Answering a Request for St. Angela of Merici Activities

Three weeks ago, a woman who follows this blog asked me in a Facebook group if I might develop some activities about Saint Angela de Merici for her to use at a Junior Catholic Daughters for girls aged 6-18.  Since I knew nothing about St. Angela de Merici before that request was made, I got to work educating myself and, then, spent some time in thought and prayer before formulating the collection of ideas I am sharing here for that woman and for anyone who might wish to learn more about  St. Angela Merici or to celebrate her feast day, which will come up on January 27.

I hope my ideas help engage the girls at the Junior Catholic Daughters Court and also bless others with learning about St. Angela Merici, who:

• was founder of the oldest teaching order for women in the Church.
• is patron to bodily ills, disabled people, handicapped people, illness, loss of parents, physically challenged people, sick people, and sickness. 
• was a saint ahead of her time in pioneering education for young women and seeking a way for women to consecrate themselves to God, but not be required to enter a convent, instead "blooming where they were planted".

Learn About St. Angela Merici
 
If you know little about St. Angela de Merici, this video from Catholic Online offers you a quick overview of her life:

You might also enjoy this longer video which will take you on a   virtual sightseeing tour while learning about St. Angela Merici:

Five Activity Stations for Celebrating St. Angela Merici

As I understand the Junior Catholic Daughters is an organization for girls ages 6-18 that falls under the umbrella of the Catholic Daughters of the Americas who seek to:

...participate in the religious, charitable and educational Apostolates of the Church... in creative and spiritual programs... (embracing) the principle of faith working through love in the promotion of justice, equality and the advancement of human rights and human dignity for all.

Thus, in response to the request I received to formulate activities for a Junior Catholic Daughter court, I aimed to pull together some that tie religion, charity, and education together with St. Angela Merici's life and work, balancing ones that younger girls might enjoy with ones that might offer older girls purpose and reflection.  In doing so, I came up with:

• Make a Craft to Remind You of St. Angela Merici's First Vision :  In the 1490's Angela had a vision of a procession of singing angels and young girls, including her deceased sister, who had not received last rights.  This vision assured her that her sister is safe in heaven with the saints.  In connection with this, make paperclip angels like those found at the Crafty Mummy.  For an extra special touch, tuck a small slip of paper with the Eternal Rest prayer printed onto it into the angel's body.  Consider gifting these to a local funeral home or keep them as a reminder to pray for All Souls.

• Recall St. Angela Merici's Second Vision, Helping Girls and Women:  Around 1494, St. Angela of Merici had a second vision of several virgins climbing a ladder to heaven.  This was God's way of showing her that she was to help girls and women.  In memory of this, bring a new or like-new item to be donated to a cause for women and girls - a shelter, a Respect Life charity, or the like.  At your event, set up a ladder with a heavenly blue and white box at its top and climb the ladder to offer your donations.

• Go on a Blind Walk like St. Angela Merici:  A "fun fact" about St. Angela Merici is that, in 1524, she was temporarily blinded while on a pilgrimage in Crete. When she was struck blind, her friends wanted to return home, but she insisted on going on and visited the shrines with as much devotion and enthusiasm as if she had her sight. Then, before going home, while praying before the very same crucifix where she went blind, her sight was restored.  In memory of this, partner up.  In front a crucifix, have your partner put on a blindfold, then, guide your partner that circles back around to the crucifix.  Once here, you become the blind one and have your partner guide you on a trust walk.  After your walks, chat about what it felt like to be blinded, to trust, to guide, to regain sight, etc.  Liken your experience to our dependence on trusting God to guide us. 

 

• Create a Tool to Teach:  In 1535, St. Angela founded the Company of St. Ursula which had a mission for educating girls. Create a teaching tool for sharing about St. Ursula and her mission with others.  Using cardstock, scissors, glue sticks, tape, markers, colored pencils, images of St. Angela Merici, some quotes from her, and a host of decorative items such as stickers, ribbons, etc.,   create a scrapbook page about St. Angela's life.  A pdf of The Life of St. Angela Merici from the Ursuline Sisters website might be helpful to you as would the free St. Angela Merici coloring page from Catholic Playground.

• Pray at the Feet of Jesus Christ:  St. Angela Merici once said, "Let your first refuge be at the feet of Jesus Christ." She also had  a miracle happen to her when praying in front of a crucifix.  Modeling after her devotion to praying at Jesus' feet, pray the  Litany of St. Angela Merici found at Catholic Culture at the foot of a statue of Jesus or at the foot of a crucifix.  Or, choose a much shorter prayer, like the Prayer to St. Angela Merici found at St. Angela Merici Catholic Church.

Saint Angela,
you were not afraid of change.
You did not let stereotypes keep you from serving.
Help us to overcome our fear of change in order to follow God's call and allow others to follow theirs.
Amen.

Curriculum Connections

I also fell upon some free resources online that could be used for more "academic" pursuits.

• Geography and History:  I found a pdf of a tourist map and religious guide of The Most Important Spots of Saint Angela Merici's Life on an Italian city's website. I can see printing this out and using it to practice map reading or to learn more about Saint Angela Merici.  It might also be fun to use this printable as a model for mapping the life of others saints.

• History, Math, and More:  On the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph site, there is a printable timeline about Saint Angela Mercici's life.  This could be used, of course, for studying the history of Saint Angela Mercici.  It would also lend itself nicely to making up story problems for math practice or to being a quick-look resource for a fast facts for a quiz game about the saint.

• Copywork or Studied Dictation:  The Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph also offer a brief biography and a 52 week collection of words of wisdom from St. Angela.  The wise words could be ideal for creating copywork, practicing studied dictation, making graphic word art, or decorating scrapbook type pages about St. Angela Mercici.  There is also a 43-page printable of the Saint's writings taken from he book "Commentary on the Writings of Saint Angela Merici" by M. Ignatius Stone, OSU.

• Picture Study/Art:  There is an iconic image of St. Angela Merici on the Saint Angela Merici Catholic Church website in which a "ladder represents a vision she had of heaven opening and angels traveling between heaven and earth," an arrow symbolizes St. Ursula's martyrdom, and a cluster of "grapes are symbolic of the eucharistic blood of Christ and also of her family's vineyard. Even more it symbolizes the cluster of women she drew together in such a unique and progressive way."  The image could be sued as the basis of a picture study or could inspire an art project where everyone creates their own image of St. Angela using symbolism to represent aspects of her life and work

 

Online Biographies

These were some of the online resources I drew information from:

• Franciscan Media's Saint Angela Mercici
• Loyola Press St. Angela Merici 
• The Company of St. Ursula's Our Foundress St. Angela Merici
• Holy Spirit Interactive's St. Angela Merici
• Mary Pages' St. Angela Merici
• Saint Patrick Church's Saint of the Day
• Saints Resource's Angela Merici 

I enjoyed learning about St. Angela Merici and putting this post together to honor the request of a Training Happy Hearts reader.  I pray that my work will bring fruit for her, her Junior Catholic Daughters Court, and for you should you choose to use any of the ideas here.  If you do use them, I'd love to hear how things went.  I'd also welcome you to add your own St. Angela Merici links and ideas in the comments to benefit others.

If you have requests for ideas about other saints, do let me know.

St. Angela Merici, pray for us!

Thinking Like an Engineer {An Innovators Tribe Review}

When my oldest child heard about an opportunity to review Thinking Like an Engineer from Innovators Tribe, he was excited to get started with it.  Self-paced, independent, online, and with an opportunity to learn about CAD (computer aided design)  Yep!  He dug right in to explore the fields of applied science, design, and technology and only began to slow down when he hit the part about making paper gears - which has been a challenge for him.  (But challenges are good!)

What Is Thinking Like and Engineer?

Thinking Like an Engineer is an online curriculum created by Wayne Kroeplin (also known as Mr. K) to foster creative problem solving and thinking skills in students at a 6th-12th grade level.  The curriculum is delivered completely online, so, of course, you need a reliable computer and internet service to partake in it.  You also need a variety of easy-to-find materials for hands-on projects the course directs you to do.

The course is easy to navigate and self-paced.  When you log in, you are brought to a dashboard where you can access pre-recorded lessons which include slide shows and videos.  There are also downloadable printable unit journal pages to help focus students on certain parts of lessons, highlighting important terms and concepts.  Plus, of  course, there are opportunities for research as well as hands-on challenges which encourage you to put into practice ideas discussed in lessons.

The entire course is meant to take about 30 hours and to equal 1/4 credit for high school students.  However, like any self-paced course, it can take less or more time depending on your personal level of skill, knowledge, effort, and interest.

Regardless of pacing, Thinking Like an Engineer makes it easy to pick up where you left off, since each time you log back in you can click a link to continue right where you left off previously.

Some of the topics included in the course are:

• What is an engineer?
• Types of Engineers
• Types of Problems Solved or Studied by Engineers
• Real World Examples of Engineering and Problem Solving
  Intro to 3D Design
• Engineering Rollercoasters
• Engineering Bridges
• Nano Engineering
• Thinking Like and Engineer

These are presented in several units broken down into sub-units, which makes the course easy to pace.  

Within the units, you will find plenty of hands-on challenges, too, including

• making a tower of paper five feet tall using minimal materials
• creating a water filtering system
• designing computer-aided design projects (which uses downloadable 3D software)

Perhaps best of all, your subscription is open for to your whole  family and, even when it ends, the downloadable software you use during the course is yours to keep.  With this in mind, now that my family's crazy fall schedule is winding down, my two  younger children and I plan to begin using the course together, following in the footsteps of my oldest son, so our entire family can
fully  benefit from the program.

Truth be told, my younger two and I have already dabbled alongside my oldest at times.  One night, we all got caught up on videos from the course about 3-D printers and their real world applications in everything from marketing high-priced, designer

models of pets to making food for astronauts to constructing huge buildings.  It was fascinating to see where 3-D printing technology is going.

Likewise, all of my children have already been  enjoying dabbling with the 3-D design software my oldest downloaded as a part of the course. Thinking Like an Engineer is right up our homeschool happiness and learning engagement alley!

 What My Son Thought

As I said, my oldest (at eleven) was the one we got Thinking Like an Engineer for and he immediately dove in to the program.  He was in a more hands-on mood (in other words NOT keen on writing, but on doing) when I asked him to write his thoughts out for this review, and so all he ended up sharing was:

This is course that teaches you about engineering using videos, slides, and activities. I liked this program.  I REALLY liked the Computer Design.  I don't like the paper gear making.  

I think this would be good for kids who like both hands on and computer stuff.

Succinct, yet accurate opinions, he offered.

Some Final Thoughts

In college, I was an acting major that lived in a dorm of mostly engineers.  I did not get a lot of what they studied and they didn't get what I was skilled at.  In fact, although we respected, enjoyed, and helped one another, it often seemed like we spoke different languages.  Their math-science speak was something I never thought I would get. 

Fast forward to my recent homeschooling years, and I've been discovering that I get more STEM stuff than I ever thought I would and enjoy it, too - especially when it does not require me to be super old-school "mathy" or "sciency", remembering formulas, theories, etc.  Thinking Like an Engineer falls in line with this. 

The course introduces concepts, encouraged research, and teaches how you can think like an engineer without getting you stuck in a mire of advanced math or science.  Thus, it is perfect to whet your appetite for further engineering studies, providing a solid, engaging, and accessible base upon which to build.

Instruction is understandable and anything but boring.  Topics are interesting (and - caution - can lead to bunny trails!)  Hands-on challenges balance online learning.  Software downloads and plenty of provided links prompt further exploration.  Thinking Like an Engineer is definitely a course I would recommend for anyone with middle schoolers on up that love computer learning, projects, and STEM.

Learn More

Through 11/11/21017 all Innovators Tribe are 35% off!  That includes:

There's also a new course coming out, which I am excited about, because I think it would be right up all of my children's alleys:

Seventy-five Homeschool Review Crew families tried Innovators Tribe courses.  Click through the banner to read how students of different ages and skill sets enjoyed either the Engineering or Architect programs.

 

Thin Stix Creativity Pack Review and Giveaway

If you've been visiting here for some time, you already know I am a fan of no-mess, quick dry, tempera paint sticks from The Pencil Grip, Inc.  My children, our friends, and I just love how easy it is to create vibrantly colored crafts and artwork with them, and, we are now excited to be creating with the 24 paint sticks that came as a part of the Thin Stix Creativity Pack we recently received for review!

When our Thin Stix Creativity Pack came in, my children noticed the new colors in right away:

Bright neons...

... and handy metallics...

... came in the pack along with the regular rainbow of bright colors, black, white, and brown that we were already familiar with

Right away, my daughter asked if she could break into our new Thin Stix Creativity Pack.

And, since, then, our Creativity Pack has been being grabbed for all sorts of uses, including my youngest making wrapping paper, all my children painting for fun...

 
...and, my oldest making "St. Peter's Keys" for his All Saints Day costume by using our new metallic Thin Stix to paint cardboard cut outs.

The paints have also come in handy at group gatherings - including our St. Luke celebration, where I needed something easy to paint with outside at a breezy beachside playground in honor of St. Luke patron to artists and painters...

... and All Saints Day party, where toddlers to preteens enjoyed creating artwork at the "St. Luke's Studio" table using Thin Stix and other supplies.

The simple uncap-twist-up-and-paint design of Thin Stix made them super-simple for children of all ages to enjoy at our party.  No water cups, smocks, or paint palettes were needed.

The handy plastic tray our Thin Stix came in also made  it easy for the children to respect our materials, taking a paint stick, using it, and putting it back with ease.  Not a single paint stick got lost or destroyed during our two hours of frolicking faith fun despite each and every stick in the pack, I think, getting use!

So, obviously, our family and friends love and appreciate our Thin Stix Creativity Pack both for its ease of use and for the fun we have painting with it.

The paint sticks can be used on paper, wood, posterboard, and more, and the solid paint is washable, nontoxic, and nut-, egg-, and gluten-free.  It also dries in 90 seconds with a true paint finish that won't crack.  Truly, these paint sticks let you have all the fun of painting without all the mess and make painting things relatively large (like St. Peter's keys!) or small easy.

Want to try them yourself?  You can find the Thin Stix Creativity Pack online at BJ's Wholesale for the discounted price of $19.99 (regularly priced for $24.99). You can also enter our giveaway!

Enter our Thin Stix Creativity Pack Giveaway

We love our Thin Stix Creativity Pack and are delighted that The Pencil Grip, Inc. has been generous enough to offer an additional set of these fabulous no-mess, quick-drying paint sticks for us to giveaway to one lucky Training Happy Hearts reader over the age of 18 from the United States - maybe you!  (Sorry if you are not a U.S. resident, but this giveaway is only open to U.S. residents.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway
 
One winner will be chosen at random and announced on our Facebook Page as well as through an email.  So long as that winner responds within 24 hours, the Thin Stix are theirs.  If the person doesn't, another winner will be chosen.  Good luck!

Of course, to win, there is no purchase necessary, the number of eligible entries received determine the odds of winning, and please void where prohibited by law.
 
Learn More

You can find The Pencil Grip, Inc. on Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.



 

See what 100 Schoolhouse Review Crew families created with the Thin Stix Creativity Pack by clicking through the banner.

You might also like our prior reviews:

 

 
 

Take a Few Minutes of Your Day to Help Holy Souls

It's Sunday - a day to set aside for rest and service - and, since it's between November 1-8, one Work of Mercy you can easily partake in is praying for dead.  Indeed, if you go to a cemetery and pray for the dearly departed, you can gain indulgence applied to Holy Souls. 

It's not difficult to do, and it can truly become a beautiful tradition of prayer for you and your family.  I know this, because stopping by a cemeteries to pray for Holy Souls between November 1-8 has become a peaceful and pleasurable annual tradition for my children and me. 

We are blessed to live within walking distance of a cemetery, so some days, we just go for a stroll in order to pray for the dead, visiting familiar graves and noticing new ones. Other days, we invite friends to join us.  And, still other days, we stop at roadside cemeteries on our way to and from activities and errands, sometimes spending only a few minutes to pray and, at other times, making longer forays to explore, pray, and chat.  During these longer stops, so much comes up in conversation - history, art, nature study, precepts of our faith...  It's amazing what a simple stop at a cemetery can elicit.

I truly encourage you to take time to visit a cemetery and pray for Holy Soul today, over he next few days, and even throughout the year.

To Gain an Indulgence by Stopping by a Cemetery to Pray for Holy Souls

After praying for a Holy Soul on All Souls Day at a local cemetery

You can actually gain indulgences for Holy Souls any day of the year by stopping to pray at a cemetery, but doing so between November 1-8 makes the indulgence plenary.  

November is the month the Catholic Church dedicates to remembering Holy Souls, and the Church offers a special eight day opportunity for the faithful to receive an indulgence for a particular soul - a grandparent, a friend, a relative, even an unknown - at the beginning of the month.  On each day between November 1-8, a person seeking a plenary indulgence for a soul must:

"Visit to a Cemetery. 

An indulgence, applicable only to the Souls in Purgatory, is granted to the faithful, who devoutly visit a cemetery and pray, even if only mentally, for the departed. 

The indulgence is plenary each day from the 1st to the 8th of November; on other days of the year it is partial."

A person must also ensure these four conditions:

1. Have an interior disposition of complete detachment from sin, even venial sin.  (If you attempt to receive a plenary indulgence, but are unable to meet this condition, a partial indulgence is received instead.)
2. Sacramentally confess sins 20 days before or after the indulgenced act of visiting a cemetery to pray. (One confession suffices for several plenary indulgences.)
3. Receive the Holy Eucharist 20 days before or after the indulgenced act of visiting a cemetery to pray. (A separate Holy Communion is required for each plenary indulgence.)
4. Pray for the intentions of the Pope. (An Our Father and a Hail Mary are suggested and a separate prayer is required for each plenary indulgence.)

Please join us in praying for the dearly departed!  If you have a particular soul you'd like us to pray for, just let us know, and, also, please join us in praying for unknown souls, as well as for Nana (Theresa), who we lost this year.  Thank you.

Developing Reading Skills Through Fun Stories with Good Morals {A Magic Stories Review}

When we were given an opportunity to review The Magic Stories by Allsaid & Dunn, LLC, publishers of The Reading Game and authors of the Wordly Wise series, I was excited, since I knew I could use it with both my struggling reader and my right-age one.



The Magic Stories is a supplemental reading program designed to help children at a 2nd/3rd grade reading level develop strong reading, comprehension, and writing skills while enjoying tales that contain morals.  As I understand, the program was specifically written as a follow up for children who have used The Reading Game, however, I can say from experience that familiarity with The Reading Game is not a prerequisite for using The Magic Stories. (We've never seen the Reading Game before here.)

What Is Magic Stories?

The Magic Stories, as I mentioned above, is a supplemental reading program that contains stories and exercises.  It comes as a pdf download which is optimized for an IPAD or computer screen so that those who do not wish to use up supplies printing each of the program's six 20-or-so page stories can simply read them on-screen.  I chose, however, to print some of the stories in booklet form since my struggling reader prefers books-in-hand over a screen-in-hand.  Because the pdf pages include plenty of white space and a good-sized font, this worked well for us.

You may be wondering what is so "magic" about Magic Stories.  Literally, each of the stories contains an element of magic in its plot.

• The Magic Hole features Ping Ho and his family, who are very poor and are stymied by a magic hole that keeps appearing in their lives and reeking havoc.  They lose rice, money, and even an entire fishing lake due to the hole, but, in the end, are able to take a bad situation and make it better than they could have ever imagined.

• The Magic Ax tells the tale of a young boy prefers to play in the forest than to help his father chop wood, untl one day, his father breaks his leg, and the boy has no choice but to chop wood for his family.  On his first day doing so, the boy makes meager efforts, dawdling and not even filling the bottom of a cart.  Then, however, he is met with a magic ax that does all his work for him.  Though he feels guilty for taking the credit for the magic ax's work he continues doing so for quite some time.  Then, the ax fails him, and he knows he has to step up to work for his family.  Before long, his work becomes easier as he is no longer burdened by the heavy secret he'd been keeping.

• The Magic Joke has a princess who ends a war with a Magic Joke.  Her father, though, isn't happy about this since he wanted to win the war and take over the enemy kingdom.  He ends up reading the magic joke, however, and being so overcome with laughter that his daughter is able to take over ruling their country, and, in turn,  uniting the once-warring kingdoms with love instead of violence.

• The Magic Hot Dog is about a boy named Alfred only wants to eat hot dogs.  In fact, he ends up spending all his money at a fair on 10 hot dogs, and, then, sees a man eating a hot dog that never seems to get any smaller. Of course, Alfred wants that hot dog and, indeed, takes it.  Too bad for him, though - he eats so much he ends up floating away.

• The Magic Boots is about a young girl named Patty who wants a pair of Pixy Boots that she has seen in her book, but, instead, ends up with Goblin Boots.  Poor her!  Those boots cause so much trouble.  Luckily, though, in he end, things go right.

• The Magic Box is a Rum-pel-tilt-skin which is written  partly in rhyming verse in partly in paragraph form.  In it, Rum-pel-tilt-skin tricks people into handing over gold to get "magic" straw from a "magic" box.  However, in the end, Rum-pel-tilt-skin's trickery is revealed and he end up meeting his demise in a tantrum.

More figuratively, Magic Stories aim to make literacy skills "magically" unfold in children by engaging them  in stories and activities that help them practice pre-existing phonemic awareness and phonics, while developing fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension skills.Included in the activities accompanying each story are:

• Naughty 40 Flashcards and Assessment: Each story contains 40 new "naughty words" - words that are not easily decoded using basic phonics.  These words come in easy-to-print flashcards that you simply cut and play with.  They also contain the target words in sentences to aid in vocabulary comprehension/context in reading.  Pre- and post- reading assessments for thee words are also included.

• A Comprehensions Maze:  These clever True or False quizzes for each story are designed as mazes to keep children engaged.

• A Finish the Sentence Sheet:  This simple worksheet encourages students to summarize and write in their own words, building comprehension and writing skills.

• A Finish The Story Prompt:  Imaginative children will enjoy exercising their creativity to write their own stories inspired by the ones they have just read.

Additionally, there are running record sheets provided free on the Magic Stories website and a brief Parent/Teacher guide for those that like to borrow ideas for structuring lessons.

The only thing "missing" is an answer key for those who don't want to read the stories and figure out the correct answers for the activities themselves, but, truly, these are not necessary since the stories and exercises are quite simple.  (Simple but effective.)

Our Experience and Thoughts

My struggling reader was the one I was most excited to use The Magic Stories with, since I thought doing so would help her build skills at a level she could handle.  I also knew my second grader could benefit from the program since he is at the "right" age (and skill level) for it. 


As things turned out, the "Naughty Words" were a bit too naughty for my struggling reader at first - as were a few of the meant-to-be-decodable words in the stories, and the writing portions of the program did not thrill my second grader.  That doesn't mean, however, that The Magic Stories were not fruitful for us.  In fact, I liked that I could pick and choose how to use the program to meet each child where she or he is at.

For my older child, this meant slowing way down to include plenty of repetition through games with the "Naughty Words" in conjunction with "tag reading" some of the stories.  We still haven't finished all of the stories with her, and, since our primary goal is reading right now, I have not been doing the writing exercise with her.  Since she enjoys storytelling, though, I do plan to cycle around to read some of the stories again with her as a review before having her enjoy the included story writing activities.

With my second grader, this meant just letting him read and enjoy the stories, while also inviting him to play word card games with his sister and me.  This kept him focused on the fun of the stories and vocabulary, without worrying about writing, which we do in other ways.  He said:

"I liked it.  The Magic Hole was good.  It was appearing everywhere and was funny!  I like the stories."

My struggling reader said:

"I liked how easy the stories were to read and that they were entertaining.  Before we read the stories, we practiced the hard words first with cards.  I could not read some of the cards, so we played games with them until I could.  Then, my brother, my mom, and I tag-read the stories.  There were still some words I didn't know, but I liked the story.  I also like that there was a lot of white space and illustrations.  We decided to save the worksheets."

I surprised and pleased me that she considered the stories easy to read, because, on all honesty, she has not been breezing through them.  More important, though, than her pace with the stories is her confidence.  Obviously, if she says the stories were "easy", she is gaining confidence.   Awesome!


If you'd like to learn more about Magic Stories or connect with them, find them at:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheReadingGame/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheReadingGame2
• Pinterest: https://au.pinterest.com/TheReadingGame/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVfPcsCZ7zyM7kjiD5Qjn5g

You can also see how 55 Review Crew families liked Magic Stories by clicking through the banner below.