Celebrating Pope Francis in the U.S. and St. Junipero Serra

We are so blessed to have Pope Francis visiting the United States and bringing such an important message to our country during such an important time in history.  It has been so much fun to watch our children experience all of the activities with the Pope so far and hear all of their questions! 

All of our "regular" homeschool activities have come to a giant HAULT this week as we have been watching, learning and reading about Pope Francis and our new Saint Junipero Serra!  Thankfully there are amazing resources out there to add to our learning fun and enjoyment!

Here have been a few of our favorites:

Pope Activities for Catholic Kids - Catholic Icing

Pope Francis Printables and Worksheets - Real Life At Home

Pope Francis Craft - Catholic Icing

We also learned about Blessed Junipero Serra earlier this year in Seton History 1, so we pulled that book out to review his history.  We also did some other great activities to learn about saints being canonized and also watched the amazing canonization Mass!

Activities for the Canonization of St. Junipero Serra

Commemorating the Canonization of Junípero Serra - Shower of Roses

St. Junipero Serra, pray for us!

"Always go forward, and never turn back!" - St. Junipero Serra

Homeschooling When Not At Home

 

We recently went on a trip away from home for 10 days and realized that even though we were away from home that our homeschooling did not need to stop.  Here are a few tips from what I learned to make homeschooling successful while away from home.

 

1.  Plan ahead:

 

When at home I have bins of craft supplies, a printer to print any printables, etc.  Yet, while away I do not have access to these things so I HAD to plan ahead.  I looked at what curriculum activities we would maybe do for the week, what feast days were coming up, what art projects we would do, what read-alongs we would want to read, and I put together a little bag of supplies that I needed.  I brought glue sticks, crayons, colored paper, ribbon, scissors and a few more items.  The other part of planning ahead was making sure to not bring more than we needed.  Some of our more hands on curriculums I decided to leave at home to make it easier for us all!  Everything needed to fit in one small bin for the entire trip!

 

 

 

 2.  Keep the Schedule:

We have learned that our children succeed with a schedule.  Since we have loosely started homeschooling two years ago it has simply become a part of our daily life and our children have come to expect it each day.  I knew that if I did not bring homeschool activities that when we usually do book work (during our youngest sons afternoon nap time) that our older children would be confused and more easily bored!  We continued most days to do our book work and activities during nap time each day and it worked great!

 

 

 

3.  Add Fun Field Trips:
 

One of the best parts of going to a new place is the opportunity to explore new sites and fun places to visit!  We did a few fun field trips while we were away to the local zoo, and other great activities!  It is also a great way to learn about the local history and geography!  Make sure to check out what is around where you are traveling to and plan for when they are open during your stay!

4.  Pray:

Traveling and being away from home with little ones can be stressful, but with God anything is possible.  Take the time to start and end each day with prayer and ask God to bless you and your family with a love of exploring His beautiful world and creations while also enjoying precious time together.  Take time to visit fun churches, chapels and shrines in the area that you are visiting as well!

Celebrating the Feast of St. Matthew

On September 21st we celebrate the feast day of St. Matthew, which is also the feast name day for our oldest son (his middle name).  Matthew was a tax collector in Capharnaum where Jesus was living and was very disliked.  Jesus did not feel that way about Matthew and asked him to follow Him, which Matthew did!  Matthew gave up his money and his job and followed Jesus becoming one of the 12 apostles. 

 

To celebrate today we made silver dollar pancakes for breakfast (to represent money) and our oldest son was able to eat them on our You Are Special Today plate that we use on Birthdays, Baptism Anniversaries and Feast Name Days.  We also usually get our children a little gift and this year our son got a very special one with the Father Leopold Celebrates Mass Lego Set!  For our Lego loving son this is such a perfect gift for him to be able to play and also learn about the Faith!

 

 

We also read The Apostles of Jesus book during our school time and discussed the importance of all of Jesus's apostles including St. Matthew.  Finally, we started learning a new prayer for the night time about the authors of the Gospels in the Bible.

 

A CHILD'S GOSPEL NIGHT PRAYER 

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, 

 Bless the bed that I lie on. 

 Before I lay me down to sleep, 

 I give my soul to Christ to keep. 

 Four corners to my bed, 

 Four angels there aspread, 

 Two to foot and two to head, 

 And four to carry me when I'm dead. 

 I go by sea, I go by land; 

 The Lord made me with His right hand.

 

 

Happy Feast Day St. Matthew! 

St. Matthew the Apostle, pray for us!

Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows

Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows

 

 

On September 15th,we celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, which is a feast day when we learn about the great suffering that Mary experienced as the Mother of God.  The Seven Sorrows are the following:

1. The Prophecy of Simeon:  Luke 2:33-35
2. The Flight into Egypt: Matthew 2:13-15
3. The Loss of the Child Jesus in Jerusalem:  Luke 2:41-52
4. The Meeting of Our Lord in the way to Calvary:  Luke 23:27
5. The Standing at the Foot of the Cross: John 19:25
6. The Taking Down of Our Lord from the Cross:  Matthew 27:57-59
7. The Burial of Our Lord:  John 19:40-42

 

Today we read each of these Bible stories and talked about how Mary must have felt during each moment.  As we were reading the stories we made a Ribbon of Sorrows from the Seton 1 Art book, which display these stories with a picture of Mary crying.  We have always talked a lot about the story of Jesus's crucifixion and how Mary must have felt, but it was good to talk about other stories as well like the story of the Flight into Egypt and also Jesus being lost in Jerusalem. 

 

Talking about Jesus being lost in Jerusalem was a great opportunity for us to also talk about what to do if one of our children get lost.  Where they should go and what information they need to know like their full name, their parents name, phone number and address.  We also talked about listening to parents to try to not make them sad and also praying to Mary. 

 

 

 

"And you yourself a sword will pierce so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed."

-Luke 2:35

Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross

Today, September 14th we celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross.  On this special day we celebrate that when Jesus was crucified that the cross became a symbol of love and holiness.  It was upon the cross that Jesus offered himself for our sins so that we might join Him in Heaven.  What a gift!  It is important today to learn about the sacrifice of the cross and to thank Jesus for His sacrifice.

 

Today to learn more and celebrate this feast day we read The Tale of Three Trees and did the activities listed with Catholic Mosaic.  We love this book and how each of the three trees have great wishes of what they want to be when the "grow up"; to hold treasure, to carry powerful kings and to be the tallest tree so that people raise their eyes toward Heaven.  The first tree became the manger for baby Jesus, the second tree became the fishing boat when Jesus calmed the sea and the third tree became the cross which Jesus died on.  It is a wonderful story to talk about the importance of the cross.

 

 

We also did the art activity from Seton Art 1 to celebrate this feast day!  With this activity we made a Cross with the corpus of Jesus and talked about the difference of a cross and a crucifix.  We also talked about the gift of the cross and why we hang crosses in our churches and in our homes.

 

 

Finally today, since we are on vacation we visited a new chapel to us at St. Catherine University which is just down the street from where we are staying.  It was a beautiful place to say a prayer and to be able to look at all of the different crosses and crucifixes around the church.  I also love how after learning about the tabernacle and the Real presence of Jesus in Seton's Pre-K religion program that all of our children love to go into any church, find the lit red candle and pray to Jesus in the tabernacle!

 

Thank you Jesus for dying on the cross for us and for giving us the gift of everlasting life!  Happy Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross!

 

40 Years Celebration of St Elizabeth Ann Seton

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton holds a special place for our country being the first American born saint, in the lives of our family and also to this blog, and so we are excited to celebrate 40 years of her canonization on September 14th, 2015!  "Be Children of the Church" St Elizabeth Ann Seton said, and it is such a perfect message to bring to our lives each and every day!

There are a lot of fun events going on to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in Maryland this weekend, but even if you are not there (like me) you can still watch the Anniversary Mass on Sunday September 13th where Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore will be presiding and it will be televised internationally on EWTN!

Each year we as a family choose a Saint of the Year to learn about and study as a family and this year we chose St. Elizabeth Ann Seton to grow closer to as we started our journey with homeschooling!  I have truly learned so much about this remarkable women this year and loved the book The Soul of Elizabeth Seton.  We enjoyed celebrating her feast day on January 4th this year and we were also thrilled to hear that Holy Heroes made a Glory Stories CD all about the life of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton to help our children learn about her life as well!

 

My husband and I had the opportunity to visit where the Seton Home was originally located in New York City where they now have a church built in St Elizabeth Seton's honor.  It was such a beautiful and special place to visit.

 

 

 

Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton, pray for us!