Memorizing the New St. Joseph Baltimore Catechism Q and A

[Tiramisu]

We did a lot of Q & A memorization for dd's First Holy Communion last year and she did well, but this year she's losing patience with it so I'm getting frustrated, too. She is generally well behaved but hyper with SPD, so I have to choose my battles somewhat. We are only two weeks into the school year, so I'll keep it up for now. We're also having to do the Faith & Life book and answer questions in written form for CCD. We're living our faith rather fully so her religious education is not limited to Q and A's in any case. 

 

I'm wondering about different Catholic views of this?

[hjffkj]

We did a lot of Q & A memorization for dd's First Holy Communion last year and she did well, but this year she's losing patience with it so I'm getting frustrated, too. She is generally well behaved but hyper with SPD, so I have to choose my battles somewhat. We are only two weeks into the school year, so I'll keep it up for now. We're also having to do the Faith & Life book and answer questions in written form for CCD. We're living our faith rather fully so her religious education is not limited to Q and A's in any case. 

 

I'm wondering about different Catholic views of this?

 

Why is she in CCD?  I would think doing Faith & Life and Baltimore Catechism to be overkill for a kid.  The faith is great and having students focus on it is fantastic but too much of any subject is simply too much!  My children do Faith & Life at home with me.  They are really enjoying it but if I tried to add another book related aspect of the faith to them they would hate it.  Its just too much and would get boring.  If you are living your faith and discuss it outside of the context of a book I think picking either of those books would be enough structured religion teaching for a young student

[Tiramisu]

Why is she in CCD?  I would think doing Faith & Life and Baltimore Catechism to be overkill for a kid.  The faith is great and having students focus on it is fantastic but too much of any subject is simply too much!  My children do Faith & Life at home with me.  They are really enjoying it but if I tried to add another book related aspect of the faith to them they would hate it.  Its just too much and would get boring.  If you are living your faith and discuss it outside of the context of a book I think picking either of those books would be enough structured religion teaching for a young student

 

I know what you mean about getting burned out. With my older kids, I wound up having to scale back at some point.

 

CCD is required at our parish and they use Faith and Life, so there are some basic things we have to do with Faith & Life. I just prefer the simplicity of the SJBC Q & A for memorization compared to the Faith & Life Q & A. 

 

I had a teacher for confirmation year once tell me that the kids who had used the SJBC were the best prepared, even though the program uses Faith & Life.

[lasfresasrojas]

I am not big on rote memorization, especially when it comes to religion. (I'm a devout Catholic). 

 

I want my kids to embrace the Faith and truly understand it, not just be able to spit back memorized responses- which you said you are doing already.

 

Knowing that you are already involved and living out your Faith, I would drop the Baltimore Catechesis memorization. You don't want her to resent her Faith, and if it is becoming that frustrating I would just drop it. You can always come back to it later if you think it is necessary.

[PachiSusan]

Our curriculum at home uses the BC and the faith formation at the church uses a Jesuit based book, no tests because you "can't test a faith in Christ". <eye roll>

 

My personal feelings below:

 

This is what we do: We do the lessons from the Baltimore Catechism. We read it together and we read the memorization. I do not insist on letter for letter, punctuation and spelling correct exact memorization, but she has to tell me to the best of her ability. Then I ask her to explain what it means to her and to her relationship with Jesus and God, and we move on to the next one. I grade her on her understanding of what it means.

 

I think it's extra important in this day and age to KNOW our faith. Many people do not even understand that  Communion is the true body and blood of Christ-  that the bread and wine turn into Jesus' body and blood. It's not just that he's "in" the bread and blood. This and so many other tenets of our faith are watered down to the point of "Jesus loves us all...." that we have an entire generation who doesn't really know what our faith truly teaches. Learning the BC will help our children have God deep in their heart AND their mind, so that if/when they are challenged, they have the correct answers. 

 

Memorization doesn't preclude or trump a relationship of the heart with Jesus. It can enhance it because of the awareness of what we believe about the God we so very much love. 

[PachiSusan]

Why is she in CCD?  I would think doing Faith & Life and Baltimore Catechism to be overkill for a kid. 

 

 

I'm not the OP, but I can answer this for us:

 

Ya'll may laugh, but my daughter is in Faith Formation at the parish because I want her to have the social experience of meeting kids her own age, and a small classroom experience.  I feel it will help her feel more involved with her parish. 

 

I use Seton Home Study and their religion courses are very challenging. She has not learned one thing in CFF that she hasn't already learned through Seton, but being in CFF has helped her to be more settled and feeling a part of the parish more. 

 

Also, our parish has a rule that if you are not in THEIR faith formation for a year before sacraments and through their sacraments program, they will not allow the child to receive the sacraments. I'm not thrilled with this part, and it is not Vatican rules but the Pastor's own rules. CHurch documents state that a parish is not to deny a child sacraments if they are properly prepared. It doesn't say it MUST BE in the parish CCD program.  I may just fight this one. 

[PachiSusan]

 

 

I had a teacher for confirmation year once tell me that the kids who had used the SJBC were the best prepared, even though the program uses Faith & Life.

 

Melissa's teacher last year had not even HEARD of the BC and the DRE told us that Vatican II made it obsolete and no one is allowed to teach from it.  :confused1:  :confused1:

 

She got an earful from me, and church documents to prove she was wrong. It was funny because just before we had the run in, she told me Melissa knew her faith so well, and she loved Jesus so much and she wondered what I was doing. I told her she was home schooled with Seton Home Study, a traditional Catholic curriculum, and the BC. Her face hardened and said, "Why would you use THAT?? Kids don't learn from memorization!!" and went on to explain things to me. I said, "You just said she knew her faith so well and she loved Jesus - seems to be working just fine for us!!" 

 

:crying:

[Vida Winter]

We use both Faith and Life and the BC. It doesn't seem like overkill to us, but then we opted out of the parish ccd this year because that *would* have been overkill.

[Tiramisu]

We use both Faith and Life and the BC. It doesn't seem like overkill to us, but then we opted out of the parish ccd this year because that *would* have been overkill.

 

Yes. I find a lot depends on the individual teachers. Some assign a lot, while others know the parents have their favorite resources and keep assignments light.

[hjffkj]

I'm not the OP, but I can answer this for us:

 

Ya'll may laugh, but my daughter is in Faith Formation at the parish because I want her to have the social experience of meeting kids her own age, and a small classroom experience.  I feel it will help her feel more involved with her parish. 

 

I use Seton Home Study and their religion courses are very challenging. She has not learned one thing in CFF that she hasn't already learned through Seton, but being in CFF has helped her to be more settled and feeling a part of the parish more. 

 

Also, our parish has a rule that if you are not in THEIR faith formation for a year before sacraments and through their sacraments program, they will not allow the child to receive the sacraments. I'm not thrilled with this part, and it is not Vatican rules but the Pastor's own rules. CHurch documents state that a parish is not to deny a child sacraments if they are properly prepared. It doesn't say it MUST BE in the parish CCD program.  I may just fight this one. 

 

 

I wouldn't laugh at all.  That makes perfect sense for me and I would want to do the same exact thing if I didn't feel our parishes program would actually be detrimental to my children's faith.  Its sad but true.  

 

Our parish has that rule also but when we come to that issue I will be fighting out parish on it.  

[hjffkj]

I know what you mean about getting burned out. With my older kids, I wound up having to scale back at some point.

 

CCD is required at our parish and they use Faith and Life, so there are some basic things we have to do with Faith & Life. I just prefer the simplicity of the SJBC Q & A for memorization compared to the Faith & Life Q & A. 

 

I had a teacher for confirmation year once tell me that the kids who had used the SJBC were the best prepared, even though the program uses Faith & Life.

 

 

Well maybe scale BC back a bit to make it a little less of an issue for your dd and then in the summer when CCD isn't going on pick up the speed with BC a bit more.

 

I think BC and Faith and Life are both great programs.  But I think the most important thing for a child to be best prepared is living in a household that lives their faith and discusses it regularly.  I wouldn't jeopardize a child's love for their faith by doing both programs at the same time.  It may not be overkill for every child but if your dd is telling/showing you that it is too much listen and either scale back at home or stand up for your right to provide faith formation for your children on your own. 

[PachiSusan]

I wouldn't laugh at all.  That makes perfect sense for me and I would want to do the same exact thing if I didn't feel our parishes program would actually be detrimental to my children's faith.  Its sad but true.  

 

Our parish has that rule also but when we come to that issue I will be fighting out parish on it.  

 

I requested the book a few weeks before CFF started and talked with the teacher to see where she was coming from. I was pretty impressed with the book they were using - moreso than the watered down mamby pamby "Blest are We" program our old parish used.

 

I check for the most important part for me: an understanding that the liturgy/Mass is the Summit of worship, and that the Eucharist is explained in detail that when consecration happens, the bread and wine cease to exist and become the true body and blood soul and divinity of Christ. If that's not there, then the entire program is suspect to me. 

[hjffkj]

I requested the book a few weeks before CFF started and talked with the teacher to see where she was coming from. I was pretty impressed with the book they were using - moreso than the watered down mamby pamby "Blest are We" program our old parish used.

 

I check for the most important part for me: an understanding that the liturgy/Mass is the Summit of worship, and that the Eucharist is explained in detail that when consecration happens, the bread and wine cease to exist and become the true body and blood soul and divinity of Christ. If that's not there, then the entire program is suspect to me.

Yeah our parish uses blessed are we and most the catechists were poorly catechisized themselves so I feel like it would be detrimental to my kids at such a young age to be exposed to that fluff along with teachers who don't know what they are truly teaching. And then there are the people who don't agree with the Church on things so teach its OK to go against Church teaching and act accordingly, yes I've encountered this. So we will be steering clear.

[Tiramisu]

Well maybe scale BC back a bit to make it a little less of an issue for your dd and then in the summer when CCD isn't going on pick up the speed with BC a bit more.

 

I think BC and Faith and Life are both great programs.  But I think the most important thing for a child to be best prepared is living in a household that lives their faith and discusses it regularly.  I wouldn't jeopardize a child's love for their faith by doing both programs at the same time.  It may not be overkill for every child but if your dd is telling/showing you that it is too much listen and either scale back at home or stand up for your right to provide faith formation for your children on your own. 

 

You make some very good points. Thank you!

[Tiramisu]

I requested the book a few weeks before CFF started and talked with the teacher to see where she was coming from. I was pretty impressed with the book they were using - moreso than the watered down mamby pamby "Blest are We" program our old parish used.

 

I check for the most important part for me: an understanding that the liturgy/Mass is the Summit of worship, and that the Eucharist is explained in detail that when consecration happens, the bread and wine cease to exist and become the true body and blood soul and divinity of Christ. If that's not there, then the entire program is suspect to me. 

 

I think I am familiar with that program. I could be wrong, but I think my oldest was in a program that used it in first grade, way back when. I remember there was some comparison between Jesus and a teddy bear. Does that sound familiar to anyone?

[PachiSusan]

Yeah our parish uses blessed are we and most the catechists were poorly catechisized themselves so I feel like it would be detrimental to my kids at such a young age to be exposed to that fluff along with teachers who don't know what they are truly teaching. And then there are the people who don't agree with the Church on things so teach its OK to go against Church teaching and act accordingly, yes I've encountered this. So we will be steering clear.

 

I was the teacher in the early grades for Melissa so I wasn't worried - she's in 6th now so she catches things right away that aren't right and talks to me about them. 

[PachiSusan]

I think I am familiar with that program. I could be wrong, but I think my oldest was in a program that used it in first grade, way back when. I remember there was some comparison between Jesus and a teddy bear. Does that sound familiar to anyone?

 

I hadn't seen the early grades. She started it in 5th grade. It's by the Jesuits, and it's pretty good in the older grades. It IS heavy on Social Justice, which is a charism of the Jesuits.

 

If I saw that, I would be talking to the teacher and finding out how they can get out of that one! LOL - ridiculous. 

[katilac]

Our curriculum at home uses the BC and the faith formation at the church uses a Jesuit based book

 

I have nothing to add, just wanted to say how much I like the RWE quote in your siggy! 

[RootAnn]

We do use the Baltimore Catechism & memorize the answers. But, that's not the only part of our class - and we break up the BC into a three-year cycle. So, they are only memorizing roughly a third each year. (We review the other sections on the off years if they've already covered them.) Some years, we read from a Children's Bible or from various lives of the saints books. This year, every third week or so, we're reading St Patrick's Summer. We make 10 Commandments Lapbooks during that section. We have discussions on various topics & watch Holy Heroes videos during Lent & Advent.

 

I used Faith & Life when I was growing up and thought it was boring, so I don't use it. Some kids would rightly complain about the Baltimore Catechism being dry & boring, too. Fair 'nuff.

 

I used to substitute teach in our parish CCD program. There is no way I would subject my kids to that -- both for the fact that it is a waste of time for them & because of the environment (kids coming straight from $ex ed at the local public school & talking about it -- in as young as 4th grade!).

 

To the OP:  Why not just go over the questions every day for a week (or however long you take on one chapter) but not require memorization? Just have her read them back to you. Pick one or two to talk about each time - delving in as much as you feel comfortable. If you are going to use the Balt. Catechism multiple years, she'll see them again (and again). I've had kids in book 1 & book 2 at the same time & there are more questions in the next books, but the topics stay the same. The coverage just gets deeper each time. Don't worry about complete memorization. To me, it is like a math discussion - I want my kids to understand the "why" so they can figure out the "how". If my kids understand the idea behind the topics in the Catechism, they can come up with the answer even if they don't remember it word-for-word.

[PachiSusan]

I have nothing to add, just wanted to say how much I like the RWE quote in your siggy! 

 

Thank you. It was something I saw on a FB Meme a few months ago and it really hit me hard as well! 

[PachiSusan]

We do use the Baltimore Catechism & memorize the answers. But, that's not the only part of our class - and we break up the BC into a three-year cycle. So, they are only memorizing roughly a third each year. (We review the other sections on the off years if they've already covered them.) 

 

We do the same thing! 

[Tiramisu]

We do use the Baltimore Catechism & memorize the answers. But, that's not the only part of our class - and we break up the BC into a three-year cycle. So, they are only memorizing roughly a third each year. (We review the other sections on the off years if they've already covered them.) Some years, we read from a Children's Bible or from various lives of the saints books. This year, every third week or so, we're reading St Patrick's Summer. We make 10 Commandments Lapbooks during that section. We have discussions on various topics & watch Holy Heroes videos during Lent & Advent.

 

I used Faith & Life when I was growing up and thought it was boring, so I don't use it. Some kids would rightly complain about the Baltimore Catechism being dry & boring, too. Fair 'nuff.

 

I used to substitute teach in our parish CCD program. There is no way I would subject my kids to that -- both for the fact that it is a waste of time for them & because of the environment (kids coming straight from $ex ed at the local public school & talking about it -- in as young as 4th grade!).

 

To the OP:  Why not just go over the questions every day for a week (or however long you take on one chapter) but not require memorization? Just have her read them back to you. Pick one or two to talk about each time - delving in as much as you feel comfortable. If you are going to use the Balt. Catechism multiple years, she'll see them again (and again). I've had kids in book 1 & book 2 at the same time & there are more questions in the next books, but the topics stay the same. The coverage just gets deeper each time. Don't worry about complete memorization. To me, it is like a math discussion - I want my kids to understand the "why" so they can figure out the "how". If my kids understand the idea behind the topics in the Catechism, they can come up with the answer even if they don't remember it word-for-word.

 

OP here. We also do the BC over three years, going through a section and working on the Q and A for one section over a couple of weeks. We alternate sections with Bible history, saint and other stories. Yeah, I wouldn't try to do it all in a year. That would be major burn out.