First Communion Resources

Child number 9 is currently preparing for First Communion. Over the years, we have tweaked what we have used with the kids a bit here and there but the one constant that has remained is that we never rely on the parish materials to provide real preparation. Some of our parishes have provided ok resources but most have been very lacking.  Our current parish sadly falls pretty squarely into the very much lacking end of the spectrum.

This year we are using a variety of resources at home including read alouds, audio stories, DVD's, and hand-on materials.

The backbone of of our religious ed at home for this age is the St. Joseph First Communion Catechism (No. 0). Yes, this is the good old fashioned Baltimore Catechism with all the wonderful pictures and explanations.  I don't focus on memorization at this age but rather on becoming familiar with the answers and a basic understanding of what they mean.  We also use the 2nd grade Faith and Life books.

For read alouds we are using The Weight of the Mass, Patron Saint of First Communicants: the Story of Blessed Imelda Lambertini, St. Patrick's Summer,King of the Golden City,  and a short story about St. Tarcisius which can be found in the book True Stories for First Communicants. I have also found an audio version of the story on LibriVox.

We use several resources from Holy Heroes.  Their DVDs on The Holy Mass and The Eucharist achieve the goal of explaining concepts to children and keeping their interest WITHOUT talking down to them.  The Altar Gang audio CD volume 3 is all about First Communion and great to listen to in the car or during quiet time.

One of my favorite resources for combining solid teaching with hands-on projects is the Preparing to Receive Jesus program by Catholic Heritage Curricula.  This program teaches through a combination of stories and hands-on projects. The stories included in the program are older traditional stories that I love sharing with the children.  This program also has us making sacrifice beads, a personalized Mass book, and learning about the various sacred vessels used in the Mass.

With every child, I purchase a banner kit from Illuminated Ink. Not only do these kits help me avoid having to collect all of the materials and creative juices for a banner, they also include in depth explanations of the symbolism behind all of the items included in the banner.

With some of our older kids, we made lapbooks from Holy Learning. These wonderful resources allow you to customize your project for each child so you can easily work with younger and older kids at the same time.

Divine Mercy Sunday

We decided to celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday in style this year. At least in OUR style. And that means crafts and food.

 I had other plans. Grand plans. They feel by the wayside and I am completely ok with that.

This year the younger crew made these Divine Mercy crafts from CatholicIcing. You can see each kid has their own take on things.

We made brownie sundaes this year as well.  I had intended to read one of our favorite books on the subject with the kids but, alas, I cannot find it. I know it is one the shelves and I know I just saw it and had it in my hands a week or so ago. But today, today I could not find it. So so frustrating. I'm hoping to find it later this week and share it with the kids.

Tomorrow we will break out the HolyHeroes CD during quiet time. And perhaps send up a few prayers to find that missing book.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Divine Mercy Sunday!

Busy Weekend

Have you tried out the Home Depot Kids Workshops yet? If not, you are missing out on a wonderful FREE resource to share with your kids. Particularly if you have any crafty kids or kids who want to always be the one helping out with any projects at home.

This month I took 7 of the kids with me. Liam still loves to get a hammer in his hands any chance he can and Katie likes to come along to help with Seamus (because she is too big to do a project on her own she says). We made butterfly nesting boxes and as soon as the snow melts, we'll search for 6 places in the yard to hang them up. Maybe plant a few extra butterfly attracting plants.

The rules may vary by store but at our store you just show up. No signing up needed. This is great because we can go when it works with our schedule and not go when we are too busy. But check your local store because some do have sign up requirements.

We also finally got around to making our Pascal Candle. We took a super easy route this year because last year I ordered the pascal candle making kit from Illuminated Ink. Then I got to feeling rather sick and the project never got done. In fact, the 2015 pascal candle making kit is still somewhere in the house. So this year I lowered my standards and we finished the project. I call that a win.

Plain white tall candle (available at Aldi's or the Dollar Store), pascal candle print out from a creative person online. Project complete. We even managed to remember to take it with us on Sunday to get it blessed by Fr.

Dear God, I Don't Get It

We all have those times when we feel like God is not answering our prayers. This can be a hard thing for adults to understand but getting a child to understand why prayers appear to go unanswered can be a struggle. The book Dear God, I Don't Get It by Patti Maguire Armstrong helps children understand just this question.

Dear God, I Don't Get It is the first in a series of books about the Ajax family. In this book you meet brothers Aaron, Luke, and Tyler.  As the story opens, the family learns that they must move. This is something that feels like the end of the world to 12-year-old  Aaron Ajax. He prays to God to please find a way for the family to stay where they are but his prayers are not answered in the way Aaron expects.

This book helps broach an often misunderstood concept in a way young minds can easily grasp.  Adults are often heard saying that prayer works but they fail to understand exactly how prayer works. Many children often grow up with the mistaken notion that all you have to do is pray and God will grant your every desire. Failing to understand that God often answers our prayers with a no because He has something else in mind for us can cause many people to question their beliefs. By the end of the book, Aaron begins to understand that God's answers are not always our own.

This book does a wonderful job at weaving faith into the lives of the characters without being preachy or pushy. It successfully walks that fine line without beating the point home with a morality stick. This helps to keep the story interesting without turning you off.

I recommend sharing this book for kids in the 8 to 12 age range. The entire series promises to provide an easy way to tackle some of the tough topics in life with your children.

Tiny Saints

I recently won an on-line raffle and received five Tiny Saints charms. I received St. Joseph, St. Michael the Archangel, Mary the Blessed Mother, Padre Pio, and one additional that one of my kiddos has claimed for their own.These adorable little charms are meant to serve as a daily reminder of our patron saints.

Each package comes with a short summary of the saint's life on the back. Just enough to hep you determine if this saint relates to your life. The clasp allows you to attach the Tiny Saints to zipper pulls, key chains or backpacks. With around 80 different charms to chose from, there is sure to be one perfect for you.

My one criticism of the charms is that they are not as sturdy as I would like. Especially if they might be used by children. Our Padre Pio charm fell off the clasp almost immediately. They are, however, incredibly affordable at only $5 per charm and very adorable.

Mass Books for Kids

How do you answer that age old question of what to do with the young children during Mass? I know we've gone through many different ways of managing young kids and seem to have settled on you just expect them to learn to be quiet and bring as few distractions as possible. Because there are few things as annoying as an older child dragging in a toy store or a Happy Meal or a tablet loaded with movies to Mass. Seriously, that sort of thing really bugs me.

One of the few things we will allow our kids to have during Mass are kid friendly Mass books. But how do you know which ones are worth the money? Today I am sharing my views on the books by  Catholic Icing and Holy Heroes.

The booklet by Holy Heroes is really two books in one. On one side, you have the prayers of the Mass. Flip the book over and you'll find a collection of Best Loved Catholic Prayers.  You can also purchase an audio CD to go along with this book with the Holy Heroes kids leading your children through all of the prayers.

The Holy Heroes book does, however, lack pictures. It has a very simply layout that focuses almost exclusively on the words of the various prayers. This allows for more information but means the book is best suited for an older child. The audio CD that can be purchased with the book is great for using in the car to help your kids memorize prayers or during family prayer time. This section of the book includes prayers such as the Angelus, Memorare, the St Michel Prayer, and several common prayers in both English and Latin.  I love this book for the middle kids in the family.

The Mass book by Catholic  Icing is called A Picture Book of the Mass. This book focuses exclusively on the prayers of the Mass. I love this one because of the amazing pictures. The booklet is illustrated using old masters paintings. With at least one picture on every page, it keeps the attention of younger kids. Older kids also enjoy the paintings but this one is my go to book to grab for the toddlers. Even if they can't read the words, they are captivated by paintings in the book.

Price wise, both books are just about the same. Both companies also offer bulk discounts so these would be great books to buy for religious ed classes or homeschooling groups or vbs or just to donate to your parish. They are both soft cover booklets so if yours live in the diaper bag like mine do, they will show wear and tear after a while. But the affordable price makes them easy to replace.  As nice as the hardcover formal books many of us received  as First Communion gifts are, these books are a little more convenient for younger children or larger families. You also know that your purchase is supporting a small at home Catholic business. Which is a win-win situation for everyone.

All opinions in this post are entirely my own. I was not compensated in anyway for my review. Just sharing one Mom's opinion.

Stations of the Cross Candles

This is a project I have intended to do for the past several years. This year I finally got around to actually buying the materials. I think I just couldn't resist the $1 bottles of lodge podge at Target and needed a reason to justify buying some.

This would be wonderful project to do with your kids and then use every week as your family says stations together. Of course, I did the project myself and we have been attending stations as a family at a local parish. The Knights there love having our boys on hand to carry the cross because other than our family, it has almost always been elderly folks. But the kids have enjoyed looking at the candles anyway.

You can find I instructions and printable for your own candles all over the place. I got my printables .here.

Family Rosary Time

Attempts at the family rosary usually don't last long around here. I just don't think the yelling and fighting and craziness that ensues is at all inspiring. A near occasion of sin would be more like it. But I am going to attempt it again for Lent. I'm trying to work the younger ones up to a full rosary. What have I learned tonight? I need to work on basic prayers with the younger ones. The Hail Mary according to the younger ones is as follows:

    ~Hail Mary, full of grace. The Lord is with me.~

Gotta love it. And check out these awesome roses made by Grandma to help the kids pray. They were so cool looking that even Gabe wanted to participate.

Handwriting Prayer Practice

I'm finding so many things to love lately over at Catholic Icing.  I recently printed out these prayer handwriting sheets for the younger children. The perfect combo: handwriting practice plus learning some necessary Catholic prayers. I also printed out these poster type versions of the prayers to hang up in the house to help with the learning thing. 

Gabe's First Communion

Our parish gave the opportunity to have First Communion in December this year as well as May and I jumped at the chance. Something told me it would be a much smaller, more intimate experience this way. After doing everything from just 1 kid alone due to schedule issues to small groups of kids to medium groups to one year with every kid in a large parish (total chaos), I knew that for our family the smaller celebrations are much better.

Gabe was joined by 3 other kids, including one of his close friends. Our new priest did a great job of relating to the kids (seriously, he's awesome at explaining things to the kids) and we took the opportunity to get a few new pictures of the whole gang.

Congratulations Gabe.

Advent Candles

The favorite Advent activity has finally been completed. Just a few days late but that seems to be the way things work around here lately. The candles have been made.

I love this kit by Illuminated Ink. It comes with easy to follow instructions, prayer sheets, and everything you need to make 4 beeswax candles.  They can be a little hard to make if you are working in a cold room but thankfully things have stayed a warmer so far this year so the dining room had not yet reached it's normal frozen winter state.

We had some candles left from last year so we only made one new set this year.

They look great and we will hopefully remember to light them every day this year. Yup, some years work out better than others on that score.

Life Chain 2014

Baptism

Seamus was welcomed into the Church on Sunday.  We were blessed to have his baptism done by the priest who baptized our last three at what is one of the most beautiful church's in our area.

Rights and Obligations of Parents to Direct the Religious Education of Their Children

The following is a guest post from Jeffrey Hite at Barely Controlled Chaos regarding a topic that I know many parents struggle with when it comes to preparing your children to receive the sacraments. You prep your kids at home, know they are ready, but then you approach your parish and are turned away. Your child is refused the sacraments unless you jump through hoops designed by that particular parish. Is a parish legally allowed to do this according to Canon law? Absolutely not. Read on to find out why not.


Recently my wife and I attended a home schooling conference.  To be honest, half the reason we went was because we had managed to talk my parents into staying with the kids so that we could get out of the house without the kids for the weekend.  I think we have managed that twice since we have been married.  Not that we don't like taking the kids with us you understand, but sometimes you just need some adult time.

Despite this, I was pleasantly surprised by the conference.  I didn't spend a lot of time looking over the program before we went, and the first day we really just kind of wandered to whatever talk was going on at the moment, at random, still I learned a lot and was happy to be able to catch a talk by Patrick Madrid.  I have enough other experiences to fill probably two other blog posts, but I mostly want to talk about the last talk that we attended.  This talk was given by Mr. Phillip Gray a Canon Lawyer and member of the St. Joseph Foundation.

Much of this post is directly from the talk Mr. Gray gave on the last day of the conference.  I did a good deal of digging once I got home, but without him, this post would not have been possible.


I really want to talk about this, because I think it is something a lot of parents, home schooling or not, face when dealing with sacramental preparation for their kids.

There are a lot of important documents here, most of which I will link in the text and at the bottom, but also two that I want to mention up front because they have special significance here and are very helpful,  The Charter of the rights of the family (which is right on the Vatican's website) and Responsibilities and rights of parents in religious education (which you can get from Seton for about $2)

So here are the basics:

It is the obligation of parents to educate their children.  Not only in their faith, but also over all. You might remember saying so when your child was baptized. Something along the lines of:

You have asked to have your child baptized. In doing so you are accepting the responsibility of training him (her) in the practice of the faith. It will be your duty to bring him (her) up to keep God's commandments as Christ taught us, by loving God and our neighbor. Do you clearly understand what you are undertaking?
It is the obligation of society (that includes but is not limited to The Church) to provide support, and not hinder in any way that education. (See the Charter of the rights of the family.)

And it is the right of the parents to determine what societal support (again including but not limited to The Church) is right for them an their family and their children.

So what does all of this mean? I am going to limit my discussion to sacramental prep because with general education there are country state / county / and other governmental laws and regulations that come into play. You can learn more about that on the HSLDA website, and that is a whole other can of worms that I don't want to get into.  Since Sacramental Preparation is only regulated by The Church we can talk about that here.

As the parent you have the obligation to train your children in preparation for the sacraments.  You, as the parent, have the right (not the obligation) to use whatever sacramental preparation program that your parish, diocese or even arch diocese offers.
The wording of that is important.  That means that it is not the director of religious Ed, the deacon, the priest, the pastor, the bishop or even the Arch Bishop who gets to determine what religious ed program, or sacramental preparation program you use for your child(ren).
They cannot make it a requirement that you use their program, no matter how great it is, how much work they have put into it, or how much they really want you too. More than that, they cannot have higher standards for your child, because your child didn't use the program they recommended, than they would for a child who did use their program.

It also means that the director of religious Ed, the deacon, the priest, the pastor, the bishop or even the Arch Bishop do not have the authority, again going back to the Charter of Rights of the Family, over how your child is to be catechized, and in no way may any of them usurp the primacy of the authority of the family.
 
I do want to make it clear. It is the job of the Priest or in the case of Confirmation the Bishop to make sure that your child is in fact, prepared for the sacrament, but that does not mean that they can make it mandatory that you use their program, or that they hold your child to a higher standard because you didn't use their program.

Pope Saint Pius X said that in order for a child to be prepared for Holy Communion they must ONLY be above the age of reason, and be able to tell the difference between regular bread and the Body of Christ.  This right to salvation, supersedes the knowledge we like to impart.

See theCongregation for Catholic Education
where they talk about the parents as the primary educators and these programs the teachers in the schools the pastor or whoever else, are secondary to the parents. This is also backed up by Charter of the rights of the family and further backed up by Can. 793 §1 - §2Having said that I want to repeat that it is priest's responsibility to make sure that a candidate is prepared for the sacrament.  For example:

Can.  891 The sacrament of confirmation is to be conferred on the faithful at about the age of discretion unless the conference of bishops has determined another age, or there is danger of death, or in the judgment of the minister a grave cause suggests otherwise.

"or there is danger of death, or in the judgment of the minister a grave cause suggests otherwise" Otherwise the candidate needs to meet the three other requirements.  But note that one of those requirements is not that the candidate used the parishes program.  Priests do need to be a filter to make sure that candidates are properly catechized, but they and as parents you also need to know what that means.  Remember that it is the Church's role is to assist parents in the education of their children.  That is by divine law.  Because the family is the primal unit in society, and it is The Church's role support the family.

Alright, so that argument might get you past Reconciliation and First Holy Communion, but what about Confirmation.  In the United states under the USCCB there is complimentary legislation that states that the bishop can determine and age for receiving confirmation.

USCCB: Complementary Norm: The National Conference of Catholic Bishops, in accord with the prescriptions of canon 891, hereby decrees that the Sacrament of Confirmation in the Latin Rite shall be conferred between the age of discretion and about sixteen years of age, within the limits determined by the diocesan bishop and with regard for the legitimate exceptions given in canon 891.

It might surprise you to know, that the above arguments also apply to these age requirements.

The Congregation for Catholic Education

in the 1998 case said, "Such complimentary legislation must be interpreted with respect to the general laws of The Church, (Reference 889 §2.)  This making the Diocesan norm is subordinate to the general norms governing the reception of the sacraments."    In this case, and according to Mr. Gray, the majority others the Vatican sided with parents, and the Bishop was told he needed confer the Sacrament on the child.
The Congregation for Catholic Education also said in the same 1998 case,

"Sacred ministers may not deny the Sacraments to those who opportunely ask for them are properly disposed and not prohibited from receiving them.

... Indeed, the longer the conferral of the sacrament is delayed after the age of reason, the greater will be the number of candidates who are prepared for it's reception but deprived of its Grace for a considerable period of time.

and in the Council of Trent:

[Page 58]

ON CONFIRMATION
CANON I.-If any one saith, that the confirmation of those who have been baptized is an idle ceremony, and not rather a true and proper sacrament; or that of old it was nothing more than a kind of catechism, whereby they who were near adolescence gave an account of their faith in the face of the Church; let him be anathema.
It is clear by these two that if you present your child for confirmation and you have properly catechized them and they are above the age of reason then they should be able to receive the sacrament.  But what does Canon Law say about this?

Can.  843 §1. Sacred ministers cannot deny the sacraments to those who seek them at appropriate times, are properly disposed, and are not prohibited by law from receiving them.

Can.  889 §1. Every baptized person not yet confirmed and only such a person is capable of receiving confirmation.

§2. To receive confirmation licitly outside the danger of death requires that a person who has the use of reason be suitably instructed, properly disposed, and able to renew the baptismal promises.

You can clearly see that Canon Law confirms both what the Congregation for Catholic Education and what the Council of Trent has said.

Did you know that Confirmation is supposed to come before Communion? If you have ever been to a Easter Vigil Mass when they bring in RCIA candidates and they do the confirmation before the holy communion.  Believe it or not, that is the way it is supposed to happen. The doctrine of The Church states that order of Sacraments should be Baptism, Confirmation, Reconciliation, Communion. That is because confirmation completes baptismal Grace.  Take a look at The Council of Trent.

ON THE SACRAMENTS IN GENERAL

CANON I.-If any one saith, that the sacraments of the New Law were not all instituted by Jesus Christ, our Lord; or, that they are more, or less, than seven, to wit, Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Order, and Matrimony; or even that any one of these seven is not truly and properly a sacrament; let him be anathema.

And again quoting the Congregation for Catholic Education
said in the 1998 case,

"Sacred ministers may not deny the Sacraments to those who opportunely ask for them are properly disposed and not prohibited from receiving them.

... Indeed, the longer the conferral of the sacrament is delayed after the age of reason, the greater will be the number of candidates who are prepared for it's reception but deprived of its Grace for a considerable period of time."

In conclusion, If you have instructed your child in the sacraments and they are properly prepared, then they can receive the sacraments.  But what do you do if the religious Ed director, the deacon, the priest, the pastor, the bishop or even the Arch Bishop say no?  It is laid out in cannon law and is based on Mathew 18.  If you have a problem with your brother, go to him.  If he does not listen take witnesses, if he still does not listen take him to The Church.  That last step is where the St. Joseph Foundation comes in and can help you appeal your case.

You can learn more about the St. Joseph Foundation and how to contact them threw their website

Lest you think that I am just reading into this what I want, here are most of the references to the original documents I have referenced above. I have linked to most of them in the text but in case you missed them or just want to get to them faster, here they are again:

The Code of Canon Law
The USCCB
Congregation for Catholic Education
Council of Trent
Council of Trent - The 7th session (where I pulled most of my information
Charter of the rights of the family (which is right on the Vatican's website)
Responsibilities and rights of parents in religious education
St. Joseph Foundation
and the HSLDA website

Can. 793 §1. Parents and those who take their place are bound by the obligation and possess the right of educating their offspring. Catholic parents also have the duty and right of choosing those means and institutions through which they can provide more suitably for the Catholic education of their children, according to local circumstances.

§2. Parents also have the right to that assistance, to be furnished by civil society, which they need to secure the Catholic education of their children.

Can. 794 §1. The duty and right of educating belongs in a special way to the Church, to which has been divinely entrusted the mission of assisting persons so that they are able to reach the fullness of the Christian life.

§2. Pastors of souls have the duty of arranging everything so that all the faithful have a Catholic education.

Can. 795 Since true education must strive for complete formation of the human person that looks to his or her final end as well as to the common good of societies, children and youth are to be nurtured in such a way that they are able to develop their physical, moral, and intellectual talents harmoniously, acquire a more perfect sense of responsibility and right use of freedom, and are formed to participate actively in social life.

And

Pope Saint Pius X said that in order for a child to be prepared for Holy Communion they must ONLY be above the age of reason, and be able to tell the difference between regular bread and the Body of Christ.  This right to salvation, supersedes the knowledge we like to impart.

And
 

Can.  843 §1. Sacred ministers cannot deny the sacraments to those who seek them at appropriate times, are properly disposed, and are not prohibited by law from receiving them.

Can.  889 §1. Every baptized person not yet confirmed and only such a person is capable of receiving confirmation.

§2. To receive confirmation licitly outside the danger of death requires that a person who has the use of reason be suitably instructed, properly disposed, and able to renew the baptismal promises.

Can.  891 The sacrament of confirmation is to be conferred on the faithful at about the age of discretion unless the conference of bishops has determined another age, or there is danger of death, or in the judgment of the minister a grave cause suggests otherwise.

USCCB:

Complementary Norm: The National Conference of Catholic Bishops, in accord with the prescriptions of canon 891, hereby decrees that the Sacrament of Confirmation in the Latin Rite shall be conferred between the age of discretion and about sixteen years of age, within the limits determined by the diocesan bishop and with regard for the legitimate exceptions given in canon 891.

Children's Adoration Guidebook

Like many folks my age, I was never introduced to the rich traditions of the Catholic faith. The rosary, stations of the cross, adoration, novenas, the saints. All of these wonderful aspects of our faith were neglected, not taught, not shared for so many years.  Now that I am raising my own children and truly learning right along with my children about the amazingly rich history that is part and parcel of the Catholic faith, I sometimes struggle to find the ability to teach the kids comfortably about those things that I have had no experience with myself.

Enter the products from Holy Learning and you have a wonderful way to bridge this gap. Holy Learning sells a wonderful array of products to help you teach your children about the Catholic faith in not-too-boring, often hands-on fashion.  They have faith folders, faith rings, faith cards, a new section of faith games, and a children's adoration guide.

The Children's Adoration Guidebook contains a wealth of information and prayers to help your children (and their parents) better understand what adoration is meant to be and accomplish. It starts with a basic explanation of what Eucharistic Adoration is and what people typically do with their time at adoration.

Next up is a huge section containing many Catholic prayers including an examination of conscience, all of the mysteries of the rosary, the stations of the cross, the divine mercy chaplet, and special prayers devoted to various saints. A wonderful aspect of this section is that for rosary, all of the prayers are repeated on their own page for each set of mysteries. This means there is no flipping back and forth and makes it much easier for younger readers to follow. Both the rosary and chaplet sections have a coloring sheet that you can copy to allow your younger children to color in each bead as they progress through the prayers.

A reflections section follows the scripted prayers. In this section, you will find a collection of pages with "story starters" or suggestions on things for the child to focus on and write about during adoration. These lined pages cover a variety of subjects ranging from what I need help with, how I have been blessed,and how to pray for our secular and religious leaders. These pages can easily be copied for repeat use or laminated so that you can reflect back on the things you wrote earlier.

For the younger members of the family, there is a section with pictures of the many special items they might see in church or the adoration chapel.  These pictures can help your child better understand the sacredness of all the items they see in church each week. I'm sure I am not the only person who never knew what a tabernacle was or what the sanctuary lamp signified. With these pictures, you can guide your children to an understanding of what they see in church each week. Admittedly, there are no descriptions included so you'll have to add that part yourself.

The final sections of the guidebook include brief lives of a few common patron saints along with short bible passages of popular parables. These tend to be saints and parables that kids will recognize from readings at Mass so they should find them easy to understand.

This guidebook arrives to you as a large pdf file.  You may find it is best to have it printed somewhere other than home unless you own a laser printer.  Then it can easily be bound at an office supply store of put into a three ring binder. If you use a binder, you can also add in a pencil case to hold pencils, rosaries, and other items your children may use during adoration.

I shared this guidebook with several other mothers and they all liked what they saw. Some of their opinions are included in this review.  I do believe this is a wonderful resource to help your entire family grow in understanding the concept of Eucharistic Adoration.

If you are interested in some of the other products offered by Holy Learning, here is an earlier review I did of the Respect Life Faith Folder.  We've also used several other faith folders not only with our own children but also with our co-op and they have all been well received. If you would like to use any of these wonderful products with your children this year, use the code hitchings for 15% off your order. This code will be valid for two weeks from the date of this post.  If you have little ones preparing for their sacraments this year, you will find many wonderful hand-on resources to help them understand the sacraments.

I received this guidebook in exchange for an honest review.

Pentecost

We celebrated Pentecost last week with cake. Because life is always better with cake. I have crafts and such things ready but kept forgetting to do them with the kids so hopefully we will do them this week.

2 pounds of strawberries and a table full of happy children. Life is good.

Abby's First Communion

Alan was called out of town unexpectedly so we arranged to have Abby's First Communion yesterday. She'll still attend the more formal Mass with the kids her age but we didn't want Dad to miss anything.

The Sinner's Guide to Natural Family Planning

Simcha Fisher recently published the book The Sinner's Guide to Natural Family Planning.  I've been hearing nothing but good things about this book for a while so I was interested in reading it. It promised  a real life view of natural family planning that takes off those rose colored glasses so often worn by nfp promoters.  And yet, I must say, I felt the book feel flat on it's proverbial face.

The first sign to me that things were not quite as they seemed with this book was the three pages of glowing reviews immediately in the beginning of the book. These reviews were all written by the same group of Catholic Mommy Bloggers who all tend to review each other's work and always write about the same things each of the other bloggers are writing about.  It's as if they are all sitting around in a big circle and patting each other on the back all the time, telling each other how wonderful they are all the time. I've noticed that none of these ladies ever have anything negative or critical to say about each other's work.  It's as if they all realize that each of their careers depend on continuing to support and say wonderful things about each other and encouraging each of their readers to purchase books published by the rest of this group.  I will admit that anytime I see a huge group of glowing reviews written by this group of ladies, I immediately find myself becoming critical of the actual work.  And with this particular book, one of the glowing reviews was written by a blogger who was then quoted later in the book.  Sorry but when you do that, you lose all credibility in my eyes.

I realized part way through this book that it was mostly a bunch of Simcha's blog posts put together into a book format.  This is a complete turn off for me. If I wanted to read the blog posts, I would do so.  But I bought the book because I was hoping for something new and unique.  Not something I found in the book at all.

The overall tone of the book was rather irreverent and casual.  I know this was an attempt to make the subject more human.  However, I found that as the book progressed, the tone was so irreverent that it became incredibly off putting and somewhat insulting.  Maybe I'm old fashioned but I really think that most books for adults that are not comedies should be written in a slightly more formal tone. Especially when discussing a topic such as this one.

The title of this book was rather misleading. This book was written essentially to women only.  Not to all "sinner's" as the title suggests.  I am of the mindset that NFP needs to be discussed, used, and interpreted by both parters in a couple. Not only the wife.  Yes, all of the charting must be done by the wife because it is her cycle that is changing. But every husband really needs to learn how to interpret the charts himself so that he's not just being a big gigantic jerk and constantly asking what the chart says. But then again, maybe that is just the difference in the way our method teaches (teaching to the couple the entire time) vs the way many other organizations teach (focusing the teaching exclusively on the wife).  It shows much more respect and consideration when a husband takes the time to learn how to read the charts and just does it himself rather than leaving it all to his wife.

So there's my opinion on the book. I know it won't be popular in many circles but I frankly felt let down, almost lied to by the reviews and constant shouting about the book being a wonderful realistic view of NFP.

The Queen & the Cross

All of my Grandmothers shared the same first name: Helen.  Our 3rd daughter also shares a version of their name: Eleanor. And yet I'd never taken the chance to learn much about Saint Helen other than knowing vaguely that she was known for finding the true cross.  That changed when I read the book The Queen & the Cross with my children.

This picture book guides young readers through the life of Queen Helen and her journey to find the true cross of Christ.  From bidding farewell to her son, the Emperor Constantine, to meeting Bishop Macarius in Jerusalem, the stage is carefully set to give ample historical references to place the story in properly in a child's mind. Queen Helen is portrayed as a humble woman with a strong faith in God.

When three crosses are unearthed instead of just one, it takes a miracle to determine which one is the true cross.

I enjoyed the illustrations in this book and the simple storyline that effectively shared the life of Saint Helen without bogging down younger readers with extra details. A more detailed biography on the saint is written in the back of the book for those who want to learn more.

This review was written as part of the Catholic book reviewer program from The Catholic Company. Visit The Catholic Company to find more information on The Queen and the Cross-The Story of St. Helen. The Catholic Company is the best resource for all your seasonal needs such as First Communion gifts as well as ideas and gifts for the special papal Year of Faith.

Advent Candles

If you can think to plan ahead next year, head over to Illuminated Ink and order a Bees Wax Advent Candle Making kit.  The kids love making these each year (ok, probably every other year in recent memory) and I love having a project to signify that Advent has begun. If you do decide to use these candles, just keep in mind they burn for about 4 hrs each (depending on how tightly rolled they are) so you may need to order more than one set if you burn them every night.