Training Happy Hearts: 3 No Prep Ways to Celebrate St. Patrick's Day

Since late January, my family has been been facing wave after wave of crazy times - the flu, a belly bug, crazy wind-and-snow storms, job loss, and more... Thanks be to God, there have been plenty of blessings among the challenges, some of which have added to the busyness of life - such as our homeschool co-op starting again (with me teaching two classes and coordinating the entire co-op) and the children competing in a Destination Imagination competition (with me as their Team Manager). So, I'd by lying if I said I am not a bit tired.

Good tired.

Thankful tired.

But, nonetheless, just plain tired.

Thus, as I look at the calendar and see that St.Patrick's day is not even a week away, I cannot even conceive of putting together anything akin to celebrations and lessons I have for this feast day in the past. I just don't have the mental brain power or physical energy to do so right now. So, instead, I plan to keep things simple this year by:

putting out some saint candles
making only one or two of the festive foods we've had in the past
reading Saint Patrick stories in any of the many saint biography books we already have in our home
leading the children through a chat related to St. Patrick
challenging the children to write a story about St. Patrick from a specific point of view
and, since St. Patrick is patron to engineers, we will likely do a small engineering/design challenge, too.

If you'd like to no-prep Saint Patrick's celebration, too. Please feel free to borrow these ideas:

Read and Chat

After reading about Saint Patrick in one of our many saint biography collections, the children and I will chat, using questions and thoughts such as:

What happened to St. Patrick when he was a boy? What would it feel like to be taken from your home and forced to work alone all the time? How do you think Patrick felt? What would you do in his situation?
It would be easy to feel lonely or fall into despair in the situation Patrick was in. How did he avoid despair?
Sometimes, when we are in tough situations, it is hard to remain virtuous. What virtues and strength of character did Patrick show while in captivity? Would you have similar patience and faithfulness? Would you be able to pray for six years even when it seemed your prayers were not being answered? Can you think of a time your prayers did not seem to be being answered? How did you respond?
After Patrick escaped Ireland, he returned home, but, then, realized he could not stay there. Why? What happened in his life? How did he respond and how would you have responded?
How does the story of Saint Patrick show us that God speaks to the “least" of people and that any of us may be called - and equipped - to share about God at any time?

Creative Writing

Since all of my children have been enjoying creative writing lately, I will suggest that we each spend three minutes brainstorming events and miracles related to Saint Patrick's life and collecting a word map of ideas together and, then, 17 minutes working on stories that take a snippet of Saint Patrick's life and retell it through the eyes of a fictional contemporary to Saint Patrick. (Three minutes, then 17 minutes, because Saint Patrick died on March 17.) This might mean we tell of his capture, his time as a shepherd, his escape, his ministry. Or, we might choose to focus on one the many legends that describe miracles that protected St. Patrick or proved the power of the one true God to the pagans he sought to convert.

Engineering/Design (and Teaching) Challenge

Saint Patrick is patron to engineers, since it is claimed that he was instrumental in the construction of Irish churches and has been credited with teaching the Irish to build arches of lime mortar.

Legends also tell how St. Patrick taught the people of Ireland about the Holy Trinity using a shamrock.

With these two ideas in mind, I will ask the children to choose up to seventeen items from our instant design challenge box (straws, paper plates, address labels, paper clips, etc.) and, then, to spend three minutes designing and constructing a self standing teaching tool that contains an arch shape and can be used to explain something about our faith to others. Then, this done, I will ask them to spend up to three minutes using the tool they created to teach a point of faith.

I have no doubt they will come up with interesting creations and ideas.

Other Saint Patrick Ideas

More St. Patrick's Day Ideas

If you'd like other ideas for celebrating St. Patrick's Day, you may wish to click through to some of these: