Faith formation at home

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coopnann

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MY daughter is in first grade. This past fall she had been in a faith formation at church that is combo first/second grade.

Starting now, I will be doing her faith formation instruction at home.

Anyone here do faith formation at home and what materials have you used that you can give an opinion on?

Thanks!
 
coopnann said:
MY daughter is in first grade. This past fall she had been in a faith formation at church that is combo first/second grade.

Starting now, I will be doing her faith formation instruction at home.

Anyone here do faith formation at home and what materials have you used that you can give an opinion on?

Thanks!
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Get the priest’s permission and ask him what resources he would find appropriate. Your daughter can be denied her first communion if the priest is not comfortable with your arrangments, no matter how “good” you feel they are.
 
Faith and Life series by Ignatius Press.
They have good curriculum for every grade.
 
Yes, Faith and Life by Ignatius Press is excellent.

I have one student who receives religious education instruction at home with her mother because a schedule conflict does not allow her to attend our Wednesday night RE classes. I supply all the materials-- teacher and student manual. Have you asked your parish RE director for home teaching supplies?
 
Assuming your Pastor has approved the home instruction, he may have a requirement of certain textbook to be used. Consult with your Pastor.
 
I will tell you “Faith and Life” again, because it is good enough to be said three times.
Get the Faith and Life book - the teacher’s manual would be great for expanding on the student book. The activity book isn’t particularly necessary.

Once you have the materials, show them to your pastor, or the DRE, or whoever makes the decision about whether to allow or deny your child the sacraments based on what they are learning. Even in 1st grade it matters, because some parishes require 2 years of religious ed before allowing children to receive their first communion.

If the person who calls the shots says that it is not sufficient, then ask them what you need to do to meet their requirements and do those. ALSO do Faith and Life at home anyway.

There might be some valuable suggestions that a DRE/pastor can make re: your child’s religious education. But the odds of a “preferred program” matching up to Faith and Life in terms of actually teaching the faith correctly, are very low (there are a small handful of programs that can do it, but they are not as accessible to the average non-homeschooling family). So if you have to jump through hoops, jump through them. And then teach your child from Faith and Life anyway.
 
I agree with Faith and Life and also with the suggestion to use this curriculum at home regardless to supplement/ensure proper formation. Another excellent resource for celebrating the liturgical year and reinforcing those things learned in formation is ‘The Year and Our Children’ by Mary Reed Newland.
 
We homeschool and have used Image of God, Faith and Life and Baltimore Catechism. (I like variety.:))

I agree with those who suggest you talk to your pastor about your child’s religous education and sacramental prep. In some parishes, they expect a child to attend catechism lesson the year before the sacraments, so you may wish to make sure your pastor will recognize your catechism at home for First Communion preparation. Also, some parishes have a “homeschool” option as part of their regular catechism program, where they provide parents with some of the supplies and support, and they often keep parents alert to other ways that their child/children can participate in parish life.
 
Thanks for the recommendations of “Faith and Life”, I will definitely look into it! Sounds highly recommended!
Also will look into “The Year and Our Church”
Hopefully as a family we can do some of the teaching and some activities together.

I did ask our priest this week if I could the faith formation at home, and he said “great” and to coordinate with the teacher about being on the same page. They would not have an extra book for us to use, they just got a new series, I have seen it but it didn’t seem to have much to it, which is why I was looking into other options. At our church the kids only read out of them, to write on any of the pages, copies are made so that the books can be used for more than a year.

THanks again for the recommendations!
 
coopnann said:
At our church the kids only read out of them, to write on any of the pages, copies are made so that the books can be used for more than a year.
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It is so disapppointing to read that a parish religious education program is actually stealing through copyright violation as part of faith formation.

Oh the irony.

How do we expect our kids to learn virtue when they see such a poor example set by their church leaders.

Makes me grateful for my diocesan religious education leadership who put the smackdown on copyright violators and frequently remind catechists that it is wrong to do this.
 
Unfortunately there are many parishes out there that don’t pay attention when it comes down to copying things that are copyrighted. We see this especially in parishes that make reprints of music in worship aids but don’t get permission from the publisher. I wonder if they realize that is considered stealing. I remember once some of our books didn’t arrive in time and had to call the publisher to complain that the books didn’t get here in time. They gave me permission to make copies of workbook pages until the books arrived, which they did the following week.
 
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