Category: Morning Basket

September 4, 2016 Morning Basket, Our Faith, Our Homeschool, Uncategorized 1 Comment

Teaching the Catholic Faith in Our Homeschool

These are my favorite resources for teaching the Catholic faith to my kiddos.

Catechisms

 

St. Patrick’s Summer: A Children’s Adventure Catechism 

(Marigold Hunt)

A fun approach to the Catechism in storybook format. The children in the story are visited by Saints who deliver catechism lessons and tell exciting stories from the history of the Church. A great read aloud for those preparing to receive the sacraments.

An Illustrated Catechism (Inos Biffi and Franco Vignazia)

Richly illustrated in a style reminiscent of medieval illuminations, this beautiful book is organized according to the outline of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, with a section corresponding to each of its four main parts: The Creed, The Sacraments, The Commandments, and Prayer.

The New Saint Joseph First Communion Catechism

Originally published in 1963, this more traditional catechism is presented in question and answer format. The topics of creation, the fall, redemption, and sacramental life are all presented in an orderly manner, with accompanying full color pictures. This is a very thorough presentation of the faith at a level young children can grasp.

Jesus and the Saints

A Life of Our Lord for Children by Marigold Hunt 

By the same author as St. Patrick’s Summer, this lovely book tells the story of the gospels in a way that is engaging and accessible to children. No dumbing down here. Hunt takes nothing away from the gospel and adds only enough to help children understand the context of the time and place.

The First Christians by Marigold Hunt 

Another one by Marigold Hunt, this tells the story of the Acts of the Apostles in her signature engaging style.

Saints and Angels: Popular Stories of Familiar Saints by Claire Llewellyn 

Stories of some of our favorite “Super Saints” and the Archangels accompanied by absolutely gorgeous illustrations.

First Reconciliation and First Holy Communion

Receiving Holy Communion
(Rev. Lawrence G. Lovasik, S.V.D.)

Pretty “old school” in it’s style and tone, this book offers a beautiful, straightforward explanation of the Sacrament of the Eucharist. It includes an explanation of the origin of the Mass; prayers for before, during, and after Mass; as well as conditions for receiving communion and a simple examination of conscience.

Going to Confession (Rev. Lawrence G. Lovasik, S.V.D.)

An excellent companion to the above book, this one explains the origin and meaning of the Sacrament of Reconciliation and takes kids through the logistics of the sacrament. It also contains a thorough examination of conscience based on the Ten Commandments. This is an excellent, gentle explanation of the sacrament that focuses on Jesus’s mercy and love for us.

A Picture Book of the Mass: Illustrated by the Masters (Lacy Rabideau)

This is a missal for young children from the creator of Catholic Icing. It provides the responses for Mass and is current for the new translation. Each page is illustrated with a gorgeous, classical painting to help children (or adults!) meditate on what is happening in the Mass. Helps young children to follow along and understand the Mass.

Jesus in my Heart (Sr. Immaculata Vertolli, OSB)

This book, written and illustrated by a Benedictine nun of the Abbey of St. Walburga, is part workbook, part textbook, and part keepsake. It was written to provide a hands-on curriculum for sacramental preparation that would engage a child’s senses and imagination.  The highlight of the book is the 3-D  card with fold-out “gates” and pocket inside representing a tabernacle. The child is invited to visit the Blessed Sacrament and insert the prayers he writes to Jesus into this card.

The Weight of a Mass
(Josephine Nobissio and Katalin Szegedi)

This beautifully illustrated and gentle tale celebrates the power of the Mass. A shabby, penniless old woman enters the baker’s shop as he is preparing luscious creations for the king’s wedding. When the baker refuses to give the old woman even a crust of stale bread, she offers to say a Mass for him, in exchange for food. Scoffing, he writes “One Mass” on a tiny piece of paper, places it on his scale, and tries to overbalance it with heaps of his finest pastries, but to no avail. The Mass outweighs them all.

The Mass Explained to Children (Maria Montessori)

While this book is written about the old rite of the Mass, it is an excellent, detailed, and understandable explanation of all aspects of the Mass from the prayers to the vessels to the vestments. Truly a treasure.

Confirmation

My Path to Heaven
(Geoffrey Bliss, S.J. and Caryll Houselander)
*Age 10 and up

Based on the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises this “retreat in a book” provides detailed illustrations to guide your child’s meditation on such  essentials of the Faith as God’s will, angels, Heaven and Hell, the Fall of man, the Holy Trinity, the Incarnation, the Nativity, the Passion, salvation, the sacraments, faith, hope, love, and contrition, and it teaches children the relevance of these truths in their lives and in the decisions they make. Best for kids a bit older as some of the imagery might be scary to younger or more sensitive children. Also excellent for adults.

Archdiocesan Curriculum to be available ?

There is remarkably little available to prepare young children for Confirmation. Most material is geared toward teenagers. As our Archdiocese shifts to conferring the sacrament on 8-year-olds, parents will be challenged to find appropriate materials. The Archdiocese has indicated its plan to release a curriculum which will be made available in May of this year.

 

May 25, 2016 Book Reviews: Books for Children, Morning Basket, Rethinking the 3 R's Post a Comment

In My Morning Basket: Apricot ABC (aka The Best Alphabet Book Ever)

Have you ever read a book and thought, “Why haven’t I ever heard of this book? Why isn’t everyone talking about this book? Did I miss something? People must know about this book!” (If you have, please, please share it in the comments below!)

I just finished reading this kind of book to my 5-year-old and I just had to share it with the world – or at least the tiny portion of the world that reads my little blog. Lucky you!

It’s called Apricot ABC by Miska Miles. The exquisite illustrations are by Peter Parnall.

I probably picked it up from a yard sale at some point, or perhaps it came from a box of my husband’s childhood books. I’ve seen it lying around my house recently and it looked like it might be sweet, so when I had a rare opportunity to snuggle up and read to just my little guy, I pulled it off the shelf.

I was afraid it would be a bit “babyish” for my strapping young man. He has known his ABCs for quite some time after all. But he was game, so we dove in. Right away I knew this wasn’t going to be your typical ABC book.

“An apricot tree grew knobby and tall
Beside a rickety garden wall.
A yellow-ripe apricot fell from that tree.
Swift as an arrow,
Just missing a sparrow,
It startled a . . . “

Bee. In case you’re wondering. It startled a Bee.

This ABC book has a plot! It tells the story of this apricot, and the plants and animals living near it, through the seasons. There’s an exciting scene with a “scary” hen that sends the birds and bees running to hide. And, of course, the book ends with a new tree growing from the original apricot seed.

ApricotABCChicken

The story is told is such beautiful language. The “Q” page is a favorite. Yes, the book is so amazing that the “Q” page is truly beautiful.

“Quietly, from special places
In the flickering shadow of Queen Anne’s laces,
Quickly ventured queer little things,
On fluttering, fragile gossamer wings.”

Not only is this book full of poetry, but the gorgeous illustrations double as a field guide for plants and insects. On the “U” and “V” pages you can identify dillweed, dock, ivy, purple violet, and Jimsonweed. Not to mention the aforementioned Queen Anne’s lace. The “C” and “D” pages have illustrations of crickets, butterflies, dragonflies and damselflies.

This book is perfect for Morning Basket Nature Study.

ApricotABC1

All of this, and you have the fun of finding the letter for each page hiding in the illustrations. Actually, that was the most absorbing part for my little guy the first time through. We will have to read this treasure many more times before we begin to exhaust the richness it offers.

I have so many ideas of how to use this book!

As we read it the first time we looked at the different shapes of leaves on the different plants. An older child could use it to draw and learn to identify the different plants. You could look up the plants and critters in a field guide and see how the illustrations compare to official drawings of the same. A simple story of seasons for a very small child. A fun point-to-the-animal book for a toddler. Not to mention the opportunities to find the words that start with that page’s letter,discuss the parts of speech of those words, examine the poetic devices used in the book. . . there are so many possibilities!

It is out of print, but there are a number of inexpensive copies available on Amazon. Check your library, but keep your eye out at used book sales! This is one you want to own.

May 17, 2016 Book Reviews: Books for Children, Curriculum Reviews, Curriculum Reviews, Morning Basket Post a Comment

In My Morning Basket: G is for Googol

I am constantly on the search for ways to make math fun and meaningful in my homeschool. Math really is cool when you’re playing with it, and I like to show my kids that there can be a reward for all of the hard work they do in their daily math books. One way I inspire love for math is by making sure my morning basket always contains a living math book.

Currently our morning basket math book is G is for Googol: A Math Alphabet Book. It’s by David M. Schwartz, the same guy who wrote How Much is a Million?

I seriously love this book.

We read one page every morning. Sometimes it just takes a few minutes as when we read “H is for Hundred.” We learned that cent means 100 and then examined some of the words with cent in them – centipede, centenarian, centennial. Five minutes and we’re done.

Other days, this gem of a book prompts further exploration of an interesting math concept. “R is for Rhombicosidodecahedron” prompted us to test Euler’s formula (vertices + sides = edges – 2) on the polyhedrons in block box.  Come on. You know you want kids who say rhombicosidodecahedron and actually know what Euler’s formula is. It makes you feel like one of those super awesome homeschooling moms with super smart homeschooled kids. This is reason enough to pick up this book.

polyhedron

Most often, this book leads to an amazing sense of awe and wonder. “M is for Mobius Strip” prompted cries of alarm. “How can it only have one side????” We also learned how many miles are in a light year (5,878,512,843,200), and that the closest star to our solar system, Proxima Centauri, is about 4 light years away. That’s four times that huge number there. Whoa.

lightyear

David M. Schwartz clearly loves math. And reading his books can go a long way toward inspiring a love of math in your children. Morning Basket has been the perfect time to share this book because it’s a low key time where all I ask of my kids is that they wonder along with me.

mobius

April 16, 2016 Morning Basket, Our Faith, Uncategorized Post a Comment

Memorize the Beatitudes – More Helpful Hints!

Are you having a hard time memorizing the Beatitudes? We find that getting them in order is a real challenge. So we came up with a mnemonic device to help us. And we want to share it with you! And just to help you out, I turned it into a free printable.  Because I'm awesome like that. 

Remember back in elementary school when we learned about the order of the planets and we all learned that "My very educated mother just served us nine pizzas?" Apparently these days the very intelligent mother serves nachos because Pluto isn't a real planet anymore. But whatever. The point is, we memorized that sentence and - BAM! - we knew the order of the planets - Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto.

So we came up with a couple of sentences to help us get the beatitudes in order. Helen, in typical Helen fashion, offered up a sentence about monsters and mopping up poop. I rejected that one, but you should feel free to make up your own sentence if mine is too boring for you. 

Because there are so many beatitudes, we have three sentences. Or two sentences and a sentence fragment if you want to get technical about it. Here they are:

Please make me ham and mashed potatoes. Pretty please? I prefer eating red raspberry pie. 

The printable below shows you how these sentences match up to the beatitudes. 

This little ditty, along with the slides I posted before, are really helping us with our goal of memorizing the Beatitudes. Our goal is to master them by the end of the Easter season. 

Click the image below to get the newest free printable!

April 7, 2016 Morning Basket, Our Faith Post a Comment

Memorize the Similes of Salt and Light – More Free Printables!

Are you having fun with the Beatitudes Memorization Printable? Well, I have some more printable goodness for you.

As I mentioned in my last post, we are working on memorizing Matthew Chapter 5, AKA The Sermon on the Mount, or as my husband calls it, How to be a Christian - In a Nutshell. The Beatitudes are the first big chunk of that. And they're surprisingly challenging to memorize which is why you really want to check out that post for tips and tools to get it done.

The Similes of Salt and Light come after the Beatitudes, and they are much simpler to memorize. In fact, they'd make a great place to start with scripture memorization. And I've made it even easier with these printables.

Here's how it works. I've broken the verses into bite-sized pieces and paired each piece with a memorable picture. The picture helps anchor the text in your brain. You'll start by going through the slides with pictures and the texts printed on them. Once you feel like you're ready, you'll switch to the pictures only. And once that's easy, you go without the aids.

You don't actually have to print the pictures. You can just scroll through the slides on your computer if that makes more sense for you.

It's unbelievably satisfying to hear children reciting scripture. Especially cute 5-year-old boys.

IMAG0290
Gratuitous picture of my cute boys. And my messy kitchen.

So now, without further ado. Here are the magic memory slides. For more details on how to use them, please refer to the previous post.

 

Matthew 5:13 - Pictures and Words

Matthew 5:13 - Pictures Only

Matthew 5: 14-15 - Pictures and Words

Matthew 5: 14-15 Pictures Only

March 28, 2016 Morning Basket, Our Faith Post a Comment

Memorize the Beatitudes – with a free printable!

Earlier this year I set us the ambitious task of memorizing Matthew Chapter 5 as part of our Morning Basket Time.

Having grown up Protestant, my fist inclination was to search for a song. The scripture songs I memorized as a kid are still with me and I can still recite 1 John 4:7-8 because of the Psalty Song.

 

So naturally, I began my search on YouTube for Beatitude songs. I found some fun ones, but they weren’t really working for us as far as actually memorizing the verses went.

In my search, I stumbled across an amazing resource by Bible Buffet which uses the trick of pairing words to pictures to help you memorize lengthy passages. This guy has put together an amazing resource and we worked our way through his videos with a decent amount of success.

But we hit a snag when we tried to review it. I’ve found that depending on YouTube during morning time is not always a good idea at our house. Kids tune out, or we get distracted by other videos, or the technology doesn’t work for some stupid reason. I wanted to print the pictures used in Bible Buffet’s videos so that we could review them quickly and easily.

I did actually contact the channel’s owner to ask if he had the pictures on file. Sadly, he does not.

I told my kids I was going to put together pictures to help us review the Beatitudes and I asked them if they wanted me to use the original pictures (Bible Buffet suggested I could do screen shots of the images), or if they wanted me to create new pictures. They voted new pictures.

I believe one of the reasons the original pictures didn’t stick for us is because one face blurred into another. The images were 100% appropriate and captured the tone of the scripture passages perfectly. But they weren’t exactly memorable. In my version, the images are all clip art. They may even seem irreverent to you in some cases, but the idea is to use memorable pictures, and even a bit of humor, to cement the words into your brain.

I created slides in Google Presentation that you can view and print and use at home. You can also just pull them up on your computer and scroll through the slides. One set has the words with each picture, and the second set has just the pictures. Start with the words, and when you feel confident, move to just the picture cues until you can do it from memory with no cues.

You want to work on about 3 beatitudes at a time – don’t try and do them all at once. I highly recommend watching the Bible Buffet video above to get an idea of the process of memorizing this way.

We have now used this process for memorizing the Similes of Salt and Light. It was fast, easy, and fun. I am forever grateful to Bible Buffet for his videos that taught me to memorize scripture this way!

Here are the slides!

jesuswordsjesusnowords



August 29, 2015 Curriculum Reviews, Morning Basket 1 Comment

Our Homeschool Curriculum for 2015-2016: Morning Basket

 

Finally! I’m ready to share the curriculum and resources we are using this year with our 5th grader, 2nd grader, and preschooler. In this post I’ll share what’s in our Morning Basket.

Morning Basket Resources

As far as I know, Jennifer Mackintosh over at Wildflowers and Marbles invented the brilliant idea of Morning Baskets. If you’re not already familiar with the idea, head over to her blog and check it out. You’ll also want to spend time just combing through the hundreds of pages of amazing resources she has there. She’s a genius.

The quick version is this. A Morning Basket is literally a basket filled with good things to share with your children. It’s a place to put all of those delicious subjects you never seem to fit into your day – poetry, Shakespeare, composer study, etc. On a “bad day” your Morning Basket can stand alone as school for the day.

There’s no end goal for these books. The idea is to savor each one and have it be as enjoyable as possible. So if people start to get fidgety, we just stop and pick it up again the next day. We’re not doing everything every day but rather plan to work through these by the end of the year. For example we’re starting with The Song of Hiawatha and when we finish it we’ll move to the Oxford poetry book. The Shakespeare is worked on for a couple of weeks at a time, and then set aside for a week or so.

Here’s what’s queued up right now, but it could easily change with my fancy. Clicking on the book image for most of these will take you to amazon.com, but there are no affiliate links on this page.

 

How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare by Ken Ludwig

This is on recommendation from a friend who always recommends the most wonderful resources. If she says a book is good, I just get it. This one is fabulous. It teaches you to help your children memorize carefully selected passages from Shakespeare. And Mr. Ludwig’s website has a bunch of fun extras to help you out as well. My kids (and I!) have already memorized this passage from a speech by Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream:

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows. Where oxlips and nodding violet grows, quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine. with sweet muskroses and with eglantine. There sleeps Titania sometime of the night, lulled in these flowers with dances and delight. And there the snake throws her enameled skin – weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in. And with the juice of this I’ll streak her eyes and make her full of hateful fantasies!”

I typed that from memory! Even my 4-year-old has memorized the first half of it. And it was painless. And fun!

The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Illustrated by Margaret Early

I wish that picture was bigger. I picked up this book at our local Goodwill without realizing how amazing it really is. Having read Paul Revere’s Ride last year, I was eager to share some more Longfellow with the kids. Ms. Early’s illustrations are a perfect complement to Longfellow’s beautiful words. We read just a page or two a day, studying the pictures, reading the poetry, and then narrating the story together. It took the kids a few days to get into it, but then they couldn’t get enough.

Wee Sing America

This is part of the Book Shark curriculum. Because it only takes a few minutes a day and it’s fun for everyone, I’ve put it into our Morning Basket. We’re learning a song a week. I love that we’re expanding our repertoire of singable songs.

The Oxford Illustrated Book of American Children’s Poems Edited by Donald Hall

This is also from the Book Shark curriculum. We’ll select a poem a week to enjoy and maybe memorize. I’ll probably follow the suggested schedule in the Book Shark curriculum guide.

 

My Path to Heaven: A Young Person’s Guide to the Faith by Geoffrey Bliss, S.J. and Caryll Houselander

A dear friend brought this one to my attention and I picked it up at the Rocky Mountain Home Educators Conference a few months ago. I cannot wait to share this one with my kids. It’s a guide to Ignatian Spirtuality for young people. Each section has an elaborate line drawing with hundreds of little details and one simple thought to ponder. This is followed by a couple of pages of simple text to help one reflect on the idea. For example, the first idea is that everything in your life was placed there by God to help you to better love Him. I have been pondering this for weeks after reading it in this book. I plan to read a passage a day, or maybe just one a week, while the kids look at their own photocopy of the image. They’ll be invited to color it if they like.

 

American Tall Tales by Mary Pope Osborne wood engravings by Michael McCurdy

This is another Goodwill steal. It will be a perfect complement to our American History studies this year.

Praying the Rosary with Mary by Angela Burrin, illustrated by Maria Cristian lo Cascio

We’re not one of those families that prays the rosary together every day. We do that in my fantasy family, but in my real family, it just never happens. But I do want my kids to have some familiarity with the rosary. This is a nicely illustrated book in which each of the mysteries is explained through the voice of Mary. Each mystery ends with a short prayer asking for Mary’s help with a particular virtue. We’ve been reading one mystery a day and saying one Hail Mary. It’s been a gentle introduction to the devotion of the rosary.

Memory Work

Latin responses for the Mass. We attend a New Order Mass done in Latin and so I’d like to work through memorizing the plain chant version of the Latin responses for the Mass. I found a little booklet to help us with this. It’s a little slow going.

Math Fact Memory Work. My oldest is dismally behind on math fact memorization. I don’t want to make the same mistake with the other kids, so we’re adding this to our morning basket routine. We went way back and started with the “plus 1” facts. I’m following the order recommended at Mrs. Houlin’s eSchool Class blog. I really like what she has to say about memorizing math facts. 

Although this seems like a lot, it actually takes very little time and I’m looking to add to this part of our day because everyone really enjoys it. I’ve decided I’m going to add in some basic grammar instruction and I’m looking for some appropriate Saint study resources. I need to shop my shelves for those. It’s also a great time to share favorite picture books because we normally do this work all snuggled up on the couch together.

It’s taken me awhile to implement Morning Basket time for our homeschool, but I am so glad we’re doing it because it really is the best part of our homeschool day.

 

 

 

 

April 14, 2015 Book Reviews: Books for Children, Media Reviews, Morning Basket, Our Faith, Preschoolers Post a Comment

Tell Me about the Catholic Faith for Small Children {Book Review}

This year, along with the usual assortment of crazy making candy and that magical substance that removes newspaper ink from paper and holds tight to the fibers of my couch and the seat of my pants, the Easter Bunny delivered new books for each of the children. They each received a book about the faith and a fun book. The Easter Bunny had a blast picking them out and in the process began quite a long Amazon.com wishlist of other good books for Catholic children. The Easter Bunny will now be asking Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy to help him complete his wishlist.

I told the Easter Bunny I would submit a formal review of each of the books he delivered so that he will know whether to deliver these books to other children in the future.

Tell Me about the Catholic Faith for Small Children by Christine Pedotti looked like the perfect book for a 4 year old. I was super excited when I flipped through it. It walks you through salvation history beginning with the creation story, through Noah, Abraham, the escape from Egypt, David and the Prophets. Then it takes you through the New Testament hitting all the highlights. But there are plenty of children’s Bibles that also do this and, honestly, do a better job of it.

The best part of the book, the part I was most excited about, are the last two sections titled “The Christian Faithful” and “The Catholic Faith.” “The Christian Faithful” section speaks about the early church from the first Christians through Saints from our time. It highlights missionaries, monks, and “super Saints” like John Bosco and Therese of Lisieux.

The final section, “The Catholic Faith,” is a sort of mini catechism. It talks about prayer, the sacraments, death, Christmas, Easter and the Church. It speaks to children at their level and encourages virtues such as forgiving, sharing, and welcoming.

So here’s what I like about the book. The illustrations are nice. They appeal to children without being childish. They are simple and colorful and add a lot to the text. I also really like the scope of the book. It touches on all the major topics you would want to cover with a young child. Everything is in here from creation to St. John Paul II, Christian living, the Church and the Sacraments. It makes a really great starting point for conversation.

The book’s weakness is in it’s breadth. In trying to cover all of salvation history in 93 pages with illustrations and at a level appropriate for a 3-7 year old, well, I’m not sure it can be done well. Some parts are great. The two page spread on baptism does a great job of communicating the basic form of the sacrament and the joy involved. But the one sentence summary of baptism on the sacraments’ page is pretty weak: “Through baptism, we are bathed in the love of God.” Nothing about being cleansed or purified or our need for God’s love.

There are many places in the book where it simply doesn’t make sense if you don’t have any background knowledge of the faith. Imagine you know nothing of Christianity or the Saints and that you’re 4 years old and someone reads this to you: “Clare asked Francis to cut off her long hair. She wanted to love Jesus more than anything else.” Ummm. Okay. What in the world does cutting off long hair have to do with loving Jesus? This one sentence just isn’t sufficient to properly communicate what is happening here. Also, is this the one most important thing about Saint Clare?

I was actually planning to return the book, but then I saw my 9 year old snuggled up in our rocking chair reading it to himself. He has much more context for the book than my younger children, and he really enjoys it.

In my final assessment, I would say that this book is great as a conversation starter. It might prompt you to tell your child more about St. Clare, for example. The pictures are really nice, and it brings up a lot of important stories and ideas. But it is so incomplete in it’s explanations. I would have much preferred if the author had either limited her scope or had expanded the book into a four book series going a bit more in depth into each of the four sections of this book.

I would love suggestions for a first catechism type book for 3-7 year olds with beautiful illustrations and age-appropriate explanations of our faith. And stay tuned for more reviews of the Easter Bunny’s books. There are a few I really love!

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