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pilotswife
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| Posted: June 30 2010 at 2:36pm | IP Logged
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My son has been enrolled in Seton for the past two years and has thus used Seton Religion for Young Catholics. Although my daughter was enrolled with Seton K, she used Image of God grade 1 for her catechism.
This upcoming year, we will not be enrolling in Seton. I am currently trying to piece together our curriculum. I do own A Year with God from CHC and plan on using some of that, as well as our ongoing Virtue study. I would still like to use some type of daily catechism as well. I am trying to decide among continuing Seton (2nd and 4th), using Faith and Life, or using Image of God. I have not seen Faith and Life or any other grade of Image of God, other than the small samples online. I have obviously used Seton 2nd grade before, so my daughter's lessons would be familiar to me. I have not seen their 4th grade, but imagine it will be much like the past two years were with my son. We liked Image of God for K/1st grade because it had more activities and introduced first concepts in a more gentle manner...I'm just not sure if Image of God ends up being too gentle as the grades go on.
I am not sure if I should just stay with the familiar (Seton), or if another provider would be more interesting or better. I would so appreciate any insight or opinions that anyone has on any of these choices. Or maybe there is another option that I am unaware of???
Thank you so much in advance for your input!
God Bless
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JennGM
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| Posted: June 30 2010 at 2:45pm | IP Logged
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I'm going to answer your question with lots of questions to feel out which direction you want to go.
So, next year you will be doing first grade work and are looking for a first grade level religion plans? Are you looking to move beyond?
Can your daughter read yet?
Are you planning an early First Communion, or next year or so will be First Communion preparation?
In "teaching" religion last year, what aspects of Image of God did you like? Workbook style? Reading and Q&A, prepared lessons?
Do you want to include Baltimore Catechism question and answers in part of the religion lessons?
While you are asking about First Grade, this thread might have some jumping points for you. While I did use some catechisms to read along, and I do some Q&A for first grade, most of our first grade religion was permeated throughout the days, school life, and home life. That thread will give you a good idea of what I mean.
But if you're looking for a solid ready-made program, I do like Faith and Life.
__________________
Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to  & ds1  '03 & ds2  '07
Family in Feast and Feria
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pilotswife
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| Posted: June 30 2010 at 3:27pm | IP Logged
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Thanks for your response!
My daughter really did K and 1st grade last year - she "accelerated" herself! LOL. So, she will be "labeled" as a 2nd grader. For example, if we were going to enroll in Seton, she would skip 1st because she already did a lot of the work even though she wasn't enrolled. However, even though she will be technically in 2nd grade, she will not receive 1st Holy Communion this upcoming year. We will wait until she is 8, which will be 3rd grade. We did this for my son as well, and worked out well.
She liked the varied activities in Image of God, like crosswords, coloring, craft projects. Seton Religion for K was just reading the faith facts aloud. I know Seton religion for 2nd is reading and Q&A. I'm not sure how she'll like it. My son did fine with it and seemed to learn a lot about the basics (Sacraments, Commandments, etc). The other thing about Seton, is these topics are repeated in 2nd and 3rd grade, so that even though she would get her 1st Communion in 3rd grade, she would still relearn those topics. Her reading level is 3rd/4th so no problem there.
So I am looking for a good, but interesting grade 2 catechism for her. She gets bored easily.
I am looking for Grade 4 for my son. He is also more of a hands-on learner and gets excited about activities like puzzles, etc (not coloring though). The thing about him is he will dutifully do whatever I give him without complaint.
Like I said, I will be using Year with God for Liturgical actvities and a Virtue study. I would like to add something that teaches about the "components" of our Faith, that approaches it in an interesting manner, but is still challanging and "full" enough, if that makes sense. Although Image of God was fun, I worry about its' strength later on. AGain, I have only seen the 1st grade book.
Maybe I don't even need a laid out lesson planned book...this is my first year "out on my own" with curriculum design and I still have trouble worrying about covering the "right things"!!!
I haven't had the chance to look at your link yet, but I will tonight when I have more quiet time. Thanks again!
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ekbell
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| Posted: June 30 2010 at 5:51pm | IP Logged
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What I've ended up doing this last year for Catechism was using my children's choice of either the Faith and life text or St. Joseph Baltimore catechism for their level and adding a few Faith Folders from this site http://www.lapbooksforcatholics.com/ffolders.html for a more indepth family study on certain areas. My daughters have really enjoyed the hands-on work involved in the faith folders.
My oldest daughter greatly prefers the St. Joseph Baltimore catechisms for their straightforward and to the point style. Apparently fewer words equals less boredom  We've also had some very worth while discussions prompted by their review questions.
I've made index cards using the Baltimore Q&A's to use for quiz games and the like which has been handy.
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4Real Forums : Domestic Church
Topic: Catechism Choices
