Well, I haven't written in a very long time. OK, so I'm terrible at blogging. I don't know how others make a post every day. I'm amazed, really.
So, I'll make this post a really good one.
I thought I'd share a little of what I'm spending my time actually doing these days. A few days ago I stayed up until 1 a.m. planning my children's group devotion time. I've been called an over achiever and I'm sure you will agree after I share this.
There are so many great materials out there to help our children grow in faith, prayer, and knowledge of our Faith and it seems the calendar just slips away and before you know it, we've missed that St. day activity that we planned to do, etc. Well, I got us SO organized, we never miss anything (unless we want to).
GROUP DEVOTION TIME
1. The first thing we do after assembling together is sing our "Good morning, Jesus..." song (which I wrote, of course) the 2 yr. old hears the 4 yr. old's booming voice and of course has to compete and, boy, is it cute. It's only 8 lines, but very catchy and we all know it and love it.
2. Then we continue with our morning offering and end with a "Hail Mary." (so far, 5 minutes)
3. If it is not a particularly packed day, I will play a song from "Our Musical Year 1 or 2" from Emmanuel books which has fun songs of the season, faith, holiday, tradition, etc. (3 min.)
4. Then I give the hand outs (VERY important if you want the little ones to stay quiet). Each child has his own clipboard. They share colored pencils (they MUST be pencils, as crayons and markers are messy in the living room.) The hand outs can be of any variety. I take mine from "A Year with God" (Catholic Heritage Curricula), Catholic activity books, or any place I find something that can be used for this edifying purpose. If it is a saint's feast day and I have a handout for that, that's what they get. Otherwise, it's another sheet to keep them occupied while I read. Maybe the sheet is the lesson that day and we go from there. I keep all my master sheets in 12 monthly folders. The feast days and occasions are writtin on the outside cover of the folder letting me know what is in them as well as making it easier to include then on a calendar grid when making my plans. (1 min.)
5. The story of the day can be taken from a variety of sources. I use scripture (many sources, some include a felt board but we only use that once a week because it adds so much time), story of the saint or feast day (we use Catholic Mosaic suggestions and guide as well as our own saint books), or a story relating to one of the virtues that we are studying that month (this month it is compassion, so 2-3 times a week I will read a story related to that virtue as out lined in PACE-Program for Achieving Character Education by M. Monica Speach. The stories are from The Book of Virtues, The Moral Compass, or Library books illustrating that virtue.) (10 min.)
6. Based on what we've just read, I start a prayer, but have each of the children add to it in their own words and we end with our own petitions for the day.(2-5 min.)
7. From here the little ones can disperse, but the older one stays and we work on our Scripture memory verse (we use A-Z avail. through Catholic Heritage Curriculum. Day one takes 15 min. but the rest of the week is 30 seconds.)
8. We work on reciting our Catechism (Baltimore Catechism as outlined by Mother of Divine Grace Lesson Plans) 5 min.
Sample days on the calendar might look like this:
Oct. 15 - Song, prayer, music, St. Teresa of Jesus SHEET and a book page number, Virtue - WORK "Jacob for Laban" Gen. 29:15-30 use FELT, A-Z, Catechism questions 35-7, 39, 40, 42
Oct. 17 - Song, prayer, music, St. Ignatius of Antioch, WORK - "The Shoe Maker and the Elves" BOV p. 370, Discuss WORK questions PACE p.28, A-Z, Cat. 35-7, 39, 40, 42
Oct. 22 - Song, prayer, music, Respect-life (day chosen randomly) book "Angel in the Waters" use CM p. 169 questions. WORK - Prov. 24:27-34, A-Z, Cat. .......
SEE PICTURE ABOVE
Hey, I'll post my schedule every month. You can borrow if you like. This way I get two birds with one stone with my efforts. I'll be neater next time, but you can read this if you print it out.
So, you see, if it is well planned out (and yes, it took me (2-3 hours to plan the whole monthand you've GOT to list the page numbers), we can get in everything we want to cover, we move quickly from one thing to the next , it doesn't take that long (30 - 45 min.) and we USUALLY have a great time. When it all starts to deteriorate, because the little ones are very unpredictable) we just make our closing prayer and move on, but usually we have a very enjoyable session while growing together spiritually. It is the only time I actually read to my oldest one and she really does enjoy it, so it is also a special time.
Next time I'll tell you how I guide my children in personal daily prayer - alone...
