Resources for Teaching the Faith

January 13, 2008 at 2:12 am (Preschoolers, faith)

Below are a list of books, videos, CD’s, games, and other resources that are fabulous for teaching the Catholic faith to 3 to 6 year olds.

 

 

 

Our Favorite Books 

Almost any book by Tomie DePaola is great.  Our favorites include:  The Parables of Jesus; The Miracles of Jesus; Queen Esther, Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland; Christopher: the Holy Giant; The Clown of God; Mary; Angels, angels everywhere (See my Christmas book suggestions for more great DePaola books).   

If your child likes search and find books, then don’t miss three books by Philip D. Gallery:  Can You Find Bible Heroes?; Can You Find Jesus?; Can You Find Saints? 

I also cannot recommend the  Treasure Box series highly enough.  My kids love these books, and teach so much about the faith.  They tell stories about St. Therese of Liseux, Mary, guardian angels, and missionary priests.  The books also have additional catechetical information on the inside cover to teach parents as well.  The only drawback of these books is that a story may begin in Book 1, but be continued in Books 2 and 3.  Therefore, owning the entire set is best.  The Naturalist has been so inspired by these stories that he often asks, “What can I do to help you Mommy?” and he almost always gives half of his dessert away to one of his sisters now too!

Other favorites include:  

Doman, Regina.  Angel in the Waters

Goody, Wendy.  A peek into my church  (long, but otherwise good)

Gortler, Rosemarie.  Just Like Mary

Gortler, Rosemarie.  Little Acts of Grace

Gortler, Rosemarie.  The Mass Book for Children

Lovasik.  New Catholic Picture Bible

Nobisso, Josephine.  The Weight of a Mass: A Tale of Faith

Redmond, Zelie.  The Adventures of Sister Regina Marie.

Roche, Maite.  The Gospel for Little Children (available from www.chcweb.com)

Roche, Maite.  The Bible for Little Children (available from www.chcweb.com)

Stanton, Sue.  Child’s guide to the Mass

Vollbracht, James.  Small Acts of Kindness. 

Wildsmith, Brian.  The Easter story

Wildsmith, Brian.  Mary

Wildsmith, Brian.  St. Francis

If your children like to draw, I highly recommend Draw And Tell Saints by Julie A. Petras, as well as A Catholic How to Draw

We also like Arch Books, which are paperback books that teach Bible stories.  They are short, they rhyme, and many are available at Amazon. 

Videos

CCC makes some fabulous animated videos about the lives of the saints.  Stay away from the Guardian Angel video and the Saint Nicholas video - they are a bit violent.  However, the big favorites in our house are:

Bernadette Princess of Lourdes

Saint Patrick

Saint Francis

Fatima

St. Francis Xavier

A great Easter video is The Miracle Maker

Any video by the Donut Man (www.donutman.com) is also a sure hit! 

CD’s

My kids absolutely love the Cat Chat CD’s.  I only recommend these because they’ve done wonders for the kids.  The Dancer will frequently be heard singing, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.  And my spirit rejoices in God my savior….”  The Naturalist seems to have learned lots of great information from the CD’s as well too, such as the meaning behind the use of incense at Mass.  However, I do warn moms that the CD’s use contemporary worship music, and I’m not big on non-traditional worship music.  Also, the stories focus on Papa and his two kids – Mama is deceased.  I always turn the volume down when they discuss how much they miss Mama or how Mama died.  We enjoy all the volumes, except “The Mass Comes Alive”.  My kids like that volume the least.  Check them out at www.catchat.ca

My children also love the Glory Stories  CD’s. They don’t have the catchy music that Cat Chat has, but they do tell great stories about the lives of great saints.  We often listen to these while driving in the car.  Most CD’s tell the stories of two saints and are about a half hour in length. 

 

Games, Classes, etc…

 

A popular game in our house is Saint Bingo

 

 


If you are at all able, I highly recommend enrolling your children in a Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Class.  This is the only activity that The Dancer likes more than dance class, and the Naturalist likes more than tennis class.  It is no exaggeration to call Good Shepherd class the highlight of their week.  Check out their website for more info:  www.cgsusa.org.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My kids are also big into St. Therese of Liseux’s sacrifice beads.  I found the cheapest price at Franciscan Sisters website. 

 

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When your three year old stops napping

January 12, 2008 at 1:50 am (Preschoolers)

My friend Amy from Wisconsin asks, “What do you do when your three year old gives up their nap, even though they still need it (and Mom needs it too!)?”

With both the Naturalist and the Dancer, I used books on CD. (Our local public library has a fabulous collection).  They both loved them and it has greatly improved their vocabulary.  Here’s how to do it:

First, stop calling it “nap time”.  Call it “quiet time.”  Nap time makes it clear what you expect from them (a nap) and they will fight it.  Quiet time is less threatening.

Second, make sure the bedroom is free from items that might lead to mischief.  The Dancer’s room has nothing in it besides the Little People, a bed and a dresser.  And she knows that the Little People are gone if I catch her playing with them when she should be sleeping.

Third, pick the right book on CD.  With a three year old, make sure you start with a short book (30 mins.). That may not seem like much, but remember that a short break is better than no break at all.  Eventually, the child can work their way up to longer books.  For example, The Dancer can now enjoy books as long as one hour, and The Naturalist (at age 5+), listens to books over an hour in length. 

A great book on CD for a three year old is Frog and Toad.  Frog and Toad is a two disc collection, each CD is only 45 mins (two books on each CD).  Another short one is Winnie the Pooh by Milne.  Each CD is also about 45 mins.  Our library also owns a two-disc Dr. Suess collection, (the first disc has most of the popular books, we didn’t like the second CD as much). 

Also, my kids are big into Spanish CDs.  Beth Manners has three fabulous CD’s that are each about 30 minutes in length, and includes a nice story and music too.    Look on this blog for more suggestions of great books on CD, or make your own tape if you can’t find something you like. 

When the kids are really tired, they will fall asleep listening to the CDs.  When they don’t need a nap, then they will lay peacefully and enjoy the story.  If you catch them getting out of bed and being naughty, then they lose the privilege of the CD (in which case, I turn on the noisemaker and they are told to take a nap).   Another privilege we have in the house is dessert.  If any child has a bad day (which would include being naughty during quiet time), they get no dessert.  Dessert is a great motivator to most children!

Once the child gets older and no longer needs a nap, then you can change the rules for quiet time.  The Naturalist is no longer required to lie down in bed during quiet time.  Now he colors, does puzzles, makes trains, legos, etc… in his room quietly while listening to his CD’s, and he just loves the down time.  I don’t know how many times he’s asked me, “Is it time for quiet time yet?”

 

Try this for a couple of weeks.  I’ve noticed that nothing I’ve tried has worked if implemented less than two weeks.  After two weeks, things start to fall into place. 

Books on CD will not only solve the nap time dilemma, but it will also improve your child’s vocabulary.    In fact, people regularly comment about our children’s amazing vocabulary.  Books on CD are also nice because kids’ imaginations need lots of stories, and they need to be read to constantly, but there just aren’t enough hours in the day to give them all that reading! 

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Making Math Fun!

January 12, 2008 at 1:36 am (Math)

Homeschooling is a great way to make a subject fun.  My children love books and games.  While we use a great math homeschooling curriculum (Math-U-See), we also supplement our curriculum with fun games and books.  Here are some that we’ve used that would work great with your 3 to 6 year old.
 
 
Great books:

Never underestimate a favorite book to teach important math concepts!  The Naturalist learned to count by fives simply by listening to Jerry Pallotta’s Reeses Pieces Count by Fives (many times!).  What a fun and painless way to learn math!

Sum Swamp is a great game for teaching addition and subtraction, evens and odds. 

 

Dino Math Tracks is also a lot of fun, and teaches place value:  Units, tens, hundreds, and thousands.

Dealing with Addition by Lynette Long is a fabulous book that presents a math game using only a deck of cards.  The game will help drill your child on addition facts.  My son loved the game so much that he started inventing his own math games with a deck of cards.

 
 

 

Counting, Number Order

Murphy, Stuart J.,  Leaping lizards

Murphy, Stuart J.,  More or less

Murphy, Stuart J.,  One, Two, Three Sassafrass!

Walsh, Ellen Stoll.  Mouse count

Wormell, Christopher.  Teeth, tails & tentacles : an animal counting book

 

Skip Counting, Odds/Evens

Dahl, Michael.  Ants at the Picnic:  Counting by tens

Dahl, Michael.  Lots of Ladybugs!  Counting by fives

Dee, Ruby.  Two Ways to Count to Ten.

DeRubertis, Barbara.    Count on Pablo

Friedman, Aileen.  The king’s commissioners

Giganti, Paul.  Each Orange has 8 slices.  

McGrath, Barbara Barbieri.  The “M & M’s” brand count to one hundred book

Murphy, Stuart J.,  Missing mittens.

Murphy, Stuart J.,  Spunky monkeys on parade

Pallotta, Jerry.  Reese’s Pieces count by fives

Pinczes, Elinor J.  Arctic fives arrive

 

Shapes, Patterns, Matching

Burns, Marilyn.  The Greedy Triangle. 

Friedman, Aileen.  A Cloak for the Dreamer

McGrath, Barbara Barbieri.  The M&M’s Brand Color Pattern Book. 

Murphy, Stuart J.,  Captain Invincible and the Space Shapes

Murphy, Stuart J.,  A house for Birdie

Murphy, Stuart J.,  3 little firefighters

Neuschwander, Cindy.  Mummy Math

Neuschwander,  Cindy.  Patterns in Peru

Pallotta, Jerry.  Twizzlers shapes and patterns

 

Place Value

 Murphy, Stuart J.,  Earth Day-hooray!

 

 

Addition

Long, Lynette.  Domino Addition

Losi, Carol.  512 Ants on Sullivan Street

Kroll, Virginia.  Equal Shmequal

Maccarone, Grace.  Monster Math Picnic

Murphy, Stuart J., Ready, Set, Hop

Pallotta, Jerry.  Hershey Kisses Addition Book

Rauen, Amy.  Adding and Subtracting at the Lake. 

Tang, Greg.  Math fables

Walton, Rick.  One more bunny : adding from one to ten

 

Subtraction

Murphy, Stuart J.,  Monster musical chairs

 

 Measurement

Clement, Rod.  Counting on Frank

Hightower, Susan.  Twelve snails to one lizard:  a tail of mischief and measurement

Leedy, Loreen.  Measuring Penny

Myller, Rolf.  How big is a foot? 

Pallotta, Jerry.  Hershey’s Weights and Measures

 

Money

Axelrod, Amy.  Pigs will be pigs

DeRubertis, Barbara.    Deena’s lucky penny

Hoban, Tana.  26 Letters and 99 cents

Maccarone, Grace.  Monster Money

Maestro, Betsy and Giulio.  Dollars and Cents for Harriet

Murphy, Stuart J.  The Penny Pot

 

Telling Time, Calendars

Murphy, Stuart J.,  It’s About Time!

Murphy, Stuart J.  Pepper’s Journal

Sweeney, Joan.  Me Counting Time

  

Fractions

Leedy, Loreen.  Fraction Action.

McMillan, Bruce.  Eating Fractions.

Murphy, Stuart J.,  Give me half!

Murphy, Stuart J.,  Jump, Kangaroo, Jump! 

Pallotta, Jerry.  Apple Fractions   

 Pinczes, Elinor J.  Inchworm and a half

 

Problem Solving/Division/Other

Burns, Marilyn.  Spaghetti and Meatballs for all. 

Burns, Marilyn.  How many feet?  How many tails?

Calvert, Pam.  Multiplying Menance:  The Revenge of Rumplestiltskin

Hulme, Joy N.  Sea Squares

Hutchins, Pat.  The doorbell rang.

Murphy, Stuart J.,  Divide and ride

Neuschwander, Cindy.  Sir Cumference and the First Round Table

Neuschwander, Cindy.  Amanda Bean’s Amazing Dream

Pinczes, Elinor J.  My Full Moon is Square

Pinczes, Elinor J.  One Hundred Hungry Ants

Pinczes, Elinor J.  A Remainder of One

Tang, Greg.  Math for all seasons

Time-Life for Children.  The case of the missing zebra stripes:  zoo math

Time-Life for Children.  How do octopi eat pizza pie?  Pizza math

Time-Life for Children.  Play Ball:  Sports Math

Tompert, Ann.  Grandfather Tang’s Story:  A Tale Told with Tangrams.  

 

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