| Author | |
Lisa in WI
Forum Newbie
Joined: Jan 10 2009
Location: Wisconsin
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 33
|
| Posted: Jan 10 2009 at 8:02pm | IP Logged
|
 |
|
My dd will be in K next year and I'm trying to figure out how to approach religion and would also like to add in some character building activities. One thing I would like to find is a book of activities to coordinate with the liturgical year that would be appropriate for a 5yo. Any ideas that you have would be great. Thanks!
Lisa, mommy to Elizabeth(4), Owen(2.5), and Claire(11 months)
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
MaryM
Board Moderator
Joined: Feb 11 2005
Location: Colorado
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 13104
|
| Posted: Jan 10 2009 at 8:40pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Welcome, Lisa.
One approach is to use Cay Gibson's Catholic Mosaic since it uses picture book recommendations to follow the liturgical year. There are activites to go along with the recommendations. If you search past threads for "Catholic Mosaic" you'll find lots of posts on using that resource.
For general Liturgical Year resources, we have compiled many past post links and resource reviews in an FAQ thread which is a "sticky" at the top of this particular forum.
These are a few books that have activities that follow the liturgical year and which have been reviewed by members here:
Big Book of Catholic Feasts thread
Saints: A Year in Faith and Art thread
The Year and Our Children thread
__________________
Mary M. in Denver
Our Domestic Church
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
domchurch3
Forum Pro
Joined: July 12 2007
Location: Texas
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 245
|
| Posted: Jan 10 2009 at 8:59pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Catholic Heritage Curricula (CHC) has a resource called My Jesus and I. It's a sweet vintage-looking booklet that is delightful to read by itself. It also comes with a teacher's manual for 36 weeks worth of lessons. The objectives in the manual are as follows:
1. To make the child's first impression of religion as happy as possible.
2. To have the child memorize the most important prayers.
3. To help the child love God in a personal manner.
It says it is intended for children not yet preparing for their First Holy Communion.
The book costs $1.95 and the manual costs $1.25
I'd also look into Catholic Treasure Box. My daughter loves these books and your child will learn a lot about the faith just snuggling with you and reading them. They have notes for the parents in the front of each book to help us drive the lessons in the stories home. These are very sweet!
You also mentioned character building. My daughter loves Devotional Stories for Little Folks (you can obtain these through CHC as well). I started her on these stories in the first grade so I don't know how she would have responded to them at age 5. Character building for us has been to read books about virtuous and even not-so virtuous characters and then we talk them. In our daily life we are quick to point out virtuous and not-so virtuous behavior. Instead of saying something general like "Wow! That was a nice thing you did!" we try to say more specific praise such as, "Thank You for being obedient just now" or "That was a very generous, kind, loving (etc.) deed you did. Thank You." With the not-so virtuous behavior we have her do "re-do's" which basically means she needs to redo the behavior until she gets it right. If the undesired behavior is a habit, then I incorporate rehersals into our homeschooling day to practice the desired behavior. These are tips I got and have used with great success in the book, Parenting With Grace by Gregory Popcak.
__________________
Daniel's wife and mother to two children on earth, Bernadette (6 yrs old) and another child due in Jan 2009.
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
SylviaB
Forum Pro
Joined: June 19 2008
Location: Ohio
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 288
|
| Posted: Jan 10 2009 at 9:13pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Lisa,
I have a 4.5 year old son and 3 year old daughter. We use Catholic Mosaic and the Big Book of Catholic Feasts linked above. The kids love Catholic Mosaic books. I think the Big Book of Catholic Feasts has some great basic information about feasts days and simple crafts and is a good resource if you don't have anything like this yet.
Sylvia
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Mackfam
Board Moderator
Non Nobis
Joined: April 24 2006
Location: Alabama
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 14656
|
| Posted: Jan 12 2009 at 9:05am | IP Logged
|
|
|
Lisa,
There are some great answers on Andrea's thread in Early Childhood Learning asking the same thing as you! You might check out some of the answers there...
Kindergarten Catechesis
__________________
Jen Mackintosh
Wife to Rob, mom to dd 19 , ds 16, ds 11, dd 8, and dd 3
Wildflowers and Marbles
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Lisa in WI
Forum Newbie
Joined: Jan 10 2009
Location: Wisconsin
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 33
|
| Posted: Jan 15 2009 at 2:08pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Thanks everyone! Sorry I took so long to post again. Honestly, we are in the middle of a move and I forgot that I had posted!!
I have more questions for those who use Catholic Mosaic. I had looked at it once and thought it wasn't appropriate for my kids' ages. Can you tell me what type of activities it suggests for the younger crowd? What do you actually do with your little ones? My oldest two love to listen to books so I know they'd love that portion of it. :)
Lisa, mommy to Elizabeth(4), Owen(2.5), and Claire(11 months)
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
Lisa in WI
Forum Newbie
Joined: Jan 10 2009
Location: Wisconsin
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 33
|
| Posted: Jan 15 2009 at 2:11pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
domchurch3 wrote:
You also mentioned character building. My daughter loves Devotional Stories for Little Folks (you can obtain these through CHC as well). I started her on these stories in the first grade so I don't know how she would have responded to them at age 5. Character building for us has been to read books about virtuous and even not-so virtuous characters and then we talk them. In our daily life we are quick to point out virtuous and not-so virtuous behavior. Instead of saying something general like "Wow! That was a nice thing you did!" we try to say more specific praise such as, "Thank You for being obedient just now" or "That was a very generous, kind, loving (etc.) deed you did. Thank You." With the not-so virtuous behavior we have her do "re-do's" which basically means she needs to redo the behavior until she gets it right. If the undesired behavior is a habit, then I incorporate rehersals into our homeschooling day to practice the desired behavior. These are tips I got and have used with great success in the book, Parenting With Grace by Gregory Popcak. |
|
|
Thank you! These are great tips and I think my dc would like this book.
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
SylviaB
Forum Pro
Joined: June 19 2008
Location: Ohio
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 288
|
| Posted: Jan 15 2009 at 6:43pm | IP Logged
|
|
|
Because my kid's are young we mostly just read the Catholic Mosaic stories. I figure as they get older we can start doing more of the activities
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
MaryM
Board Moderator
Joined: Feb 11 2005
Location: Colorado
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 13104
|
| Posted: Jan 22 2009 at 2:33am | IP Logged
|
|
|
Lisa in WI wrote:
| I have more questions for those who use Catholic Mosaic. I had looked at it once and thought it wasn't appropriate for my kids' ages. |
|
|
The activies are geared toward various ages, though as you noticed in your time looking through it, many would indeed be geared a bit older. There are some though that a kindergarten student could do. Mostly we focus on the reading - I often use the ideas and questions as a spring board for my own ideas. It's jsut nice sometimes to have a starting point that gets the other ideas flowing.
Another more crafty book I wanted to suggest as well is A Treasure Chest of Traditions for Catholic Families from Arma Dei. It follows the liturgical calendar month by month with simple (most are workable for a younger crowd) crafts and activies. I like it a lot.
__________________
Mary M. in Denver
Our Domestic Church
|
| Back to Top |
|
| |
4Real Forums : Domestic Church
Topic: Religion and Character Study for K
