Experience the Testimony of Saint Maximilian Kolbe

This past week we did not get to experiencing all of the sensory-smart ways I had brainstormed for learning more about Saint Maximilian Kolbe.  However, we did enjoy some reading, chats, and activities, which culminated* with Mass and veneration at Our Lady of Perpetual Help, where the Pilgrimage of the Relic of St. Maximilian M. Kolbe had stopped.  (*I use the word "culminated" loosely as there will surely be more study and learning about Saint Maximilian Kolbe to come.)

What a beautiful church Our Lady of Perpetual of Help is.  From the outside, it looks like a simple church.

Inside, though - wow!  As soon as my children and I stepped inside we thought, in my son's words:

This is amazing!  It was gorgeous.  There were statues and paintings everywhere.  The painting of Jesus resurrected and the people just looking up at him, staring in awe.  It was so impressive.  So pretty.

I did not take a ton of photos inside, because I did not think it would be appropriate to keep snapping photo after photo during veneration time, but I did take a few so that my children could better remember our experience, and so that we could continue chatting about the symbolism we had seen and the stories we had heard in the coming weeks, using the photos as a starting point.

My youngest was obviously exhausted when we were at Mass and fell asleep.  He woke as veneration began and was bleary eyed when his siblings took him up to the reliquary to look for the first class relic beard hairs within it.

While there, we noticed some of the symbolism of the reliquary:

• a base shaped like Poland, where Saint. Maximilian Kolbe was from
• thorns to represent the atrocities committed during the occupation of the Third Reich
• the lily bursting forth fro the thorns represents purity
• the tulip represent matryrdom (and, together with the lily, represent love triumphing over hatred)
• a knotted cord represents the vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience taken by all in the Franciscan order, including St. Maximilain Kolbe

We also noted the colors of the flowers by the altar - red and white - and talked about how these are the same colors as the crowns young Raymond Kolbe (which is what Saint Maximilian Kolbe was called as a boy) said he would accept from Our Lady.  As the story goes, one night, Our Lady appeared to young Raymond in a dream.  She was holding both a red crown and a white one and asked which he would accept.  The white meant her would persevere in purity.  The read meant he would become a martyr.   Raymond said he would accept both, and, indeed, through his life and death, did just that.

Plus, we examined the painting that was near the relic and connected it to what we know about Saint Maximilian Kolbe. The children noted that:

• In the background there are smokestack sand fences, reminding us of the prison camp Saint Maximilian Kolbe was imprisoned in
• The prison uniform he holds has his prisoner number on it.
• His habit speaks of his calling as a Franciscan priest.
• He holds the crowns he accepted from Our Lady.

Nearby were images of the Divine Mercy and Saint Faustina, so we chatted about those, too, and prayed at the side altar where they were.

Before we left, a sweet Franciscan sister gifted each of us with a Miraculous Medal.  The children took these up to the Saint Maximilian Kolbe relic, prayed, and touched them to the relic.  Yep, at that point, as had happened during  several points when I walked into the church, when I gazed at the artwork, when we celebrated Mass, when I looked down at the sweet face of my sleeping youngest,... tears brimmed in my eyes.  So much to be grateful for.  So many mysteries and graces.  So many blessings.

Life gets busy - very busy - and there are choices to made each day to move towards God or away.  I am grateful for the examples of saints who show us, time after time, how to move toward our Lord.  I am equally thankful for those who currently accept calls as nuns and priests, praying for us and shepherding us.  Likewise, I am thankful for ministries like Our Lady of the Angels that enrich us with experiences such as being able to experience the Pilgrimage of the Relic of St. Maximilian M. Kolbe. 

Experience the Church and Pilgrimage Virtually

If you would like to take a virtual tour of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, please view images of beautiful artwork in a slide show on the Our Lady of Perpetual Help website.

If you would like to learn more about the Saint Maximilian Kolbe relic or find out if it will be visiting you soon, check out the 2016 Pilgrimage page.


You can also view a video talk that explains Saint Maximilian Kolbe's story:

May love continue to triumph over hatred and may all of us in our troubled century listen to the testimony of Saint Maximilian Kolbe that love without limits is possible.

Saint Maximilian Kolbe, pray  for us.

Learn Latin through Storybook Readers

I had not heard of the Olim, Once Upon a Time in Latin, Reader I and the Olim, Once Upon a Time in Latin, Workbook I by Laurelwood Books until I was offered a chance to review them. 

Once I read a bit about them, though, I jumped at the chance to try them out with my children as I felt the reader and workbooks would dovetail perfectly with some of our current homeschool initiatives and goals, such as:

• learning about Aesops' fables.
• renewing efforts to learn foreign languages.
• enjoying more learning time together as a family.
• spending more learning time with concrete resources as opposed to computer-based ones.

Indeed, when I looked at the descriptions of the reader and workbook online, I was delighted to see that the reader contains the stories of The Three Little Pigs, The Tortoise and the Hare, and the Crow and the Pitcher.  Two of these three stories were ones that my daughter explored in a recent creative dramatic co-op class I taught and, thus, I felt the reader would make a fabulous follow-up.

I was equally happy to see that the corresponding workbook would provide concrete exercises to go along with the reader's stories, hopefully offering an easy-going way to slip foreign language learning back into our family study times whether those occurred at home or on a break between things when out-and-about.  For, in this season of life, we are often out-and-about so resources that we can easily toss in a tote bag and take with us from kitchen table, to couch, to minivan, to waiting area, to blanket in the sun are ideal.  The Olim, Once Upon a Time in Latin, Reader I and the Olim, Once Upon a Time in Latin, Workbook I are just such resources.  Both are slim, portable soft-cover books.

About Olim

There are currently six readers and corresponding workbooks in the Olim series.  Each non-consumable reader contains familiar fables, parables, or Bible stories in both English and Latin, with adorable black-and-white illustrations.  Corresponding workbooks are consumable and contain exercises that go along with the vocabulary and grammar used in the readers.

Reader I, which we received, is 57 half-sheet-of-paper-sized pages long and includes:

• a page on how to use the reader.
• a 3-page Latin pronunciation guide,
• a page of Roman Numerals,
• the stories of The Three Little Pigs, The Tortoise and the Hare, and The Crow and the Pitcher, first written in English in simplified form, and, then, in Latin in a matching form.
• sidebars with vocabulary notes on every Latin page.
• geometric shapes to denote pars of speech with each adjective in Latin denoted by a triangle next to it and each direct object by a square.
• darling pencil-like illustrations, which are the same in the English and the Latin portions of the reader

The corresponding workbook is 80 8.5 by 11 pages long.  It starts off with some notes and a pronunciation guide and concludes with an answer key.  In between, it is chock full of activities that correspond directly to the readers and include such things as:

• fill-in-the-blank activities
• sentence recognition and completion
• matching
• writing English definitions based on Latin root words
• Digging Deeper sections
• Digging for Treasure challenges

Some of the "deeper" sections are relatively challenging and include:

• nominative and accusative cases,
• etymology,
• verbs,
• singular and plural forms,
• perfect and imperfect tenses,
• infinitives,
• adjectives and adverbs,
• prepositions and negatives,
• asking yes and no questions,
• and derivatives. 

Both the reader and workbook are written for a Grades 2-5 level, however, as you can see, they are pretty meaty, and, thus, I feel, can be used with older students, too.

Our Use and Thoughts

I first introduced Olim to my children on a blanket on our front lawn after breakfast by reading the English version of The Three Little Pigs, which my children immediately commented was different than versions they knew, and, then, doing my best to puzzle out the pronunciation of each word on the first page of the Latin version of the same story.  We practiced the first couple words on that page and, then, paused to attempt the first page of the workbook, at which point, my children got frustrated.  They simply were not ready for the written exercises, and no one wanted to make the workbook his or her own nor to be our family scribe.  Thus, we put the workbook away and went back to page one of the story, giggling over our attempts to pronounce "parvi porci". 

Later that day, we asked Daddy to guess what "Olim" and "parvi porci" mean and were proud to know something he did not.

Another day, we read each story in the reader in English, and, then went back to the first page of the Latin version of The Three Little Pigs to practice the words again.  From there, we continued a such during different sittings, sometimes just using the reader and, at other times, attempting some of the workbook activities.

Although we enjoyed toting our Olim book and workbook about, and found ourselves breaking out the reader during picnics at parks and having fun with words we had mastered, we never (to date) did take off with the workbook or get super great with memorizing the reader as I had hoped we would.   I dare say this is because we kept finding ourselves having to refer back to the pronunciation guide.  So, in the end, we decided that we like the concept of the reader and workbook, but are not ready to use them to their full potential yet. 

Without an audio of the reader for easier reference (as we are weak at using the pronunciation guide), and without the ability of two of my children to read and write fluently on their own and the desire of another child to do "book work", we the Olim materials have no yet proven as good a match for us as I had hoped they would be during this phase of our life and learning.  For, yes, they do dovetail wonderfully with our fables study, provide an opportunity for family learning, pack nicely into a tote, have fun illustrations, come with handy vocabulary columns, etc. However, they do not contain a CD or link for an audio of the story and, without such a feature, we found ourselves getting "stuck".  (None of us are gifted with languages!)

My youngest, at six , said:

I liked the English stories and the pictures.  The Latin was too hard.  I don't know anything, like how to pronounce it.  The book and Mommy tried to teach me, but I needed someone else to say it.

And, yes, he means someone else besides Mommy, who trips up flipping back and forth to the pronunciation guide.


My oldest, at ten, said:

Olim is okay.  They could improve it by making the English and Latin over and above each other.  They also coul improve it by making the stories more like they are in other places.  For example, The Three Little Pigs was different.  The wolf eats the pigs!


What I do like bout it... the stories are short, so you can read the English versions quickly.  You can't read the Latin quickly though.  It's kind of hard, because you cannot understand how to pronounce it easily with the key.  I'd like to have a CD, so you can be exposed to hearing it.

Also, the workbook is too hard for me.  It is long and not fun.

Mind you, my son is about as far from a workbook kid as one can get.  He also, unfortunately, is in a stage where he does not like much that does not com easy for him.  I keep introducing things to get him beyond this stage, but, so far, little has, including the Olim series, which, although not "right" for him right now, is quality stuff, which he told me once he'd like to revisit after learning Latin with some audio-visual materials first.  For he does like the stories, he just wants to pronounce hem more easily.My daughter, at nine, said:

I thought it was a little hard, because you had to go back to the beginning to learn how to pronounce words and also go over which word was which.  So, I think it would be better if the English version and the Latin versions were on the same pages. 

I liked the words themselves though.  "Pare porci" is my favorite.  It sounds fun.

I liked doing the workbook out loud.

I liked that the book can be used as just a story in the English version or the Latin version.  Instead of just having how-o-learn words, you can read a story.

I liked the illustrations, too.

I thought it was cool tat they had some Aesop fables, because I had just done an Aesop fables class.  The fables in the book are different, but they are good.

So, as you can see, while the Olim series is not a perfect fit for us, we all found merit in it and hope to revisit it once we have a better handle on pronouncing Latin without having to look back at the written guide all the time.

Learn More




 
Just because e Olim, Once Upon a Time in Latin, Reader I and the Olim, Once Upon a Time in Latin, Workbook I by Laurelwood Books are not perfect for us right now does not mean they might not be ideal for you.  With a basic command of Latin pronunciation or a different learning style, Olim would move from being a quality resource set with learning merit to a spot-on one, I think.  I love that it is story-based and families can use it together. 

If you'd like to see how Olim fit other families, or if you'd like to check out others' thoughts on further Laurelwood Books'  products, be sure to click on over to read the reviews of 100 Scholhouse Review Crew families who tested out one of the first four volumes of Olim, Once Upon a Time in Latin, State the Facts: A Guide to Studying Your State; the Scripture Scribe series; and Patriotic Penmanship. 

You can find Laurelwood Books on Facebook, too. 

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.

Can Perfect Portion Control and Old-Fashioned Favorites Go Together? {A Review}

(Note:  This  honest review contains affiliate links as per our disclosure.)

When I was asked if I would like a copy of The Perfect Portion Cookbook in exchange for an honest review, my curiosity was piqued.  While I have never been one to count calories, the concept of the cookbook sounded interesting:  150 comfort food recipes redesigned to offer old-fashioned flavor while also offering an easy way to balance meals since every recipe in the cookbook comes with a clear illustration of a 100 (200, 300, 400...) calorie portion. 

Thus, despite the fact that I was unsure of if my family would actually be able to eat many of the recipes included in the cookbook due to our special dietary needs, I agreed to the review.

A Well-Thought and Inviting Design

When my review copy of The Perfect Portion Cookbook arrived, I was immediately impressed by the many full-color photographs on its cover, end pages, recipe pages, and tip pages.  Upon perusing the cookbook further, I was equally impressed by how true to its mission it is.  Happy Days' TV star and director Anson Williams, along with co-writers Bob Warden (a New York Times best-selling author) and Mona Dolgov (a reputed nutritionist) certainly met their goal in creating a cookbook that is chock-full of recipes for classic comfort foods as well as tips, graphics, and even meal-plans to make it easy for folks to enjoy eating without overeating.

Recipes for apple turnovers, chicken pot pie, chili, crab cakes, flatbread pizza, meatloaf, sweet & sour meatballs, ... even cheesecake... are accompanied by tantalizing full-color illustrations and clear graphics that show how large a 100 calorie portion of what each recipe would look like. 

Mind you, the suggested serving size is often larger than 100 calories.  The idea is that if you know what 100 calories of a recipe looks like, you can choose to eat, say, a 400 calorie breakfast, a 500 calorie lunch, and a 600 calorie dinner, while still leaving room for three 1000 calorie snacks throughout your day.

The The Perfect Portion Cookbook also offers:

• culinary tips
• nutrition "tricks" for better-for-you ingredients
• information on calorie goal-planning
• a seven day suggested meal plan of perfect portions
• lists of 10o-calorie portions of protein, carbohydrate, raw vegetable, cooked vegetable, fruit, dairy snacks, sauces & condiments, and fats to make snack and sides planning easier
• ideas for balanced snacks as well as grab & go ones
• ideas for burning calories and meeting success at tipping the scales

Thus, The Perfect Portion Cookbook proves a well-rounded, helpful cookbook which invites you to enjoy perennial favorites while making portion control easy.
How Perfect is the The Perfect Portion Cookbook?

If you eat a pretty traditional American diet, love comfort foods, and seek recipes tweaked to make such foods a bit healthier and easier to apportion, The The Perfect Portion Cookbook is for you.

If you love cookbooks with glossy pages and beautiful full-color photographs, The Perfect Portion Cookbook may also be for you.

However, if, like me, you have folks with special dietary needs in your home, The Perfect Portion Cookbook may prove for better browsing than for actual use.  For, I have to be honest.  In our our home, we have a several who eat gluten- and casein-free, one who is vegetarian, and one who is moving toward a nutritarian diet, so many of the recipes included in the cookbook were simply not ones that would work in our kitchen without major adaptations.   That said, I like the concept of the book for others and plan to happily gift our review copy of The Perfect Portion Cookbook forward to someone who can utilize it more than us.  For I know many who would love it!

I also will add that if the authors of The Perfect Portion Cookbook ever make a special diets cookbook with a similar format - tantalizing photographs, culinary tips, helpful lists, easy graphics for portion planning, etc. - I would love to see it!  For me, such a cookbook would be ideal.  For you, The Perfect Portion Cookbook may be!

A Fun Way to Learn Judges to Kings {A Veritas Press Review}

When my 10-year-old saw me checking out an opportunity to review the Self-Paced Bible by Veritas Press, he got excited.
"Mom, we're going to do it, right?"  he bubbled. 

"No, Son.  I wasn't planning to,"  I replied, and preempted his next inevitable word (Why-y-y?) by stating, "We just aren't home a lot lately, and even though I know you loved the last Veritas Press review we did, I am just not confident that we can do this one justice."



"But, Mom.  I love Veritas.  Can we please do it?  Please.  I will make sure we stay focused on it when we are home."

"Are you sure you want to spend the limited online time we may have at home doing it, Son?"

"Yes!"

And so it was that I asked my oldest which of the Self-Paced Bible products he wanted to review:
 

• Old Testament 1: Genesis to Joshua
• Old Testament 2: Judges to Kings
• New Testament 1: The Gospels

He did not pause long before saying "The Judges to Kings one, Mom.  We've done a lot on Genesis before and on the Gospels.  I do not know much about Judges and Kings."

"I do not either, Son.  Maybe we can learn together."


Not long afterward, we all began learning more using the Self-Paced Bible.

What Is the Self-Paced Bible?

 

Veritas Press is well-known for providing resources for Classical Christian Education for homeschoolers and the Judges to Kings Self-Paced Bible is part of their Homeschool Bible Curriculum.  Delivered through subscription in a streaming format online, the curriculum covers 32 Biblical events in 128 "class periods" that weave together:

• humorous talking characters (both actors and cartoon),
• engaging video footage,
• and entertaining learning and review games.

In doing so, the curriculum helps students:

• memorize names, dates, and places from the Bible.
• learn through interactive, multi-sensory activities.
• build a foundation for more in-depth study in future years.

Thorough and informative, the curriculum is also fun!


How Did We Use It?



The first time we used the Self-Paced Bible, we did so as a family.  Even Daddy was with us!  We had just eaten breakfast and thought we'd give it a go.  It was fun to watch the video clips and to try the quizzes together.

The next time we logged in, Daddy was not with us, but the kids and I enjoyed the program together. 

However, by the third time we used the program, I admit, I ended up walking away.   I did not do so because of any problem with the program.  Rather, I did so because my children had become focused on one of the review games and I had laundry to switch over. So, I hurried on down to our basement to change over the laundry, and, when I returned, I found that my children were so happily immersed that I capitalized on the time to get another task done. 

It was thus that a pattern got set.  Several days a week, I would help the children log into the Self-Paced Bible and, then, I would pop in and out of the room as I attended to my task list, 100% delighted that they were learning more about the Bible and practicing virtue while they did.  For, yes, virtue practice unfolded.  I witnessed the children take turns, help each other with the mouse, read to one another, extend patience when discussion answers to questions, etc.  (Love it!)  I also heard them singing memory songs, saw them work with maps and more.

Our Take on the Program 


As I said before, my oldest,  at 10, is the one who wanted to do this review despite the fact that I worried that we would not have enough time to do it justice. He promised to focus on it and has done so.  While he has, I have realized what a boon it is that this program is self-paced, for the "self-paced" words can be taken quite literally in our home, and I want to stress how incredibly easy the Self-Paced Bible is for parents! Truly, there is NO prep work at all beyond turning on a computer and logging in online.  

When you log in, the program simply picks up right where you left off.  No papers to print, no books or workbooks to keep track of.  No tie wasted except when your computer has snafus, as ours did on occasion.)  Plus, if you need something for record keeping, scores are kept in the program so parents can access them.  So,
the Self-Paced Bible proves SIMPLE to use for students and parents alike and ENGAGING for learners.  That makes it a win for me.

As for my ten-year-old, he said:

I think it is a good product.  (I also really liked the last Veritas product we did on Explorers.) 

I think that it's funny how one of the guys is always making inventions that don't really work.  (Well, one works...) I also think that Vasko the frog and the Pallu the rock badger are funny.  They are characters that show up and help tell the story about Judges and Kings.

There are some kind of gross parts.  I thought it was cool that a guy saved Israel by stabbing a fat king in the belly.  It was gross, too, because the king was so fat the knife could not come out.  I also thought it was cool that a woman won a battle for Israel by pounding a tent peg through a guy's head.  Wouldn't that be very painful?

I really liked a few of the games.  For example, the Gideon game.  It is easy and fun.  All the games help you remember the stuff the guys talk about.

I want to keep using this.  IT IS SO AWESOME!  (Well, when our computer works well.  It does not always work well.)  I am learning lots!  I think kids 5 and up, maybe to 12, would like it, too.

My daughter, nine, who sits alongside her brother when he's studying Judges to Kings, said:

It was awesome!  I loved it!  The games... the story... the funny boy Levi...  I am learning about (singing), "Judges of Israel..." 

I did not know that the enemy king was so fat.  I also did not know that they used horns, pitches, and torches to defeat the enemy.

This program is fun.  It teaches me the history of our faith and is entertaining.  I want to keep using it until it's done. 

I think, out of 10 people, probably 9 would like it.  Maybe one would not because little kids might not be interested.  I think kids 6-12 would like this.  I LOVE IT!

My youngest, who is just shy of six, also sits alongside his siblings when they use the Self-Paced Bible.  He said:

I like the running game where you jump over enemies.  I also like the game with the cook and with the soldiers.  The games are fun and ask you questions.

I also like the the grape picker rake.  It is something that the guy made up.  He makes up lots of things.  He doesn't make up stories of God, though.  He teaches me.

I want to keep using this.

Would We Recommend the Self-Paced Bible?


   

Obviously, my children recommend the Self-Paced Bible.  I would, too.  For, even though I already admitted that by our third sitting with the Self-Paced Bible I no longer sat learning alongside my children, I enjoyed the bits and pieces that I caught while moving in and out of the room when my children were using the curriculum and also loved that my children could learn independently while I attended to the many "We're-Actually-at-Home" task list items that beckoned me to pay attention to them instead of joining my children in their fun online learning time.

Yes, in an ideal world, I would sit and learn alongside my children all the time, especially when they are using a program as engaging as those put out by Veritas Press.  However, in my real world, sometimes I have to forego the fun of learning in order to make time for the mundane tasks of life.  This is so much easier to do when I know that my children are immersed in learning about the Bible with an engaging program from a well-reputed vendor.  So, thank you, Veritas Press for creating such a quality Bible-learning tool, and, go ahead, All, check it out!  The Self-Paced Bible is worth a look.  You can view sample lessons online and also try their programs with a 60-day money-back guarantee.
 
Learn More



Eighty-five Schoolhouse Review families tried out the Self-Paced Bible or a one-year family subscription to VeritasBible.com.  See what each thought about the programs by clicking though the banner.





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What helps bring learning the Bible alive for your children?

9 Resources for Sharing St. Peter, St. Paul, and the Early Christians with Kids

Ever have one of those weekends when you conclude it more tired than you started it?

That's the kind of weekend I am wrapping up. As I do, I am not complaining. It has been a full and beautiful long weekend for our family with back-to-back celebrations and learning adventures. I am, however, slightly berating myself for not completing the coming week's meal planning and learning time preparations before heading into this past weekend. For, here we are, less than a half an hour until Monday is upon us, and I've yet to accomplish such weekly tasks.

I have, however, gotten one small part of those tasks done! I looked ahead at the week's calendar to see which saint days are coming up and, realized that this week we will remember St. Peter and St. Paul as well as the Early Christian Martyrs. With this in mind, I browsed our book collection and pulled out faith-centered reading for the children and I to enjoy together this week:

{Disclosure:  There are affiliate links to Amazon, CCC of America, and Holy Heroes below for your convenience should you want to learn more about any of the titles we'll be enjoying this week.  Should you click on any of the links and make purchases, we may receive small compensation.  Thank you for supporting our efforts in Training Happy Hearts and sharing about it here.}

~1~

 The Very First Christians is a picture book we typically read together shortly after Easter.  This year, Luke read it on his own, but we never read it together in its entirety as a family.  So, we will be reading it this week.  

~2~

The Loyola Kids Book of Heroes (which sells used for as little as 74 cents!) has portions on St. Peter, St. Paul, and the Early Christians.  Score!  We had just begun reading this book together for St. John the Baptist's feast day and now we will skip forward a bit to read about this week's saints.

~3~

Luke's beloved Dragon Slayer has a portion on St. peter, so we will be reading that as a family.

~4~

 
Our My First Catholic Bible (which can be scored as a used hardcover for but a penny!) has perfect illustrated scripture about St. Peter and St. Paul, so it will be our Bible study resource this week.

~5~

 
Of course, the trusty Picture Book of Saints (which also sells used for only a penny!) has pages on St. Peter and St. Paul, too, which will come in handy this week.

~6~

I checked out old, weather-worn, hand-me-down copy of Jesus Loved Them and there is a beautiful illustration and page about St. Peter, so it's in our pile for the week, too.

~7~

We also just happen to be in the midst of a review period for Heirloom Audio  Production's  Beric the Briton, which we have loved listening to twice already - and so we will be listening to it again this week! The audiodrama includes mention of St. Paul and the Early Christian Martyrs.

~8~

Plus, if we can find it where we last tucked it away, I will pull out our Holy Heroes St. Cecilia CD, since it also discusses the plight of early Christians.

~9~

 

Further, since we enjoy chilling out with family video time sometimes, I have also pulled out our copy of CCC of America's Ben-Hur film to have on hand for this week.  This is one of my youngest's favorite CCC videos and a perfect one to tie into the early Christian's theme.  The day we watch it (or the day after), I may print out the free Ben-Hur coloring page from CCC of America, too, for the children to enjoy.

I'd love to hear what your favorite faith-based picks for this week are! Are there any books, audios, or videos you'd recommend for engaging children in learning more about St. Peter, St. Paul, and the early Christian martyrs?