Faith and Life Series

[Elzee]

Is anyone here using the Faith and Life series at their school or church? I’ve been reviewing it and like it so much better than the ‘Christ Our Life’ series we us. It has so much more information and the study guide is awesome. I’m thinking of recommending it to our pastor. Any thoughts?

 

[kage_ar]

We are switching to Faith and Life from Faith First for CCD this year. I’ve had my 5th grade books for some time - and am ssssooooooo excited to begin!

 

[kmktexas]

The kids school use Faith and Life and the CCE program uses Christ our Life. F&L is much deeper but might be hard to cover everything in a once a week CCE program. The new edition of F&L is awesome and tied closely to the CCC.

One caution, the parish usually has to use what is on the diocisan “approved” list. In our diocese, I was told that F & L is approved but discouraged. That is why we use it at school (non-diocisan Catholic school) but not at the parish level.

 

[Leeta]

I used it in homeshooling. It is great. I learned so much myself as a poorly instructed convert from using it to prepare my sons for their First Holy Communions and for their religious education.
Their is so much info in the teacher’s manuals.
I learned things about the liturgy which were totally ignored for years by most parishes. They base their info on proper liturgy from Vatican documents.
Our parish uses it in CCD classes.

 

[puzzleannie]

Faith in Life or Image of God (neither of which has diocesan approval) would be my first choice. We use Christ our Life because it is the best of the approved series. I would not even consider the other 2 approved series, by Silver-Burdett and Sadlier. The trouble with the two series from Ignatius Press is that they are written at or above the national reading level for their grades, and most of our children read well below the national level. Faith in Life is intended for Catholic schools, Image of God is better for CCD/PSR.

 

[Giannawannabe]

Our catechism group uses Faith and Life. We are not part of a diocesan program. Our group is more of an “independent” group of Catholics ranging from homeschoolers, Catholic schoolers, and public schoolers. It is a wonderful series, but I find that it’s difficult to get through the entire book for Catechism ( I teach First Communion). It’s used in one of the independent Catholic schools in our area, and they can finish it as they have class every day. I’d still recommend it though, but all the teachers should thoroughly go through the book and pick out which chapters to cover in most detail, and which to cover quickly. Perhaps, I find this because I teach a Sacrament class.

For my own children, we finish up their books/workbooks over the Summer. I’ve learned so much!!! I read their books cover to cover as soon as they get them.

As puzzleannie noted, once the kids hit 3rd grade, the texts get more difficult. They do seem to be a bit above the grade level recommended. The teacher’s manuals are very good at providing more indepth explanations if needed.

 

[KCT]

How well do you know your pastor? Do you have a good relationship? Does he trust you?

If you know him and have a good relationship, go ahead and suggest F&L. If you don’t, he could take it as a judgement on the current program.

I think we have to be careful about things like this. My opinion is we have to make friends and earn their trust first. --KCT (I used F&L in our homeschool; they’re great books)

 

[Elzee]

Thanks everyone for you (name removed by moderator)ut. It has really helped.

 

[Elzee]

puzzleannie:

Faith in Life or Image of God (neither of which has diocesan approval) would be my first choice. We use Christ our Life because it is the best of the approved series. I would not even consider the other 2 approved series, by Silver-Burdett and Sadlier. The trouble with the two series from Ignatius Press is that they are written at or above the national reading level for their grades, and most of our children read well below the national level. Faith in Life is intended for Catholic schools, Image of God is better for CCD/PSR.

I found out that our principal does not like the F&L series for several reasons (I’ve been thinking about recommending it both for our church and school the more I look at it). Plus, it’s on our Diocese ‘approved but with reservation list’, but I have no idea why. Sadlier seems to be one that she is leaning towards (it’s also on the ‘approved with reservation’ also). Do you know much the Sadlier series? Does it reference the Catechism? I thought the F&L series was so rich in its Catholic teaching.