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.

Get Ready 4 Kindergarten Birthday Box

Do you have a preschooler in your house who is just dying to jump into school like the big kids? Or are you just looking for fun and easy projects to do with your preschooler that require zero prep time on your part? The Get Ready 4 Kindergarten Activity Boxes are the answer to either problem.

These activity boxes are designed to help little ones get ready for kindergarten while providing a guided program for parents that incorporates literature, crafts, games, and more.  We received the Birthday Box to review with our 3 toddlers.

Our box focused on shapes. Included in the box were two craft projects, plastic shape tiles with pictures the child could attempt to copy, an Eric Carle book, and shape related flash cards for the child to match with the designated shapes.

The plastic shapes and book were the hands down favorites of the kiddos.  One of the pictures they were asked to copy was of a caterpillar. We are currently watching a bunch of caterpillars at home and waiting for them to turn into butterflies so this was an instant favorite for Seamus.

The book arrived wrapped like a birthday present. Instant bonus. What kid doesn't like opening presents?

The craft projects included in the kit were making bird feeders and writing a thank you note. Nothing fancy or out of this world BUT every single item for the projects were included in a single bag per project. No chasing down glue or paper or anything. It is all right there at your finger tips. This is simply wonderful. This means you can open the box and go or hand a project off to an older sibling without worrying about them needing anything.

Seamus, Charlie, and Kolbe all loved the box and playing with it. I recommend this resource to any parent who is looking for an easy way to add some fun to their school time with their toddlers.

I received a free activity box in exchange for this review. All opinions expressed are my own. No other compensation was received.

CTC Math

One popular math program in homeschooling circles right now is CTC Math. CTC Math is an online program covering grades K-12, from beginning counting all the way through to calculus. We tested it out in our home over the past month.

The positive aspects of this program are many. This program is online so you can access it anywhere with an internet connection. You pay one fee and have access to all the grades for all of your students. This is beneficial both for students who excell at math and for students who struggle. With access to all grade levels, a student can just keep moving along when they finish a level and there is no need to purchase new materials. A student who is struggling can easily repeat lessons and get extra practice until they understand a concept.

If you have a student who is easily overwhelmed by seeing a whole page full of problems at once, this program can help alleviate those feelings because problems are presented one at a time. This was a tremendous benefit to my 3rd grader who just gets anxious when he sees a page full of problems stretching out before him.

This program provides skill assessments so you can place your student at exactly the right place in the program. No need to review material already mastered. You can assign tasks for your student to complete by a certain date and give quizzes and quarterly tests all through the program.

One of my favorite features is the weekly update that is emailed to the parent which details exactly what each student accomplished that week. You get a list of log in times, lessons covered, grades, and more. This is incredibly helpful to me with one particular student who likes to fib about what they have done that day.  I can log in on the parent side and immediately check on what the student has accomplished that day and immediately verify if progress was made or not. This simply lowers stress levels and avoids confrontations and frankly removes the temptation to fib about what you've done that day because you know Mom can check immediately from her computer. Maybe you don't have a student who likes to stretch the truth but then again, maybe you do.

There are a few negatives.  This program is online. I know I listed that as a positive but bear with me here. Online only means you can't pack it along in the car. Online means it is all on the computer. Personally, I'm not a fan of lots of computer time for elementary and middle school aged kids. I've even seen a negative side in lots of online classes for high schoolers at times. For younger kids, I really prefer to keep them off the computer as much as possible and working in other ways.  So I really would not attempt to use this program with anyone under 3rd grade. 

The yearly subscription fee does mean that you have to plan to pay every year. Although the cost is fairly minimal if you have several children using the program, it will add up over time compared to some other computer based programs that are a one time purchase.

The program was not as user friendly as others we have used. It did take me a few days to figure everything out and there are still a few features that I am still getting used to.

After using the program with an elementary student and a high school student, I am overall very pleased with the program. We do plan to continue the program with two of our students for the rest of the year. 

I received a free year subscription to CTC Math in exchange for this review. I was not compensated in any other way and all opinions are my own.

Playing With Plays - A Review

I received free copies of four of the books in this series in exchange for an honest review. No other compensation was received and all opinions are my own.

I've been meaning to get this review put together for about a year now. Yes, I do sometimes get that far behind on, well, everything. And in the last 18 or so months we've had two kids with broken arms,  1 child who needed several months of physical therapy, one kid diagnosed with an anaphylactic allergy, two different children who each had 2 surgeries, 2 new babies added to the family meaning 2 c-sections,  one baby spending 3 weeks in the NICU, one baby spending time in the PICU, me being so anemic that I required a blood transfusion, and a deployment thrown in there for good measure. So, um, yes, I have put a few things on the way back burner and just let them simmer away in my mind somewhere until I was able to deal with them. Like this wonderful review.

Playing With Plays is a series of books that takes higher end literature and breaks it down into child friendly language. Each book contains three different versions of the plays, each meant for a different number of actors. As a performance, the plays are designed to be relatively short (15 minutes or less) but creativity is encouraged on the part of the actors.

One major deterrent for many young children and participating in plays is the fear of forgetting lines or not being able to memorize a long script. This problem is alleviated with Playing With Plays. Some of the words within the script are bolded. These words are particularly important to maintaining the character of the original work and are meant to be said as written. The rest of the words are meant to be a guide. Say them as written or get creative and ad-lib. These are the ones my kids had the most fun with during their performance.

At our Homeschool Expo last year, a group of kids performed one of acts from Hamlet. No one got any of their lines exactly right and there were a few times when younger siblings wandered into the play unexpectedly but everyone enjoyed themselves. More importantly, the kids involved understood the gist of the play. Our performers that afternoon ranged in age from 6 to 16. Everyone was able to find a part they could both understand and perform easily.

These books are very affordable at under $10 each. Group discounts are available directly from the publisher if needed. If you are neither charging for the performance nor the classes to learn the play, you are able to use the materials for free and make photo copies of scripts if needed. If you are charging for the classes, you must purchase a book for each student. If you charge for the performance, there is a royalty fee required but it is a very reasonable one.

These books are perfect to use in a homeschool to introduce your younger children to Shakespeare, Dickens, and other classic literature in a very relaxed, fun way.

My only complaint is that there is too much negative, demeaning language thrown into the plays in an attempt to make them relevant to modern kids. I realize that Shakespeare himself wrote quite a few insults in his plays but the modern take on them was a bit beyond the original meanings for a children's version in my opinion.

Overall, these books earn a 4 out of 5 in my book. If the language was a bit less modern, I'd like them even better.

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. 

Trees for Troops 5K

Alan and the older 5 kids ran in the Trees for Troops 5K today.  Even though Alan was hoping to win so that we could have a real Christmas tree this year, he came in second place. First in his age bracket and won a gift certificate for a Christmas wreath. The guy who won was quite a bit ahead of the pack.

Alan

Sean

Sean was in the top ten finishers. Katie and Liam came in at 31st and 32nd place. Katie was also the first female finisher in her age group and won a free t-shirt. Bryan and Kieran both did a great job and cut some time off their races. Bryan even convinced his Grandmother to participate in the 2 mile walk.

Katie and Liam

Grandma

Bryan and Griffen

We also came home with free coupons for admission to Stokoe Farms and $55 in gift cards to a local meat store. And, of course, the admission fees will go to benefit the Trees for Troops fund at Stokoe Farms. Maybe next year Abby and Gabe will join the crew in the run.

Kieran

All the Kids

Home Depot Kids' Workshop

The younger six enjoyed another round of the free Kids' Workshops at Home Depot. Yup, totally free on the first Saturday of the month. Check them out if you have one near you.

This month we made wooden tractors. I've smartened up and started asking for a second set of hands when I check in because with 6 kids and one adult, a little extra help finding hammers and nails and such things just makes things go a bit more smoothly.

Teen Tuesday at Home Depot

The older three boys had their workshop tonight at Home Depot. This month they taught the kids some basic tile work and they made these mirrors.

Unfortunately, Kieran's mirror suffered a mishap on the way home so he just might end up making a new one with his Dad in a few weeks.

The Expo

This weekend we had our annual homeschool expo. Small crowd this year and most of our kids' projects were on the simple side since we'd been so sick the week before. But everyone had a great time.

 Robert shared some of his LEGO creations (he makes awesome Star Trek ships).

 Katie did a project on horses.

 Gabe was talking about bats.

 Abby built a snow volcano with her Dad (the snow was not portable so pictures had to suffice).

 Bryan shared a karate demonstration.

 Kieran talked about the difference in baking with yeast vs baking powder and shared some of his baking.

 Sean showed off his coin collection. He also served as master of ceremonies since this is normally Dad's job and he was home sick.

Liam learned about car engines.

Teen Class at Home Depot

One of the local Home Depot locations has started teen classes once a month. Alan took the older 3 boys this month. This month they focused on wood working.  The boys were able to get their hands on several different types of saws and made bookshelves for their rooms.  Apparently the plan with these classes it to take the kids through several different aspects of home repair to give them some basic experience in fixing all those little things that tend to go wrong like leaky pipes and such things. Do I have to bother to say how awesome an idea like this is?

Homeschool Expo

Last weekend we attended the homeschool expo for the year or what my kids keep calling the "science fair."  You see, our homeschooling group in Florida would host a science fair every year so when we moved here the older children kept calling it that so now even the kids who were born here or were much too young to remember much of anything about living in Florida call it the science fair.  In truth it is much more than that.  The kids in the group put together projects on anything they are interested in.  There are usually art projects, musical performances, science projects, history related projects, dancing, craft projects, and just anything someone wants to share.

The year Gabe worked on learning about the planets and sang a planet song, Abby had a project about her American Girl stuff, Katie and Liam put together a karate demonstration, Kieran did a fencing demonstration, Sean made a potato cannon, and Bryan did a project on the history of Boy Scouts.  The younger two ate pizza and looked cute.  Sadly most of my pictures turned out less than clear. Sigh.  But everyone had a great time and I'm sure is already thinking of things to put together for next year.

Field Trip Friday

We spent a slightly chilly, kind of wet day out at a Civil War field trip today.  I really wish they had put on an actually reenactment at least on a small scale but the kids enjoyed what they did have available.  All of the kids enlisted in the Union Army and most of them spent some time drilling for battle.  I'm not sure exactly what they actually learned but everyone says they had a great time.

Dot Art

Have you seen these Do-A-Dot Markers yet?  I love using them with younger children.  They are perfect for preschoolers working on hand/eye coordination and a great way to allow your kids to paint in a relatively neat manner.  Ok, a determined child can still make a mess with them and any child can use them to paint on themselves but you are less likely to end up with paint on the floor or the walls.

 I love to look for printable activities designed specifically to be used with these markers.  I have a set of print-outs that Gabe is working his way through for kindergarten that help introduce all of the letters and numbers (yes, we go a little slower here now than we used to so kindergarten is more like it was when we were in school rather than an academic thing).  While searching for those, I also stumbled upon a few options for just fun pictures.

I printed out some fall dot pictures from this website.  Wonderful fall themed shapes.  I was able to print both pictures with just a few dots for Robert and Ellie and pictures with a ton of them for Gabe and Abby.  Ellie still has no real clue about putting the dots in the circles on the paper but she did a great job painting her arms.  Robert got the idea behind filling in the circles but wanted nothing to do with using the suggested colors. He went for a more abstract look.  Apparently apples are meant to be blue.  The older two both did a great job of following the directions.  I'm hoping I will stay on the ball and continue to print out activities of this sort this year for the younger ones because the 10 minutes of quiet concentration helps the older ones have a bit more quiet time to do their work.