eternalknot Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 I've never been Christian or Catholic, but my children are both. I've agreed to use a Catholic catechism in our home school, and for the past four years we've used Faith & Life alongside the Baltimore Catechism. My student says Faith & Life is becoming increasingly dry. I originally chose it on the recommendation of others that it was a thorough, solid catechism. These were on-line people and reviews, as I don't know any Catholic homeschoolers or afterschoolers IRL. He has asked if there is any other program we can use instead. I know Seton has a catechism program -- how does it compare to Faith & Life? Are there any others? It needs to be solid and thorough because I'm just a facilitator; it's not a subject I'm well-versed in enough to teach and live with him. Also, while I have your attention -- are these two worthwhile?: Catholic Mosaic A Year with God, Celebrating the Liturgical Year I have an incoming 5th grader and an incoming kindergartener. I appreciate any insight/advice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mama2Many4 Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 We use Faith and Life, and although some may think it dry, it's a very great curriculum. It can be added to in order to make it more hands on I suppose. But we like it as it is. A year with God is fantastic! We love it. We use it every year and the kids are able to do some much more the older they get. I would look into the Image of God series if you want colorful, kiddie type books. HTH ETA. Seton is VERY dry. If you are thinking Faith and Life is boring, don't go for Seton. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avila Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 (edited) F&L 5 is actually one of the better books in the series, I think. Seton is more dry than Faith & Life. Seton's main difference is breaking up religion into daily bits instead of weekly. I think if you are looking for more interesting, you might want to check out the Prove It books by Amy Welborn or the Friendly Defender cards. Image of God is supposed to be a good intro for OT Bible history. Or you could go with one of the Jeff Cavins Bible Studies. Edited May 24, 2011 by Asenik Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisB Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 We started out using Faith & Life, but we are switching to something called Family Formation from the Church of Saith Paul (Catholic) in Ham Lake, MN. Faith Formation is easy to pick up and use. DD loves the presentation style. The lessons are brief and to the point, yet still cover the essentials. We supplement FF with more children's bible stories, more stories of the saints, and, occasionally, My Path to Heaven. It works great for our DD. While F&L's content is solid, it just seems too school-ish for us. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kandty Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 I loved Faith and Life till 4th grade and I just had to let him read it on his own and then we discussed it. I have like the Image of God series (Who am I for PK/K age). My younger one is all about workbooks and they had that in the K & 1st grade level. :D I ordered the the 2nd and 5th grade level for next school year. I have heard good things about the St. Joseph Baltimore Catechism Series and I just ordered two of the books and I am waiting for those. Those books were cheap! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nikhen Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 We have used both Catholic Mosaic and A year with God- Our kids loved Catholic Mosaic-they are in 3,2,and K. I think a 5th grader would still like the books. With Catholic Mosaic I loved how we had about a book a week to read and then we did a little project and could locate where the book took place on a map etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbw0817 Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 How about trying Faith and Life Online? It looks great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In The Great White North Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 I don't see why you would need Faith & Life and the Baltimore Catechism. The Baltimore Catechism covers everything and Faith & Life just isn't interesting enough to do as a supplement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2squared Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 Have you looked at Mater Amabilis religion suggestions? They use F&L one day a week but add in interesting saint and bible readings the other days. Maybe you could drop either F&L or the Baltimore Catechism and add in some living books. Kolbe seems to have some good saint biography suggestions too. FWIW, we are using the Mater Amabilis religion sequence. Catholic Mosaic has fabulous picture book suggestions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eternalknot Posted May 24, 2011 Author Share Posted May 24, 2011 I appreciate everyone's comments. I'm glad to know Seton is not going to be any better than is Faith & Life - we just scratched that one off of the list, and I'm so glad I asked before I bought! I had no idea F&L had an online option, I need to investigate that. I'll look into the other suggestions today. I'm leaning towards buying Catholic Mosaic because it seems FIAR-ish, which is something my kids enjoy. A Year with God seems so pricey!! I feel like it'd be a good way to incorporate their faith more as an everyday construct than as a school subject, but man - I'd want to flip through it first or something LOL. Do you think I could find it used, is there a Catholic FSOT forum somewhere? We started using Baltimore Catechism alongside Faith & Life because I didn't know how to use the BC as a teaching tool; having not been raised in any Christian tradition, the material was new to me and not having context made it a challenge to teach. I needed a program I could facilitate because it's not something I could teach. I kept hearing how great it was to use BC so I wanted to keep using it. Fortunately my student hasn't yet found it redundant to use both, but I know now that this may be his next complaint! So Seton is out, but I have a few other options to look into. Thanks again! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avila Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 Cathswap@yahoo groups.com is a pretty popular FSOT board. I had A Year With God, and we did like it. But it is pricey for what it is, and it was most useful for K-4 for us. It had hands-on projects and saint coloring pages. I do like the Mater Amabilis choices too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kandty Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 Has anyone ever bought the teacher's manual for the F&L series? It is expensive so I never bought it, but I was wondering if maybe it had some activity ideas or something to help. A year with God is not my favorite book. I have pulled stuff out of it and don't regret spending the money on it to buy it, but my boys aren't really into a lot of the stuff in it. CHC has put that book on sale about once a year, so maybe watch for it. Does your library have it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Education Explorers Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 We haven't started homeschooling yet because our children are finishing out their school year in a Catholic school. But I have been doing a ton of research to get ready. http://www.catholicity.com/links/20/ is a link that will give you a large list of Catholic curricula. I can address your younger child's needs much better than the older one. Sadlier sells Catholic religion curricula. It is what they use at my children's current Catholic International Baccalaureate school. The "We Believe" series runs K-8 and can be purchased for homeschool. It is excellent for younger grades. The Sacramental preparation books (for 2nd grade) are really good too. I am sticking with it for my son since he will be in 2nd next year. I plan on trying Kolbe's Following Christ (http://books.kolbe.org/store/c/88-Religion.html) for my older child next year for a change. I don't know how it will go but it looked interesting at the Catholic HS conference I went to awhile back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkateLeft Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 How about trying Faith and Life Online? It looks great! We used Faith and Life Online this year, and my 4th and 7th graders loved it! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkateLeft Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 Has anyone ever bought the teacher's manual for the F&L series? It is expensive so I never bought it, but I was wondering if maybe it had some activity ideas or something to help. I bought the teacher's guide for the first grade book, way back when, and didn't find it useful at all. There *are* activity books to accompany each of the F&L texts, and I've bought a few of those, but my kids didn't care of them. They tend towards busywork... fill in the blanks, crossword puzzles, etc. I've also never found "A Year with God" very useful, as it seems many of the ideas are either too simple or too elaborate. Instead, most of the things we do to celebrate the liturgical year come from Catholic Mosaic, the Real Learning forums (which have some wonderful folks sharing ideas!), and blogs like Catholic Icing. I've used the ideas from Catholic Icing far more than I've used any of the liturgical year activity books I've purchased! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tiramisu Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 I started using the Our Holy Faith series this year. What I really like about it is that it speaks on the level of the student with such relevant examples along with a strong, traditional instruction in the Faith. The Q&A are exactly the same as the BC, but with more fleshed out explanations. We have to use F & L with our CCD program and I love the Baltimore Catechism, but I think Our Holy Faith captures something the others don't. Because it was written before the Second Vatican Council, there are some differences, regarding the rules on fasting during Lent, for example. That is not an obstacle for us, rather we find it beneficial. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trish Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 How about trying Faith and Life Online? It looks great! Yes, we did the Faith & Life books this past year, and next year I think I'm going to try it online. Looks like there may be some interesting additions to the bookwork. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NineChoirs Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 I second the vote for "Our Holy Faith". I love how the books change focus so that they never become "more of the same". Also they are a million times better than workbooks. And my kids enjoy them enough that they will re-read through the older ones in their spare time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NineChoirs Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 Also, if your kids love music there is a CD called "24 Catholic songs" for children. There is a coloring book with the lyrics that your youngest can color while listening to the CD. My 12 yo son uses the CD for his dictation exercises. He loves music and finds this to be a lot of fun! He just puts the song he is transcribing on replay and listens until he has transcribed all of the words. Then he works on memorization. He does about 1 song a week. This might be fun for your 5th grader. The Coloring book: http://www.olvs.org/ShopCart/InvDtl.aspx?InvId=12125&GrdId=&InvCatId= The CD: http://www.olvs.org/ShopCart/InvDtl.aspx?InvId=10819&GrdId=&InvCatId= Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RootAnn Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 I've avoided Faith & Life because 1) I used the old version when I was in Sunday School and hated every minute of it (BORING!), 2) I taught the newer version (not newest, but revised from when I used it originally) in our local CCD and didn't think it was any more interesting, and 3) it seems really geared for "schools" and that isn't what I was looking for. It is good solid Catholic material, but not for us. Ironically, I am going to use Seton's Religion 4 book with my two oldest next year. I have it in my hands & it looks like a really good overview of the Baltimore Catechism 1 that we just spent three years on (modified version of Laura Berquist's Designing Your Own Classic Curriculum). I don't plan on sticking with Seton, but I'm hoping it'll be a good pick before we move onto the BC 2 a year later. Catholic Mosiac might be your best choice based on what you posted about your kids & circumstances. The following year, if you want to move "onward & upward" with your oldest, you might check out Mother of Divine Grace's religion plans for sixth grade. She combines St. Joseph’’s Baltimore Catechism No. 2 & the Gospel according to St. Mark and the Gospel according to St. Luke along with study questions for each chapter to facilitate discussion in the study of Sacred Scripture. You would learn right along with her! Here is a sample of the religion portion. A copy of the Catechism of the Catholic Church or the Compendium are helpful to have on hand for questions that come up, especially as the kids get older. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Wife Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 What about Our Holy Faith? I've heard good things about that series, but have no personal experience with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbw0817 Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 I love Catholic Icing too! What a fantastic site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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