher? I do! Well, I actually was very blessed to have several teachers that had great impacts on my life. One of them is even the Godmother to my children, if that tells you anything! When I think of the most fun I had during CCD, I think about my 5th or 6th grade year when my teacher would create these amazing PowerPoint presentations that looked like a Jeopardy Game! We would read each lesson out loud as a class and he would sometimes have a coloring page or fun activity for us but we ALWAYS got to play "Jeopardy" at the end of class. Really it was him quizzing us but is was so much fun to answer in the form of a question and the anticipation of being called upon to answer questions. He even had Double Jeopardy questions for us and everything!

Here is what I am doing to make my class entertaining. The class is divided into four different teams. Throughout the class each team can win points for participation, answering questions correctly and being the first team to complete tasks. I have even assigned "bonus" points as homework. For example, Last week I asked the kids to find out what the name of our Bishop is and to discuss it with their parents and tell me today. Only 2 kids remembered to do it (besides my son) but let me tell you the teams they were on were super excited to get that extra bonus point today! I am keeping a running tally of the points until Christmas break and then I will restart the point system new with the New Year. Whichever team has the greatest number of points will receive a reward.

I also discusses All Saint's Day with the children and asked them to pick a saint to learn about. I also gave them the option of dressing up on our class Oct 30th if they wished (I'll be giving out bonus points for the dressed up kids but they don't know that yet). I am also hoping to purchase some Saint metals to hand out to the class as a reward for completing the assignment and putting some real effort into it. I am also emailing the parents so they are aware of what is happening in the class in regards to the Saint Project we started, how the teams work and to invite back students that I haven't seen in awhile. I believe communication is key! Plus it gives families something to talk about that can grow their families together in faith. I am so enjoying this group of children I am working with right now. They are all so entertaining and they all are trying and eager to learn!

Here is a list of the Saints that the class has chosen so far to learn about for All Saint's Day:

Saint Joan of Arc

Saint Thomas Becket

Saint Rose of Lima

Saint Valentine

Saint Nicholas

Saint Dominic

Saint Francis of Assisi

Saint Teresa of Calcutta

Saint Paul

As you can see I also have some research to complete so I am able to share as much information with the kids as possible! If you have posts, crafts or other neat ideas surrounding these saints please let me know so I can make them available as resources for my class.

I am also collecting resources for Advent! It's almost here so start planning your families and classes activities soon!

Fellow Catechists, what are you doing to make your Religious Education fun for your children? I would love to hear all about it! Maybe if I get enough interest we could start a link up? Let me know!

After CCD we headed straight to Mass today because Little Man was Altar Serving. Mass was really good and informative today! We discussed the upcoming election and why it is important to vote. Voting is one of the things we can do to help others that don't have a voice so it is our duty as Christians to vote and to vote for the better good. Included in the bulletin were several materials to explain about the issues that will be voted on this election year and they included several prayers to help our Nation. I really liked that they included the picture of Mary Untier of Knots as this prayer card. 

After the exciting Sunday we have had, I am so glad to be home! I plan to enjoy another cup of coffee (or four) and relaxing some before getting the house in order for the week and completing the two or three other posts I am hoping to share!

God Bless!