Host a St. Juan Diego / Our Lady of Guadalupe Sensing the Saints Playdate (with FREE PRINTABLE Plans!)

Happy second Sunday of Advent!

As the feasts of St. Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe near, I've been reminiscing about past celebrations and realized that I never shared here about a favorite one - a Sensing the Saints: St. Juan Diego & Our Lady of Guadalupe Learn-and-Play Date that we enjoyed with friends some years back.

 

Circle Time

Some of our group came straight from Mass and others came after Mass, so after everyone had gathered, I asked the children to come into a circle near an Our Lady of Guadalupe candle.

Then, I asked:

• Can anyone name a saint and an aspiration of Mary that were celebrating this week?  (Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe)
• Does anyone know which dates these celebrations fall on? (the 9th and the 12th)
• Can anyone find the dates of these feast days on the calendar?  (The young children then paged through calendar to find the date, chanting months, days and dates as we went.)

I then suggested that before we learned and shared more about these saints, we open our gathering with a prayer.  So, we prayed the Sign of the Cross and, then, read the prayer printed on our candle.

After praying, I drew attention to the different images of various picture books that were already set up on a table and asked  the children to share some things they knew or could guess about St. Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Then, I asked children if anyone knew where Juan Diego was from and had them find Mexico on a globe.

We also chatted about what saints are and how we are part of the Communion of Saints. 

Storytime

After that, we segued into reading The Beautiful Lady: Our Lady of Guadalupe, which I prefaced by asking children to listen for both miracles and virtues described. 

Throughout the reading, I paused periodically to discuss images, text and the children’s reactions, and, when the story concluded, I asked if anyone knew what a virtue is (a habit for good) and what virtues St. Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe demonstrated. (courage, faith, compassion, etc.)  I, then, asked the children how each might live such virtues themselves.


Choice Activities 

After storytime, it was onto choice activities, which included:

Make Our Ladies Roses, where children could make playdough roses, thereby getting tactile input, as well as exercising fine motor skills.

Enact the Story of Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe, where children used scarves, plastic roses, a stool and other props to take on the characters of Juan Diego, Our Lady, the bishop, etc. to dramatize the story, thereby getting tactile, proprioceptive and vestibular input.

Make a Tilma, where children could craft a simple tilma.

Draw, Color and Notebook the Saints, where children could draw Our Lady of Guadalupe, color images of Juan Diego and Our Lady, or collaged notebooking pages about these saints using images and copywork prayers, thereby exercising fine motor skills.

Plant Roses on Tepeyac Hill, where children could “plant” plastic roses in coffee-scented playdough hills, thereby getting olfactory and tactile input, along with practicing fine motor skills.

Transfer the Roses, where children transfered water bead “roses” in a small cloth “tilma”, practicing fine motor skills.

Free Printable Plans

I hope some of our activities inspire your own.  In case you'd like to use all of them, I am sharing the FREE Sensing the Saints: St. Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe lesson plan I created, which has materials lists, objectives, assessments, etc. included.  Please feel free to download and use it in your own homes, co-ops, or classrooms and to point others to this post to do the same.

Have a most wonderful second week of Advent!  I'd love to hear how you play and learn about the saints.  Do leave a comment here or on our Facebook page.




St. Juan Diego and Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for us!

Develop New Brain Connections with Soundsory {A Review}

When your immediate family includes people with ADHD, sensory issues, dyslexia, and more and your extended family includes someone with a brain injury, the idea that the brain can rewire and heal is hugely encouraging.  Better still is when tools for helping the brain do just that come nicely packaged in an easy-to-use at-home format just as they do with Soundsory from Sound for Life Ltd.

What is Soundsory?

In a nutshell, Soundsory is a multi-sensory home-based program that is simple to use and works to improve motor and cognitive abilities.

Basically, it is a special set of headphones with pre-loaded rhythmic music that you listen to for 25 minutes before listening to a additional five minutes of music while doing special exercises. 

More technically, it is a specially designed program that keys into neuroplasticity - or the brain.s ability to rewire itself.

The Soundsory rhythmic music program in combination with its therapeutic body movement exercises are specifically designed to encourage the brain to change itself and create new connections. The program is also designed to stimulate the auditory and vestibular systems, helping you better integrate body position, balance and movement information within your brain.

The musical program is delivered on comfortable headphones that charge up when connected to your computer and then can be used for hours anywhere you like.  The headphones have a patented Dynamic Filter that captures attention and use air and bone conduction to stimulate the entire auditory system. (They can also be used as regular Bluetooth headphones with the flip of a switch.)

Meanwhile, the exercise piece focuses on body awareness and coordination, moving from primitive reflexes to repetitive complex movement - which sounds complicated, but is made easy through clear, short videos that demonstrate how each exercise is completed.

The entire program is based on scientific research and is also the subject of further research.

All that technical stuff aside, Soundsory is a program that can help improve your motor and cognitive abilities, and it is simple to use in 30 minutes a day over 40 days at a time without ever leaving your home!

Why Did We Choose to Try Soundsory? 

In 2017, we were blessed to review another product by Sound for Life Ltd called Forbrain, which is a headset that uses bone conduction and a dynamic filter to correct the way you hear your own voice, leading to better attention, concentration, and memory.

We have been pleased with our Forbrain headphones and, appreciating that Sound for Life Ltd produces quality products, decided to give Soundsory a try, too.

My daughter wanted see if Soundsory might help her with attention while I was curious if it might help her with her dyslexia. (My daughter is not aware of this, but I have read about how specific movement programs- and working to eliminate retained reflexes - can help people with dyslexia and so am hopeful that using Soundsory might eventually be another tool for her success.)

I also wanted to have the program on hand for when my older son is ready to try it out, since I believe Soundsory can help him with attention, sensory integration, and more, and I know that since the program is built into the Soundsory headphones with an online exercise portion available with a password, everyone in my family can use it.

How Did We Use Soundsory and What Did We Think of It? 

When we got Soundsory, my 12-year-old daughter was excited to try the program.  She said:

I wanted to see if it would work. (When I first got it,) I thought it was cool, but I did not like how you had to do the exercises right after listening to the first portion of music, because it was kind of hard for me to get to a computer right after to watch the exercises and that eliminated car rides, chore times... 

It was also hard because you could not do certain things when listening to the first part of the music - like be onscreen...I thought you could use it while doing anything, but you cannot. (Good protocol says you are not supposed to eat, drive, or be onscreens while listening.) 
So, I used the headphones towards the end of chore times and at night when all my other lessons were done. (When using them), I drew sometimes. Sometimes, I played board games, which I am not sure if you are meant to do, but it did not say not do, so I did. 

(When listening,) I liked certain songs more than others. Some of the songs I did into really like, because they did not have words, but had people chanting, and I did not really like that. I go for word or no word types of things, not chanting. But, most of the music I liked.

(So far), I have not noticed any big changes yet using Soundsory, but think there might be... More attention...maybe help me with academics. 

I want to keep using it, because I want to see if it can help me more. 

I also wonder if my brother could use it.  It could help him with attention, because he has a small attention span. 

And I wonder if A--- could use it. She has a brain injury and I think it could it help. 

People with focus problems could use it, too. 

The exercises reminded me of O.T. when my brother went to O.T. So, maybe instead of going to O.T., you could use this. 

I like it and will keep using it.  

I agree with my daughter on several points:

• Soundsory integrates O.T.-like exercises and can easily be used for at-home therapy. I was impressed with how user-friendly the program is and how simple it made stimulating the vestibular and auditory systems.

• It was sometimes a challenge to find the right times in our daily lives to use Soundsory, because we had to use it when there was 25 minutes of free time followed by five minutes that could be spent following exercises onscreen. This challenge, though, is just because of the way our life flows right now - crazily! That said, I recognize how it is far easier to use Soundsory than to go to therapies!  Indeed, I would have LOVED having this when I was at a stage earlier in our family life when I was running three different kids between O.T., speech, feeding therapy, and more. It may have helped reduce our need for some of the running around.

• The physical exercises really did remind me of what my son used to do in O.T., and I could see how streamlined and well-chosen they were. I can definitely see why Soundsory is said to help with motor delays, balance and coordination, austism spectrum, developmental delays, sensory integration, auditory processing disorder, ADD, and ADHD.

I am pleased that my daughter wishes to continue to use Soundsory and am eager to see what positive changes happen over time as she does. I am also hoping my older son decides to commit to a 40-day period of using the program and am thinking of recommending it to a relation that suffered a brain injury.

Read the reviews.

Soundsory Is Worth A Look!

I would recommend looking into Soundsory to anyone that is interested in user-friendly, at-home tools for helping cognitive and motor abilities. Some others on the Homeschool Review Crew are already having family members making awesome strides with the program, while others, like me, are pleased with the program so far and waiting to see how things play out.

This difference in results is not unusual, as I understand, since it is explained in the Soundsory FAQs that:

The brain needs a certain amount of repeated stimulation in order to develop new connections, reorganize itself and stabilize improvement. Some people see change within a few days, others after completion of forty days of the program. There is no way to know in advance the exact amount of time it will take.

So, in short, I cannot attest to seeing huge changes in my daughter yet, but I can say that I have experienced enough of Soundsory to understand that it is a well-designed, quality program and that I expect to see more pronounced results as we continue using it here. I can also say that you should read some of the other reviews because some people have had amazing results already with children and adults!

Soundsory from Sound for Life Ltd. is definitely worth looking into if you have people in your family that could use improved motor, sensory, and cognitive abilities.

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4+ Sensory-Smart Ways to Learn about St. Maximilian Kolbe

I learned this week that a church not too far from us will be hosting the Pilgrimage of the Relic of St. Maximilian M. Kolbe this coming week, so I hope re-arrange our schedule in order to bring my children to either a prayer service, Mass, or veneration at the hosting church. 

Whether we are able to work such a visit into our schedule or not, I plan to focus this week's faith-learning time on St. Maximilian Kolbe, whose feast day is coming up on August 14.  I've come up with seven sensory-smart ways to share ore about St. Maximilian M. Kolbe with my children and thought you might be inspired by them, too.  Of course, I'd love to hear about your favorite St. Maximilian Kolbe prayers, activities, resources, ideas, and links, too!

{Disclosure: Some links which follow are affiliate ones.  Should you click through them and make any purchase, we may receive small compensation at no extra cost to you.  Thank you for supporting us in Training Happy Hearts.}
 

~1~
Taste Saint Maximilian Kolbe's Geography

 

My children know very little about St. Maximilian Kolbe, so we will likely begin our study about him with a reading and prayer from the Picture Book of Saints which focuses on him.  Within this reading, there is mention of some of the places St. Maximilian Kolbe lived: Poland, Japan and India.  Thus, as a part of our ongoing gentle geography studies, we will likely locate these places on a map and, then, to tickle our gustatory senses, we may plan some simple Polish, Japanese, and Indian dishes into our weekly meal plan.  We will also chat about how blessed we are to have ample food to eat and what we can do for those that do in conjunction with discussion about how St. Maximilian Kolbe often shared his food with other prisoners at Auschwitz and, ultimately, suffered starvation.

~2~
View Saint Maximilian Kolbe's Life

I am not sure my younger children are ready for the heaviness of learning too much about Nazi prison camps, but I think my oldest (who happens to love audio-visual learning) can handle it, so we may watch a short video about Saint Maximilian Kolbe together.  I have this one bookmarked, but welcome your suggestions, too.

Please do share your favorite titles and ideas for learning about Saint. Maximilian Kolbe.  Also, be sure to see if the Pilgrimage of the Relic of St. Maximilian M. Kolbe will be close to your area soon, too.

~3~

Love Like Saint Maximilian Kolbe

We will also read the story about Saint Maximilian Kolbe in the Loyola Kids Books of Saints, which ends with asking readers to think of hard steps taken to live in difficult situations.  I am thinking hat after chatting about the story and the question it concludes with, we might get some proprioceptive input in by lifting, bending low, and reaching high to collect and deliver donations for those in need.  Or, we might focus on tactile or visual input with a "loving others" artwork that the children can help envision and create.

~4~

Sculpt or Scavenge for Saint Maximilian Kolbe Symbols

Source:  Our Lady of Angels Province

As I read about the reliquary used for the pilgrimage, two connected learning-and-sensory activities popped into my head.  The first is to engage the tactile and visual senses in sculpting symbols related to St. Maximilian Kolbe's life.  The second is to use our visual, vestibular, and proprioceptive senses with an outdoor scavenger hunt related to St. Maximilian Kolbe - finding a thorn bush to symbolize the thorny occupation of Poland, a white bloom to represent purity, a red bloom to represent martyrdom, something hair-like in nature to remind us of St. Maximilan Kolbe's beard, Japanese knotwood to remind us of a country the saint had once lived in, etc.

~MORE~

Connect Kids to Learning About St. Maximilian Kolbe

As I read Word on Fire's 9 Things to Know about St. Maximilain Kolbe yet more ideas came to mind.  However, I know we'll be too busy this week to weave many of them in.  Still, I thought I'd share my quick thoughts in case any spark a learning experience idea for you:

• Engage the visual sense in making red or white crowns or visions of Mary paintings.
• Enjoy STEM activities.
• Tour a printing place, radio station, or movie studio.
• Make cards for the imprisoned.
• Share food with the hungry.
• Get involved with the works of an organization that supports families, prisoners, journalists, political prisoners, drug addicts, or pro-life activities -- all things St. Maximilian Kolbe is patron to.

Undoubtedly, there are plenty more resources, ideas, and sensory-smart activities that can engage children in learning more about Saint Maximilian Kolbe.  I would love it if you'd share thoughts and links!  Also, do check if the Pilgrimage of the Relic of St. Maximilian M. Kolbe is headed towards your area as well.

8 Sensory Smart Ways to Celebrate St. Anthony of Padua

Saint Anthony's Feast Day is but a day away on June 13, so, today, I thought I'd offer you eight sensory-smart ways to celebrate St. Anthony of Padua.  That way, whether you want to honor him on his feast day, or do a little bit each day, you'll have plenty of ideas to choose from!

{Disclosure:  This post includes affiliate links to Amazon and Holy Heroes.  If you click through them to make any purchase, we may receive small income.  Thank you, as always, for supporting our endeavor at Training Happy Hearts in our children and ourselves and sharing about it here, whether you do so by purchasing items through our affiliate links, reading and sharing our posts, or simply joining us in prayer.}

~1~

Delight Your Senses with a Visit to Pray at a Church Named After St. Anthony

St. Anthony is a popular saint and many churches are named after him.  Why not try to find one local to you?

If you are anywhere near New Bedford, MA, I would highly recommend going to Mass or simply stopping in to pray at St. Anthony of Padua church. It is one of the most beautiful churches I have seen.  You can take a virtual tour of it online.

Truly, the place provides a visual feast and, being there, stirs the soul.  Of course, participating in Mass at any church provides soul food and a sensory feast, though, so , if you can , on Saint Anthony's Feast Day, get to Mass.

~2~
Enjoy the Auditory Fun of a Saint Anthony of Padua Audio

Long car rides can get tedious for children who like to move and groove, so while bodies are still for our crew, we tend to keep minds and ears engaged.  One way we do this is by listening to Holy Heroes CD's in our minivan.

Photo Credit: Holy Heroes

Holy Heroes CD's make the stories of the saints come alive.  So ride to take today.  So, today, I will be laying hands on our copy of Glory Stories CD Vol 6: Saint Joan of Arc & Saint Anthony from Holy Heroes so we can listen to it anew.
 
If you'd like to listen to the Saint Joan of Arc & Saint Anthony CD, too, and do not own a copy, you're in luck.  It is the Holy Heroes Deal of the Day, so it is a prime time to order one at 13% off!

~3~

Enjoy the Visual Fun of Coloring Free Images of St. Anthony

Although we typically listen to Holy Heroes in our minivan, sometimes we like to listen to the saint stories while playing with LEGOS, doing chores, or coloring, too.  I have already bookmarked two lovely, FREE stained-glass style images of St. Anthony at St. Anne's Helper to print and color this year. A quick Google search can find you many more images to color or paint, too.

~4~

Get Tactile Painting a Peg Doll (or Coloring a Wooden Puppet)

Speaking of coloring, if you have Sharpies, paper scraps, and fabric scraps, plus a wooden ice cream spoon, large craft stick , or wooden kitchen spoon , you can easily engage your tactile senses making a St. Anthony of Padua puppet inspired by Mary Spoon Puppets we made for Mother's Day years back.
 
You could also "level up" by engaging your tactile and visual senses and your fine motor skills to paint a St. Anthony peg doll.  I hope to get my own children inspired to do so tomorrow with the Saint Anthony page in our Encyclopedia of Peg Saints (which we recently reviewed).  I just love the Encyclopedia of Peg Saints and look forward to how the facts and images about St. Anthony in it may inspire a faith-filled time of crafting for our family.
 

  ~5~

 Get Moving with a Scavenger Hunt

St. Anthony's Outdoor Scavenger Hunt

A friend and I have recently recommitted to weekly nature walks for our families, so I am going to share a wonderful idea from Shower of Roses with her and suggest that we engage our children's proprioceptive and vestibular senses as they search high and low completing a St. Anthony's Outdoor Scavenger Hunt this week. 

Since the links to the Shower of Roses St. Anthony of Padua's Outdoor Scavenger Hunt seem to be broken, we will simply used the image of Jessica's hunt as a model for making our own version. 

~6~

Search for Lost Items with a Tactile Sensory Bin

Several years ago, I put together a St. Anthony Seek-and-Find Sensory Bin for an All Saints Day party.  In it were a variety of dry beans and ten "lost objects".  The children loved it and, since then, the bin has made a reappearance at subsequent All Saints Day parties where it remains a hit, as well as on St. Anthony's feast day. 

Children of all ages seem to enjoy the challenge of finding tiny objects among beans.  Try it and see it if yours do, too, but be prepared with a drop cloth underneath or do it on a hard floor to make clean up easier.  Those searching hands can create quite a mess.

~7~
Get Tactile and Visual, then Gustatory, with Painted Basil Pots

 

This past week, our monthly Children's Adoration and More meet-up focused on St. Anthony.  After Adoration and prayer (plus an unplanned break in the sunshine when a fire alarm sounded), we set to painting pots to plant basil in.  

Some of these we made into "Spiritual Bouquets" for the priests who are kind enough to lead our Adoration time by inserting craft sticks with prayer promises written on them.

Others we simply painted and planted with the intention o f decorating our porches with basil pots or giving them away as is customary on Saint Anthony's feast day (as per the Saint Anthony of Padua website.)  We learned about this idea on Catholic Cuisine, where it was suggested that children include images of lily, bread/the Eucharist, the Christ Child, a book, or fish on their pots, since all of these are symbolic of Saint Anthony and his stories.

Of course, not every child did this, but they all enjoyed painting and potting.

~8~
Cuddle in to Read Together

One of my children's favorite calming activities is simply snuggling together to read together.  This year, we'll be reading the sweet story about Saint Anthony in our out-of-print Story Library of Saints, a copy of A Rich Young Man. Saint Anthony, and the simple page with darling illustration of Saint Anthony in a library copy of My Friends the Saints (which sells on Amazon for as little as a penny! and which we already read once at an early St. Anthony feast day celebration.)

I know there are other great St. Anthony books to share with children out there.  We simply do not own them and cannot get them at our local library.  I'd love your recommendations, though, of which ones you've read that would be worth purchasing, so please do share in a comment.

Obviously, we love celebrating saint days here.  If you have fabulous ideas for learning about St. Anthony of Padua and living the liturgical year through celebrating his feast day, we'd welcome them.  Do share.

Give a Tree a Face! (Another Art-N-Nature Idea)

I was hoping to plan a last-minute Hike-n-Art excursion for this month either yesterday, today, or tomorrow, but I hurt my back, so it's going to have to wait.  In the meantime, I am smiling as I look back at our March excursion, which followed suit from our belated February one, where friends gathered for a sunset walk and some land art.  For our March excursion, we did exactly the same thing, only we brought the land art to the trees, exploring how to make mud faces for trees.

I opted, once more, to keep the outing plan simple:

• Meet at a local trailhead 40 minutes or so before sunset.
• Walk the short trail to a lakeside while collecting "art supplies".
• Chat a bit to review/introduce some elements and principles of art and design.
• Create mud faced for trees.
• Enjoy a sunset picnic together.

Three families were able to join us for our March hike.  One that we had not seen since our very first Hike-n-Art excursions, one that we'd only met that day, and one that we've spent plenty of time with over the years who joined us midday was through this excursion after coming from another event.  What a delight it was to reconnect with old friends and make new ones while on our little adventure.


Before we walked out to the pond, I welcomed and introduced everyone and then, showed some inspiration images of tree faces, explaining to the children that I'd give more details on how to create the faces later on.  

Then, I gave each child a plastic shopping bag and challenged them to fill it with small bits and pieces of nature that had interesting textures and colors, being sure not to take too much of any one thing from any one area of the trail and also being sure only to take things that were already loose fallen leaves, interesting pebbles, broken twigs, fallen away pieces of liken, etc., not parts of still-living plants.  The children had fun doing this as they adventured, purposefully sliding down ridges (as in the photo below) and climbing over tree bridges (as in the photo above.  You cannot see from the picture how high the log was, but it was a fair distance off the ground). Once at the lake, we gathered on blankets and began our art chat. Observation of trees helped us review the concept of line, and lines drawn on the ground as well as observation of living and non-living things around us helped us recall/teach the art elements of shape, color, form, texture, value, and space. We also chatted about art principles such as proportion, contrast, rhythm, and pattern.

Then, it was time for our art project.

Children were challenged to make up some mud that would be just damp and thick enough to create a form on a random tree of their choice.  Then, using the items they'd collected along the trail, they were to transform their mud forms into faces, using interesting texture, color, and contrast to create expression.

Getting the mud to just the right consistency proved a bit more challenging than expected, but that was A-okay as it encouraged parents to get right in their with their hands, too!  Of course the sand down by the water was not quite the right consistency for sculpting with, so we added soil hummus from beneath leaves.  Then, we found some clay-like dirt over by a different part of the water's edge, and, mixed that into our mud medium.  Perfect! 
What a sensory experience it was as the grainy sand, damp soil, oozy clay dirt, and cold water all came together.

Once we landed on the "right" mud mix, we were golden (or, perhaps, brown would be a better description.)  The children were able to get their forms to stick to the trunks of leaning trees or to the bases of them and to create some fun faces.

Faces completed to the children's satisfaction, we washed our hands in the cold pond water, dried them on a towel I'd remembered to bring, and, then, sat down to enjoy conversation during a sunset picnic.

One of the families that joined us was right in the middle of pulling a child from school in order to become homeshoolers, so the mom of that family had lots of questions that the rest of us were happy to answer, and the daughter of the family said something that made me so happy.

I had commented to the children that being there, outside, eating together and chatting as the sun set after having created art together made my heart so happy.  The child commented that being with us made her feel so welcome.  She went on to say that she rarely feels welcomed at school, other children exclude her, but not with us.  She felt welcomed right away.  Wow!  THAT is my one of my goals with our Hike-n-Art experiences: to welcome children and adults into nature in a community of exploration, creation, and fun.  I guess we are succeeding with that. 

Beautiful.

Just beautiful.

As we walked out of the woods and back to our cars, my heart burst with thanksgiving for the experience we'd all had.  Sensory-based nature art, fresh air, sunset, old friends, and new.  You cannot go wrong with all that!

Check Out Pics, Reports and Plans from Some of Our Other Art-n-Nature Experiences 

• Create Your Own Art-n-Nature Hiking Club with Five Easy Steps! 
• Planning and Preparing for our First Art-n-Nature Hike on the Element of Line 
• Go on an Art-n-Nature Art Element of Line Hike
• Go on an Art-n-Nature Element of Shape Hike 
• Our Art-n-Nature Element of Color Hike
• Go on an Art-n-Nature Element of Form Hike
• Go on an Art-n-Nature Element of Space Hike
• Go on an Art-n-Nature Element of Value Hike
• Go on an Art-n-Nature Element of Texture Hike
• When the Art-n-Nature Hiking Club Does No Hiking Nor Art... 
• A Last-Minute Sunset Art-n-Nature Picnic  

As soon as my back heals up, I am excited to continue our 2015-2016 Art-n-Nature initiative with at least four final excursions. As I plan forward for them, I would love YOUR suggestions for Spring and Summer art projects that can be enjoyed outdoors.  Please leave links and ideas in a comment or at the Training Happy Hearts Facebook page.  Thank you!