I'm giddy with excitement as Advent approaches. The big question is... what book(s) will I/my family choose to read this year? There are just way too many good choices. Holy Spirit, inspire us all with what we need this Advent to grow in our love for Christ and to make our souls a home worthy of the King.
I break the list down into what the book is geared for, but I will be having even my youngest ones join in for all the family prayers and whatever books we choose. :)
Young child - elementary school:
Welcome Baby Jesus, Advent and Christmas Reflections for Families by Sarah A. Reinhard
A Catholic Family Advent, Prayers and Activities by Susan Hines-Brigger
My very own Christmas Prayer Book by Arden W. Mead
Destination: Bethlehem, A Family Advent Adventure by Sharon Altman and Christine Winkelman
Bartholomew's Passage, A Family Story for Advent by Arnold Ytreeide
Middle school - adult
Sacred Space by The Irish Jesuits
O Radiant Dawn, 5-Minute Prayers Around the Advent Wreath
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Adult
Come, Lord Jesus, Meditations on the Art of Waiting by Mother Mary Francis, P.C.C.
The Advent of Christ, Scripture Reflections to Prepare for Christmas by Edward Sri
The Infancy Narratives, Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI
Do you have a favorite that is not on this list (that is still in publication)? I would love to include it!
Happy Advent Prep! :) :) :)
Saturday, November 24, 2018
Thursday, March 9, 2017
Kids and prayer
I posted a great article on Facebook about kids and church behavior. It turned into a 'Missy your kids are so well behaved in mass' comment thread. Not at all what I intended. I paid for it though... the very next Mass I went to was without Barry and the oldest three were helping serve in Mass. It was a church without a cry room.... and it was challenging. Then the next Mass I went to, again without Barry, 2 older kids not there... I did the walk of shame with a misbehaving toddler TWICE that mass. It was good. Seriously, it was really helpful to be reminded of how great the kids usually are in Mass. Anyway... If it goes anything like that Facebook post, I'm hesitant to even start this conversation for fear of what my next week or two will look like. LOL. 😁
I love praying. I feel peace and joy and love when I pray and connect with God. I pray frequently throughout the day (that could be a whole separate blog post!). One of my biggest desires is to instill this same love and joy and peace into my children. To teach them how to pray, why to pray and to desire to pray.
The beginning of the school year in 2014 (or so - I am totally guessing here), I found a great book. It can also be found on Amazon and if you are local, at the A&M store in Saginaw. This book is Bible reading, reflection and vocal prayer all rolled into one, intended for elementary age kids. It basically walks you through a mini prayer service. This book opened to us the concept of 'symposium time'. A time to gather together as a group, before the kids go off and work on their own grade specific subjects. This enabled us to pray, read, and do lots of things that are true, good and beautiful - and to prioritize them! I found that starting the homeschool day out like that made the day go smoother. It was tempting, and early on I admit I often fell for the temptation, to move on to 'more important' things - like math, reading, science, etc... how can I fit it all in? We are running late, something has to go. The list of excuses were endless. But eventually it became a solid routine. No matter how late it was, no matter how much other 'stuff' I had to get done that day, we started in prayer. And God poured the grace onto our day, into our weeks, and into our months. Note about this particular book - after the Bible passage is read, I ask 'Lectio Divina' and the kids will share what stood out to them/what spoke to them about that passage. And we do the reflection out loud as a discussion point. There is a part in there for anyone to share what they want to pray about. This part is my favorite. Listening to the kids pour their hearts out to God... there is nothing like it at all.
Gradually, as God is apt to do, I was presented with more material to use. I also found various prayers that worked really well for our family. All ages participate, even if it is not age appropriate for them. Which means the older kids are going to sit through things that could be boring to them, and the younger kids are going to sit through things they might not understand. And often times, my younger ones are introduced to an idea that might otherwise not be known to them for a few years (in a good or in a bad way - for example: abortion). Knowledge is power, and when that happens, I let the Holy Spirit lead and I explain it in a way they can understand and we move on.
Here are a few of the materials we have used recently:
~Prayer 'packet' that we pray out loud, together, every morning HERE.
~Occasionally we switch it up with this beautiful prayer HERE.
~We LOVE reading Saint books. I usually read 1-2 chapters every morning during our prayer time. We use a variety of different books. Stories of the Saints for Young People Ages 10 to 100, Encounter the Saints and/or daily reading of the life of the Saint of the Day in something like this.
~We also love Novenas. We have not found a way to be consistent even through the weekend, but now that we are not doing electricity in the evening for Lent, I bet we could restart these and be successful. Here is a great list of Novenas.
~Our church sometimes have these for free in the vestibule. It's a great pamphlet/magazine based on the daily readings, quick, easy to read (I have one of my beginner readers own this as a read aloud to practice reading). The lessons are powerful and stick with you (I admit to learning more from this book than I should probably admit to). I think they all got handed out before I got to them this month, and I really need to just order the subscription. They are great.
~Early in our parenting years, we started a tradition called best/worst. We would each go around the dinner table and reflect on our day and share what was our best part of the day and what was the worst. It encouraged communication, empathy and awareness of otherwise unknown situations. This was hit or miss, but the more I learned about the examen, the more I realized this was a mini examen, in a way. We now use this book each evening (or morning if we didn't do evening prayers). Even the younger ones sit and listen to the reflections. I have the oldest kids and adults journal each of the questions. I really should restart best/worst for the younger ones though! We have great memories of this sharing time together.
~Virtues! So much you can do to practice these. I found these gems while on a retreat in Ann Arbor. My kids love them. I love them. They are applicable to us in many areas of life and the pictures can be used later, recalling them and actually having the child remember, when later in the day or week trying to teach in a difficult situation.
~Gen2Rev Storybook Bible reading and picture book story wrapped into one, chronological book.
~various liturgical year supplements (Advent, Lent, etc).
Early on, we would rotate through what we would do, we would not do it all at once. When we started, we were only doing morning prayer consistently. Advent 2016 we started consistently doing evening prayers. We had a list of what we wanted to do, and it was bigger than we had legitimate time for, so we did half in the evening (and then bonus! Barry could join us!). If we happened to miss an evening of prayer, we would double up and do the full list in the morning. This would take quite a bit of time, so each evening I was pretty determined to make sure we did evening prayers. After Advent, we fell off the consistent evening prayer bandwagon, but now that it is Lent, I am determined to make it a priority again, and this time to have it last well beyond when Lent is over. For that Advent, I had each child able to read (at least enough to muddle through a small devotional) pick a book or program that they wanted to read, and that was their contribution.
Not in the Morning or Evening routine prayers:
~Mandatory weekly church attendance (and sometimes we get in a great routine of once or twice a week of daily Mass)
~We also do a weekly prayer hour in Bay City's Perpetual Adoration Chapel. We started out with all 8 kids.......... but, in order to enjoy the hour and get some of our own prayers in, we have let Mema and Papa take the two youngest and we take the other 6 to pray in the silence.
We are not perfect at it, as you can tell from the inconsistency. But when we fall, we get back up. If something doesn't work out for us, we don't toss in the whole thing - we tweak and try again.
My prayer is that you can find ONE thing to increase prayer in your family's life, get that into routine and then, God willing, add another. Even if what I said did nothing other than spark an inspiration for something completely off topic, I will feel this long post would have been worth it.
Thanks for reading and may your family feel God's grace as you pray together~
I love praying. I feel peace and joy and love when I pray and connect with God. I pray frequently throughout the day (that could be a whole separate blog post!). One of my biggest desires is to instill this same love and joy and peace into my children. To teach them how to pray, why to pray and to desire to pray.
The beginning of the school year in 2014 (or so - I am totally guessing here), I found a great book. It can also be found on Amazon and if you are local, at the A&M store in Saginaw. This book is Bible reading, reflection and vocal prayer all rolled into one, intended for elementary age kids. It basically walks you through a mini prayer service. This book opened to us the concept of 'symposium time'. A time to gather together as a group, before the kids go off and work on their own grade specific subjects. This enabled us to pray, read, and do lots of things that are true, good and beautiful - and to prioritize them! I found that starting the homeschool day out like that made the day go smoother. It was tempting, and early on I admit I often fell for the temptation, to move on to 'more important' things - like math, reading, science, etc... how can I fit it all in? We are running late, something has to go. The list of excuses were endless. But eventually it became a solid routine. No matter how late it was, no matter how much other 'stuff' I had to get done that day, we started in prayer. And God poured the grace onto our day, into our weeks, and into our months. Note about this particular book - after the Bible passage is read, I ask 'Lectio Divina' and the kids will share what stood out to them/what spoke to them about that passage. And we do the reflection out loud as a discussion point. There is a part in there for anyone to share what they want to pray about. This part is my favorite. Listening to the kids pour their hearts out to God... there is nothing like it at all.
Gradually, as God is apt to do, I was presented with more material to use. I also found various prayers that worked really well for our family. All ages participate, even if it is not age appropriate for them. Which means the older kids are going to sit through things that could be boring to them, and the younger kids are going to sit through things they might not understand. And often times, my younger ones are introduced to an idea that might otherwise not be known to them for a few years (in a good or in a bad way - for example: abortion). Knowledge is power, and when that happens, I let the Holy Spirit lead and I explain it in a way they can understand and we move on.
Here are a few of the materials we have used recently:
~Prayer 'packet' that we pray out loud, together, every morning HERE.
~Occasionally we switch it up with this beautiful prayer HERE.
~We LOVE reading Saint books. I usually read 1-2 chapters every morning during our prayer time. We use a variety of different books. Stories of the Saints for Young People Ages 10 to 100, Encounter the Saints and/or daily reading of the life of the Saint of the Day in something like this.
~We also love Novenas. We have not found a way to be consistent even through the weekend, but now that we are not doing electricity in the evening for Lent, I bet we could restart these and be successful. Here is a great list of Novenas.
~Our church sometimes have these for free in the vestibule. It's a great pamphlet/magazine based on the daily readings, quick, easy to read (I have one of my beginner readers own this as a read aloud to practice reading). The lessons are powerful and stick with you (I admit to learning more from this book than I should probably admit to). I think they all got handed out before I got to them this month, and I really need to just order the subscription. They are great.
~Early in our parenting years, we started a tradition called best/worst. We would each go around the dinner table and reflect on our day and share what was our best part of the day and what was the worst. It encouraged communication, empathy and awareness of otherwise unknown situations. This was hit or miss, but the more I learned about the examen, the more I realized this was a mini examen, in a way. We now use this book each evening (or morning if we didn't do evening prayers). Even the younger ones sit and listen to the reflections. I have the oldest kids and adults journal each of the questions. I really should restart best/worst for the younger ones though! We have great memories of this sharing time together.
~Virtues! So much you can do to practice these. I found these gems while on a retreat in Ann Arbor. My kids love them. I love them. They are applicable to us in many areas of life and the pictures can be used later, recalling them and actually having the child remember, when later in the day or week trying to teach in a difficult situation.
~Gen2Rev Storybook Bible reading and picture book story wrapped into one, chronological book.
~various liturgical year supplements (Advent, Lent, etc).
Early on, we would rotate through what we would do, we would not do it all at once. When we started, we were only doing morning prayer consistently. Advent 2016 we started consistently doing evening prayers. We had a list of what we wanted to do, and it was bigger than we had legitimate time for, so we did half in the evening (and then bonus! Barry could join us!). If we happened to miss an evening of prayer, we would double up and do the full list in the morning. This would take quite a bit of time, so each evening I was pretty determined to make sure we did evening prayers. After Advent, we fell off the consistent evening prayer bandwagon, but now that it is Lent, I am determined to make it a priority again, and this time to have it last well beyond when Lent is over. For that Advent, I had each child able to read (at least enough to muddle through a small devotional) pick a book or program that they wanted to read, and that was their contribution.
Not in the Morning or Evening routine prayers:
~Mandatory weekly church attendance (and sometimes we get in a great routine of once or twice a week of daily Mass)
~We also do a weekly prayer hour in Bay City's Perpetual Adoration Chapel. We started out with all 8 kids.......... but, in order to enjoy the hour and get some of our own prayers in, we have let Mema and Papa take the two youngest and we take the other 6 to pray in the silence.
We are not perfect at it, as you can tell from the inconsistency. But when we fall, we get back up. If something doesn't work out for us, we don't toss in the whole thing - we tweak and try again.
My prayer is that you can find ONE thing to increase prayer in your family's life, get that into routine and then, God willing, add another. Even if what I said did nothing other than spark an inspiration for something completely off topic, I will feel this long post would have been worth it.
Thanks for reading and may your family feel God's grace as you pray together~
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Electronic Education
Starting in 3rd grade, my children use Switched on Schoolhouse, which is a CD-rom based curriculum. It took us a few years to finally find the right program for us, and now that we have it, I am so happy!
That said, I still am not happy with any curriculum I have come across for the PreK-2nd grade level. In my never ending curriculum search, I came across some great iPad apps recently. I thought I would put the full review, including what my 3, 4, and almost 7 year old children thought of the apps.
PreK-2nd grade students, and their current reading level:
Cory- nearly 7 years old, struggling reader, but knows his ABC's and letter sounds.
Katharine- 4 years old, knows ABC's and letter sounds, hasn't figured out how to sound words out yet.
Gregory- 3 years old, still working on ABC's and letter sounds.
Apps for education:
Phonics:
Pocket Phonics
Shows letter, says letter, has them trace the letter. After a few letters, they have you put the sounds together to form a short word. Tracing has to be close to correct or they have to redo the letter. Has a dot with where to start and an arrow pointing in the direction they need to go. To put the short word together, they ask what letter makes the 'iii' sound. Then sounds the word out with them. Has a corresponding picture once the word is together.
Katharine- right at her level, enjoyed playing.
Gregory-slightly above his level, but he hung with it and really enjoyed the app.
Cory-said it was 'boring', a bit below his level.
Lite version has 6 sounds: s, t, i, a, p and n. Also only lets you have one child have an account. The full version (2.99), allows more accounts and has more sounds. Note: the full version requires iOS 6.0 or better.
Decision: Will likely buy the full version so Gregory and Katharine can have their own accounts and get all the letter sounds. I will probably wait until I review all the apps to make sure this is the best one out there. Seems so unlikely since it was the first one I did! lol.
Word Magic
Shows a picture of a word, and you can choose the beginning, middle or end of a word for them to fill in one letter that is missing.
Lite version has 5 words, full version has 100+ words.
Gregory- n/a
Katharine- not quite to her level. Got frustrated quickly.
Cory- a little more to his level, but didn't quite hold his attention.
Decision: Will likely leave on the iPad (free version), but won't pay for the full version. Needs a bit more interaction.
iww (iwritewords)
If I were to pick a perfect app, this would be it. They have the choice of numbers, letters or words. First you trace the word, guided by a red monster that has to follow the number in the correct order, make sure you stay close to the numbers and hit them all in the right order or you have to start over! Once you finish the letter/number/word, you can either drag and drop or tilt the iPad to get the tiles into the hole.
Lite version limited to 3 letters and 3 words.
Full version, $2.99.
Gregory- saw K playing and was fighting for his turn! Once he got his turn he was HOOKED.
Katharine- loved it, kept her attention for quite awhile.
Cory-a bit below his level for letters/numbers, but great for reviewing letter formation, and great practice on a few sight words.
Decision: Bought full version. :) That said, probably not an app they will likely pick up and use on their own, but will be great to use as part of my electronic curriculum for them.
More reviews to come as I get time to download and have the kids test them out!! :)
________
Online educational sites that have passed the test of time on Cory:
Starfall.com (we currently use the full version, more star fall, which was $35/year. Unsure if we will renew when it runs out.)
primary games.com (specifically the sight words section, FREE)
abcmouse.com (Cory's favorite. He asks to play all the time. For one subscription, you can have 3 separate children's accounts. $7.95/month or $80 for a year. We paid for the full year. Cory will probably beg us to renew it.)
yourchildlearns.com (specifically the letter sounds section, FREE)
Teachyourmonstertoread.com (another of Cory's favorites. Provided by Usborne. This one is FREE)
Redapplereading.com (got a deal on this through groupon. Original price is 6 months $39, lifetime standard $69, lifetime premium $89. Can't remember what one I got. This one doesn't quite hold Cory's attention as much as abcmouse or teach your monster, but it has really user friendly parental progress reports.)
webkinz.com (just for fun! They do have a free section now, but of course if you buy a webkinz stuffed animal that has the code it opens up more games and items for your pets.)
_____
List I am working from to do reviews (other ideas/suggestions welcome!)
Learn to read:
That said, I still am not happy with any curriculum I have come across for the PreK-2nd grade level. In my never ending curriculum search, I came across some great iPad apps recently. I thought I would put the full review, including what my 3, 4, and almost 7 year old children thought of the apps.
PreK-2nd grade students, and their current reading level:
Cory- nearly 7 years old, struggling reader, but knows his ABC's and letter sounds.
Katharine- 4 years old, knows ABC's and letter sounds, hasn't figured out how to sound words out yet.
Gregory- 3 years old, still working on ABC's and letter sounds.
Apps for education:
Phonics:
Pocket Phonics
Shows letter, says letter, has them trace the letter. After a few letters, they have you put the sounds together to form a short word. Tracing has to be close to correct or they have to redo the letter. Has a dot with where to start and an arrow pointing in the direction they need to go. To put the short word together, they ask what letter makes the 'iii' sound. Then sounds the word out with them. Has a corresponding picture once the word is together.
Katharine- right at her level, enjoyed playing.
Gregory-slightly above his level, but he hung with it and really enjoyed the app.
Cory-said it was 'boring', a bit below his level.
Lite version has 6 sounds: s, t, i, a, p and n. Also only lets you have one child have an account. The full version (2.99), allows more accounts and has more sounds. Note: the full version requires iOS 6.0 or better.
Decision: Will likely buy the full version so Gregory and Katharine can have their own accounts and get all the letter sounds. I will probably wait until I review all the apps to make sure this is the best one out there. Seems so unlikely since it was the first one I did! lol.
Word Magic
Shows a picture of a word, and you can choose the beginning, middle or end of a word for them to fill in one letter that is missing.
Lite version has 5 words, full version has 100+ words.
Gregory- n/a
Katharine- not quite to her level. Got frustrated quickly.
Cory- a little more to his level, but didn't quite hold his attention.
Decision: Will likely leave on the iPad (free version), but won't pay for the full version. Needs a bit more interaction.
iww (iwritewords)
If I were to pick a perfect app, this would be it. They have the choice of numbers, letters or words. First you trace the word, guided by a red monster that has to follow the number in the correct order, make sure you stay close to the numbers and hit them all in the right order or you have to start over! Once you finish the letter/number/word, you can either drag and drop or tilt the iPad to get the tiles into the hole.
Lite version limited to 3 letters and 3 words.
Full version, $2.99.
Gregory- saw K playing and was fighting for his turn! Once he got his turn he was HOOKED.
Katharine- loved it, kept her attention for quite awhile.
Cory-a bit below his level for letters/numbers, but great for reviewing letter formation, and great practice on a few sight words.
Decision: Bought full version. :) That said, probably not an app they will likely pick up and use on their own, but will be great to use as part of my electronic curriculum for them.
More reviews to come as I get time to download and have the kids test them out!! :)
________
Online educational sites that have passed the test of time on Cory:
Starfall.com (we currently use the full version, more star fall, which was $35/year. Unsure if we will renew when it runs out.)
primary games.com (specifically the sight words section, FREE)
abcmouse.com (Cory's favorite. He asks to play all the time. For one subscription, you can have 3 separate children's accounts. $7.95/month or $80 for a year. We paid for the full year. Cory will probably beg us to renew it.)
yourchildlearns.com (specifically the letter sounds section, FREE)
Teachyourmonstertoread.com (another of Cory's favorites. Provided by Usborne. This one is FREE)
Redapplereading.com (got a deal on this through groupon. Original price is 6 months $39, lifetime standard $69, lifetime premium $89. Can't remember what one I got. This one doesn't quite hold Cory's attention as much as abcmouse or teach your monster, but it has really user friendly parental progress reports.)
webkinz.com (just for fun! They do have a free section now, but of course if you buy a webkinz stuffed animal that has the code it opens up more games and items for your pets.)
_____
List I am working from to do reviews (other ideas/suggestions welcome!)
Learn to read:
pocket phonics (lite available, 2.99 full version requires iOS 6.0 or better)
reading for kids (?? couldn't find this one)
word magic (lite available, .99 for full version)
iwritewords (lite version available, 2.99 for full version)
learn to read - four letter words (.99)
ABC phonics animals (lite available, )
rock ’n learn phonics easy reader
Booksy (free, requires iOS 6.0 or better)
my word wall
story patch
learn to read!
reading raven
K-3 sight words
Aesop’s Quest
Read me stories
kids can spell
Bob Books #1, #2
Martha Speaks Dog Party
Learn with Homer
Starfall learn to read
Feel Electric!
Starfall $2.99
Hooked on Phonics (free)
sight words list (free)
games to learn to read (free)
first phonics and letters (free)
ABC phonics & sight words (free)
ABC’s:
Letter lab
ABC alphabet phonics
super why!
C is for Cow
Elmo loves ABC’s
Montessori Letter sounds HD
Eggy Alphabet
Eggy Alphabet
Speech:
The articulation Carnival
Articulation Games
The phonological processes
Farm academy (infant - 3yo)
quick arctic
articulation station
speech with milo articulation board game
Articulate it!
I dare you articulation
Geography:
Stack the states
Math:
Zombie math
Other:
Brain Bop
Brain Pop
A+ Speller
Monday, December 6, 2010
Tree!
Giving blogging a try again. We got our tree this weekend. Biggest tree we have ever had.
Still not decorated yet.
Still not decorated yet.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Yesterday was a very productive day. Today I am moving a little slower, but as the afternoon wears on I am sure I will gain momentum. Had a rough late afternoon yesterday. Cory refused to take a nap, he was too busy playing in his new room and exploring his new found freedom from his toddler bed, and he had been crying/whinning/pulling on me for 2 hours straight by the time the bus dropped the kids off. I was exhausted from getting the house cleaned, in addition to Cory's little fit. I watch Taylor and Sereah get off the bus. But no Natalie. I ask them if Nat was on the bus, they said yes. Sereah said she told Natalie to get off, but she wouldn't listen. So, I call the school, who calls the bus garage. Their side of the story, Natalie was fast asleep. The bus turns around and drops her off. She said she was too tired to get off the bus. All of this was going on while I was cleaning/cooking dinner. It was a rough time. LOL.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Lots to do today
Cute pic, huh? lol. I need to get some pics of the girls. Morning is lovingly refered to as morning madness around here, and then the girls aren't home until after 4pm.
I have a to do list a mile long. I wish I could cut some corners, but I have been cutting corners and it is now catching up with me.
I've been slacking on my morning devotions. Waiting until later in the day, or more than likely, waiting until evening when I do my evening devotions. Then the list is long and a bit overwhelming. So I have reading to catch up on too.
Well, I better get off the computer and actually start moving. :)
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