The Flat on Cabaniss Crescent

The Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary

Monday was the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary.  We let Kerik stay home from school to attend Mass. 

For dinner, my mother in law helped me to prepare a "White Feast."  We had white bean chicken chili with salad and corn bread with white wine.  For dessert we had peppermint ice cream in chocolate dessert shells. 

After dinner, I introduced a new custom to our family traditions: The Mary Candle.

I made this candle myself.  I bought a big white pillar candle at Walmart for $2.  The white candle represents Mary.  The beautiful white cloth (material I cut up from an old Japanese wedding kimono) represents her clothing covering her womb.  We will place this candle in the middle of our Advent wreath, lighting it nightly and say a Hail Mary as we light it.  Just as Mary waited for the birth of Christ, we spend Advent waiting for His arrival.

On Christmas Eve, I will take off the beautiful white cloth to reveal what was hidden inside her womb:
BABY JESUS!

I just carved out a little niche to place a figure of the Christ Child.  The green mantle is felt that I secured with craft glue and I made the gold marks with a paint pen.  This was simple and took less than ten minutes.  I have seen some beautiful and elaborate Mary candles on line, but this simple one will work for our family.

The kids are so full of anticipation to see the surprise that is under the white cloth.  I told them we have to wait for Christmas to see! 

After dinner we did the CGS  'Annunciation' presentation, which is in itself, another post...

Here is a picture of our Mary candle in the middle of our Advent Wreath:

 

The Prayer Table

Based on the recommendation of Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, I have added a prayer table to our upstairs living area, right outside the bedroom of both children.  The prayer table is just a little stool I found a thrift shop and painted gold.  The rug is from the 100 yen store in Japan (Japanese Dollar Store) and the little silver candle is from a local thrift shop as well.  I chose this silver candle because not only did I want to have a beautiful candle to light for nightly prayers but this candle can also be a Montessori "work" for the kids (polishing silver).  The little green cloth is actually a handkerchief.  I plan to change this cloth each liturgical season and keep the table decorated in the spirit of the season.

The kids and I have been gathering each night, after stories, showers, and teeth brushing to sit in front of the prayer table.  I light the candle and we sing a song or say a little prayer for a minute.  They love it and the nights where I do not initiate it, they ask for it on their own.

Below you can see my Advent scene.  Not the best picture, but I have changed the cloth to purple.  I found a women's pant suit at the thrift store for $1.00 and cut it up and hemmed it on my machine.  (First time I have used my machine in years!)  On the wall you can see my Advent prophecy card (I will elaborate more on this later...).  I kept the same silver candle and added a little nativity scene. 

No Old Testament

I have been working almost daily on my Jesse Tree kit. The kit I have has the instructions for making a felt symbols to correspond with each of the stories in the Jesse Tree, one for each day of Advent. The Jesse tree idea was inspired by God's promise that 'there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse' (Isaiah 11:1). It is a study of Bible stories from the Old Testament tracing the ancestors of Jesus from the creation of the world to his birth on Christmas day.  Each day, we will learn a bit more of Jesus' heritage.  I have been thinking about doing a Jesse tree for years and have been so excited to introduce this custom into our family this Advent.

So you can imagine my disappointment to discover in my CGS training last week that presenting the Old Testament to young children is discouraged by Sofia Cavalletti, founder of CGS.  Initially as our course leader was presenting this I was thinking, "But what about my Jesse tree...I have worked so hard....surely a few stories from my Jesse tree will not hurt them..." and I was making plans of how I could still do this on my own, on the side...

But the more my course leader spoke of the centrality of the person of Christ in the catechesis, the more I began to understand and respect

Sofia’s reasoning. The Old Testament is full of a lot of wild stories (many that are NOT NICE or child-appropriate), many dreams and visions that may not seem all that different from tall tales and fantasy.  How does the young child distinguish the truth between Jonah and the Whale and Nemo?

In The Religious Potential of the Child, Sofia Cavaletti writes on page 105:

In our estimation, children should be intiated into their present religious reality, and fundamental to it is the presence of a Mediator through whom we go to the Father.  Moreover, in order to approach the Old Testament it is necessary to be able to to move easily within time, and to be able to imagine customs and habits different from our own.

On page 106 she goes on to say:

In the Bible, we find a vast abundance of facts, impressive and easy to recount.  We should make an accurate choice of these to present to children, concentrating soley on the passages the theological meaning of which the child can penetrate…I do not think it right that the child first know certain facts, and only at a later time enter into their theological significance.  I believe an event learned only as a story (or a legend) will stay a story even when the child has grown, and it will be extremely difficult to recover its theological content later on. 

The way things are broken down in the CGS plans, you spend dedicate the teachings of the 3-6 year old to the joy of Jesus and his teachings.  Then, after the child has a firm understanding, at about age 8, you go backwards and enter the Old Testament.  This way the child will understand what the Old Testament stories are leading towards, they will appreciate the big picture, and they will also be more developmentally age appropriate to be exposed to some of the gruesome stories. If the children are exposed to any Old Testament stories, our course leader told us, we should be careful to not go into too much detail.  But as

Sofia said, even telling them the basic facts can may discourage them from digging deeper later, so it is best to just not go there at all.

There are 5 exceptions to this and they are 5 prophecies in the Old Testament that speak of the coming of the Messiah, the Christ Child.  These are to be exposed to the children during Advent.  I even have a neat way of presenting them (more later...)

But what about the Old Testament stories my kids have already been exposed to?  Veggie Tales?  Our Picture Bible?  Vacation Bible School (VBS)?  Well, I highly doubt any of those stories have made a huge impact on them or that much detail was exposed.  Veggie Tales is so silly and VBS is so much fun.  I do not think their young minds really processed a serious message connected to scripture from these brief encounters in the past.   But I have decided to be careful and screen what they are exposed to from here on out.  I have decided to respect all the CGS and not just to pick and choose what I like.

This does not mean I am not throwing my Jesse Tree away, nor am I putting it into storage for 3 years.  I am still doing it this year.  It will just be a fun Advent activity with no meaning.  We will simply place the felt images on the felt tree each day.  Andy and I will do this with the children because we want the Jesse Tree to become one of the traditions in our home that they remember over the years. With time, as they get older, we will begin to introduce the Old Testament stories to them and there will be a moment where it will all connect and come together.  Some day they will realize the meaning behind this fun tradition we always do in Advent.  I look forward to that day when it all comes together for them.

Religion

CATHOLIC MOSAIC

For religious study (and also a little history and geography) we are reading the books in Catholic Mosaic.  The Catholic Mosaic was created by Cay Gibson, a homeschooling mother of 5, and I was just lucky enough to stumble upon it one day while playing on the Internet.  Reading the books in the Mosaic allows us to celebrate the liturgical year and introduce saints to the children through literature.  I am slowing collecting all the books.  I am trying to find them at used book stores or on line.  I am also checking some out from the library, but eventually I would like to own them all.  This week Thursday  was the Feast of St. Francis so I read Francis: The Poor Man of Assisi by Tomie dePaola  

The book was long and a bit advanced and truthfully the kids did not understand much of it.  But it was fun for me to read and I learned about St. Francis, who I knew little about.  Over the years, the kids will come to know and understand the story if I always read it on Oct. 4.  For this year we talked about St. Francis being from Italy and we found Italy on the map, we looked at the pictures in the book and talked about how Francis loved God and loved animals.  That is enough for them for this year.  Maybe next year we can get into the story more.  Cay Gibson has created a study guide for all of the books in the Mosaic and eventually I would like to get that.  It is called Catholic Mosaic: Living the Liturgical Year with Literature an Illustrated Book Study for Catholic Children.  Again, this is something I can do with my kids even if we are not homeschooling.

CATECHESIS OF THE GOOD SHEPARD

For religion we are also using Catechesis of the Good Shepard an approach to the religious formation of children. It is rooted in the Bible, the liturgy of the church, and the educational principles of Maria Montessori. 

We use the Miniature Mass Kit for Children available from the on line store 'Our Fathers House'.

I have been studying the Montessori method of Catholic education for about 3 years now.   Again, at this point I am learning a lot more than them, but I do look forward to presenting all the lessons to them to give them a better understanding and appreciation for our Catholic faith. 

With the Mass Kit, I am doing one small (10 min.) presentation a week.  We are slowly learning the names of everything used in the Mass, how to set up an altar, and  how to fold an altar cloth. As with all Montessori lessons, presentations are short, and we do not move on to a new lesson until the previous one has been mastered.

My sister-in-law, Sr. Ave Maria, is a Dominican Sister of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist (a Catholic religious community in Ann Arbor, MI whose apostolate is teaching).  She has used the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd in both her prekindergarten and kindergarten classrooms. 

The books that really helped me understand and implement the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd in my home were:

The Good Shepard and The Child by Sofia Cavalletti, Patricia Coulter and Silvana Q. Montanaro.

This book has lesson plans and describes how to  implement the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd with children ages 3-6. It includes presentations for the Parables of the Kingdom, the Eucharist, Baptism, and the Parable of the Good Shepherd. It also has a section for Advent and Lent studies with children.

The Religious Potential of the Child: Experiencing Scripture and Liturgy With Young Children

This book describes a Montessori approach to religious education for children from 3-6 known as Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. This is not a "how-to", but rather a glimpse inside a specially prepared environment that allows children to develop rich spiritual lives.

There are more books, for ages 6-9, and then for ages 9-12, I think.  There are also workshops available.  If you are interested in finding out more check out http://www.cgsusa.org/

There are good pictures and also supplies available from Catholic Montessori. 

"If we want to help the child draw nearer to God, we should with patience and courage seek to go always closer to the vital nucleus of things. This requires study and prayer. The child will be our teacher if we know how to observe." --
Sofia Cavalletti