That's the kind of weekend I am wrapping up. As I do, I am not complaining. It has been a full and beautiful long weekend for our family with back-to-back celebrations and learning adventures. I am, however, slightly berating myself for not completing the coming week's meal planning and learning time preparations before heading into this past weekend. For, here we are, less than a half an hour until Monday is upon us, and I've yet to accomplish such weekly tasks.
I have, however, gotten one small part of those tasks done! I looked ahead at the week's calendar to see which saint days are coming up and, realized that this week we will remember St. Peter and St. Paul as well as the Early Christian Martyrs. With this in mind, I browsed our book collection and pulled out faith-centered reading for the children and I to enjoy together this week:
{Disclosure: There are affiliate links to Amazon, CCC of America, and Holy Heroes below for your convenience should you want to learn more about any of the titles we'll be enjoying this week. Should you click on any of the links and make purchases, we may receive small compensation. Thank you for supporting our efforts in Training Happy Hearts and sharing about it here.}
~1~
The Very First Christians is a picture book we typically read together shortly after Easter. This year, Luke read it on his own, but we never read it together in its entirety as a family. So, we will be reading it this week.
~2~
The Loyola Kids Book of Heroes (which sells used for as little as 74 cents!) has portions on St. Peter, St. Paul, and the Early Christians. Score! We had just begun reading this book together for St. John the Baptist's feast day and now we will skip forward a bit to read about this week's saints.
~3~
Luke's beloved Dragon Slayer has a portion on St. peter, so we will be reading that as a family.
~4~
Our My First Catholic Bible (which can be scored as a used hardcover for but a penny!) has perfect illustrated scripture about St. Peter and St. Paul, so it will be our Bible study resource this week.
~5~
Of course, the trusty Picture Book of Saints (which also sells used for only a penny!) has pages on St. Peter and St. Paul, too, which will come in handy this week.
~6~
I checked out old, weather-worn, hand-me-down copy of Jesus Loved Them and there is a beautiful illustration and page about St. Peter, so it's in our pile for the week, too.
~7~
We also just happen to be in the midst of a review period for Heirloom Audio Production's Beric the Briton, which we have loved listening to twice already - and so we will be listening to it again this week! The audiodrama includes mention of St. Paul and the Early Christian Martyrs.
~8~
Plus, if we can find it where we last tucked it away, I will pull out our Holy Heroes St. Cecilia CD, since it also discusses the plight of early Christians.
~9~
Further, since we enjoy chilling out with family video time sometimes, I have also pulled out our copy of CCC of America's Ben-Hur film to have on hand for this week. This is one of my youngest's favorite CCC videos and a perfect one to tie into the early Christian's theme. The day we watch it (or the day after), I may print out the free Ben-Hur coloring page from CCC of America, too, for the children to enjoy.
I'd love to hear what your favorite faith-based picks for this week are! Are there any books, audios, or videos you'd recommend for engaging children in learning more about St. Peter, St. Paul, and the early Christian martyrs?
