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Catholic Religion Curricula... what do you use?


mommylawyer
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Religion for this year (4th grade)

 

Bible History by Ignatius Schuster, D.D. This is mostly a bible story book but the difference is that it is far more comprehensive that your average book of Bible stories. Stories that never appear in children's Bibles are covered here. I chose this b/c I wanted to start using more narration in school and this is perfectly organized for that. Also, it is a much more mature "bible story" collection than average. Holy Mother Church teaches us that we must b/c more scripturally literate so I felt that this is an excellent beginning.

 

St. Joseph's Baltimore Catechism b/c everyone needs to know the catechism.

 

Catholic National Readers and other books for supplemental reading of virtue, heroic example, et c. b/c this brings our saints, heros, and ordinary ppl living the extraordinary christian life to life in our minds. We love to read and love to read their stories.

 

Adoremus Hymnal and CD. We begin each morning with prayer and a hymn (and the Pledge and a patriotic song). And to tell the truth, this year we haven't used the hymnal much. We're taking a monthly Latin chant class offered thru the diocese so we use the CD and select songs from our class songbook. It is said that "he who sings, prays twice!" We make this part of our religion b/c music is a beautiful gift from God and as Catholics we have a rich heritage of sacred music that, we feel, ought to be embraced and lived daily. BTW, neither of us can sing worth a flip but that doesn't keep us from making a joyful noise unto the Lord! Some days we put aside the Adoremus and songbook and make joyful noise with other CDs mostly collected from VBS over the years. My daughter LOVES those songs.

 

We also celebrate the liturgical year as it rolls along. We use a variety of materials from source books to internet ideas. We do this b/c we feel it is our duty to embrace our heritage and live the liturgical calendar making our daily lives in synch with the Church. We love knowing that as we celebrate the Ascention of Our Lord in our little home in Oklahoma, so is another little girl in her little home in Timbuktu. We like knowing that when we go out for ice cream on our name days, some one in Belfast or Bulgaria is celebrating her name day that day too. I love that it brings us together in this universal way and makes us feel more an active membership in the Life of the Church than merely a passive spectator.

 

I hope this answered your question in the way that you hoped.

 

Oh, obviously we don't do all of this in our 45 min Religion slot. That's Catechism and Bible History. We try to make our whole lives reflective of our faith and our Domestic Church is all day every day (we hope!) and not just the 45 min Religion period. KWIM?

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We are doing Faith & Life for 1st grade. During lunch time, I read the Seton Religion for Young Catholics 1 (you know, 2-1 on day 1, 2-2 on day 2, etc.).

 

For memory work, we are trying to incorporate the Baltimore Catechism. I'm just writing the questions on a notecard with the answer on the back. We are taking this really, really slow. I'm expecting this to take about 2 years (maybe more!) but I'm ok with that since it is just supplementing.

 

Might seem like lots, but we are enjoying it so far and the kids are having a good time with it. Even my 2 yo is learning (being an active boy...that's saying a lot!).

 

Liz in NC

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We're using Faith and Life for the 1st and 2nd graders. We're using Catholic Mosaic http://hillsideeducation.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=9_10_12&products_id=75 and Christmas Mosaic.

My 2nd grader is going to make a FHC notebook (working out the details of that this week).

We're reading a page of Fr. Lovasiks Children's Bible everyday.

We're going to work on memorizing the mysteries of the Rosary.

I'm hoping we can try to make weekday Mass a few times per week.

We're going to work on living the liturgical calendar through crafts and reading about the saints.

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We use Seton's catechism books, based on the Balt. Catechism so we love that.

A lot of art projects are related to liturgical year. Jesse Tree during Advent, that kind of thing.

Reading St. Joseph's bible every day, and doing CHC's Devotional Stories for Little Folks 1x week. Although, I'm not convinced I like that book yet. ;)

Also as part of our Latin and spanish program we're learning prayers in both languages and also some classic Latin hymns.

 

Also, I just started doing "Leading the Little Ones to Mary" which is like a consecration to Mary for young children. My 5yo loved it and is now always asking, "do you think Mary would do this...?" It's a great book you can do when you have a minute. I think I got it from Seton.

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I have used in the past Seton's religion, Balt. Catechism, Faith and Life, the Bible history by Fr. Knecht and the one by Schuster. All the little picture books by Fr. Lovasik are a favorite. Saint bios by Mary Fabyan Windeatt and the Vision series.

 

A new favorite is Catholic Mosaic by Cay Gibson. This would be supplemental to catechism and Bible history.

 

Janet

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Different things for different ages-Seton, Knecht's commentary with our scripture study (Tan sells it, but it's also online here http://books.google.com/books?id=4YFAAAAAIAAJ&printsec=titlepage&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0 ) and Catholic Scripture Study http://www.cssprogram.net/ which I buy used. For following the liturgical year "A Treasure Chest of Traditions for Catholic Families" and catholicculture.com. I've used FL and Image of God. They have their good points, but overall I prefer Seton for catechism, right thinking and the integration with the Bible.

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Currently we're working on The Rosary in English and Latin, reading Bible stories from the Fr. Lovasik picture Bible, and actively explaining the Mass to D'Artagnan.

 

In time, we'll move to the Faith & Life Series, supplemented with the Baltimore Catechism.

 

We're thinking about using Catholic Mosaic, due the all the positive comments around here, but so far we simply observe the Liturgical Calendar through praying the Breviary around the house and mapping food during the main meal to the festal or ferial day.

 

At this point, we're all about environmental immersion. We'll hit the books in another year or so. :D

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