As Catholic parents we feel it is our responsibility to educate and encourage our children in the Catholic faith, in worship, and in morality. Although it is a big responsibility, it is also a privilege, joy, and honor. Our faith is our single greatest treasure, and to pass on the gift of faith is the greatest gift we could ever give them.
The beauty of homeschool gives us the freedom to instill our own beliefs and values in our children. Teaching them to build strong relationships with the Lord and with their siblings and family.
So this year we are beginning to jump into the catechism journey. For 1st grade we will begin with the Christ Our Life series Grade 1 student book. The Christ Our Life series goes up to grade 8 with the main goal of “helping children turn their learned faith into living faith,” as well as leading them to a prayerful relationship with God. (The above link for this book is from Amazon where I found it the least expensive, but if it is sold out HERE is another website to find it.)
This student book, written by the Sisters of Notre Dame, includes Catholic doctrine summaries and guides to morality and to the Bible, as well as important prayers. There are punch-outs and pull-outs for some fun hands-on activities. The lessons are short, colorful, and age appropriate.
To give you a better understanding of what they are learning in the grade 1 book here are the units it covers: Unit 1- God Is Our Good Father, Unit 2- God Sent His Son as Our Savior, Unit 3- Jesus Shows Us He Is Good, Unit 4- Jesus Shows His Great Love. It also goes over the liturgical calendar and special seasons, as well as prayers to know, the Stations of the Cross, the Seven Sacraments, Commandments, Holy Days of Obligation, etc. Here are some pages of the inside:
This year we will be focusing and working on our prayers, the Creation, the 10 Commandments, the Seven Sacraments, and the rosary. As well as continuing to read Bible stories.
To help work on our prayers this year I made a jar of prayer sticks (popsicle sticks and a mason jar.) Each day we will pull a stick and work on reciting that prayer. Once they have mastered the prayer, all on their own, they can color in the correct cross on this page I made. -All I did was find fun crosses on Google images and copy/paste them on a blank page. I printed it out and wrote under each ones the prayers we hope to master.
As we go through the lessons we will begin to learn and focus on the Creation, 10 Commandments, and more. I found these fun resources that we will be able to use over and over. I laminated each and used velcro dots for the pieces to stick. We can take all of the pieces off, mix them up, and have them work on putting them in the correct order or place.
The Creation printable can be found HERE. Find the 10 Commandment printable HERE. On the back I placed the description of each piece and it’s order. My kids saw me putting these together and are already asking to play with them!
The How Do I Pray printable can be found HERE.
Of course we will also continue to read our bible stories from our favorite book the Jesus Storybook Bible occasionally or as we get to a particular one in a lesson. We have read through this book twice now and love it! They also have an accompanying coloring book!
The One Year Book of Devotions for Preschoolers is also our favorite! This year we will read each passage daily and then use the prayer or Bible verse at the bottom of the page for copywork and handwriting practice. For those too young for copywork (like my 4 year old son,) I will write it out for them in a highlighter and have them trace it over the top. (We use a manuscript tablet, also can be found at the dollar store!)
Some other great story books we are trying this year are the Bible Belles series, The Adventures of Rooney Cruz. These books are a wonderful way to introduce significant women of the Bible that often get overlooked. Throughout these books you follow the adventures of a little girl Rooney who meets and learns about 5 heroic women of the Bible: Hannah, Ester, Abigail, Ruth, and Deborah. The stories are very cute and incorporate real life situations a child would face with a biblical truth and story from the Bible. You can read more about these books at truthbecomesher.com.
How We Will Use These Resources:
There are so many great resources out there, but I will give you an idea how we plan to use these every week throughout our year.
Each day we will choose a prayer stick and practice that prayer as well as read our preschool devotional, but only do the copywork every other day or maybe twice a week. Since the Christ Our Life Book is fairly short we will only do a lesson from it every other day. We will use our puzzle/velcro resources when we get to them throughout certain lessons and continue to repeat them, and also read corresponding Bible stories. The Bible Belle storybooks are great to read during our storytime together or before bed, etc.
So that is all we will be using for our Bible studies this year! Keeping it simple, but fun! The greatest joy for us as parents is for our children to love Jesus and live their life for the glory of God. 💕
Be sure to check out our Breakfast Basket post that has links to some other amazing resources that we used this past school year!
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