Baltimore Catechism

[Ohdanigirl]

Has any one here used this at home? How did you do it? What did your schedule look like? What other resources/anything did you add to you study throughout the year? Looking for ideas for first grade. I would love to hear your ideas, even if the are not directly related to the Baltimore Catechism.

 

We live on Mexico, so my dc do Catechism in Spanish, but I would like to provide programs in English for them at home as well.

 

Danielle

[Laura in STL]

We are using Baltimore Catechism No. 1 next year with a 3rd and 5th grader. I think the St. Joseph First Communion Catechism is geared toward first and second grade. I didn't use that particular resource, but I am planning to just read the lessons in the Baltimore Catechism aloud, and do the discussion questions orally. We also use Faith and Life, so this is a supplement for us. Hope this helps, maybe someone with more experience will chime in as well.

[Underdog]

We use the Baltimore Catechism No. 1 according to the instructions provided in the 1904 edition of Course of Christian Doctrine.

 

You'll notice per the Table of Contents that each grade has a detailed syllabus for Prayers, Aspirations, Catechism, Bible History, Instructions, Stories, Hymns and Recitations, and Quotations to be learned. It's truly a great resource for teaching Catholic religion.

 

Page 5 gives a breakdown of which Balt. Cat. questions to teach each week during first grade.

[Faithr]

I've used both the No. 1 and No 2 St. Joseph's Baltimore Catechism casually over the years. We get into these Balto. Catechism phases. I just read it out loud in bite size chunks to my kids over breakfast or lunch. Or if I am focusing on a particular child because it is a sacramental year for them, I've carved out time in the afternoon a couple times a week where we sit on the couch together and read it. Last year I had one son who was receiving Confirmation. We used Kolbe's lesson plans as a guide for his 8th grade catechism. That was fairly successful, though we don't do half as much as the curriculum plan suggested.

 

I find the St. Joseph's Baltimore Catechisms useful but they are also dated. We often have a chuckle over the analogies they draw in the books. So I can only use them for so long before they begin to wear on me. Then we move to another resource. But eventually we work our way back to them again over the course of time.

[Violet Crown]

My dd7 progresses through it at her own pace, memorizing (more or less) the material as we go. I used to turn up my nose at the "rote memorization" way of learning one's catechism, until I actually had to teach CCD and found that children who had covered (e.g.) "sacraments" every single year couldn't even begin to tell me what a sacrament actually was. Now I'm of the theory that (a) you learn it by heart; (b) you learn what it means; © you deepen your understanding as you go.

 

We follow with +Morrow's My Catholic Faith, which is based on the BC.

 

Underdog,

Thanks for that link. I must look into that.

[Ohdanigirl]

Thanks, I wlll look into these resources. I agree with what you said about the memorization, it seems to stick once they've got it.

 

Danielle

[Murphy101]

love it!

 

we read a lesson, discuss it, recite and memorize the Q & A and the prayers. It's really rather informal. We just work our way thorugh it as best and thoroughly as we can.

[Tiramisu]

Day 1: Read the lesson, introduce the Q&A

Day 2: Do the excercises in the back, review Q&A

Day 3: Review Q&A

Day 4: Review Q&A

 

I work more on memorization on some questions than others.

 

I haven't done this all year or every year. We break up the year with Bible history, stories of the saints, and other liturgical year activities--and whatever else we feel like adding in or need to address. We also have to do Faith & Life for our CCD program.

 

At IHM, I'm going to check out Our Holy Faith. That's a possibility for next year.

[TracyR]

We have this as well. I use it as a read aloud. Then we memorize and we also do lapbooks. There is an awesome lapbook/faithfolder company where you can get lapbooks from.

www.lapbooksforcatholics.com . Those really help solidify learning the prayers, sacraments ,,etc. Plus my daughters love to lapbook.

I also like to use www.thatresourcesite.com This is an awesome website chalk full of stuff for Catholic homeschoolers. They have lapbooking templates, Catholic notebooking pages..you name it. Its an awesome free resource.

[iwka]

We are using it as an online course at the CLAA. It's great!