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Oh, Dearest Mother, Sweetest Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness. You are our Advocate and to you we recommend our needs. You are our Teacher and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all of the love of our hearts. Receive, dearest Mother, our offerings and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.

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Meredith
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Posted: April 05 2006 at 12:46pm \| IP Logged

We are moving along very nicely. Benjamin celebrated his 1st Reconciliation on Sunday March 18th and wrote a nice remembrance of it for his NB. We have completed up through the "Ark of the Covenant" going by Elizabeth's plans. He will be receiving his 1st Holy Communion on Sunday April 30th so we're cooking right along with it almost everyday.

It is such a beautiful project, my dd (almost 10) is lamenting a bit that we didn't do a NB like this for hers

Thank you again Elizabeth for sharing your plans. They go so nicely with the CHC plans it's almost as if you wrote them too

Looking forward to hearing where everyone else is at too! I'm going to post a photo album on my blog with progress pics, I'll keep you posted when they are up!

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Elizabeth
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Posted: April 05 2006 at 12:51pm \| IP Logged

Meredith wrote:

It is such a beautiful project, my dd (almost 10) is lamenting a bit that we didn't do a NB like this for hers

Thank you again Elizabeth for sharing your plans. They go so nicely with the CHC plans it's almost as if you wrote them too

I'm so glad they're helpful for you Meredith! I hadn't seen the CHC plans when I did the notebooks with Mary Beth and Stephen. I'm looking forward to using them with Nicholas. A notebook combining the CHC plans, the CGS prep, and the few other things we added should be quite the preparation. I love First Communion prep.

This year, we did confirmation prep. It was interesting...

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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)

mary
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Posted: April 05 2006 at 5:38pm \| IP Logged

we are almost finished - tomorrow we do the parts of the mass pages (our mass kit arrived just in time!) and then all that is left is FC pictures and my son's thoughts about FC (will do this page after he recieves FC in may). We are taking the book to our May Crowning - it's sort of a religion fair where pple bring religious projects. We included a last page for comments and already have some from the other hsed kids who did the project with us and father when he came for tea. (we took pictures of the kids with their books and father with my son.)

Elizabeth, thank you so very much for such a wonderful project. it is the most complete FC prep i have ever seen and i'm thrilled to have been able to do this with my son. i'd be proud to post some pictures if someone will tell me how to do it.

abcmommy
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Posted: April 12 2006 at 4:08pm \| IP Logged

Bc our scrapbook should be in this week, could I get some ideas on how to expand this a bit to encompass RCIC type activities?

And also, I want to do the Good Shepherd but can NOT afford to purchase the beautiful sets. How can I come up with something similar on my own, inexpensively? Maybe I should call my parish and ask if they ahve resources I can borrow?

Elizabeth
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Posted: April 12 2006 at 4:45pm \| IP Logged

abcmommy wrote:

And also, I want to do the Good Shepherd but can NOT afford to purchase the beautiful sets. How can I come up with something similar on my own, inexpensively? Maybe I should call my parish and ask if they have resources I can borrow?

All the CGS narrations in Stephen's notebook could have been done using only the Bible stories, with the exception of "The Good Shepherd and World Communion." For that, my paddock and table are homemade. I ordered a multi-ethnic set of people from Hearthsong for $11. The sheep were taken from another toy (can't remember what). For that one, you really do need some kind of manipulatives...Perhaps you could make them two dimensional paper dolls. If your parish has a CGS program, they'll have the work. If they don't they won't have any idea what you're talking about.

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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)

Erin
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Posted: May 05 2006 at 6:12am \| IP Logged

Bumping this up again.

Just want to say a big thank you Elizabeth. This is fantastic and so thrilled with the pictures it helps immensely.

I'm starting this project with Malachi on Monday

I think I'll even splurge and visit the scrapbooking shop

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Elizabeth
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Posted: May 05 2006 at 6:18am \| IP Logged

Erin wrote:

Bumping this up again.

Just want to say a big thank you Elizabeth. This is fantastic and so thrilled with the pictures it helps immensely.

I'm starting this project with Malachi on Monday

I think I'll even splurge and visit the scrapbooking shop

Take Malachi with you and make it a date. My children treasure the memories of that trip to the scapbook shop to choose the stickers and to get frozen custard afterwards. It just sets a "special" tone to the entire undertaking.

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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)

Erin
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Posted: May 05 2006 at 6:26am \| IP Logged

Elizabeth wrote:

What a great idea, you know I hadn't even thought of it.

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Cay Gibson
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Posted: May 05 2006 at 7:36am \| IP Logged

Erin wrote:

Elizabeth wrote:

What a great idea, you know I hadn't even thought of it.

My children beg to go to Hobby Lobby or Michael's Crafts. Literally beg .

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Lissa
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Posted: May 07 2006 at 6:03pm \| IP Logged

Hey, I was looking for Alice's original post where she first created the brilliant idea of First Communion notebooks. (She was way ahead of CHC on that one!)

A friend was looking for it and I can't remember whether it was here or on CCM? Now I think about it, seems like it must have been CCM because I think it predated these boards. Shoot, the yahoo archives are such a pain to access. Anyone happen to have that post saved? I emailed Alice but she hasn't answered me yet and I need immediate gratification.

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Posted: May 07 2006 at 6:46pm \| IP Logged

Lissa wrote:

Hey, I was looking for Alice's original post where she first created the brilliant idea of First Communion notebooks. (She was way ahead of CHC on that one!)

Lissa, I think some mention is here, but for some strange reason the word "communion" is not searchable. I did "notebook" and came up with these links:

First Communion Notebooks

First Communion Notebook

Notebook Project-- Year of the Eucharist

Pope John Paul II's Letter for First Communicants

Right now I can't access Yahoo...password changed somehow and they won't mail a new one. But I think you might try the CCM files section first, before you search the archives.

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alicegunther
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Posted: May 07 2006 at 9:02pm \| IP Logged

Lissa, thanks so much for asking! Believe it or not, I have spent the past hour searching CCM, because we made our first notebooks in preparation for Theresa's First Holy Communion in 2003. At long last, I finally managed to find the post:
__________________________________________

From: Alice Gunther <agunther@optonline.net>
Date: Thu Feb 6, 2003 8:37 pm
Subject: Re: [CatholicCMason] First Communion lap book aliceobrieng...
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Bridget Galbraith writes:

We haven't done any
> lap books yet, has any one else done this for First Communion or have
> any ideas they would like to share?

Dear Bridget,

We have been working on a beautiful book in preparation for my daughter Theresa's First Holy Communion, using ideas from Dinah Zike's Big Book of Books and Big Book of Projects and Catholic Heritage Curricula's Holy Mass Book.

The "lapbook," or more accurately, the large-tab book, has several sections corresponding to the parts of the Mass as they are set forth in our Mass Book. Within each section, my daughters have made lovely pop-out mini books showing things like "genuflecting before the tabernacle" (complete with tiny golden tabernacle with cardboard doors opening to reveal a Host and chalice inside), a Holy Water Font (made using Dinah Zike's paper cup fold, with a gold background and golden angel sticker--difficult to describe without pictures), a three dimensional card showing that the Sacrifice of the Mass and the Sacrifice of the Cross are the same Sacrifice and much more.

Actually, this is still a work in progress, but both of my older girls have been enjoying it, and it's helped us to really focus on the Mass itself in as we've never done before. Agnes made her First Communion last year, but I thought it would be good for her to have one too.
____________________

I am disappointed that the CCM post does not contain a more detailed plan, but, believe it or not, it was just three days before my father passed away, so I do not think I was about to write much more on that thread.

Still, we are gearing up to do a lot more of this with Marie's Communion only a year away! It will be great to be able to write more and learn from everyone in the ongoing discussion here!

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Erin
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Posted: May 07 2006 at 9:32pm \| IP Logged

Well i set off to take Malachi to the scrapbook shop only to discover it closed down a year ago

I definetely need to get out more. So I then did a search ebay and found one set of stickers in the 'christian' theme.

On a brighter note we started today, doing a page on his patron saints. We have a collection of saints cards and he found a beautiful picture of Saint Joseph. We read about St Joseph and the name Malachi, we then typed up our findings in his words on beautiful parchement paper. It looks so beautiful

Thanks Elizabeth, we are really going to enjoy this, particularly as he is my most crafty child. He was just begging me to do another page.

Thanks Alice, Lissa and Jenn for further info, I'm off to peruse.

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alicegunther
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Posted: May 07 2006 at 9:57pm \| IP Logged

Dear Erin,

If you have time, you might want to check Catholic Rubber Stamps for beautiful Catholic images to add to your son's book.

TradeMark Catholic Stationery is another gold mine of resources.

Believe it or not, large craft chain stores like Michael's and A.C. Moore usually have huge scrapbooking sections with many lovely First Communion images to add to your book. Here is an example of some wonderful additions to your notebook from Jolee's True Faith Collection.

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Donna Marie
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Posted: May 07 2006 at 10:04pm \| IP Logged

Elizabeth wrote:

I'm looking forward to using them with Nicholas. A notebook combining the CHC plans, the CGS prep, and the few other things we added should be quite the preparation. I love First Communion prep.

This year, we did confirmation prep. It was interesting...

Elizabeth!

Are you doing a notebook project for Confirmation? I am starting to formulate one on my own with our journey starting in September. Our parish has the children prepare for Confirmation for 2 years and they receive Confirmation at the end of their eighth grade year. I really want to create a wonderful keepsake for my twin dds as well as make this time one of prayer and contemplation as they prepare for this great sacrament

...I can't believe we have actually gotten this far...my babies are growing up??! *sniff The milestones are coming faster and faster...I want to take the time to smell the roses with them with this project as well as get them to think DEEPER...KWIM?

All the best!

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Erin
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Posted: May 07 2006 at 11:35pm \| IP Logged

alicegunther wrote:

If you have time, you might want to check Catholic Rubber Stamps for beautiful Catholic images to add to your son's book.

TradeMark Catholic Stationery is another gold mine of resources.

Believe it or not, large craft chain stores like Michael's and A.C. Moore usually have huge scrapbooking sections with many lovely First Communion images to add to your book. Here is an example of some wonderful additions to your notebook from Jolee's True Faith Collection.

Alice,
I'm trying to find out if anyone here in Australia sells anything like this. They all look so fantastic.

Do any Aussies on this forum know if anyone does?

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alicegunther
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Posted: May 07 2006 at 11:50pm \| IP Logged

Erin wrote:

Alice,
I'm trying to find out if anyone here in Australia sells anything like this. They all look so fantastic.

Oh, Erin, how could I have forgotten that you would need to order these from Australia!

That does make a difference, doesn't it?! : )

Oftentimes, your nearest Catholic Religious Goods store has access to many different suppliers and can special order these items for you at no extra cost.

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Elizabeth
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Posted: May 08 2006 at 5:50am \| IP Logged

Donna Marie wrote:

Elizabeth wrote:

Elizabeth!

Are you doing a notebook project for Confirmation?

I wanted to, but my first child up to be confirmed after I discovered notebooking is not the write-it-down type. Michael would have loved notebooking, but I didn't really have that vision when he was confirmed. Christian does have several narrations in the notebook he turned in to our pastor but it's certainly not the beautiful product the Communion notebooks are. I used the Inos Biffi books as a spine (after trying just about everything else out there.) And I "used" much conversation.This child has some pretty severe learning challenges, we're discovering, and the typical course of study just wont work. I had to put my desire for "product" on the shelf and really just concentrate on ensuring he knew the material and hoping that he truly loved the faith. And I will admit to holding my breath as he approached the bishop and crying when I caught my husband's eye. Because of some serious issues in our former parish and some real irregularities in the way he was prepared, this was a steep climb and the grace was especially sweet.

I learned a whole lot though and I have a pretty clear idea of what Patrick's notebook will look like. I plan to take the entire two years with him!

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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)

alicegunther
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Posted: May 08 2006 at 8:44am \| IP Logged

Elizabeth wrote:

I learned a whole lot though and I have a pretty clear idea of what Patrick's notebook will look like. I plan to take the entire two years with him!

Agnes will be making her Confirmation in two years, so this is especially timely for me. This really has the potential to be an incredible project.

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Lavenderfields
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Posted: May 09 2006 at 10:57pm \| IP Logged

Hi Lissa,

Here is a personal post from Alice.

Yes, we worked on First Communion Lapbooks last year, but I amembarrassed to say they are still in a box somewhere and have not turned upsince our move 3 months ago. I can at least describe what we did. Iremember having the girls make a tabernacle out of gold cardstock and craftstore jewels. They cut out a flat tabernacle shape and doors that couldopen and close. This was glued inside the lapbook. Upon opening the doors,the reader would find a flat gold tabernacle with a Host suspended over it.Of course, the outside of the tabernacle was beautifully decorated withjewels. (As far as genuflecting, I believe the girls wrote "When we enterthe church, we genuflect before the Blessed Sacrament in the tabernacle" orsomething like that.) For the Sacrifice of the Mass being the same as the Sacrifice of theCross, we made a small pop-up book (see Dinah Zike's book for ideas). Weglued a beautiful picture of a priest during the Consecration to the outsideof the book and the girls wrote, "The Sacrifice of the Mass . . . "underneath it. On the inside, they made a pop-up Crucifixion scene andwrote ". . . and the Sacrifice of the Cross are one in the same Sacrifice."It was very effective and fun to make.

When (and if) I do locate the lapbooks, I will scan them and send themto you. I'm sure the ones you made were fantastic. I would also recommendthe book, "The Weight of a Mass" by Josephine Nobisso for all your FirstHoly Communion students. It is a wonderful and *beautiful* storybook(written by a woman who happens to be a Catholic Home Educator).

God Bless
Robynn in Lancaster, CA

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