? for Catholics

[2queens&1princenmyhouse]

We are new to homeschooling and I have waded through the curriculum choices for the most part, but I don't have anything for religion. My girls are currently enrolled in Catholic school and have a specific religion text. We doing a combination of SOTW and MOH Ancients for history. Is that enough or should I add something a little more catechism based?

 

My girls will be in 4th and 6th grade if that matters.

[Crimson Wife]

Neither SOTW nor MOH are Catholic, so unless you enroll your children in a parish CCD program, you will need something for Religion.

 

I like Faith and Life from Ignatius Press. They have an online option, though we personally haven't tried it. You could absolutely have both students work through the 4th grade book together.

[Mama2Many4]

Both of your history choices have very anti-Catholic slants to them, so unless you are VERY good with your apologetics I would pick different history choices. You also should most definitely add in some more religion.

[Crimson Wife]

SOTW Vol. 1 isn't anti-Catholic IMHO. It's Vol. 2 where I found issues, particularly in the treatment of the Reformation and Renaissance era.

[Mama2Many4]

SOTW Vol. 1 isn't anti-Catholic IMHO. It's Vol. 2 where I found issues, particularly in the treatment of the Reformation and Renaissance era.

 

:iagree: I failed to state which ones.

[sagira]

SOTW Vol. 1 isn't anti-Catholic IMHO. It's Vol. 2 where I found issues, particularly in the treatment of the Reformation and Renaissance era.

 

I just skipped the SOTW 2 Reformation part.

 

Ds likes Faith and Life online. I agree with adding in more religion, but IMHO SOTW can be used successfully.

[Tidbits of Learning]

I really like Seton's Religion texts.

[LovinHS]

Have you joined the Yahoo group Catholicwelltrained minds? You can probably get a lot of help there.

[2queens&1princenmyhouse]

Thanks. I'm glad to know that about STOW-vol 2. I read Vol 1 and didn't have a problem with it. I have looked at Faith and Life, but not at Seton. I will check it out. If I went with Faith and Life, would I need the TG? I'm trying to keep within a pretty tight budget.

 

As for PSR classes, they are on Wednesday evenings and we typically have other evening obligations that I don't want to give up. I may however call the rel. ed. director and see what they are using and just pay for another copy and use it on my own.

[sagira]

If I went with Faith and Life, would I need the TG? I'm trying to keep within a pretty tight budget.

 

Not if you use the online modules through Catholic Faith Delivered. Everything is in one, and it only costs $25 for an 18-month-old subscription. I'm very pleased with this program. Bonus: there are games, inspiring prayers and songs included.

[LovinHS]

I may however call the rel. ed. director and see what they are using and just pay for another copy and use it on my own.

 

This may be a good choice for you. I did this for several years. I teach grade 3&4 Faith Formation at my church, so I was able to get them for free - very economical indeed. For my class we are not able to get through the whole book, but I found that using them at home was great. We had more time to go into as much detail as we wanted.

 

Also check to see if your parish uses the Living Faith booklets: http://www.livingfaithkids.com/

You can get an individual subscription, but they do offer a quantity discount.

These are similar to the adult version of Living Faith, but are directed to children. They list the liturgical readings for each day and then a have a short devotion reflecting on one of the readings. This is also great practice in using the Bible to find the readings each day.

[FrogMom5]

I use Our Holy Faith from Our Lady of the Rosary School. Not many people on this board use it but we love it. I found it when my oldest was in 7th grade. He was desperate for something meaty and this series fit the bill. Now, I use it with both my older dc and they both love it. Even my dd stops to listen to her brother's lessons.

 

If you don't want the whole package through OLRS, you can buy just the main text through Neumann Press. I believe Amazon sells them too.

 

I do hope you find a good program for your children.

Denise

[Brenda in MA]

Hi,

 

I would agree with the others who said that SOTW and MOH are not going to give your dds Catholic Religious Ed.

 

I used the religion portion of the Mother of Divine Grace Syllabi for my children up through the 8th grade. I purchased the grade level syllabus (adoremus books and emmanual books sell these on-line), and we just did the religion lesson plans. Here is a link to info on the 4th grade syllabus, for an example.

 

http://www.motherofdivinegrace.org/curriculum/syllabus/6

 

We really enjoyed the MODG approach because it varies year to year, and does not consist solely of text/workbook combinations. The approach is more classical in style, and do I think it fits very well with the ideas in TWTM. The lessons include things like having the child re-tell a reading, draw an illustration, or for older children, write a paragraph summarizing a reading.

 

MODG uses the Baltimore Catechism, and a combination of other materials on church history, the saints, apologetics, and Bible history depending upon the grade you are doing. The student works on specific catechism questions and then the other main focus area (or 2) at a specific grade-level. MODG does use Faith & Life a couple times; I think in grades 5 & 8, if I am remembering correctly.

 

The one thing that I started doing many years ago when my children were older elementary age is to do the daily Mass readings from the Bible each morning together. We used (and still use) the daily reflection from the magazine "The Word Among Us" with the readings. These readings and a few prayers take us about 15 min at the start of each school day, and it is well worth the time. No other RE activity we've done has helped to deepen our faith more, and when you read the daily readings over several years, you really get an appreciation for the liturgical year and the richness of our faith.

 

We've only used the parish RE program when required the years for sacraments because, frankly, our own program of MODG and Bible readings (and regular attendance at Mass) has provided my children with strong faith knowledge and roots.

 

Also -- I agree with the lady who said that SOTW1 is fine, but that you probably will want to supplement SOTW2 for a more Catholic approach. I highly recommend this CD series from St. Joseph Communications about Martin Luther:

 

http://www.saintjoe.com/productos/7/520

 

After 11 years of homeschooling, I can happily say that really learning my faith by teaching it to my kids has been one of the highlights. I usually hang out mostly on the high school board, but I happened to see your question when I first visited the main page this afternoon. If you have any other questions, feel free to send me a PM, as I might not see it here.

 

Oh -- one other thing for folks who have older middle schoolers and high schoolers, we have really enjoyed the teen Bible studies from Ascension Press over the years. We started with the Teen Timeline (for an overview of Bible History), and we've done their other 3 studies on Acts, Matthew, and Revelation over the years. I wouldn't recommend these for 4th & 6th grades, more like probably 7th grade & up.

 

HTH & many blessings to you on your hsing journey!

Brenda

[julie4]

I will be using the Baltimore Catechism, books on the saints and teach Salvation History by using the bible.

 

Have you read Laura Berquist's Designing Your Own Classic Curriculum? You may be familiar with her, I wasn't until I started researching homeschooling options this year. But she designed the curriculum and founded Mother Of Divine Grace Homeschooling program. Her approach is Catholic and classical.

 

If you get on their website you can find the complete booklists that she uses for each grade for all classes. And you can also buy her lesson plans, even if you are not enrolled in the school program. For 4th grade religion she uses what I have above. She talks about how to use them in her book, which I bought used for $4.

 

Emmanuel Books is a great catalog/website for her recommendations too.

[*Michelle*]

Not if you use the online modules through Catholic Faith Delivered. Everything is in one, and it only costs $25 for an 18-month-old subscription. I'm very pleased with this program. Bonus: there are games, inspiring prayers and songs included.

 

Is it per child or per family? I was balking at the price of the TG, especially since it's a new one each year.

[FrogMom5]

Hi,

 

I would agree with the others who said that SOTW and MOH are not going to give your dds Catholic Religious Ed.

 

I used the religion portion of the Mother of Divine Grace Syllabi for my children up through the 8th grade. I purchased the grade level syllabus (adoremus books and emmanual books sell these on-line), and we just did the religion lesson plans. Here is a link to info on the 4th grade syllabus, for an example.

 

http://www.motherofdivinegrace.org/curriculum/syllabus/6

 

We really enjoyed the MODG approach because it varies year to year, and does not consist solely of text/workbook combinations. The approach is more classical in style, and do I think it fits very well with the ideas in TWTM. The lessons include things like having the child re-tell a reading, draw an illustration, or for older children, write a paragraph summarizing a reading.

 

MODG uses the Baltimore Catechism, and a combination of other materials on church history, the saints, apologetics, and Bible history depending upon the grade you are doing. The student works on specific catechism questions and then the other main focus area (or 2) at a specific grade-level. MODG does use Faith & Life a couple times; I think in grades 5 & 8, if I am remembering correctly.

 

The one thing that I started doing many years ago when my children were older elementary age is to do the daily Mass readings from the Bible each morning together. We used (and still use) the daily reflection from the magazine "The Word Among Us" with the readings. These readings and a few prayers take us about 15 min at the start of each school day, and it is well worth the time. No other RE activity we've done has helped to deepen our faith more, and when you read the daily readings over several years, you really get an appreciation for the liturgical year and the richness of our faith.

 

We've only used the parish RE program when required the years for sacraments because, frankly, our own program of MODG and Bible readings (and regular attendance at Mass) has provided my children with strong faith knowledge and roots.

 

Also -- I agree with the lady who said that SOTW1 is fine, but that you probably will want to supplement SOTW2 for a more Catholic approach. I highly recommend this CD series from St. Joseph Communications about Martin Luther:

 

http://www.saintjoe.com/productos/7/520

 

After 11 years of homeschooling, I can happily say that really learning my faith by teaching it to my kids has been one of the highlights. I usually hang out mostly on the high school board, but I happened to see your question when I first visited the main page this afternoon. If you have any other questions, feel free to send me a PM, as I might not see it here.

 

Oh -- one other thing for folks who have older middle schoolers and high schoolers, we have really enjoyed the teen Bible studies from Ascension Press over the years. We started with the Teen Timeline (for an overview of Bible History), and we've done their other 3 studies on Acts, Matthew, and Revelation over the years. I wouldn't recommend these for 4th & 6th grades, more like probably 7th grade & up.

 

HTH & many blessings to you on your hsing journey!

Brenda

 

Brenda,

 

Great info. The CD series on Martin Luther looks especially interesting. I'll also check into the teen Bible studies. Thanks.

Denise

[oraetstudia]

Is it per child or per family? I was balking at the price of the TG, especially since it's a new one each year.

 

My Catholic Faith Delivered is $25/per child per year. So it is kind of pricey. But not the most expensive option out there.

[SkateLeft]

Oh -- one other thing for folks who have older middle schoolers and high schoolers, we have really enjoyed the teen Bible studies from Ascension Press over the years. We started with the Teen Timeline (for an overview of Bible History), and we've done their other 3 studies on Acts, Matthew, and Revelation over the years.

 

:iagree:

 

The Teen Timeline is phenomenal! Both of my girls have been through it, and my son will use it next year, though he's already sat in on some of the DVD lessons. Everyone is my house stops what they're doing and listens when Mark Hart talks!

 

My teens also use the Didache series textbooks from Ignatius Press.

 

My younger kids use Faith and Life online. When my girls were younger, we used Image of God in K, then the Faith and Life books. Last year, my middle two did the online option and thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

We also use Catholic Mosaic, which is a literature based approach to the liturgical year. There are loads of blogs with ideas for celebrating the liturgical year, and we get a lot from those also.

 

Oh, I do not think you need the teacher's guide for the Faith and Life books. I bought it for the F&L 1 way back when and didn't find it useful. I've successfully used the other volumes without the TG.

[DJgang]

I use mother of divine grace for history. Seton religion and put together the rest.

[*Michelle*]

My Catholic Faith Delivered is $25/per child per year. So it is kind of pricey. But not the most expensive option out there.

 

Hmmm. I probably should just do the hard copies then. I need to check with our DRE and see what our parish uses, too. I think I remember him saying it was F&L and I believe they may supply us with the books.

 

We're still in Image of God, for now.

[CatholicMom]

I'm a new Catholic and we are going to use Connecting With History next year. Looks like an awesome solidly-Catholic "living books" approach to history so far. You might want to give that a look.

 

We are using Faith and Life online through MyCatholicFaithDelivered. It is $25 per enrollment but I have my kids do it together so far and they are learning a lot and like it. I think that you retain the ability to use the lessons with future kids, though the dashboard might show that all the lessons are already "done." In that case, it's pretty economical. But I could be wrong.

 

I know the Baltimore Catechism is also highly recommended for Catholic kids.

 

HTH

[RootAnn]

I couldn't stand Faith & Life either. (I used the older versions when I was in CCD. Ugh.)

 

I use Laura Berquist's plans loosely, although I used Seton's Religion 4 this year. It was a great review of the Baltimore Catechism No. 1 which we'd spread over the last three years. I plan on using Mother of Divine Grace's religion plans (6th grade) for next year for the oldest. Not sure yet what I'm going to do for the younger ones.

 

Good luck! :-)

[ChrisB]

For history we use SOTW and supplement it with Catholic materials. I think RC History:Connecting With History looks great too. I've taken some of the books listed for Connecting with History and used them for SOTW. In the Logic stage, I hope to cycle back through history with a more Catholic centric curriculum and maybe have the kids read SOTW independently as a supplement.

 

For catechism we use Family Formation through our parish's religious ed program. We do it at home, but get the materials through the church. The kids love it.

Edited May 8, 2012 by ChrisB

[A.Balaban]

SOTW Vol. 1 isn't anti-Catholic IMHO. It's Vol. 2 where I found issues, particularly in the treatment of the Reformation and Renaissance era.

 

:iagree:

 

An option for Catholic history (if your wanting to provide a more religious based instruction, or for a supplement) would be R.H. History's series "Connecting with History" - http://www.rchistory.com/