Category: Raising Saints (or at least trying to!)

Introducing a Catholic AI Platform Parents can Trust

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I just had to share this with you.

Because parenting is hard. Today, more than ever.

As most of you know, one of the hardest parts of parenting is managing our children’s use of addictive screen-based tech: Smart phones. Social media. The internet. These are wreaking widespread havoc on the mental and emotional health of our youth. And navigating screen-based tech with our kids and teens has been challenging… exhausting, actually.

If parenting weren’t hard enough, along comes AI, that powerful tool that is rapidly changing the landscape of innovation, work, and education.

So parents have yet one more thing to worry about, monitor, and try to keep up with.

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A FREE Confession Book for Children with Down Syndrome

Published on by Mary Cooney2 Comments

Here’s an adapted confession booklet I made for my son and his friends in our Special Needs Atrium. When it was time to prepare my son for First Confession, I knew he would need a lot of visual aids in order to understand what the sacrament was about and in order to communicate his sins and his contrition to the priest. So I designed this especially for children who are non-verbal or whose speech is limited and still emerging.

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FREE Spiritual Bouquet Cards

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The gift of prayer is sometimes the most cherished of all gifts. When times are tough, the prayers of friends and family can be a tremendous source of strength and consolation. This was definitely the case several years ago when our youngest was born and spent 3.5 weeks in the NICU. The outpouring of prayers and support was truly moving. One of my friends collected and assembled a spiritual bouquet from families in our homeschooling community, and it was so encouraging to know we had so many people praying for us.

So for the times you want to support a family member of friend with a spiritual bouquet, here are four cards you can download and print for free:

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Our Favorite Catholic Picture Books

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This year, for our Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Atrium, I wanted to create a little library of Catholic picture books. So I reached out to some authors and publishers and invited them to donate picture books to our Extra-Special Atrium (for children with Down Syndrome). I was touched by the generous responses as boxes of books promptly showed up at our door.

Reading a beautifully written and illustrated picture book with your children is one of the most memorable ways to pass on the faith. So with Christmas quickly approaching, I’d like to share with you our favorite Catholic picture books: books my kids and the children in our atrium have really enjoyed!

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Catechesis of the Good Shepherd for Children with Down Syndrome

Published on by Mary Cooney11 Comments

One of my goals this year was to prepare Junior and the boys in our Down Syndrome co-op to receive their First Holy Communion. To help with that, we were blessed to find a catechist who was trained to teach Catechesis of the Good Shepherd classes. Maria, our catechist, had never worked with children with T21, but it quickly became evident to all of us that she had a loving heart for them. And the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd was so appropriate for the four boys in our co-op. The highly visual and hands on approach, the one-on-one presentations, the boys’ freedom to choose which materials to work with, and the (mostly) peaceful environment allowed the boys to ponder and learn about our faith. It was a beautiful thing to behold.

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The Mysteries of the Rosary: Three-part Cards

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May is the month of Our Lady, so this month I’m sharing Montessori-inspired three-part art cards depicting the Mysteries of the Rosary for FREE. I made these for the boys in our co-op to use in our Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Atrium. They are a beautiful way to teach your children about the mysteries of the rosary.

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Just Released: The Nativity in Art for Children

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Here’s a beautiful little Nativity book for your little ones. It is a collection of sacred art accompanied with simple, repetitive verses that go with each painting. Together, these retell the Christmas story in the simplest of words. Contemplating sacred art is a beautiful way for children to pray.

Here are some sample pages:

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Stations of the Cross for Very Young Children

Published on by Mary Cooney4 Comments

Several years ago, my oldest daughter and I published The Stations of the Cross for Children. Every Friday in Lent we do the stations together as a family. This year, our youngest, Junior, showed keen interest in participating. He would try to read the words in the book and sing along, but the font was too small for him, and several of the words were too hard.

So I adapted The Stations of the Cross for him. I used a larger font and made the pictures bigger. Then, I wrote very short meditations with simple words and short sentences I knew he could (mostly) read and understand. The text is very simplistic, but I believe that beautiful artwork can draw even young children into prayer. Just looking at the artwork together with your child and talking about the details can help him/her to understand and imagine Our Lord’s passion.

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Helping Our Children Encounter God: An Interview with Kristen Fisher on “The One Best Thing”

Published on by Mary Cooney1 Comment

Today I want to share with you one of the *best* resources I’ve used and read as a parent.

Here we are at the start new school year, busy juggling academics, sports, social activities, and so on. In the midst of all this I try to keep our ultimate goal in mind — something I’ve thought about, prayed about, written about, and prayed about again and again. The ultimate goal in raising and educating our kids is sanctity — our kids’ and our own. And so a question I am often pondering is this: how can I help my kids encounter Our Lord in deep and meaningful ways so they grow in their faith and love for God?

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