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Martha in VA
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I'd like to have 1 or 2 books to help me plan liturgical year activities with my girls. Although this board and the many 4Real blogs are great, I'm planning on cutting my computer time waaay back during Lent so I really need a book resource.
The books I'm considering are:
CHC's A Year with God (ouch! So expensive but a beautiful cover!) 
Anne Ball's Catholic Traditions in the Home & Classroom
Meredith's Gould's The Catholic Home
The Big Book of Catholic Traditions & Customs
Is anyone familiar with all or some of these books who would be willing to tell me their favorites?? Thanks so much!
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Ouiz
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I own Catholic Traditions in the Home and Classroom, and The Catholic Home. I have seen the Big Book of Catholic Traditions and Customs.
Anne Ball's book has ideas for every day of the year but, to be completely honest, I've never used a single suggestion in this book. The reason is quite silly, actually -- I'm a visual person and the font choice and small b/w pictures in this book was a turn-off for me.
Meredith Gould's book is much smaller and less comprehensive, but has some decent suggestions for celebrating the main feast days, holy days, seasons, etc. Her book is aimed at the whole family, and not just children.
I tend to use CatholicCulture.org for ideas, but if you're not going to use the computer during Lent, that won't work for you. 
Have you looked at Lent and Easter in the Domestic Church?
I hope you find something that works for you!
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Ouiz
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Paula in MN
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If you want to spend less time on the computer, I would go with the CHC book. It was worth the cost for me. We have used it extensively over the last two years.
Another wonderful resource for us has been "The Year and Our Children" by Mary Reed Newland. Originally published in 1956, a new edition was released in 2007. It is written about her family and things they did throughout the liturgical year.
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Dawn
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Martha, I am a glutton for liturgical books, lol. I do like the Big Book of Catholic Customs for simple crafts and prayers to do with young children. (I'd say the activities are geared toward the younger elementary age.) I like Meredith Gould's book very much, for the explanations behind things as well as proposed activites (for children and adults).
I must say, I love Joanna Bogle's Book of Feasts and Seasons and am anxiously awaiting her new book A Yearbook of Feasts and Seasons. It seems to be only available in the UK, but on her blog, Ms. Bogle gives directions for ordering directly from her ...
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Mackfam
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I'm a big fan of CHC's A Year With God - it is pricey, but they extend copyright priveleges to the entire family and there are several very do-able ideas in there! I really like "The Year and Our Children" as well. I didn't care for The Big Book of Catholic Traditions and Customs - and honestly I can't remember a lot of the particulars. I just know I hardly ever return books, but I returned this one. Could be that it was redundant and it seems like I remember it being sort of cartoony - which is not my personal preference. Good luck deciding!
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Lorri
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I actually don't care for A Year With God. A lot of it seems contrived and forced. Like learning a cheer for St. Patrick's Day. I also don't care for crossword puzzles or word finds for that kind of thing.
On the other hand, some of the crafts are OK.
We've gotten a lot of use out of Seton's Art 1, which is based on the liturgical year. It might be too easy for your older girls, but in our Catholic homeschool group, the older (10 and 11 yo) girls did some amazing work on holy cards we made from the Art 1 book.
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guitarnan
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I like A Treasure Chest of Traditions for Catholic Families. Arma Dei publishes it.
I thought I'd seen every Catholic craft idea out there, until I found this book. It has great projects and ideas for celebrating all kinds of feasts and seasons.
I am having computer problems right now, so I can't post the link. I will try to do so later today.
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isjalu0826
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I love Meredith Gould's book and if I had the money, I wanted to buy a copy for each of the moms in my Moms' Prayer Group..but I don't have that kind of money I find it concise and helpful.
I own the other ones you mentioned as well. I like CHC for the sketch drawings of the Mysteries of the Rosary and the Saints... I had the same issue with the Ann Ball book---I think the photos are too small.
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Martha in VA
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Ouiz wrote:
I'm a visual person and the font choice and small b/w pictures in this book was a turn-off for me.
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This so helpful! Keep the suggestions coming! I am a VERY visual person so I rely heavily on pictures! Do any of these resources have better pictures??
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Martha in VA
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Dawn, does this book have pictures?
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Ouiz
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Oh good! I'm not the only one who judges a book by its visual appeal!
The Ann Ball book, like I mentioned, just isn't attractive to me at all. Great ideas, but the presentation was a turn off.
Meredith Gould's book doesn't have any pictures, but the layout is pretty.
The other two books, if I recall correctly, are more "cartoony."
I look forward to seeing what other people recommend!
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Ouiz
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JennGM
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I think the reason why blogs and websites are so great for celebrating the Liturgical Year is that they can be so visual. There are very few books that have wonderful illustrations to guide one along. Ignatius Press' Cooking with the Saints is the first to have lavish illustrations of recipes and the saints and in hardcover. All is so cost prohibitive, but it's just my dream one day to have a "Martha Stewart Living" or "Victoria" type of book on the Liturgical Year, with full color illustrations. Faith and Family magazine had that original intention, to present the full color photographs like the Martha Stewart magazine.
Monica McConkey's book Treasure Chest of Family Traditions is available here or other book stores, like Aquinas and More.
Of the books your listed, Martha, CHC and the Big Book have line drawings of instructions or crafts. Gould's book has no illustrations, and Ann Ball has some b&w photos, but not great. Bogle's book that Dawn mentions has a few line drawings, but not much in the way of illustrations.
I presume you are looking for craft ideas? What exactly are you hoping to have with a liturgical year book? Spiritual ideas? Craft ideas? Ideas for mom to implement, or child can do/read and implement? Newer ideas or tried and true older traditions?
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Martha in VA
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JennGM wrote:
I presume you are looking for craft ideas? What exactly are you hoping to have with a liturgical year book? Spiritual ideas? Craft ideas? Ideas for mom to implement, or child can do/read and implement? Newer ideas or tried and true older traditions? |
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Yes, craft and food ideas. Old or new, doesn't matter to me. I'm assuming I'll be the one to implement the ideas although my older girls may do that some too. Your post is very helpful. I'll be anxiously awaiting that book of yours!!
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JennGM
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I'm not completely pleased with the layout of these books, as I don't like landscape mode or wire bindings, but the books by the Fourniers at Domestic Church are very good. They are organized quite nicely, various levels of spiritual and craft ideas and the font and illustrations are nice, too.
These Sourcebooks from Women for Faith and Family again aren't very visually appealing, and have no illustrations, but I love their ideas for the seasons. These are based on older traditions and the Liturgy, and extracted from the best of the out-of-print resources. And the price is good on the pocketbook.
Both of these series you can find extracts online at their sites, so you can decide if that's what you want.
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hylabrook1
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I was able to get Joanna Bogle's book at Half.com. I know that's hit or miss, but I paid very little for it and avoided international shipping rates.
Peace,
Nancy
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amethyst
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I love Joanna Bogle's book. I am in Australia and bought it from the UK with free postage at the Book Depository
I own Ann Ball's book as well, which I originally purchased and sold because I found it to be less useful that first imagined, but I repurchased it a month ago because I kept remembering great crafts we had used from it. Go figure!
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JennGM
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Jenny and Nancy, are you referring to Bogle's Book of Feasts and Seasons or her new book, A Year Book of Seasons and Celebrations?
Morehouse Publishing is the distributor for her publisher, Gracewing. I wrote to them a while back to see if they are carrying it and didn't get a reply yet.
I am eager to get a copy!
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amethyst
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I was referring to the Book of Feasts and Seasons, Jenn.
On her blog she mentioned Australians can get her books (the new one as well) from Freedom Publishing in Melbourne, but I went to their website and they have no books by her listed - I'm thinking they may be sold out?
The Book Depository have the new book listed, but unavailable at the moment.
Must track this down...must...
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amethyst
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I've jusy done a google and found a UK site selling them. Not sure what the postage would be though.
Jenny
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aussieannie
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Jenny, I'm sure that it was the Freedom Publishing catalogue that I received before Christmas that was selling both of Joanna's books and while I have the first one, I am interested to know what is the difference in her second one (the one you have just given a link to in the UK) I was thinking of buying it...
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4Real Forums : Domestic Church
Topic: Favorite BOOK resource for liturgical yr?
