With Lent right around the corner, I wanted to share with you The Stations of the Cross for Children as well as some coloring pages.
Free Classic Literature Guides!
When my oldest daughter entered middle school, I wanted to discuss the books she was reading. When I was a kid, I loved to read and even more, I loved to discuss the books I was reading. It helped me to discover details that I missed and look at the story from a little different perspective. So I began a quest to find curriculum that would serve as a basis for these discussions. Kolbe Academy has an extensive literature program with reading comprehension questions as well as paper ideas. Rainbow Resource has Christian Novel Studies that include questions, vocabulary, recipes (in some cases), and background information. I own parts of each of these program, but for sheer money-saving purposes, I felt that I needed to write some of my own.
Preparing Your Child for First Holy Communion
This spring Rascal will be receiving his First Holy Communion. Happy, happy thought! So I thought I’d share with you some ideas and resources that help prepare our children’s minds, hearts, and souls for the most blessed event of their childhood: their first Holy Communion.
Continue reading “Preparing Your Child for First Holy Communion”
Evangelizing Our Children with Joy!
It is with great happiness and excitement that I announce the debut of my new book Evangelizing Our Children with Joy, released by Scepter Publishers. This book is all about raising our children to be saints despite our own shortcomings and tribulations.
8 Tips for a Happy Homeschool
8 tips, short and sweet, to help us get through the year:
Family Funnies
Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year! One of my favorite parts of the Christmas season is receiving Christmas cards, photos, and letters from family and friends. To return the joy, we have made it a tradition to send out a family newsletter each Christmas, in which we include the amusing things our kids have said during the year. Kids can be so hilarious. Here are some of the Cooney and Clement Family Funnies:
Books to Give Your Kids this Christmas
Around this time of year as I think about Christmas shopping, I know I have to tackle the toy closet in order to make room for more stuff. However, one look at our toy storage, which is a dangerous undertaking, makes me want to revolt against plastic toys, toys that need batteries, toys with a million little pieces, and toys in general. The thought of having to buy even more toys makes me feel like this:
St. Joseph’s Advent in Art
Have you ever noticed that many Christmas cards have beautiful pictures of Mary and the Baby Jesus, but St. Joseph is nowhere to be seen? Why is it that St. Joseph is so often over-looked in the nativity scene? There is so much to learn from St. Joseph that it is a shame to take so little notice of him, especially during Advent. Here are some pictures and thoughts about St. Joseph’s Advent I’ve been sharing with my kids.
Celebrating the Feast of St. Nicholas
Well, I’m back! Mary is taking off another week from blog writing (but don’t worry, she’ll be back next week with something spectacular!). She has asked me to expand on St. Nicholas and some ideas to celebrate his feast day on December 6th. What a glorious time of year to bring the Faith to life for our children!
There are many exaggerated legends associated with this great man, but we do know some indisputable facts about his life. St. Nicholas is one of the most popular saints, among Catholics and non-Catholics alike. He is the patron saint of children and is said to have been represented by Christian artists more frequently than any other saint, aside from Our Lady. In order to understand where this popularity comes from, we can look at this saint’s history.
Advent Traditions
(NOTE: Mary is taking a break this week from blog writing. So she has asked me (Sue, the other mom on this blog) to write my first ever post! This is so exciting! Mary has posted the lion share of the content on this blog, but I am hoping in the coming months to step it up! Just a forewarning, my blog posts will never be what Mary’s are. That lady is AMAZING! Mine will be more of a cross between Erma Bombeck and C.S. Lewis. So here it goes!)
As we head into one of my most favorite liturgical seasons, I thought it would be nice to share some of our family’s Advent Traditions. I LOVE to establish different traditions around the Church calendar. First, the kiddies go crazy about them! We are talking, absolutely have to do this stuff without a doubt, even when I am too tired and just wanting to read a book and take a bath. Second, we are covertly teaching them about the Faith, and it doesn’t involve anything BORING (as they put it)! So each year, I try my best to do something exciting but liturgical.
