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Rebeccca
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| Posted: June 18 2012 at 7:39pm | IP Logged
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All through elementary following the liturgical calendar with activities, crafts, projects, meals, et c was one of the most beautiful, endearing, and FUN aspects in our family and school.
Now that we're approaching high school, I find it harder and harder to 1) priortize our time to make it happen and 2) find things to do that are at once beautiful, appealing to our current stage in life, and, well, do- able.
We do love reading from the Golden Legend but that seems to be the default answer to "Oh, the feast of St. Anthony is coming up. What shall we do?"
I crave the lovliness of our liturgical celebrations of that younger age but at a level we'll appreciate now.
Any ideas, resources, titles, links?
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guitarnan
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| Posted: June 18 2012 at 7:49pm | IP Logged
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I know exactly what you mean! High school is just more structured, and I definitely felt the need to focus on math and writing in grades 7 and 8.
One thing I tried to do with my son was choose literature he'd really enjoy. For poetry, he studied Chesterton's "Lepanto" (he loves military history but not poetry!) and he was so intrigued by the story that analyzing the poem wasn't that difficult. That way, the subject he thought he'd like least actually interested him.
It's still possible to do fun field trips and liturgical year things. The tradeoff is that they take time away from the things that really need to be covered, so you have to plan carefully.
I don't know where you live, but we've had good success with trips to local churches, shrines and other places important in U. S. Catholic history. I grew up in Southern California, where there's a mission close by no matter where you live, so this kind of field trip seemed natural to me.
You can also look for special sacred music concerts (in my state, music and art are high school requirements), religious art exhibits and other special events.
I'd encourage you to keep on reading about saints on feast days...Confirmation patrons will be needed soon!
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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Mackfam
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| Posted: June 18 2012 at 8:00pm | IP Logged
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Rebecca,
I know what you mean! When my children started growing and getting older we transitioned into a new season in terms of liturgical year celebrations. There are littles and biggers here now, and it's a different group than when I had all littles.
One thing I did which has been wonderful was to put the older children IN CHARGE of planning some of our beautiful celebrations. I provide a couple of good resource books, and at the beginning of each month, as well as at the beginning of a new liturgical season, I ask the older children to arrange the liturgical book basket, set out holy cards, research and find novena cards, and plan special liturgical crafts for the littles. We keep it simple here, but during Advent especially, the older children enjoy finding one new tradition to bring into the home.
So I suppose my answer to your question in seeking beauty is to give the older children some guidance, help and resources and let them begin to take more of the reins in terms of planning and coordinating family celebrations. Giving my big kids just a little bit of direction, asking them to set out the monthly liturgical year reading basket, asking them to consider one or two crafts for the little people and then asking for a simple supplies list from them - well, it all but relieves all my planning in that area. And it gives the older children wonderful experience!
Favorite resource books which I make available to older children so that they learn how to plan:
Around the Year With the Trapp Family by Maria Von Trapp
The Holyday Book by Father Francis Weiser
Handbook of Christian Feasts and Customs by Father Francis Weiser
Our Lady's Feasts by Sister Mary Dorcy
A variety of saints books which coordinate with the liturgical year
Catholic Cuisine and a variety of liturgical year cookbooks for planning special meals with coordinate with the liturgical year.
Not sure if that's really what you were looking for, but I thought I'd share in case you hadn't considered asking your big kids to take more of a lead role there.
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19 , ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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Mackfam
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| Posted: June 18 2012 at 8:04pm | IP Logged
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And since I'm not sure if you just have big kids (rather than a collection of big kids and little kids, too), the advice to let them begin to coordinate still applies, it just means that if you only have big kids - instead of focusing on crafts with littles, it's more that they get to focus on home/domestic crafts...like liturgical cooking, preparing woodwork items for liturgical celebrations, domestic liturgical chores and traditions.
Another idea is to brainstorm a family works of mercy project(s). Our big kids work on these projects with dad, coming up with lists and receiving his help and guidance in completing them.
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19, ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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Mackfam
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| Posted: June 18 2012 at 8:09pm | IP Logged
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Another idea would be to ask older children to seek and find beautiful sacred liturgical art to display for the liturgical season. It nurtures their eye for beauty, and brings liturgical beauty into the home.
My older daughter has enjoyed putting together a liturgical year resource binder for her future home. We enjoy adding calendars, resources, novenas, special family prayers and traditions (their descriptions), art, booklists, recipes. She'll have all of these to bring into her home one day. This is kept in her Hope Chest. Not sure if your older child is a daughter or son, but for a daughter this is a nice extension of the beautiful liturgical traditions you built and nurtured when the child was younger.
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19, ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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Mackfam
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| Posted: June 18 2012 at 8:13pm | IP Logged
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I'm serial posting.... 
This is also a good time to bump their prayer life with more adult prayer books like Divine Intimacy, Our Daily Bread, In Conversation With God and other books like those. The topics can be fantastic theological discussion starters, and are good for nurturing a maturing prayer life as a child begins to pray about his/her vocation in earnest.
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Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19, ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
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guitarnan
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| Posted: June 18 2012 at 8:23pm | IP Logged
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There are some lovely books you can read with your children (Hilda Van Stockum's books, for example) that integrate Catholic faith with a great story line...this, too, can bring the liturgical year and our beloved Faith into our homes.
As your children grow older, they can attend talks at church with you.
And...if your children are in high school and love the "smells and bells" part of being Catholic, I highly recommend Fr. Barron's "Catholicism" series - it's on DVD and it's been broadcast on PBS and EWTN. It is amazing in terms of bringing the Universal Church to life, focusing on the basics of Catholic teaching and offering a beautiful, true-to-life visual experience of Catholic faith and art (with the Holy Land and other important sites thrown in). What a great way to experience the beauty of our Catholic heritage as a family! (Honestly...I watched the DVDs in a study group at church and was in tears every single week...just lovely!)
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Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: June 18 2012 at 9:05pm | IP Logged
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Jen is so thorough, even if it is through being serial 
I wanted to point out what she said about meals. You gotta eat. With older kids you have helpers that are capable and you can plan special/different meals for feasts and since you have to eat anyway it's not like you're adding a huge time drain to the day.
Even something as simple as dressing the table for a regular meal can add beauty and bring the liturgical year alive.
I know my kids associate candles on the table with special meals so even just setting out candles can add beauty and bring the conversation around to why there's candles on the table that day.
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All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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Elena
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| Posted: June 20 2012 at 3:27pm | IP Logged
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You could try having your kids pray the divine office with you for special feast days. That always seems to set the tone for a special feast day.
And I can't help it - my older kids expect some kind of special food for a special feast. They certainly understand the feasting/fasting aspect of Catholicism.
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Elena
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4Real Forums : High School Years and Beyond
Topic: seeking beauty
