s/o "Any Anglicans in the Hive"

[Rockhopper]

Hi! I'm Deb and I'm new here.:seeya:

 

I was excited to see the Anglican thread because it was a perfect lead-in to my first thread/question here:

 

What do you use for Bible/Religious Ed? Is there some secret source of super Anglican resources I don't know about? Cuz if so, I'd love to get in on the secret!:)

 

I'd love to know what you use AND what age/grade you use it with... and what non-Anglican things you also use or add to it.

 

Also, we're pretty much on our own for Sunday School so if your parish uses a curriculum you like for that, I'd also love to know about it.

 

I'd love for other liturgical types to weigh in too -- I've been looking at Concordia and some other Lutheran publishing houses too.

 

Thanks!

[milovany]

Hi there! Welcome! We are Eastern Orthodox, and our family will be using a new curriculum this year called Ages of Grace. You can read about it here. It's a Charlotte Mason style curriculum, with Bible/Faith, history, geography, literature, reading, art and music/sound ~ all with an orthodox view of church history as the foundation. I'm very excited about it, as well as challenged by it (having never used anything pre-packaged before). We'll be adding in Life of Fred math, nature study/reading living books about science, and then delight directed interest development as well.

 

HTH!

[MIch elle]

We've used My Faith, My Life for ages 9 & up - http://www.amazon.com/My-Faith-Life-Episcopal-Church/dp/0819222208/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1314729696&sr=1-1

[Jilly]

We've used My Faith, My Life for ages 9 & up - http://www.amazon.com/My-Faith-Life-Episcopal-Church/dp/0819222208/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1314729696&sr=1-1

 

We use this too. My twins have enjoyed it.

[AK_Mom4]

Welcome! :hurray:

 

We're Episcopal, so feel free to ignore if these don't fit.

 

For Sunday school, our church has used these for years in rolling 3-year rotation. Certainly something you can do with 1-2 kids or with a whole roomful (preK-6).

http://www.vts.edu/podium/default.aspx?t=122314

 

For the super secret curriculum sources (I'd be happy with Anglican!), I'm :bigear:. We ended up using LifePac Bible because it was mostly inoffensive.

[ktgrok]

What age are you looking for? I've NEVER found anything good for Episcopal/Anglican kids,but maybe someone else has a secret I don't know. I think we are going to use CLE for Bible, but discuss anything we don't agree with. That or Memoria Press Christian Studies. I am also going to buy the book "My Faith My Life, a Teen's Guide to the Episcopal Church". And probably go through the Catechism in the Book of Common Prayer. There are some good kids guides on the episcopal church, but not a whole curriculum's worth.

[twoforjoy]

Another Episcopalian here.

 

I thought the Telling God's Story curriculum was quite good, and would work for many Anglican families. It was a little more hands-on than I want right now, though, and there's only one year available.

 

I was wondering about the Memoria Press Christian Studies curriculum. Right now we're using Long Story Short. It's considerably more theologically conservative than I am, but, ironically, I find that a lot of conservative Calvinist stuff can, with some minor tweaking, actually fit our needs quite well.

 

Can I tell y'all what would be in my dream RE curriculum for homeschooling Anglicans?

 

- Readings that lined up with the Sunday lectionary or even with the daily lectionary readings, but in an amount manageable for kids;

- Lessons from the BCP catechism presented in a child-friendly way;

- Age-appropriate information on and practice in various spiritual disciplines;

- Information on the sacraments;

- Questions and exercises to encourage theological reflection, encouraging kids to think through theological issues rather than just giving them answers; and

- Incorporation of novels/short stories and the theological themes in them.

Edited August 30, 2011 by twoforjoy

[Chris in VA]

Episcopalian here, and dh is a priest. It's hard for us, because, even tho I'm cradle, I came to own more of my faith thru parachurch organizations. I'm not Reform, so I have trouble with heavy Calvinist approaches, but I've liked Omnibus for high school (with tweaking) and Positive Action For Christ for elementary.

 

We use Godly Play for Sunday School and are now looking around at other curricula for older kids (at least I think they are--we currently use Living The Good News, and it sucks).

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

Welcome! :hurray:

 

We're Episcopal, so feel free to ignore if these don't fit.

 

For Sunday school, our church has used these for years in rolling 3-year rotation. Certainly something you can do with 1-2 kids or with a whole roomful (preK-6).

http://www.vts.edu/podium/default.aspx?t=122314

 

For the super secret curriculum sources (I'd be happy with Anglican!), I'm :bigear:. We ended up using LifePac Bible because it was mostly inoffensive.

 

Thank you!! What a great link!

[nono]

Moorehouse Publishing has some materials, as do some of the mainstream Catholic publishers (all non-homeschooling, to be frank). I'm in an odd position because I'm RC and my children are Episcopalian/Buddhist. I've driven my Episcopal priest semi-nuts collecting materials, and as he reminds me, it's mostly the church history where I have to worry a whole lot about the distinctions.

 

Oh, and one thing I'm doing for penmanship is having my children copy the catechism from the Book of Common Prayer. Kills two subjects with one stone. (And how very old-school Roman of me as friends from both sides of the divide have commented!) :tongue_smilie:

[twoforjoy]

Oh, and one thing I'm doing for penmanship is having my children copy the catechism from the Book of Common Prayer. Kills two subjects with one stone. (And how very old-school Roman of me as friends from both sides of the divide have commented!) :tongue_smilie:

 

Great idea.

[Rockhopper]

Thank you all! Nearly all of these suggestions are new to me - so I've got some research to do (yea!).

 

My (schooling) kiddos are 7 and 12. I have tried a variety of things for devotional time and also for more "Bible class" time. One we tried was Training Hearts Teaching Minds based on the Westminster Catechism. I probably could've edited enough to make it work theologically but I guess I just wasn't motivated enough.

 

 

Can I tell y'all what would be in my dream RE curriculum for homeschooling Anglicans?

 

- Readings that lined up with the Sunday lectionary or even with the daily lectionary readings, but in an amount manageable for kids;

- Lessons from the BCP catechism presented in a child-friendly way;

- Age-appropriate information on and practice in various spiritual disciplines;

- Information on the sacraments;

- Questions and exercises to encourage theological reflection, encouraging kids to think through theological issues rather than just giving them answers; and

- Incorporation of novels/short stories and the theological themes in them.

 

:iagree:, especially with the bolded. Lately I have really been making an effort to try to do (part of) the Daily Office with the kids, but it is so hard to get it down to a manageable bit, both content- and time-wise. And to try to keep a flow going without losing the 7 yo's interest completely. Plus if we miss a day of school - or on weekends - we lose the flow of the readings, which is pretty vital in the narratives. So then we're either doubling up, or I'm trying to do an on-the-fly summarization, or we just skip ahead and lose context.

 

Another thing I would love is something that gave kids more info about the why's of worship.

 

I've been considering just working through the catechism along with Questions on the Way for my son this year.

[twoforjoy]

Lately I have really been making an effort to try to do (part of) the Daily Office with the kids, but it is so hard to get it down to a manageable bit, both content- and time-wise. And to try to keep a flow going without losing the 7 yo's interest completely. Plus if we miss a day of school - or on weekends - we lose the flow of the readings, which is pretty vital in the narratives. So then we're either doubling up, or I'm trying to do an on-the-fly summarization, or we just skip ahead and lose context.

 

Yeah, this is my difficulty. Even if I just cut it down to the epistle and Gospel readings, it's still quite a bit for my 7yo.

 

I just remembered, though, that there's a good podcast that does the Morning Office each day. It's about 13-17 minutes. I should put that on while we're doing our morning chores; that way DS can get used to the rhythms of it without having to sit still for that long.

[Laura Corin]

I come from an Anglican background, but am not practising. I used the RE programme from Galore Park with my elder son. There are samples on the page I linked. They also have a bible stories programme for younger children.

 

Laura

[smillard00]

Welcome! My dh is an Episcopal priest too. I have a few sources for Anglican liturgy that is kid-friendly. We love the book The Anglican Family Prayer Book by Annie Kitch. You can find it on Amazon. It has a lot of the things in the BCP that you might want to do at home but presented in a simpler more kid friendly way. We use the Morning Prayer format from this book every morning. After breakfast while we are still sitting at the table, I pull out the book and we do morning prayer very quickly. I insert a reading of our choice into the slot where she suggests 4 or 5 different Bible passages to read. Sometimes I take it from the Lectionary and sometimes we just work our way through a book. We're reading Romans right now. I read a short section and then we narrate/discuss for about 2 minutes and then we continue on. I like that the canticle is always the Venite. The kids have memorized it and we can say it or sing it as the mood strikes. We take our time with the prayers doing thanksgivings, intercessions, and supplications, then go to the Lord's Prayer. If dh is home (usually) we have him bless us at the end. :001_smile:

 

Annie Kitch has some other books for things like Lent and Advent that are informative. They have coloring pages and puzzles. We've used those before.

 

For instruction on the Eucharist, I love using Alleluia Amen! by Gretchen Pritchard. You can get it from their Sunday Papers website. It goes through each section of the Eucharist service and explains what is happening and what we are supposed to be doing (internally and externally) at that point. And it has the text that we would be saying (Rite 2) printed in the book with drawings to illustrate it all. She also has a baptism book that is pretty good, although I don't think it is as easy to understand as Alleluia Amen! It is called New Life, I think.

 

I am starting to use the Christian Studies books from Memoria Press for our Bible education in school. It seems to be straightforward Bible literacy to familiarize students with what is in the Bible and where. They memorize scripture as they go along. I like what I'm seeing so far. We use Beautiful Feet a lot for history. She connects scripture to historical concepts in the discussion questions but she doesn't tell you what to think. I like this because I can discuss it with my kids and can tailor the discussion to our beliefs. We end up having some great theological discussions this way.

 

My oldest is entering high school and we are going to be reading things like early church fathers, desert fathers, apostolic fathers, Chesterton, CS Lewis, Kreeft etc. I'm using a lot of the suggested readings in Latin Centered Curriculum for him. As he reads, we will discuss and will have the opportunity to approach it from our viewpoints. I haven't seen a prepared curriculum per se that doesn't come from a Roman Catholic or Reformed or Baptist or ______ viewpoint that I could feel comfortable with, but I think our reading plan will work well. He will also be going through confirmation this year, so I'll be reinforcing that.

 

Dh just walked in and I confirmed with him--if you want the daily office lectionary at your fingertips, the easiest thing to do is to get the two volumes of the Daily Office. His are two little black books--year 1 and year 2. They have all of the readings for each day contained within. You could look at the book each day and read all of them or just choose one to read that day. It's handy to have. I'm thinking about getting a set for myself since his are always over in the chapel.

[nono]

For those who need something in the interim, or who are not Episcopalian and want to see what the Book of Common Prayer is, it is online here.

 

(Was just getting tomorrow's penmanship lesson together, and it made me realize this might be useful for someone. :) )

[simka2]

Eastern Orthodox here as well. Much of my religious ed is wrapped up in our historical studies this year. We are covering the Middle Ages with a decent emphasis on the eastern church/pre-schism/byzantine history.

 

I am using many resources from here http://paideaclassics.org/index.php?sid=&cart_id=&admin=1&category_id=650

[Momling]

We're Episcopalians and my kids have Godly Play at church. This will be my older daughter's 7th year of it... because I'm the DRE, she's going to be a "junior storyteller" while I'm doorperson this next year. Eventually we plan to use the RE materials from Galore Park. Meanwhile, I've used this:

http://www.amazon.com/What-We-Do-Church-Anglican/dp/0819221058/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1314802460&sr=1-1 and a bit of this: http://www.amazon.com/World-Religions-Gabriel-Arquilevich/dp/1557346240/ref=pd_rhf_p_t_2

 

Because we don't take a literal approach to understanding the Bible, I think it's especially important that we understand the historical context, so I try to tie the Bible and church history into our history studies. It's sometimes tricky to find materials for kids that address our faith and traditions from a thoughtful and scholarly way without the socially conservative and moralistic evangelism that seems to be common in children's materials from Christian publishers.