| Author | |
Lorraine
Forum Rookie
Joined: July 06 2007
Location: Canada
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 50
|
| Posted: Aug 01 2007 at 2:19pm | IP Logged
|
 |
|
Please excuse my ignorance and I hope I'm posting in the right forum. This coming fall will be my first year of homeschooling and I'm feeling overwhelmed in many aspects, but most especially in religious education. My husband and I have been "sunday catholics" for many years. Our knowledge in the faith is not strong and we don't have any "structured" family prayer time. All we do is grace before meals and bible/saint stories + our father + hail mary before bed. (I feel so ashamed  ) We tried praying the rosary together but my two children (who are 4.5 and 2.5) cannot be still for even a decade. We tried going to daily mass but most of the time it becomes a struggle more than prayer time. Is it too much to expect them to be still? We don't even know.
We've seen some of the wonderful blogs from the ladies who post here and seen how you live the liturgical year so beautifully. We know we cannot achieve anything close in our first year, but we'd like to know which elements we should start bringing into our home. We've bought A Year With God from CHC and it has a lot of suggestions, which again, seem overwhelming. There are so many saint and feast days to celebrate (I'm not saying it's a bad thing) it's hard to keep up with them! On top of this I have to prepare the regular academic curriculum (I'm taking the Montessori approach) and it just all seem very daunting. I'm afraid I will end up not doing anything well enough for my kids to benefit.
Sorry if I sound very pessimistic and downbeat. I know it's somehow achievable, but I just don't know what steps I should take to get there.
Also, are there any books/websites you may recommend for my husband and I to read so we can be better Catholics and can be better role models for our kids?
Thank you for reading and for sharing all your wonderful ideas with each other.
Blessings,
Lorraine
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
chicken lady
Forum All-Star
Joined: Feb 27 2005
Location: N/A
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2315
|
| Posted: Aug 01 2007 at 2:27pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Great to have you here Lorraine! Others more eloquent than I will answer you. I just wanted to say welocme and your openess is a great gift of Grace.
Molly
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Matilda
Forum All-Star
Joined: Feb 17 2007
Location: Texas
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1827
|
| Posted: Aug 01 2007 at 2:50pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Lorraine wrote:
| ... and we don't have any "structured" family prayer time. All we do is grace before meals and bible/saint stories + our father + hail mary before bed. (I feel so ashamed ) We tried praying the rosary together but my two children (who are 4.5 and 2.5) cannot be still for even a decade. |
|
|
Don't you dare feel ashamed! Not for one minute!!!
My kids (9,8,6 & 3) weren't able to sit still for daily Mass until they were 6,5, & 4 and even then...we only ventured out once a month (First Friday). Now that they are older, we try to go once a week, but some days I end up spending the whole Mass in the back with Mr. I'm-3-Years-Old.
We have just in the past two months started saying a family rosary and it takes us a whole week to do it since we only say one decade a night. Sunday for the beginning prayers, M-F are the decades and Saturday is for the ending prayers.
We celebrate feast days, but not every week. We choose those saints who are special to our family, ie... name saints, favorite saints, parish saint, etc....
The best advice I can offer you is to take baby steps. Pick one thing you want to work on and focus on that. And give yourself plenty of time to plan and prepare for it. It can be a fun craft or as simple as reading a story. Don't try to do too much too soon or you will feel overwhelmed. This is a great place to get started. Welcome!!!
__________________
Charlotte (Matilda)
Mom to four (11 , 10 , 9 & 5 ) an even split for now
with bookend boys and a double girl sandwich
Waltzing Matilda
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
DivineMercy
Forum Pro
Joined: June 14 2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 146
|
| Posted: Aug 01 2007 at 6:03pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
First, I want to give you a great big !!! My children are similar in age to yours at 3.5 and 1.5. Like others have said please don't feel ashamed of what you are or are not doing. Just start where you are.
My husband and I are converts. I grew up in a non-religious home so I have no idea how to give any religious instruction to children. This board has been a huge blessing.
As for the daily Rosary decade, we aren't there yet, but this is what I am working on. Just like there are times when my son wants to be read to, but not want to sit in my lap he can play quietly (this could be coloring or doing puzzles or something similar) while I say the prayers aloud and many times he will say them while doing what he is doing. At least this has been a start for us. Before my second was born when my husband stayed home with our first, they prayed the Liturgy of the Hours together, which for midday aren't too long.
We attend several types of masses and my children behave fairly well, though there are times when we go stand in the back of the church. Something that was recommended to me recently was to "practice" going to Mass at home. I think I will try to catch the Mass on EWTN to do this soon.
Some good websites for catechesis are catholic.com and EWTN.com. Personally, for learning the Faith, I preferred going through the Catechism. Catholicism for Dummies is a good general overview. Kreeft, Hahn, and Keating are good authors for explaining the Faith. Bishop Fulton Sheen is excellent for encouragement in living the Faith.
I will be praying for you, Lorraine. I know you will get other great advice here.
Yours in Christ,
Michelle
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Helen
Forum All-Star
Joined: Dec 03 2005
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2826
|
| Posted: Aug 01 2007 at 7:08pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Dear Lorraine,
You’re doing a fantastic job – it shows by your response to the promptings of grace. (It is a grace to ask about prayer and to want to know more about the Church.) The Lord has begun this work in you and He will continue it with your openness of heart.
Your children are young and you have plenty of time to learn with them the beauty, practices and traditions of our Faith. I tell myself that “next year I’ll do this better.”
I just try do a little bit each year. Just like in Math – a little consistency with the text book and next year you’ll find yourself in the next level.
A little bit of prayer builds up stamina to pray longer. Start small – (just like Matilda suggests) baby steps with your children. (If it isn't too much, I have a blog post about this subject short, simple, humble, consistent)
A liturgical calendar is very helpful.
At lunch, you could mention
Today is the feast of St. Alphonsus di Liguori. And then say
St. Alphonsus di Liguori – pray for us.
And call it a good day.
If you are inclined, you might want to read a little bit about the saint. (I have Delaney’s Dictionary of Saints --No pictures but it sure does have a lot of entries. You don’t need to buy a book there are also plenty of on line sites for information on saints:
patron saints index)
What interests you in the Faith? What do you want to learn about?
Every year the Liturgical year repeats itself. Every year there are new things to learn and to explore. Take your time and savor the beauty of the Church.
__________________
Ave Maria!
Mom to 5 girls and 3 boys
Mary Vitamin & Castle of the Immaculate
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Lillian
Forum Rookie
Joined: Dec 24 2006
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 88
|
| Posted: Aug 02 2007 at 1:04am | IP Logged
|
|
|
Lorraine,
I agree with everyone! Start small and know that you can add more every year.
In my first year of homeschooling, we added First Fridays. I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't really know what First Fridays were all about.  We just showed up every month and then followed them to the park!! 
Every year we have added a little. Last year I really wantd to get into the practice of saying the Angelus. Now, my kids automatically pray it before lunch. They've memorized the prayers and I still stumble on the last one. This summer we started going to daily mass about 3-4 X's a week.
I'm entering my 5th year of homeschooling. Just take baby steps. Get used to your routine before adding more. Maybe the kids can color while you pray the rosary. My 9 yo and 7 yo like to lead the rosary. My 5 yo colors pictures from her rosary coloring book. The 4yo boy is just everywhere!! And the baby likes to pretend to read, play with the rosaries, scapulars, her toys, etc. I think she behaves better than the boy. We can now pray the entire rosary every day.
But when we first started homeschooling, we couldn't get through a decade. And I used to get very upset. There was no peace in how we prayed it. Now, I just enjoy it and don't worry too much about the little ones.
Although, I don't know how I'd feel if we were praying it with another family! I've become pretty relaxed about my expectations since I see my older ones loving it.
Anyways, I'm rambling! I would start with First Fridays and a small saint reading here and there. St. Nicholas Feast (Dec. 6th) is fun!! Celebrating All Saint's Day with your local homeschooling group, making birthday cakes for Mary's birthday, etc.,
Hope that helps!
__________________
Blessings,
Lillian
Isabelle 9, Anna 7, Sophia 5, Kolbe 4, Catherine 2
Smithflections
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
JennGM
Forum Moderator
Joined: Feb 07 2005
Location: Virginia
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 17702
|
| Posted: Aug 02 2007 at 9:57am | IP Logged
|
|
|
Hi Lorraine! It's going to be a great year! It is all overwhelming but there's a little secret NOBODY does it all. Your children are young, and it's the perfect time to slowly introduce family traditions. But SLOWLY is the key word, or like the others said, "baby steps".
My apologies for a long post. I'm suggesting keeping it simple, but I wanted to have sources to back up my advice. 
Your children are young, and the prayer life comes slowly. The advice above is great about the prayer lives in the home. Daily Mass is wonderful, but children aren't always going to sit still for Mass. And if it's very difficult, with other things falling around your ears at home, ease up and only go one extra day a month, like the First Friday, or a special feast day, and then expand to one day a week. Set your pace, and be prepared for setbacks. 
As far as the liturgical year, I've got lots of book suggestions, but it's in keeping with my mantra of keeping it simple and doing it slowly.
General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar is a great place to start to understand the Liturgical Year from the Church's view. It's very short, but you can easily see the "hierarchy" of feasts -- Easter and Sundays are the main focus and central point of the Liturgical Year. The different seasons (Advent, Lent, Christmas, Easter, Ordinary Time) and the high solemnities are the main focus of the Church Year. The saints are the supporting cast, if you will. Although it might be "minimalistic" in some minds, really focusing on the seasons is the best thing to do.
And only introduce things that have the spiritual behind them. That seems vague, but I'm trying to emphasize that each Liturgical Year activity needs to have a lesson and help the soul grow. If it doesn't, then it's just busy work and empty.
My other advice is to only introduce one or traditions at a time. Try it, see if it fits with your family. Don't be afraid to change or not do something again. Look ahead at a liturgical calendar. Take your family's "state" in mind -- are you expecting a child in Advent? Well, it might not be a great time to add lots of hands-on ideas that you won't have the time or energy to do. Do you normally travel in the spring around Easter? Take that all into account. After looking at the seasons, highlight a few saints days that have significance to YOUR family -- nameday saints, favorite patrons of the family, and just stick to that.
Since your children are small, you don't need (or want) elaborate crafts. A simple coloring page is a wonderful thing.
You can start with Advent, doing an Advent Wreath and Calendar. Or maybe add a little manger and do straws in the crib. The focus is preparing for Christ's coming in our hearts, recalling that we are preparing for his birth. Perhaps do one saint for fun (St. Nicholas) and call it a great first Advent.
I like to introduce traditions that don't require too much mom work each time. For example, I don't remake my Advent wreath each year. I have an artificial wreath. That way my focus is on the praying. Advent always gets so hectic that if I had to wait on making one each year there wouldn't be one.
As your children get older, the saints can play a larger role, mostly because you can integrate their lives and significance in your home learning (Geography, culture, history, arts and crafts).
I love the introduction of Mary Reed Newland's book The Year and Our Children. Why Celebrate the Liturgical Year? because she illustrates that it wasn't always this way, it took time to evolve, and there were failures.
Danielle Bean echoes the keeping it simple in her Mom-to-Mom. She gives one feast for focus per month at the end of her book.
Building Catholic Family Traditions by Paul and Leisa Thigpen is an excellent book to begin your family traditions. Very thoughtful, basic advice.
Joan Halmo's Celebrating the Church Year With Young Children is one of my new favorites, because it really echoes the Church's emphasis on the liturgical seasons, and suggestions are very simple.
Guiding Your Catholic Preschooler is another good book for beginning families.
Some online OOP source:
Helen McLoughlin, Family Advent Customs.
Text version
.pdf version
Helen McLoughlin, Christmas to Candlemas in a Catholic Home
Text version
.pdf version
Therese Mueller's Our Children's Year of Grace
__________________
Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to & ds1 '03 & ds2  '07
Family in Feast and Feria
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Lorraine
Forum Rookie
Joined: July 06 2007
Location: Canada
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 50
|
| Posted: Aug 02 2007 at 2:48pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Thank you to all of you who gave such wonderful advices and encouragement! I'm so grateful
Yes, I will take baby steps. Recently on a roadtrip we put on a CD in the car called "Rosary for Children" given to us by my daughter's godmother. The kids actually loved listening to it and my 2.5 yo son (even though he doesn't really speak English) can recite the Hail Mary. We know this may be a "novelty" but we're hoping this will help us introduce a family rosary time each evening.
For daily mass, we will set a target for once a week. We just felt bad because last summer we were going everyday. It started after our pilgrimage to Medugorje (on the trip we did go everyday) and the kids got used to it. But when school started for my daughter (I was still a working mom at the time), we stopped going because of time conflict. We never picked it up again. So we'll start slowly and see how it goes.
Jenn, I skimmed through the Catholic Culture article on General Norms for Liturgical year - and it's great! I learned a lot myself  and it will definitely help me prioritize which days to pick for celebration.
As far as saints go, I will take the suggestions given and choose those significant to our family, such as nameday saints.
Sorry I cannot thank each of you individually as I'm running out of time here, but really thank you all again. I'll slowly read through all the links you have all suggested. Probably need to hold off on all the books as I still have a pile of "to-be-read" books on my bookshelf
I can understand why some of you mentioned that finding this forum was a blessing. It has indeed been a blessing for me. I just quit my job 6 months ago and everything (cooking, cleaning, taking care of kids) is still new to me. I have no friends who homeschool and so it has been a challenging path. But my husband and I firmly believe this is what the Lord is calling us to do so we have hope that He will help us through it.
Thanks for your prayers as well. You're all in our humble prayers. Blessings to all of you and your family.
Lorraine
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
JennGM
Forum Moderator
Joined: Feb 07 2005
Location: Virginia
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 17702
|
| Posted: Aug 02 2007 at 6:18pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
I'm glad all the advice is helpful to you!
I forgot to mention one huge area to help with the Liturgical Year. A great resource by one of the mothers on this board, Cay Gibson, is Catholic Mosaic, which has some wonderful suggestions to read throughout the year. Incorporating books is one of the easiest and most enjoyable ways to teach religious lessons. And there are some gorgeous books out there!
My son is almost 4, and many times just reading a book about the feast day is the perfect springboard for discussions.
__________________
Jennifer G. Miller
Wife to & ds1 '03 & ds2 '07
Family in Feast and Feria
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
chicken lady
Forum All-Star
Joined: Feb 27 2005
Location: N/A
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 2315
|
| Posted: Aug 02 2007 at 8:02pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
[QUOTE=JennGM] II forgot to mention one huge area to help with the Liturgical Year. A great resource by one of the mothers on this board, Cay Gibson, is Catholic Mosaic,
THis is a great suggestion, if you have this book, you will really learn alot yourself and your dc will grow right along beside you.
Good thought Jenn 
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Lorraine
Forum Rookie
Joined: July 06 2007
Location: Canada
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 50
|
| Posted: Aug 02 2007 at 8:18pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Thanks for the suggestions on Catholic Mosaic. I haven't bought the book yet, but I've bought a few of the books on the list. I'm in the process of finding a bookstore that carrys this book and ships to Canada for a reasonable rate Any suggestions welcomed.
Lorraine
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
simplemama
Forum Pro
Joined: March 27 2007
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 119
|
| Posted: Aug 03 2007 at 12:39am | IP Logged
|
|
|
Lorraine,
Thank you for posting this! I actually have been struggling with how to educate our children in this manner also. There are just so many things to talk about! That's what makes God and His Bride, the Church, so beautiful-it's so deep and never seems to end! ;) I feel like I can help my children learn about all the other subjects and find myself spending a lot of time reading about people and places and things, but when it comes to our Church and Christ, it goes much deeper than facts and I get very overwhelmed and go into a 'cancel' mode. I think we parents feel sometimes that we are unworthy to teach our children about the faith when we know we ourselves struggle with it also!
Like a lot of others have said here, start with the basics and be simple about it. I am going to try and find a good liturgical calendar just to keep me in the loop more about the what is going on day to day. I also have been trying to increase our collection of saints books to start reading aloud and hopefully they'll do it on their own as they get older. (they are only 3.5 and 9 months!)
Since our Faith is more than just facts, it needs to become an integral part of our lives. Just let your house and life be filled with Christ through images, pictures, paintings, prayer throughout the day in whatever long or short forms you are able to.
And remember, it is not always easy but that is also a lesson there-that Faith and living it is not easy, but it is worth it. It's about offering up our struggles, falling deeper and deeper in love and union with Christ and His Church.
Some good reads: Parenting With Grace
A Mother's Rule for Life is good but can be slightly overwhelming, I'll think of some more later I'm sure http://www.amazon.com/Parenting-Grace-Catholic-Parents-Raisi ng/dp/0879737301/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-2690255-7553416?ie=UTF8 &s=books&qid=1186119377&sr=1-1
I don't know how to make things a hyperlink.
Anyway, just pray and ask Mary to guide you and St. Joseph to guide your husband. :)
__________________
Wife to Worker Bee, Princesita (4) and Bubby Bear Cub (1)
A little bit about me:
http://thesimplemama.blogspot.com
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
MamaAcorn
Forum Newbie
Joined: July 23 2007
Location: Indiana
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 23
|
| Posted: Aug 03 2007 at 7:55pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Thank you Lorraine and everyone else. I'm in a similar place and the advice here is wonderful.
Pam
mama to Alex (6), Jackson (2.5), and Isabella (3/13/07)
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
|
|
4Real Forums : Domestic Church
Topic: Newbie - unsure of which steps to take
