Feast Day Decorating and Planning

Time to say good-bye to our September feast day table: 

 I am showing it again because Mark rearranged it after dusting. 

I thought he did a nice job! 

Just in case you didn't notice this addition to the table- Paul is preparing to make his Confirmation this year!! 

On to October: 

Something I never thought about- a priest I know said this is not an accurate representation  of guardian angels. There would be two. Still, I love this little picture. 

I couldn't get the glare to cooperate for a picture, but you get the idea. I am sad that I can't find all the guardian angel crafts my boys made (linked in my previous post).  I am usually really good about holding on to those types of things. 

Speaking of decorations and such- 

I know that they are the small things. Not the substantial things of our faith. But I always keep in mind that ours is a visual faith (as well as other senses!) and little reminders around the home are nice. The cherry on top, so to speak. 

We have tried several systems to keep our things organized. None seemed to work. Now we just keep it all in boxes. The general idea is standing things plus twine and clothes pins (for hangers) are in one, flat things and decorative items like fake flowers in another, and March gets its own box. Nothing elaborate and it seems to work just fine. As a matter of fact, the boys kind of have fun digging for the needed items to put on our table. 

Places I go to plan feast day celebrations: 

Catholic Culture calendar

Catholic Icing for crafts and inspiration

Paper Dali for great saints to color

Waltzing Matilda blog for more great saints

Domestic Church for great explanations 

More great crafts and ideas at Catholic Inspired (formerly Crafolic)

The Catholic Bloggers network for a monthly round up from the blogosphere

And, for food, Catholic Cuisine 

 Just thought I'd share. 

Linking with Catholic Bloggers Network for the month of October. 

Faith Lesson Planning::Update

You can click on the pictures to view them larger. 

Usually, when I set up a system, there is some tweaking involved, but things have worked pretty much as I originally planned. The only real difference between this post and my last planning post is that the forms are filled in.

page 1                                                     page 2

Page 1- A list of possible feast days to celebrate for the month.

Page 2- Monthly calendar with a sketch of our regular activities (I didn't include detailed planning here- just enough to help me be realistic with our church year planning). I highlighted the dates that we are going to recognize above and beyond our normal "saint of the day" reading.

Page 3- On this page are other special days of the month, things that we plan to accomplish, and a list of possible celebrations. The circled dates are the ones we plan to celebrate in some way (highlighted on the previous page)- the others are special saint days (confirmation saints and such) of someone (dad, sisters, cousins...) who is dear to us. This will give us an opportunity to acknowledge that day with the gift of a coloring picture or holy card.

Page 4- For the feast days that we plan to especially acknowledge, I filled out this form. I can add to it if we want to include more activities.

I have page protectors in the back of our binder for things that go with our plans.

Putting all this is writing does not change what we normally do, but it does give me a sense of perspective as far as what is realistic. I also hope that it will give us a sense of accomplishment. Often, my boys and I have lots of plans in our heads, but they don't all come off. This will make it easier to track what we actually do.

First Communion Preparation

Our plans through November.

Our primary resources are:
Jesus Our Life- Faith and Life Series #2 (no student workbook)
The New Saint Joseph First Communion Catechism
Catholic Heritage Curricula Lesson Plans (optional, but I have them on hand from my older two boys)
That Resource Site
Seton Art 1
Catholic Lapbooks
These are mentioned within this post, but I do not provide a link each time.

Front cover of our notebook from That Resource Site. I adjusted our subject headings to match those on this chart. As we complete each area of study, James can add a piece of the puzzle until it makes a complete picture- which James says is "very cool".

Our focus thus far:

Parts and Tools of the Church:
Things I See in Church Faith Folder (Catholic Lapbooks)
EWTN Kids

With place left for "Church Manners" booklet.

Who is God? The Trinity and What it Means.
Jesus Our Life (Faith and Life series)
That Resource Site "Holy Trinity" (printable)
Saint Joseph's First Communion Catechism

God Made Me/Creation and the Bible
Jesus Our Life (Faith and Life series)
Saint Joseph's First Communion Catechism
Children's Bible



We are planning for:

Church Manners:
Little Acts of Grace (book)
Manners booklet from "Things I See in Church" Catholic Lapbook
Church Manners chart from CHC lesson plans

Prayers:
Basic prayers needed to know:
Hail Mary, Our Father, Glory Be, and the Act of Contrition
St. Joseph's First Communion Catechism
Four types of prayer A.C.T.S. (That Resource Site)
Prayer Chart (when each prayer is said correctly, a sticker (holy card picture) is placed on the chart)

10 Commandments:
10 Commandments Faith Folder (Catholic Lapbooks)

Communion of Saints and the Holy Souls of Purgatory
November studies- learning about saints and praying for the souls in purgatory.

Our general planning page includes our "focus" for the week.

Great inspiration for a First Communion Notebook. Thank you to Happy Hearts Mom for sharing!!

Faith Lesson Planning::Part 1

Even though I was born and raised Catholic, much of the culture and richness of our faith was lost on me. I hope to offer my children a better understanding of their faith while learning right beside them.

Our journey toward this goal began when my adult children were little. At that time everything was as new to me as it was to them- the rosary, mass during the week (I honestly had no idea that there was mass during the week!), the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist, Church history, the saints... it was like opening a treasure box full of gold! Since then different things have propelled us forward on our faith journey:  our church, friends, books, online resources (yes, the Internet can be used for good), the Lightweigh program (amazing!),... and I am so grateful.

Living our faith fully- celebrating the church year and more- is something I aspire to do. In an effort to do that, I am trying to put together a planning system. I'll share what I have so far.

To begin I went to "That Resource Site" to print planning pages. I used the pre-dated Angel Calendar that has a back sheet to list special events for the month.  To help with planning, I printed a copy of the liturgical calendar available from ChurchYear.Net.  Saint of the Day at American Catholic.org is also open on my computer to match up the saints we plan to listen about


page 2 and 3

Working from there, I listed the saints and feast days that I want to pay special attention to on the "back page" of the Angel Calendar (page 3). 

Using the single subject planning page from "That Resource Site" as a model, I created a page to sketch my plans for the particular feast day we want to focus on.


page 4 (or more)

With my calendar and books in front of me, the plans begin. I also have the computer open to these resource pages: That Resource Site, Catholic Culture, Catholic Icing, Paper Dali blog, Waltzing Matilda blog, and The Domestic Church.

As I am planning, I am working on a resource list. This is partially for my benefit, but also so that I can give my sister a copy of the list so that she knows what I have on hand.