Catholic Faith Formation

Welcome to the weekly link-up recently turned Blog-Hop Just Enough Info or just, JEI for short. This lovely Blog-Hop is hosted by The Zelie Group and we would love for you to join us! This week we are discussing Religious Education! Let's get started with this week's questions:

Do your children attend your parish’s religious education program? 

Yes! My children do attend our Parish Religious Education Program. They have been in attendance since they were in Kindergarten. My oldest is now an Altar Sever and both of my boys are participating in the Children's Christmas Choir this year. We are blessed with an active parish and they are hosting Parish Faith Nights ever couple of months to increase family participation in the Religious Education Program. 

I do believe that Faith Formation has to be part of the home atmosphere as well. My boys seem to grasp more faith concepts that we have incorporated into our family time and traditions than the concepts that they learn about without being able to put their faith into action. 

Do you or have you ever taught religious education?

Yes I have! And I am currently teaching my 4th graders Religious Education Class. I have taught for several years and have always enjoyed it. When I was in high school, my best friend even taught a preschool class with me! I really enjoy being a Catechist and hope that I am able to continue to volunteer and help in my parish. I also love when I see my students outside of class and they are excited to see me!

What is your favorite religious education resource for kids?

For the classroom, I would have to say that I rely on my Catechist book a lot but I take a look at Pinterest and Holy Heroes too! I am always looking for great resources so I can't wait to hear about everyone else's ideas on this subject!

At home, I am utilizing the Holy Heroes Advent Adventure for the children while we celebrate the Advent season. In addition to that we are creating a Jesse Tree Garland and much more... If you are still in need of ways to get your Advent on track check out my Advent Series. It contains links to many resources, crafts, books and movies!

I have also been blessed with a gift of the Little Catholic Box and I just won a FREE box from the Mass Box! I'll share more on these lovely gifts later!

You have all week to answer this week's questions that are all about Religious Education:

1. Do your children attend your parish’s religious education program? 

2. Do you or have you ever taught religious education? 

3. What is your favorite religious education resource for kids?

The Zelie Group has some fun questions coming up in the next few weeks so make sure to follow us on Facebook and we would love to hear what you are interested in! What are you looking to learn about? Do you have questions about the Faith? Questions about the Liturgical Year? We want to help and learn and grow with you and your families!

Also stop by the new Page I created on my blog for new information concerning The Zelie Group. It is a work in progress but it has a good start!

God Bless!

My Sunday Best: All Saints' Edition

This Tuesday is All Saints' Day and there are only 4 more Sundays until Advent begins! I am also ashamed to say that we have missed Mass the past two weeks due to not feeling well, having one car working properly and just playing catch up. Goalie was actually upset when we were leaving after CCD today but we should be on track soon. Praying and fingers crossed!

I am also disappointed that I did not get a picture of myself and Goalie before I changed into my "I'm in a rut" clothes and got comfy on the couch with a blanket. These past few weeks have been super hard. Broken down car, being sick and fighting the depression and anxiety that become so much harder to deal with in difficult situations. I can share a cute picture of Little Man though. 

Here is Little Man's Sunday Best, he is dressed as Saint Dominic. The Black cape was suppose to be connected at the neck but I could not find a safety pin to keep it together this morning. He is wearing a large white shirt (suppose to look like a tunic) with black pants and a black "cape" which looks more like a veil from this picture. He has a rosary and was pretty pleased with his 1 minute costume. Little Man was dressed as Saint Dominic to do a presentation on him during CCD today.

I had asked the children in my CCD class to pick and research a saint they would like to learn about. Well, I only had three children dress up but I was very impressed with the amount of effort the kids put into their research and saints. I am hoping to share the other costumes on this post later after I have permission from the children's parents. 

After the saint presentations, I discussed some old Christian Halloween traditions and how they have evolved into the modern Halloween we know nowadays. The kids were really interested in the Soul Cakes and story of the Jack O' Lantern. You can find more information on those topics and more on my Seven Ways to Have a Very Catholic Halloween and {JEI}: All Saints' Day. Overall, I think having a small break from our books and getting some hands on learning was fun, exciting and the kids learned a lot about some of their favorite saints. I even shared information about my Confirmation Saint (Saint Bernadette) and encouraged them to keep learning about the saints because they also get to pick a saint in their Confirmation. 

Remember All Saints' Day is Tuesady! My boys will be dressed up as Saint Dominic and Saint Joseph so make sure to come checkout my pictures on Instagram later in the week!

This was my Sunday Best but I'll try to update with a picture from our All Saints' Day Mass!

God Bless!

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!

My Sunday Best: Zombies and Guitar Solos

Wow it has been awhile since I have had the time to linkup with My Sunday Best! I have missed this great linkup so much. It is always nice to reminisce on a great Sunday, especially like the one we had today! Religious education, a great homily about ZOMBIES (yes, you read that correctly, I'll share more later in this post) and Goalie rocking solos with his mini guitar he bought at the Dollar Tree. 

Here is a picture of what I wore today. Its not a great picture because I couldn't find the selfie-stick in the messy house so this was the best I could do today. White blouse, black leggings with a black skirt and black boots. It's been chilly in the mornings lately so I was bundled up!

I have volunteered to be a Catechist at our church and today was my second Sunday teaching Little Man's class. We are having a great time and I have some great ideas to really get the kids involved in their faith. As of right now, I have separated the class into teams and as we progress through lessons each team can earn points and I am keeping a running tally until the end of the religious education school year and the winning team will get a prize! Obviously I will be gifting all the kids something but the team with the most points will get something a little extra. If you are a fellow Catechist keep a look out for the upcoming My Sunday Best posts that I will try to share some ideas and teaching ideas that we can use throughout the year. I also wouldn't mind if you all have ideas or suggestions you would like to share with me!

After classes we headed straight to Mass. It came to my attention that Goalie snuck in his toy guitar he purchased at the Dollar Tree yesterday. When I say he snuck in his toy... he really did. My son put his toy inside his jacket and zipped it up and didn't unzip it until after Mass had started. I honestly didn't know what to do when I saw the guitar. I tried to get him to give it to me but then I triggered an emotional response of anger. Goalie struggles with his emotions so the only thing I could do was compromise. He could play the guitar while the songs were played but when it was "listening" time he had to put it in my purse. It worked pretty well and Goalie rocked out during the songs. He sang, dance and played his little guitar. Several people thought it was cute but I was on pins and needles all Mass hoping he wasn't disturbing anyone. 

To make Mass even more more exciting, our priest gave an amazing Homily today! He pulled the congregation into it by talking about Zombies. He explained that zombies are humans that have contracted a disease that makes their bodies numb. Numb to pain and possible loss of limbs (that was a joke). The body itself cannot work the way that it once had worked before. He then explained that this "zombie" virus works much like leprosy. One of the readings and the Gospel today discussed this disease. 

First Reading: Second Kings 5:14-17

Gospel: Luke 17:11-19

The boys actually listened really well today... for obvious reasons. Zombies and Leprosy actually both spiked their interest because my boys like creepy things, like zombies and leprosy intrigues them because their Papa D's (Grandpa) name day saint is Saint Damien of Molokai.

I hope you all are enjoying this amazing day the Lord has made with your families! Time to clean and get ready for work for me tonight. I am enjoying the smell of chili in the slow cooker filling my home. 

God Bless!