« Catholic Carnival #87 | Main | What is the Catholic Carnival? »
July 15, 2006
Teaching Religion to Your Children
CCC 2223. Parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children . . .
I know more families than I care to count who have left the spiritual education of their children to the Church and watched those children either completely lose their faith or move on to a protestant form of Christianity. The Catechism – and the Catholic Church – lay the main responsibility of our child’s education to use, not to the parish priest. And we need to take this responsibility seriously if we want to raise good Catholic children.
Ideas for Learning
Personally, I think the father as the head of the household bears the majority of this responsibility. And I would argue strongly that spiritual education is a continuous, all-day process that can’t be limited to one hour a day. Our witness (as the Catechism goes on to say in 2223) is the strongest teacher of our children. We pass on the virtues by our actions throughout the day, especially those times when we don’t realize what we are teaching our children.
That being said, formal Christian learning should also be a part of your schedule. Time for them to learn the realities of Catholicism that they can then apply to their lives in the future. I believe firmly that if a child really understands what the Eucharist is, they will not stray too far when they grow older. So nightly my family gathers together after dinner and I read and teach for about 30 minutes (older children can go longer). It’s not a big deal and it can be made more entertaining. For example by including stories of the lives of the Saints, you can teach and entertain at the same time.
Recommended Books
There are many, many books that are perfect for this type of learning and I’ll just review the ones that have worked for my family. The best book remains The Baltimore Catechism for the simple reason that it covers virtually everything on the topic of faith. Each night we do one chapter, which consists of a short reading followed by questions to both test your children’s understanding and to elaborate on the topics. It’s challenging enough to keep a child’s attention and push them to learn more. Personally, I read this nightly and on Friday nights we do a “review” session of the previous week’s topics (we often miss one or both nights on weekends because of a busy schedule). Some people try and reject the Baltimore Catechisms as “outdated” or “pre-Vatican II,” but I’ve found them very effective at teaching the basics of the faith. They don’t delve into pre-Vatican II theology (these are for kids), so you can dismiss these criticisms.
Another excellent book I’ve worked into our readings is the Loyola Kids Book of Saints by Amy Welborn. It includes a short chapter explaining what a Saint is followed by about 60 chapters on individual Saints. Each is written in a style that will interest children from about five through about twelve (there’s enough depth, but a simple writing style). The stories relate the actions of the Saints back to the lives of your children, which makes it particularly good for this type of teaching.
Typically I keep it at one book on Saints and one book focused on teaching our faith. But there are several other good books you can work in as part of your regimen (it helps to switch it up from time to time). Here are few others:
During Advent I highly recommend switching to a better themed book, such as A Life of Our Lord for Children. Marigold Hunt does a great job of working in the Old Testament to begin explaining Jesus’ life on earth. This is a teaching book, not just a fun read, so it’s perfect for these types of sessions.
Marigold Hunt added on to the story in The First Christians which tells the stories of the apostles for kids. It is a sequel to A Life of Our Lord for Children and just as good for teaching kids the stories of the Bible.
Another good book to include is Catholic Tales for Boys and Girls by Caryll Houselander. It offers stories of Catholic children that focus on faith, morality, and piety. It isn’t quite as appropriate as the others, since the stories aren’t true, but they are nice to work in every once and awhile for a change of pace.
Other Tools
Finally it’s important to have some memorization involved so that children learn the answers to the basic questions. One great tool is Friendly Defender’s Catholic Flash Cards, which kids enjoy more than you would expect. They recommend for ages 8 and up, but frankly they can be used a little younger as long as you shorten the answers so that they understand. They also have Friendly Defender’s Set 2, which continues with another 50 question and answer cards about their Catholic faith. These are a great compliment to The Baltimore Catechism or other similar text.
It’s also worth noting the value of having Crucifixes, Rosaries, and statues of the Saints throughout your home. Children can learn much by you simply explaining who is on the crucifix and why. Or why a Saint is pictured in a certain way. These are the little things that carry their Catholicism throughout the day, rather than just a set hour of the day.
Teach Your Children Well
There’s a lot of good material out there oriented towards teaching your children their Catholic heritage and I recommend taking advantage of it. For parents I also highly recommend Landscape of Dragons by Michael O’Brien, which explains how to choose what your children should and shouldn’t see on television and in the movies. It’s one of the few books I consider a “must-have” for parenting in our post-Christian world.
I hope my experiences help as you plan on how to best teach your children their Catholic faith. Remember, they are depending on you!
God bless,
Jay
Posted by jay at July 15, 2006 10:40 AM
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.livingcatholicism.com/mt-tb.cgi/240
Comments
I am a parent of two wonderful kids. I am worried about the tendency of the CCD/PSR classes to be too boring for the kids. I wanted to livin' up our CCD/PSR program for our 3-5 grade kids. We are using the Blest Are We series from Silver Burdett Gin. I was wondering if there was another series that is more lively?
I wish to have a social/Jesus session for the kids between the 3-5 grade. Where we deliver a message at the same time we are having a good time. Give the kids a chance to enjoy Jesus and their fellow Catholic peers.
We are loosing this group to our Protestant churches in the area.
Thank you for any help,
Vonada
Posted by: vonada at January 12, 2007 10:11 PM
I also teach grades 3-4 PSR. My class uses the book Christ Our Life which is actually very good. It gives extra activities, but I spice up my class by using my imagination as well. I tell the kids to pay attention because at the end of each unit we have game day. It's about every four or five chapters. On that day we play Jeopardy, Tic-tac-toe using questions, the Tower of Bable (Jenga - two teams, they have to keep their tower up by getting questions right) and more. They love it! Plus I learn what needs worked on and what they have learned. We also play vocab matching games during other chapters as well. I also include films and crafts. This week we are making usable advent wreaths and talking about advent.
Posted by: Theresa at December 8, 2007 9:45 PM
