Homeschooling Helps

I've discovered a new resource that I want to share with you. As homeschoolers, we have a religion curriculum that consists of a variety of activities. We use an actual textbook and it's accompanying workbook to help teach the faith. We also read Bible stories, narrate them and illustrate them.

Since Little Princess is in first grade and will be receiving her First Holy Communion in a little more than a year, I've been trying to help her get more out of the Mass, which is hard to do when I'm on the other side of the church with the choir!

We recently subscribed to a free resource that sends the weekly readings and some activities, but I also discovered that CatholicMom.com has a similar setup that I like better. (You have to scroll down to the bottom of the page, unless you subscribe to her feed, and then they come to your Reader.) She has the readings for upcoming Sundays, puzzles, worksheets for different age-levels, and ways to live your faith during the week. Plus, I really like the heads-up on which Saints' days will be celebrated in the coming week.

Now, one of our school days is devoted to the coming Sunday and when they get to Mass on Sunday, I hope the readings will catch their little ears. They can say, wow, I've heard this story before. And maybe it will prompt them to listen (a little) to the homily to see what Father has to say about it!

If you're not a homeschooler, these can be done on Saturdays or Sundays before Mass. Personally, I think it's better to do them before, so that Mass is more memorable, rather than the other way around because they have a hard time listening, but it would still be beneficial on a relaxing Sunday afternoon.