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Barbara C.
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| Posted: June 04 2009 at 6:09pm | IP Logged
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My husband just joined the Church this Easter, and our three girls were baptized not long after.  We originally intended to put our oldest in RE classes this coming year at our parish for a few different reasons. I started to have a few reservations, though, when I gave my daughter the RE placement test and talked to the DRE about what to expect from the classes. And now that it's time to fork over the $270 (tuition, books, and sacrament fee), we're really wondering whether if it is worth the money.
So, I've been researching and putting together my own tentative plan to incorporate religious education more than I would have otherwise...this includes preparation for FHE and First Reconciliation. Let me start by saying that I consider myself an eclectic homeschooler and we keep things fairly informal--on the verge of unschooling. My oldest daughter does not enjoy reading or being read to--she is a major tactile-kinesthetic learner. She also has a reticence about religious instruction--so I feel an extra pressure to make it work well for her.
Here is what I am thinking so far:
*New St. Joseph Baltimore Catechism for First Communion--use this as a spine for discussion
*Incorporating the Liturgical year using the Big Book of Ideas for Children's Faith Formation among other things
*All Things Catholic Cards
*An assortment of Catholic coloring books/pages
Here are the questions I put before all of you:
1.Does anyone have an experience with Catholic Catechism Board Game?
2. What about the Gospel Champions PC game?
3. And I'm really curious about CatholicQuiz.com.
4. Am I missing any other good hands-on Catholic games/activities that would be appropriate for a six (almost seven) preparing for FHE?
Thanks for any ideas, suggestions, feedback.
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Barbara
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donnalynn
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| Posted: June 04 2009 at 8:44pm | IP Logged
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$270!! 
Goodness - I wouldn't be able to afford being Catholic!!
Are those kinds of fees usual?
Have you looked at Catechesis of the Good Shepard type materials? I have one book but others know better than I do - but it does me strike as more hands on.
I'd also suggest making some kind of Mass book - we made ours from the CHC second grade religious supplement.
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CatholicMommy
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| Posted: June 05 2009 at 8:24pm | IP Logged
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She says everything I was going to!
What program is the parish USING?
donnalynn wrote:
$270!!
Goodness - I wouldn't be able to afford being Catholic!!
Are those kinds of fees usual?
Have you looked at Catechesis of the Good Shepard type materials? I have one book but others know better than I do - but it does me strike as more hands on.
I'd also suggest making some kind of Mass book - we made ours from the CHC second grade religious supplement. |
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Blestwith8
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| Posted: June 06 2009 at 10:46am | IP Logged
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I have the Batimore Catechism Books 1 and 2. I will peruse the Catholic Bookstore for Coloring Books and online as well for coloring pages. I am just doing it this summer to get my little former Protestants  ready for RE/CCD in the fall. I will work the basics; God's love, what is sin and how it spererates us from God, and learning some basic prayers like the Apostles Creed.
Also, we will learn about Mary and praying the Rosary.
I am interested in the All Things Catholic cards. My kids would enjoy those I think.
We are Unschoolers/Eclectic Schoolers as well.
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Barbara C.
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| Posted: June 06 2009 at 1:14pm | IP Logged
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The parish uses Faith & Life. The DRE gave me copies of the first grade and second grade text books and work books. It seemed really repetitive. Plus we were expected to work through a text book as part of my daughter's baptismal preparation, and it was torturous for both of us.
I am thinking about using the coloring book designed to go with Catholic Mosaic. I'm looking forward to keeping her hands busy while I read a short blurb about the feast day as we go through the Liturgical Year. I also thought about incorporating some clay.
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Barbara
Mom to "spirited" dd(9), "spunky" dd (6), "sincere" dd (3), "sweet" dd (2), and baby girl #5 born 8/1/12!!
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Jody
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Barbara,
Wow $270?!!!! I've never heard of that before!
Please check out my site jody's Hands-On Learning
Besides the All Things Catholic 3-part Cards we carry lots of catholic hands-on materials for sacrament preparation. Everything is very tactile and geared for the kinesthetic learner. I designed my materials in the montessori style and included a self correcting feature on the back which enables children to work independently at their own pace. They are able to reuse them again and again all the way through high school for continual review ensuring a good solid base of our Catholic faith.
Specifically for FHC we have:
Sacrament Preparation Categorizing cards: The Rosary
Sacrament Preparation Categorizing Cards: The Sevens
Sacrament Preparation Categorizing Cards: Sacrament
Basics
Sacrament Preparation Match-Me Activities
Prayer Sequencing Strips
and more...
I hope this helps,
Jody
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Marcia
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I'll put a plug in for CGS. you can search for an Atrium in your area by going to the web site.
www.cgsusa.org
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Stacy Y
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Don't feel bad about the $270... My parish charges $350 PER CHILD for non registered families. They tell us registered families that $300 per family is a deal. What a shame, because I know people here who keep thier kids out of RE because of cost.
Congrats to your family! My husband was baptized this past easter too, and all five of our children this past Saturday. I'll be doing all my RE at home too, so I'm enjoying the ideas here. Stacy
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guitarnan
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| Posted: June 09 2009 at 3:28pm | IP Logged
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Just for comparison, my parish charges $150 per family and will deduct the textbook fee if you use other materials at home (as long as they are on the USCCB list). And, no one is ever turned away if that fee is burdensome.
Barbara, I think your ideas sound great. Start simply (I love the clay idea!) and build from there as you see what works.
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Jody
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| Posted: June 09 2009 at 3:39pm | IP Logged
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Am I the oddball???
Our parish charges nothing. RE is free and we are a very small, poor parish. I've never heard of charging the families.
Jody
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CatholicMommy
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OUr parishes are $30 for one child, $40 for families with 2, and $50 for families with 3 or more children. families who can't pay and families with a parent or sibling as a catechist are free. And we have the CGS atrium for 3-6 year olds and sacramental preparation this past year - and a new (expensive) curriculum for the other grades - but there has been NO discussion about raising fees even though it doesn't cover our textbook and material costs... but we're not THAT short.
I can't imagine what any higher costs would be covering? The DRE's salary?
But the OP was on what to do at home: we LOVE the Baltimore Catechism.
Short CGS, the Mass book made by the children like what CHC has the children make is beautiful.
HTH
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EmilyC
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Wow...that's really expensive! Our parish charges $50 per child, or $100 max for a family. I only do RE for First Communion prep though. After that, we just do what we do at home.
As for what to do at home we use Faith and Life books, Catholic Mosaic, my twins really like Once Upon a Time Saints...probably none of that is what you were looking for.
Does she like lapbooking? I've seen a website that sells Catholic lapbooks. I don't have time right now to find the link, but you could probably just google it.
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Philothea
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Sacrament fee? What????
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MaryM
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| Posted: June 10 2009 at 11:35am | IP Logged
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We have the Catechism Game. It is good for a variety of ages because the question cards have three difficulty levels - so different ages/knowledge levels can play together. It's a well done game. Not super exciting or anything for younger ones.
I like Emily's idea of a lapbook. This is the site I believe she was referring to - Faith FOlders for Catholics. But it doesn't look like there is currently a First Communion folder. There are many people here who have done First Communion Notebooks.
Arma Dei has very nice products which could be incorporated in. I really like their Cathletics Key Cards - and they have one for Holy COmmunion:
HOLY COMMUNION: Fruits and Meanings of the Sacramental Sacrifice, Prayers before & after Communion and more…
We have a sacramental year fee for Confirmation - it covers the retreat expenses.
There used to be one for First COmmunion also, but since there wasn't anything extra in expenses for that year, I think they got complaints and did drop it.
Our parish charges $40 per child for CCD with a $120 cap per family.
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Barbara C.
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Thanks, Jody, for the information; I bookmarked your site. I'll look into the lapbook/notebooking, too.
Let me start by saying that our DRE is sooo nice!! When I had talked to her before, she had assured me that I could pull my daughter out of Religious Ed. classes at anytime with no hard feelings if it wasn't working for us.
I talked to her again the other day. She was really understanding that we were concerned about the cost and how much our daughter would get out of the class. She said that she is developing the guidelines for homeschoolers receiving the sacraments, but her plan is to just make them take the same test for each sacrament as the other students and hand out a study topic sheet to the parents. She said that we would have to pay the $50 sacrament fee which she has no control over. She thanks that it is part donation part administrative fee.
It turns out that she actually homeschools her daughter. And she's hoping that once she gets things finalized for the RE classes to start a small homeschooling group for the parish in the Fall. (That pesky job getting in the way! )
I agree that the normal fee of $220 for one child is excessive. I could see per family, but not for one child. We wouldn't have to spend that much on four sessions of gymnastics classes.
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Barbara
Mom to "spirited" dd(9), "spunky" dd (6), "sincere" dd (3), "sweet" dd (2), and baby girl #5 born 8/1/12!!
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Marybeth
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Barbara,
The highlight of our First Holy Eucharist prep was doing the notebook inspired by Elizabeth.
I was at a conference over the weekend and bought some products from Jody. They are excellent!
I like Jenn Miller's comments of keeping things simple and using "rinse and repeat" in regards to using repetition to keep children thriving and really delving deep into the mysteries of our faith. I notice with my son even month to month you can say the same things and the small seeds grow in his soul.
Enjoy this beautiful journey!
Marybeth
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Topic: Preparing for RE at Home
