While it still may be fresh in their memories, ask your kids to show you the motions from last week’s Catholic Academy on the Ten Commandments. It was a great introduction to the topic and came with a hand’s-on (finger play) component to help trigger memories of each of them in order. First Commandment – [...]
Archive for the ‘Sue's Suggestions’ category
Catholic Academy – Commandment Edition
March 15, 2012Open your packet!
March 14, 2012It seems almost too obvious to state, but don’t forget the resources we’ve included in your packet to help you memorize the Ten Commandments. One of the most effective things you can do is to simply post each month’s memory verse sheet in a visible place. My son liked to tape verses to the wall [...]
More discernment opportunities!
January 25, 2012Do you want to see the young Catholic Church ALIVE? Join NET Ministries and over 1,000 young people on the first Saturday of every month for Lifeline Mass. With contemporary music, energetic crowds, and powerful presentations, Lifeline (in its 17th year) is focused on giving 8-12th graders in the Minnesota area the chance to experience [...]
December Prayer Tables for Classrooms
November 17, 2011In this month’s topic, Mary: God’s Masterpiece, even the title encourages you to use beautiful art on your prayer table! Since your classroom time will be in December, the typical go-to idea is to set up all or part of a Nativity set for your decoration, but I’d like to suggest you possibly put that [...]
The last shall be first (Spiritual Works of Mercy edition)
November 10, 2011This week we’re learning about the Spiritual Works of Mercy, but as long as it’s November (the month where we particularly pray for those who have died), let’s skip the first six and go to the last half of number seven. PRAY FOR THE DEAD It’s important to remember a few basics about praying for [...]
Taking the work out of learning the Works
November 6, 2011You can turn just about any lesson into some kind of game and this is an especially effective way to take the drudgery out of learning memory verses. If you’d like a simple (and fun) way to help your child memorize the Corporal Works of Mercy, try this: You’ll need 14 note cards. Prepare them [...]
The Basics: Prayer in your domestic church
October 24, 2011In an earlier post, we saw that the Church recommends having a physical place in your home set aside for prayer. I’ve seen many interpretations of this ranging from an entire room furnished with a comfortable chair, bookshelves of spiritual reading, and beautiful inspirational art, to a small, crowded space on a shelf, carefully set aside in [...]
Simple Costumes for All Saints’ Day (part 3)
October 22, 2011Early Christian Martyrs: Make a white tunic using any kind of fabric or an old bed sheet, and tie a long sash around the waist to portray a martyr. The church uses red on martyr’s feast days, and you can reflect that by using a red sash with the tunic. Wear a longer tunic for [...]
Vessels and Vestments
October 21, 2011Sometime this week you’re going to spend a fair bit of time cutting and assembling all the little pieces for the Vessels and Vestments home lesson, and it seems a shame to just use them for that one hour so we’d like to suggest a few complimentary uses: The model sanctuary you’ll be building is [...]
Simple costumes for All Saints’ Day (part 1)
October 20, 2011Tunics are an essential for many biblical costumes. For small children, an oversized T-shirt can serve this purpose. For the “big” kids, all you need is a piece of fabric with a hole in the center for the head. Most 45 or 60-inch-wide fabrics will work fine without doing something to finish the edges, but [...]
Matt Brounstein
Sue Klejeski
Molly Koop
