Catholic Mosaic Evening

For the past two years we've used the Family Formation (Catholic Catechism) program through Church of St. Paul in Ham Lake, MN. After one year of CCD with Grace, we chose not send our children any longer. The class meeting time, lack of consistent teachers (one would burn out after 2 months and then the kids would get a new teacher and this cycle would keep going) and incredible amounts of weekly worksheets forced us to search out another way of teaching catechism. I wanted to send my kids to CCD. I looked forward to eventually having 1 hour and 15 minutes a week free to run errands by myself while someone else took the leading role as teacher. However, as a newly converted Catholic, I found myself spearheading the idea of teaching CCD to our children at home. At first DH was a little insecure with this idea, but after helping Grace with yet another 20 worksheets for the week and talking to another family who was using the Family Formation program at home already, he decided that he was totally committed to making this, at home CCD, work.




As a family we register in July for the coming school year. We send in our check and they send out the materials on a monthly basis. All needed supplies are included and just about every word is referenced to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Last year, after DH's neck surgery we had a hard time getting back on track with Family Formation, so I was left with lessons for February through May, incomplete. Instead of skipping those lessons, which are based on the Liturgical year, I chose not to order this year's lessons and do Catholic Mosaic first semester and then pick up with the Family Formation lessons in February. Catholic Mosaic isn't necessarily catechism, but wonderful lessons on character.



Last night we did our first CM lesson based on the book, Sister Anne's Hands. I wrote out the vocabulary words on sticky notes and as DH read the story, we all listened for the words. If we heard one we got up and grabbed the sticky note. At the end, whoever had a vocab word gave the definition to the rest of us. I had all the supplies ready for the hands art project and as DH helped the littles with tracing, I started a discussion using the questions in the manual. At 9:00 p.m. Lee was still coloring and outlining his hands drawing. Here it is, just lovely.

Dad wowed everyone with his ability to crack his nose, then taught the kids how to do the trick. We ended with a yummy Fun Size Butterfinger.