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LLR4
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| Posted: Nov 20 2008 at 11:18am | IP Logged
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Hi Everyone --
We have been making real efforts in following and celebrating the Liturgical Year with our homeschooling and as a family in general.
Each day our school day starts with family devotion, which starts with learning about that day's feast /saint, scripture study and discussion via "Making Time For God" book, special prayer requests, and closing with praying together as a family. Then we get to our studies.
Here's my issue: To read about and discuss the day's saint, I have been printing out each day from Holy Spirit Interactive Kids A Saint A Day. Now some days it's ok, and it's a great story and lesson for the kids. But sometimes I think it is a little scary for the 6 year olds. I know times were different then, but still, they cannot comprehend 'time' like that, and I think it would be disturbing to know that these things happened so much then -- such as chopping off heads, murdering each other, tortures in detail, poisoning meals, etc. You know?? The last few days have been something or other that I don't think they are ready for. Yet in teaching them about the saints lives, one would usually conclude WHEN they died and how ---because the date of their death is usually how the feat day was established.
SO....if anyone has any suggestions, I'll take them. If you go about teaching about saint feat days another way, and it's working well for you, I'd love to hear about it. We do lots of crafts and baking all of that stuff that has gone wonderfully in our Liturgical Year, but this 'learning about saints' aspect of it I have been really struggling with since the beginning of the school year.
I need to add....the kids LOVE hearing about the saint of the day, so when we skip it, they aren't happy about it!
I appreciate any feedback!
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~ Laura
Blessed: Mama to dd{A}13 y.o., and 7 y.o. triplets ds{J}, dd{O}, ds{S} and wife to Michael
Our House of Joyful Noise
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Marybeth
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| Posted: Nov 20 2008 at 6:56pm | IP Logged
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Laura,
What a beautiful start to your day!!! 
Do you have any chance to get to a Catholic bookstore and look through their saint book selection? We have many books on saints some which are more "detailed" than others. Fr. Lovasik is a good author for children's religious books.
Could you paraphrase the gruesome parts? You could end the story with..."Saint X was a holy and fervent follower of Our Lord...he died a heroic death on November 21,1753 at the age of 45." This way no specific details are given yet you are still getting your daily saint reading.
We enjoy reading books by Marigold Hunt which give more depth to the saints and angels. Would your children like more of story element? Ds(8) and my dh really really enjoyed St. Patrick's Summer. The chapters are long so they would be better read over two-three days.
God bless your studies!
Mb
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Marybeth (Mb)
http://held-together.blogspot.com
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LLR4
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| Posted: Nov 21 2008 at 1:21pm | IP Logged
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Thank you so much for your response MaryBeth. I know so many here are teaching their children about the saints, so I thought I would be flooded with responses and ideas. But that doesn't make yours any less valuable!! : )
I must say, the beginning of our day is my favorite part of the day. It just 'feels right' and sets the tone, hopefully for the whole day!  We do enjoy it.
Yes, I have paraphrased MUCH. It's just that I found myself paraphrasing SO much, I wondered if there was another, better way we could be going about things.
THANK you also, for the book suggestions. I am going to look them up. We do have one, very small Catholic store nearby. It is actually in / part of the home of an elderly woman (it is her store, of course), and every time I go in, she just LOVES to talk and tell me countless stories regarding faith and people she knows. I don't mind talking with her, but I don't get very far thinking about why I went in there in the first place. But if I gave her the gift of company that day, it was a worthy trip. Even if I forgot what else I needed.
I appreciate your response and helpful suggestions. 
__________________
~ Laura
Blessed: Mama to dd{A}13 y.o., and 7 y.o. triplets ds{J}, dd{O}, ds{S} and wife to Michael
Our House of Joyful Noise
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Sarah M
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| Posted: Nov 21 2008 at 5:45pm | IP Logged
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Laura- I don't have any advice, because I have avoided teaching my kids about the saints for this very same reason. The books I've found all seem too gruesome and troublesome for their little minds. We often celebrate a saint's day by talking about how that particular saint loved God very much, maybe discuss some of the holy things they did or said, and doing a little activity/craft or just have a fun snack. But I totally avoid the books and never mention their gruesome deaths. I'm hoping some more ladies will chime in here....
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JennGM
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| Posted: Nov 21 2008 at 6:17pm | IP Logged
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Laura, I've been thinking over your question, and wanted to look over what I have before I offer suggestions. I hope to post some thoughts later tonight....I'm sorry if you felt your question was somewhat ignored. I think it's busy right now, because all the board seems to be quiet.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Family in Feast and Feria
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JennGM
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| Posted: Nov 21 2008 at 9:45pm | IP Logged
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Laura,
Like I said, I've been giving much thought, and have a few suggestions from different angles.
It is hard to find a balance with teaching the saints, especially with the littles. The number of saints the Church has canonized is vast, and come from all backgrounds and deaths. Part of learning about saints includes martyrdom, but I agree that you don't need to know all the gruesome stuff to understand that they gave their life for the love of Christ.
If you like the pattern you have already established, perhaps the text from the Daughters of St. Paul's Saint A Day would be a better fit?
Saint a Day. Click on the month in the left margin. I believe the text is taken from these two volumes: Saints for Young Readers for Every Day, Volumes 1 and 2 By Susan Helen Wallace, FSP. I briefly skimmed and didn't find too much graphic detail. These are recommended for use in Mater Amabilis, Level 1A.
Another web source, although not written for children, but invaluable resource is Patron Saints Index. It contains a short biography, dates born, died, country, canonization, patronage, symbols, images, and lots more. You could easily scan the saint and hit the highlights to share with your children.
Now my son is 5, which sometimes the difference between 5 and 6 is vast. I like to keep our main focus on the Liturgical year and the seasons, and the larger feasts of Liturgical Calendar. I don't highlight the saints for every day. I have a few OOP books titled "Saint of the Week" -- seems it was a common practice for teachers to focus on one saint during the week, instead of trying to lightly touch on so many. I look ahead at the month and then the week to see what saints and feasts we'll bring out in discussion and other activities. Solemnities and Feasts are highest priority, Memorials and Optional Memorials I will do if the saint is popular or has a personal meaning or something in his life that would be a good lesson.
The problem with a "Saint A Day" is that there are ferial days on the Universal and local calendar which have no feast or saint attached to it. There are probably dozens of saints within the Roman Martyrology that are attached to each day, but they aren't as well known nor on the official calendar. At my son's age, I don't really want to bog him down with all those saints (and many are martyrs and gets a little gruesome).
Another point is I use pictures and images to teach about the saint. An excellent little fat book to use is Saints: A Year in Faith and Art by Rosa Giorgi. These are beautiful masterpiece works of art for each saint or feast day. Again, there are extra saints that aren't reflected on our calendar. So with my son, he'll ask "What's the saint of the day?", then look at the picture. I'll give a brief summary if it's not on the calendar. But if it's something we're going to elaborate, we start there and then work our way on more text to read, then activities and such.
An excellent resource, and the one I'd recommend out of all the saints resources that I have on my shelf is Saints and Feast Days by Sisters of Notre Dame of Chardon Ohio. This won't cover every day of the year, but really covers most of the "important" saints of the Church calendar (not the summer saints, though), with a wonderful short biography, and then suggested activities and discussions.
Another angle to take is to lightly cover the saint of the day by using a World Map and timeline. Make some figures for each day, either with a small image of the saint, or small symbols: white bishop hat, red cardinal hat, red cross for martyrdom, white cross for virgin...I haven't thought it all through. But you could put the name, have the children draw a symbol of the saint (found on Patron Saints Index, or generic symbols for bishop, priest, sister, martyr, virgin, king, queen, etc.). Saint of the Day could be find out where geographically located and where in history they lived. Like you said, the concept of "when" they lived is hazy, and this would be a good application without getting too gory.
This has gotten quite long, sorry. I'd also recommend some other lives of saints to have around, like Marybeth mentioned, to flesh out stories that interest your children. OOP authors that I love are Joan Windham and Ethel Marbach. You can find Ethel Marbach Pochocki's Once Upon a Time..., but as Ethel Marbach she had Saints of the Seasons and Once Upon a Time Saints that are different than the current ones from Bethlehm Books.
Anything by Joan Windham captures the younger children. You have to sort through some British stuff in her writing, but it's all very delightful. I also recommend Hugh Ross Williamson, also a British writer. Some stuff you might need to "edit" for gore, but all three of these write in a "living" style.
Some other good basic lives of the saints:
First Book of Saints by Father Lovasik, recommended by MODG for K
Catholic Child's Illustrated Lives of the Saints L. E. McCullough (also recommended by Mater Amabilis)
Loyola Kids Book of Saints by Amy Welborn
Loyola Kids Book of Heroes: Stories of Catholic Heroes and Saints Throughout History by Amy Welborn
The Saints and Our Children by Mary Reed Newland
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Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to & ds1 '03 & ds2 '07
Family in Feast and Feria
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LLR4
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| Posted: Nov 24 2008 at 12:00pm | IP Logged
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Thank you so much for these responses!!
Sarah M -- I know what you mean about avoiding it for this very reason. Makes sense, as I am finding it a challenge because of the 'too much info' factor. I just want to find a nice balance...and I just may find one thanks to...
JennGM--THANK YOU for all of the resources, and the time you put into pondering my question to answer in a helpful way. I am going to look into every link. I already checked the first one, Saint a Day that was taken from the volumes for young readers, and it too has too much info. Notably, I went straight to Nov 20 for the feast of St. Edmund. But with all of these resources that I have now, I am confident I will a good fit.
I think Jenn touched upon a good idea; maybe every day's feast/saint is a little too much. While my kids do love to hear about every one, I find it a little monotonous/redundant. Not that they all have the same stories, but such a similar thread that they all kind of run together, and I find it is too much info to absorb even for ME. So perhaps highlighting certain ones will have more of an impact or inspiration for them, and they will enjoy the study of the saints even more. (And perhaps so will I!!!)
Again....thank you all so much, and sorry for my impatience. When I have a question....I feel an urgency for answers, so I apologize for putting that on you all.
I APPRECIATE the responses here, and I am sure I will find just what I need in them!
__________________
~ Laura
Blessed: Mama to dd{A}13 y.o., and 7 y.o. triplets ds{J}, dd{O}, ds{S} and wife to Michael
Our House of Joyful Noise
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Kira
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| Posted: Nov 26 2008 at 10:39am | IP Logged
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I've wondered for a while now how I would implement education on the saints for my 3 year old. Finally, I've decided to try lifting out just one or two saints a month through Saint Pouches. Kind of like alphabet pouches. I'm making wee saints to put in each pouch (little tiny dolls) and then throwing a few other objects in the pouch as well. A holy card of the saint (or saint trading card), Symbols of a couple of things they are a patron of like small birds in St. Francis's pouch and a tiny nativity since the first nativity is attributed to him as well, also a picture of the country they come from and a little book about the saint (small, simple book ~ homemade ~ and stapled together. With perhaps a miracle attributed to the saint or some facts about the saints life in it)~ self selected. I also thought that perhaps I'd keep a map of the world where we put a little flag or sticker or small photo of the saint in the country they come from so we can see how God's saints are found all over the world. I'm not sure how old your children are ? But these are the ideas I've been brainstorming on lately!
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graciefaith
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I have no advice but would like to thank you all for the wonderful websites. I bought Saints for Young Readers for every day but we havent had a chance to read from it. Well, it's teh first volume so we'll start on it in January. My girls dont mind the gruesome details. I will definitely use those websites to discuss the days Saint. Thank you again!
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Blessed wife and mom of 3 girls, Sept. '01, Dec. '02 and Oct. '07
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Topic: Need suggestions re: teaching saints
