Paintings by Request at the Nursing Home

When we visited Nana at her nursing home last spring, the weather was beautiful, which meant we could enjoy taking Nana out to a gazebo to eat al fresco, chat, make dandelion crowns, float boats, and, frankly, just let the kids be kids while spending time with their grandmother.

More recently, when we visited my in-law's for a week, the weather was not as pleasant.  This meant I had to get creative in channeling the kids' energies so we could spend both quality and quantity time indoors at the nursing home. 

One day this meant turning the nursing home's activity room into an art studio.

Each of the children asked Nana what she wanted them to paint and what colors she liked.  Then, with trash bags covering the table and the kids, paint we did.
 

Upon request, Luke went straight to work painting a magnificent bird with golden details "to make it special".  His artwork was slightly inspired by exotic birds we'd observed on a trip to the National Aviary, but, mostly, it flowed from his imagination.

(Note:  Some of the links that follow are affiliate ones.) 

Nina opted to do pencil outlines before painting what Nana had requested of her:  butterflies.  Undoubtedly, her painting was inspired by three recent experiences:

• a wonderful metamorphosis that took place on our kitchen table recently, when we raised several monarch caterpillars to adulthood.
• reading An Extraordinary Life: The Story of a Monarch Butterfly together as a bedtime story over a few nights.
• viewing the stunning Metamorphosis: The Beauty and Design of Butterflies video.

It is so fun to see how life inspires art and art inspires life with Nina.
 

 Nana requested that Jack paint her a surprise.  Upon hearing this, Jack's grin forewarned me about what he wanted to paint: a battle!  That boy just loves battles.  So, as Jack took a pencil in hand to sketch what he would paint, I decided to head off potentially fearsome scenes by suggesting that Nana might like something more cheerful than a battle on the canvas.

Thus, inspired by a scene in Mole Music, a picture book-CD combo that we'd enjoyed during our long drive to visit Nana and Papa, Jack created a "party" scene of folks about to battle that did not actually battle.
 

 Meanwhile, I was left with Nana's request for a basket of flowers.  Being less than a stellar artist, and knowing it would take me too long to paint flowers in a basket, I opted to simply paint one close up of a flower with some of Nana's favorite colors in the painting. 

As the kids and I painted, Nana sometimes looked on and chatted with the kids and sometimes simply visited with Daddy and Papa or  watched television.

Nursing home staff who were preparing other parts of the room for a resident Bingo game paused to "oo" and "ahhh" over our impromptu art studio.  Other residents who wheeled into the room smiled and offered commentary as well.  And, of course, Nana said she liked her paintings.

The paintings dried fairly quickly and are all set to hang in her room now, bringing cheer and memories. 

Painting canvases by request is definitely an activity that proved successful at the nursing home for us.  Perhaps some elderly or infirm folks in your life would enjoy experiencing your littles do similarly.

All Natural Products for Your Body {A Koru Naturals Review}

We have been quite lucky for the past month or so to test out Skin Clear Cream,  Manuka Honey Propolis Soap, and Emu Oil Shampoo and Emu Oil Leave-in Conditioner by Koru Naturals.

Regular readers might recall how the last Koru Naturals products we tried had us smiling:

I particularly loved how the Emu Oil that we tested out worked to tame my oft frizz-monster-mess hair.  Unfortunately, no body products can tame my mile-a-minute brain, nor the fact that, sometimes, my personal mean-to-do's don't get done.  You know, things like ordering a refill of the Emu Oil. 

Thus, when the opportunity to review Emu Oil Shampoo and Emu Oil Leave-in Conditioner came up, I jumped at it.  A summer of swimming in pools, ponds, and oceans with the kids, coupled with failing to get regular trims, had my hair looking even worse than usual.  I hoped the Emu Oil Shampoo and Emu Oil Leave-in Conditioner might help.


Did it?

Yes and no.

Since beginning to use these products, my hair has definitely felt clean and has not gotten any worse.  However, I think the sheer number of split ends that I developed when abusing my hair throughout the summer has simply been too much even for the "magic" of emu oil and keratin to repair.  The long and short of things is that I need to book a hair appointment for a trim, but, until I do, I am happy to have the Emu Oil Shampoo and Emu Oil Leave-in Conditioner to keep any further damage at bay.  I also look forward to seeing what the products can do for my hair after all the current dead ends have been trimmed away. 

I am confident that using the rest of our Emu Oil Shampoo and Emu Oil Leave-in Conditioner will help keep further split ends at bay despite tight pony tails, winter swim lessons with the kids, dry indoor heat, etc.  Part of my confidence comes from the fact that the conditioner is a leave-in one.  That means the keratin, which can help prevent breakage and split ends, does not simply get washed down the drain.  Instead, it sprays on and stays.  Plus, the handy spray bottle it comes in allows me to take a moment or two to put extra concentration on the worser parts of my curls (the ends!)

My daughter likes the spray bottle, too.  Perhaps a little too much.  When I fail to remind her not to be too heavy handed with it, she sometimes goes to town spraying away, and, although the product label does suggest using a generous amount, I don't think anyone is meant to use as much as my daughter sometimes does.  Doing so leaves her hair looking less than stellar some days.  However, when she uses appropriate amounts of the conditioner, it shows... in a positive way! 

My boys tend not to use the conditioner, but do use the shampoo without complaint and with good results.  Their hair (when they shower and shampoo) gets "squeaky clean" and looks great.



My hair was not the only part of me that took a beating this summer.  My skin did, too.  As I age, it gets drier and drier, it seems, and, summer surf and sun does not help. 

I have never been one to use skin products on a daily basis, but am trying to get in the habit of using them more.  At my last physical, in fact, the nurse practitioner commented on how dry my skin is and on how I could use a more consistent regime for moisturization.  Enter Skin Clear Cream.

This product contains:

• raw, unpasteurized Manuka Honey
• pure steam-distilled East Cape Manuka Oil, Kawakawa and Harakeke (which are two traditional Maori remedies for many skin conditions)
•  Burdock Root (which is a Chinese root traditionally used for skin conditions that is rich in several minerals)
• Thyme (a natural astringent and anti-inflammatory extract from leaves)
• and Canadian Aspen Bark (a natural preservative). 

Better still, like all the products in the NZ Fusion line, it contains no parabens, artificial colorants, or fragrances.  It does, however, contain something that causes it to be labeled with a warning not to use the product on young children or pregnant moms. 

I know that many herbs, remedies, and natural products contain similar warnings and am not exactly sure which ingredient in this product acts as the catalyst warning.   However, since I am not pregnant and am also aware that children, pregnant moms, and nursing moms must take care when using many herbs, natural remedies, etc. I have yet to prioritize researching this point further.


Instead, I simply try to remember to make using the Skin Clear Cream a part of my daily routine.  "Try" is the key word here since routines are hard for me to change.  So, I admit, instead of using the creme twice daily as recommended, I end up using it once every few days.  Happily, even with such sporadic use, I find the product works well moisturizing my skin.  A little goes a long way and, now that I am used to its scent and texture, I am simply working on the habit of actually taking a moment each day to put it on.  My skin will thank me for doing so, I know.  It already does when I remember to put the creme on.
 



Now, what is that old saying:  "save the best for last".  Oh, yes, I have!  Can I say how much I love the Manuka Honey Propolis Soap?

It comes so cutely packaged and looks so inviting once it is in the shower, with its opaque creamy texture on one side and a more see-through color on the other, plus that cute little bee imprint.  And the scent?  Oooo, the scent is divine!  I tell you, the first time I used the soap, I came out of the shower wanting to eat something that smelled just like it.  (Thank goodness I might be the first person in history to blame weight gain on a bar of soap!)

The soap not only looks and smelly wonderful, though.  It cleans skin gently and has natural anti-bacterial properties.  It also seems to be helping to moisturize my children and my skin instead of drying it out like some soaps do. 

The bar is a good size and seems to last despite being well-loved.  When it does disappear, I must prioritize re-ordering some... and getting more Emu Oil while I am at it.

Again, I am impressed with Koru Naturals products.  It feels good using natural products to keep hair and skin healthy and I would recommend any of the products we have tried. Our positive experience with six products so far makes me confident that other Koru Natural products would be easy and effective to use, too.  If you'd like to learn more about some of them, please check out other Schoolhouse Review Crew reviews.  One hundred families each tried some of the following products:

• Skin Clear Cream
• Manuka Honey Propolis Soap
• Argan Oil and Sandalwood Hair Tonic
• Emu Oil and Blue Tansy Oil Cream
• Emu Oil Shampoo and Emu Oil Leave-in Conditioner
• Manuka Honey and Manuka Oil Facial Cleanser  
• Manuka Honey, Tamarind and Manuka Oil Facial Toner

Koru Naturals can be found on Facebook and Pinterest. 

Explore the Wing on a Flea: Hands-On Geometry with Picture Books

For months now I have been focusing my children on S.K.I.L.L. T.I.M.E. + during some of our longer stretches of time at home. The “T” in this acronym refers to “Think, Read, and Write about Math”. To support my children’s efforts to do just that, I keep our “T”  shelf well-stocked with living math books and related supplies. 

(Note: Some of the links that follow are affiliate ones.  You may read our full disclosure.)

This past month, The Wing on a Flea was among the books on our “T” shelf, and what fun it was! I just love how Ed Emberly ignites children’s imaginations in The Wing on a Flea and helps them to begin to see shapes in art and in the world around them.

Each time my children and I read the book, we noticed fun new details in its illustrations and also connected elements within the artwork to those we had focused on in prior Art-n-Nature mini-lessons. The children quickly noticed how Ed Emberly used color, shape, positive space, negative space, etc. to create the simple, yet lively artwork in The Wing on a Flea . They also found the artwork inspiring. 

One day, when Luke and Nina had a class and Jack and I had some 1:1 time in a hallway nearby, a combo of The Wing on a Flea and some miniature magnet rods and balls we had brought with us became fodder for fun and learning. 
  

Jack and I read the book together and, then, I set Jack loose with the rods and balls. First, he created the shapes in the book, noticing how his created triangle fit perfectly into the triangle on one of the book pages…

  
…but how his rectangle was too large to do so… 

 … and how he could not create a circle with straight lines, but could substitute a sphere for one. 

When attempting to see if he could make a circle, Jack made an octagon, so we paused his free explorations to review the names and number of sides of a number of polygons not mentioned in The Wing on a Flea . Then, Jack went onto 3-d free explorations. He built “a fence”… 

 
… and, then, a three-dimensional, roofed structure. 

Another time, after re-reading The Wing on a Flea , I offered my children paper, scissors, stick glue, and foam shapes. Nina, in particular, enjoyed creating her own artwork using triangles, rectangles and circles as inspired by the book. She delighted in narrating her artwork to me and in pointing out how she chose to use each basic shape. 

Simple? Yes. Engaging? You bet! Worthwhile? I’d absolutely say so.

Art, math, and imagination are all inspired by The Wing on a Flea. I’d recommend getting ahold of a copy.

I'd also recommend getting some mini-magnet rods and balls, a long-time favorite here.  I'd love to offer a link to where to get then, but since we bought ours from a Montessori supplier going-out-of-business sale years and have never been able to find any like it since, I cannot.  The closest thing I've found are Goobi, but they are not quite the same.  So, if you know of wooden ones like ours, please do let me know where we might get more.  Thanks! 

What are some of your favorite math-related picture books? Have any inspired fun activities for your children?

Draw and Learn the 50 States {A Drawing Around the World: USA Review}

I just love when we're offered an opportunity to review a product that dovetails perfectly with our planned homeschool activities for the year.  Such was the case when we were offered an e-copy of Drawing Around the World: USA by Brookdale House. 

This year, the kids' monthly geography club is focusing on regions of the United States.  Between meetings, the children choose their own special interest topics and put together five minute "expert reports" to share with friends.  To supplement club meetings, we also read related books, sometimes watch videos, and, now, with thanks to Drawing Around the World: USA, gather to:
 

• learn the names, shapes, and placement of each state.
• memorize the names of state capitals.
• and create information sheets about each state.

Wonderful!  

We loved our geography club experience last year, but I came away with wishing that I'd been better about having the children document their learning in a form which they might look back upon in years to come.  So, this year, I am determined to be more consistent with geography notebooking between club meetings and Drawing Around the World: USA makes that easier!  

What's in Drawing Around the World: USA?


   

We received Drawing Around the World: USA as a digital download that opens with Adobe Reader into a 282 page e-book.

The first pages of the e-book offer straightforward instructions about how to use the curriculum as well as tips and links for further explorations.  Then, the bulk of the book is made up of printable pages that will carry students through becoming more familiar with the United States and being able to draw, from memory, each state in relation to the other states.  In fact, if the materials are used as suggested, four times a week for 5-20 minutes a session, students can learn all 50 states, their capitals, their shapes, and their positions in just 27 weeks.

To use the curriculum as directed, on day one of any given week, your child:

• traces an outline of a particular state (or several states , depending on the week)
•  draws another outline freehand
• learns and writes down state facts (such as the state capital, the state's abbreviation, the date the state entered the union, the state bird, the state flower, and industry within the states)
•  traces the state on a large map of the United States
• and draws all the states learned to date.

 

Then, one days two and three, your child, again:

• locates and labels each new state on a black and white dashed-line map
• and draws all the states learned thus far on an outline.

Finally, on day four, your child:

• lists, from memory, the states studied to date
• uses a blank textbox to draw, from memory, states learned or completed optional timed tests. 

Our Start with Drawing Around the World: USA

After receiving Drawing Around the World: USA, I printed out the full color state and capital maps, which the kids cut and glued onto cardstock to place in their geography notebooks for reference.

 

Then, because I noticed that many of the day 2, day 3 and day 4 pages were almost identical, I opted to save ink by printing out only one of each style of page per child, which amounted to a single:

• dotted-line map of the USA
• frame map 
• and lined page for listing the states and capitals.

I helped the children slip these into page protectors and put them in their notebooks.

I, then, printed out the first six state information pages for the children to complete and mount on cardstock for their geography notebooks.  The children used regular and colored pencils to trace, draw, and color the states on these.  Then, depending on each child's ability, they either researched information in library books, on state flashcards, and online to complete the pages, or simply copied what Mom and big brother had found and written down.

After that, we used dry erase markers to locate, draw and label the states on the maps we had put in page protectors and also wrote the names and abbreviations for the states.
 

Thus, we were off to a strong start on integrating the resource materials into our geography notebooks... 

Our Continued Approach and Thoughts

The children agreed that Drawing Around the World: USA came into our home an an opportune time and are happily willing to use it, although not at the pace and with the repetition recommended. 

Together, we have decided to take the states in a slightly different order than they are presented in the book so as to match them up with the regions which we are focusing on in geography club. We have also opted to speed up the pace of our studies during months when our club focuses on regions that have more states and to slow down when we study regions with fewer states.  Due to this, the daily rhythm of repetition inherent in the program gets a bit lost for us, but we're okay with that.  We appreciate that we are still able to do a little bit several days a week and to integrate the program into our overall geography studies for the year.

As we have been using the program, I have noted the convenience of the e-book format: I can print only the pages we need and can print as many copies of them as I want for my three children to use.  However, I have also thought it would be nice to have a pre-printed copy of the book, especially for my nine-year-old.  I know he could progress with the materials at his own pace if he had the entire thing printed instead of waiting for me to print pages.  I also think it would be interesting to see how his drawings, handwriting, etc. developed over time on pencil-on-paper pages that we could look back on as opposed to on dry-erase marker-and-page-protector pages that we wipe clean after each use.  (Yes, I know I could just print and bind him a copy, but 200+ pages requires a lot of expensive printer ink!)

I have also thought, more than once, that I'd like to see hints or associations for drawing the states, such as "Vermont is shaped a bit like the letter that starts its name," or, "Brrrr.  Maine gets chilly in the winter, Doesn't it look a bit like a mitten?"  Putting hints like these in graphics or callouts would add interest to pages that begin to look and feel a bit rote after a while to kids like mine.  They would also help the children remember each state's shape.  Since such tips are not already on the pages, I encourage my children to come up with their own associations.  It's not always easy, though, and I'd sure like some ready-made ones!

Even without helpful association and memory hints, Drawing Around the World: USA is a resource we are happy to have at our fingertips now.  It supplements our geography club activities well and is helping my children and I become familiar with the states, their shapes, their locations, and more.  I cannot wait until we can all draw the United States from memory!  That will be quite a feat for us.
 

Learn More



View sample pages of many Brookdale House materials.Find Brookdale House on social media:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Pinterest 
• Google+

Read what 100 Schoolhouse Review Crew families thought about a variety of Brookdale House's wonderful collection of Charlotte Mason-friendly digital and print homeschool resources, including:

• Drawing Around the World: Europe
• Drawing Around the World: USA
• The Fun Spanish
• The Grammar Workbook Set
• Writing Through Ancient History Levels 1 and 2 Manuscript and Cursive
• Writing Through Medieval History Levels 1 and 2 Manuscript and Cursive
• Writing Through Early Modern History Levels 1 and 2 Manuscript and Cursive
• Writing Through Modern History Levels 1 and 2 Manuscript and Cursive
• Sheldon’s New Primary Language Lessons

Would a Brookdale House curriculum resource fit well into your learning adventures this year, too?

 

Our Cookie Rosary

What’s a mom to do when breakfast needs to be fairly quick, happily celebratory, but still somewhat healthy? 

  

If you’re this mom and it’s Our Lady of the Rosary’s feast day, you whip up a batch of gluten-free, casein-free vanilla, almond, coconut cookies and some GFCF chocolate chip cookies to make a rosary with; realize you are all out of fresh fruit so “treat” everyone to single-serving apple sauce cups; and pour some “it’s a feast day” chocolate almond milk into special glasses.

Then, you lay all this out on a blue tablecloth with a white candle and a statue of Our Lady holding a blue-and-white rosary, and you’re good to go.

The kids wake, delighted for the surprise feast day breakfast. You pray grace, chat about the significance of the day, then, as a family, pray a heartfelt decade together for a special intention. Each person touches a cookie for each Hail Mary that is offered. 
 
Then, the kids marvel as you tell them they may eat the entire decade of cookies they touched. Yes, all then! It is a feast day, after all.  
 

One child, then, gets silly with her chocolate chips, laughing, “Look, Mom, the Holy Ghost!” 

All devour breakfast with thanksgiving and, then, move on to the full day ahead, including a feast day celebration and Works of Mercy club kickoff with friends. 

Yep, some family feast day celebrations are simple, yet such a great start to our days here.

In what simple ways do you start feast days with your kiddoes?

The Works of Mercy in a Film {A Little Boy Review}

I'd never heard of the film Little Boy by FishFlix.com before having the opportunity to review it and had no idea when the kids and I popped a DVD copy of it into our laptop to view that it would be so apropos for us.

I knew the film was about faith and the love between a little boy and his father.  I did not know it centered largely on the little boy ticking off items from an "ancient list", i.e. the Corporal Works of Mercy, as he mustered faith and held out hope for his father's return from a Japanese prison camp during World War II.  This Works of Mercy focus tied in perfectly with an initiative the kids and I kicked off just this past week with homeschool friends:  a Works of Mercy club! 

What a happy surprise it was for the children and I to recognize the Corporal Works of Mercy in the film  Better still was when my daughter noted that "he shouldn't be doing those things just once.  We are supposed to always do those things..." 
 
Mixed Messages, Mostly Good

My daughter is right.  We are always to seek opportunities to express virtue and to live faithfully. However, being human,often we do not. 

Little Boy depicts plenty of such "humanness" in the guise of prejudice, bullying, war, and more.  However, it juxtaposes such vice with an equally human ability to befriend, hope, and act with faith. 

Set in a fictional California town during World War II, the movie opens as a narrator recalls his small-statureded eight-year-old self happily engaged with his dad, who happens to be his "only friend" and "partner". 

Soon thereafter, the father goes to war and gets captured by the Japanese in the Philippines.  Thus, the boy, Pepper, who is tormented by town bullies for being little, has to choose between the despair his big brother feels at his father's uncertain future and the faith he might muster to bring his father home.

Inspired by a magician, counseled by a local priest, and supported by a newly made aging friend, Pepper chooses the latter course.  With his child-like belief, he buys mustard seeds that he might "move mountains" to get his father home.  Then, at the prompting of a priest, Pepper focuses his energies on completing an "ancient list" (the Corporal Works of Mercy) in order to find favor with God so that his dad might come home.  (The priest suggests to another character that, if God does not will for Pepper's dad to come home, God will provide Pepper the strength to get through that, too.)

The priest also adds one additional task to Pepper's focus list: befriend an aging Japanese man, who has been recently freed from internment camps and often bears the brunt of local prejudice.  It is through the growing relationship between this man and Pepper that the rest of the story unfolds, albeit predictably at times, with the beauty of the pair's growing friendship, which includes opportunities for the two of them -- different in age, culture, and faith-basis-- to come together in friendship and even defense of one another as Pepper works to bring is dad back from the war.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, the positives of the film promoting Works of Mercy, friendship across barriers, etc. are tarnished a bit by the way it approaches the use of the Atomic bomb at the end of World War II.  Without getting into spoiler details , let me just say that the film does not seem to send a strong enough message about the tragedy of so many Japanese lives lost when the A-bomb nicknamed "Little Boy" was dropped.  

I found I had to stop to discuss briefly with my kids how horrific that incident in history was and how the loss of so many lives should never have been celebrated.  Sure, the end of a war is a good thing, but every life, from conception to natural death, is important in my worldview and I do not feel the movie made this point strongly enough in its treatment of the A-bomb.  (Granted, such a message was not the obvious one the movie was going for, but I still feel the A-bomb scenes could have been treated with greater sensitivity toward the Japanese.)

Thus, I came away from Little Boy with mixed feelings.  As a whole, I liked the film.  It provided an evening of entertainment for my children and I that tied in well with recent happenings in our lives and sparked some worthwhile discussion about faith, miracles, Works of Mercy, relationships, history, and more.  However, it also seemed a bit predictable at some times and insensitive at others.

All that said, I am glad that we watched the DVD and know we will watch it again, not just for the movie itself, but for the extras on the DVD, too, which included a number of scenes deleted from the final edit of the movie and an animated film short featuring an older woman , a young man, and a snack from a vending machine.

Of these, my five-year-old said:

I liked (the Little Boy DVD).  I want to watch it each day, because of the film short... because it was kind of funny how (the animated woman and young man) both had cookies... I liked the (deleted) scene when they said, "We're going to the moon." I like the battle in the movie, I liked the boy's imagination, and I liked the ending."

My eight-year-old said:

It made my mommy cry.  I did not like the sad parts.  But, I liked how (it ended).  I also liked how the boy thought he made the mountain move even if it was really an earthquake.  I like how they did a group hug at the end. I also liked the deleted scene where everyone was happy, but Little Boy's mommy, because it still had a little happiness in it.

My nine-year-old said:

I liked the video of the magician in the deleted scenes.  It was really funny. I also liked the video in it where the evil person says, "You have to choose..." I liked how the boy in the main film never lost hope. I don't think I could do that..  It is a long movie and I got tired watching it.  It's good, just do not watch it before bed ,because there is a lot of sadness and a few scary parts.  I don' think this movie is good for mommies, because it will make them cry...  It's also not good for people who have just lost a loved one.   I cannot imagine losing my parents.  I think it is a good movie to watch during the day to teach about persistence...

His younger brother then added:

and faith.  I teaches faith.

That it does.  It's a heart-warming story of friendship, family, and faith; vice and virtue; good winning out....  If you're looking for a PG-13, family film that can, in my opinion, be viewed by younger children, too, this is one to consider. 

Christian Entertainment at FishFlix.com
 

FishFlix.com is an online store that seeks to bring folks quality Christian and family-friendly films at great prices.  From family movies, to epics, to children's tales, to documentaries, FishFlix.com offers a wide array of TV programs, and Christian movies that might inspire, educate, and entertain your family.

Want to know a but more about some of them?  Check out the reviews made my 100 Schoolhouse Review Crew families that received one of the following films:

• Faith of Our Fathers
• Do You Believe?
• Little Boy
• When Calls the Heart, Heart of the Family
• Living Waters: Intelligent Design in the Oceans of the Earth

You can also get social with FishFlix on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google +, and Youtube.

Celebrating Our Lady of the Rosary and Kicking Off a Works of Mercy Club

Last year, our local Catholic homeschooling group had a lovely Our Lady of the Rosary feast day celebration complete with a cupcake rosary, crafts, balloon release, and more.  

This year, we opted to combine our celebration of Our Lady of the Rosary’s feast day with a kick off for a new initiative we are beginning: a Works of Mercy club.

The two-for-one event was simple, yet meaningful. We met for a picnic on the grounds of Holy Cross Family Ministry’s headquarters where we were welcomed by staff and offered an impromptu lesson from Father David on how a cause for sainthood is put forth. 

(NOTE:  Some of the links that follow in this post are affiliate ones.  You can read full disclosure here if you wish.)

 
Then, I chatted with the children about the history of the Our Lady of the Rosary feast day and read them Holy Heroes’ version of the story of the Battle of Lepanto.  While I was reading, some children opted to color Holy Heroes coloring pages about the event.
 

As we wrapped up our faith-based history lesson, we chatted about how one person praying the rosary is beautiful and powerful, but many people praying it together is even more powerful. We wondered what would happen if our Holy Father asked all Catholics to come together in the modern day to pray for a single cause. We agreed that, unfortunately, many folks might not respond, but, that if they did, wouldn’t it be miraculous!?

I, then, transitioned us into discussion about the Works of Mercy. I explained to the children that we had not only gathered to celebrate Our Lady of the Rosary’s feast day, but also to inaugurate a new Works of Mercy club for our homeschool group. We hope this club will grow organically, offering us at least monthly opportunities to gather together to learn about and practice both Spiritual and Corporal Works of Mercy.

I asked the children if they knew what each of the Works of Mercy is and suggested that they might begin Works of Mercy notebooks at home to journal about their personal experiences as well as about our club gatherings. I then explained that I’d brought along the makings for a mini-book with thanks to Look to Him & Be Radiant with Joy that the children might wish to put in such a notebook to help them remember the Spiritual Works of Mercy. 
 

  

Together, we cut, assembled, and began to color our own Spiritual Works of Mercy booklets as we chatted about how we already practice each of the works in our daily lives and how we might practice them further as a group. Of course, the work of praying for the living and the dead was an easy one for the children to imagine doing as a group. Just steps away was an outdoor rosary walk – the walk we had come to the grounds to pray at in celebration of Our Lady of the Rosary’s feast day.

Thus, after a brief play break, we headed over to the outdoor rosary walk. Along the walk were columns that had reliefs of Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious, and Luminous mysteries on them, which would allow folks to walk back and forth four times along the walk praying all the mysteries of the rosary.
 

Our group, however, opted to pray only the Joyful Mysteries together that day. 

 

After the opening rosary prayers, each child that wished to do so, led us in a decade. Before doing so, the leading child announced a heartfelt intentions for the living or the dead and led a brief mediation and prayer related to the specific mystery we were to mediate on for each particular decade.  

Once we completed praying the rosary together, our group stopped by a statue of Father Peyton, where I explained to the children a bit more about Fr. Peyton’s work and the cause for his sainthood.
 

Then, we went inside the Father Peyton center for a brief tour, prayer in the chapel, and stop by the gift shop. 

With that, things wrapped up. Or, rather, began. I cannot wait to see what gatherings await our Works of Mercy club. 

I'd love to hear about your experiences teaching children about the Works of Mercy and putting them into action together.  Please share in a comment or on our Training Happy Hearts Facebook page.