Religious education

[MaryandJoseph]

First off, I wish to say how happy I am to have found this forum and hope to learn much during my time here.

That being said, I am in need of some help. My family has relocated and the new parish is LACKING horribly in CCD. No bible reading/study, No catacism(spelling) and very little in the way of Official Church teachings.

Can anyone help me with an online program? My husband and I are planning on taking over our son’s religious education and need very sound faithful teaching material.

And yes, we have expressed our displeasure to our pastor and dre, but as this is a “progressive” and “liberal” parish, they seem to like the “modern” and folksy type of program.

In search of a parish that actually TEACHES Catholic doctrine but this could take time.

God bless all and thanks for any help you can give me.

 

[lada]

I homeschool my littles who are 5 and 4, because our parish doesn’t offer PSR until FIRST GRADE! Which is silly, IMO. I also do my older daughter’s religious ed at home (she’s ten) because it’s a huge pain to wait around on her with three other little kids when there is nothing offered for them to do!

So, we use the Image of God series for the little ones, and I also added the Faith and Life series for my oldest. For the little ones, we do religious ed several days a week. Because my daughter goes to public school and has a lot of extracurricular activities as well, it makes religious ed everyday really hard. So, for her I downloaded the once-a-week lesson plans and we do Image of God one day a week, and Faith and Life another (usually on the weekend). Those are both good, solid, catehcism-based programs. Faith and Life is harder and more in-depth ( a lot of stuff I have to look up and I went to 12 years of Catholic school!)

You didn’t say how old your child was, but Image of God is really good for the younger grades. The advice I got was to do that for pre-k, k, and 1st, then switch to F&L for 2nd-4th, and then pick them both up for 5th and beyond.

Wanted to add that I purchased them through Ignatius Press.

 

[Cristiano]

Are you saying that there is not religious instruction at all, or that the teachings are not orthodox? Modern and folksy teaching might be quite effective, sometime much more than the older methods (assuming that they cover the proper material with orthodoxy).

If nothing at all is available, why don’t you work with the DRE to setup a class that you can teach. I guess that your kids will be happy to learn together with other children and they will really look at you as a role model. Once you are running the classes and acquire credibility with the DRE, then you can really become independent when it comes to class planning.

For books and or references the best way is to call the offices of your diocese, they have plenty of material to suggest and usually it has the bishop’s approval. The bishop is the teaching authority for your diocese and you should go through his material as a first pass and then you can supplement the information with anything that you consider appropriate.

 

[MaryandJoseph]

Cristiano,

The parish does offer CCD, but it greatly lacks in Solid Catholic teaching. In fact, the first time I attended Holy Mass at this parish, I thought I was at a Protestant “tent revival” meeting…DISCLAIMER: NO disrespect intended to our Protestant Christian brothers/sisters.

Folksy and modern might be fine IF they taught solid Catholic doctrine, but sadly this does not seem the case. In fact, I have not seen any Catholic teachings, just general Christian information (good no doubt, but not complete). Oh, our son is in the 6th grade CCD and 5th grade for regular school.

lada, I will check out the information you have given me and hopefully, if its what we are looking for, it will not cost too much

thanks lada and Cristiano for your help/advice

 

[Cathhsmom]

I, also, homeschool my kids. We use Seton Home Study School which is recognized by the Arlington, VA Archdiocese. We use their books which include, at 6th grade level for religion class, a workbook (daily lesson 4 day week), Baltimore Catechism #2, and Bible History book. You can either order the books seperately or do an enrollment for a single coarse and get tests, and lesson plans.

www.setonhome.org

Our parish CCD uses the Faith and Life series which is very well done. It goes up through 8th grade.

 

[Cristiano]

Cristiano,

The parish does offer CCD, but it greatly lacks in Solid Catholic teaching. In fact, the first time I attended Holy Mass at this parish, I thought I was at a Protestant “tent revival” meeting…DISCLAIMER: NO disrespect intended to our Protestant Christian brothers/sisters.

Folksy and modern might be fine IF they taught solid Catholic doctrine, but sadly this does not seem the case. In fact, I have not seen any Catholic teachings, just general Christian information (good no doubt, but not complete). Oh, our son is in the 6th grade CCD and 5th grade for regular school.

lada, I will check out the information you have given me and hopefully, if its what we are looking for, it will not cost too much

thanks lada and Cristiano for your help/advice

When my son started CCD I was not very pleased with how things went. I am in a very large parish and the CCD teachers are volunteers that come and go, very nice people but sometime with limited knowledge and teaching skills. It is difficult for the pastor and the DRE (both very orthodox) to supervise everything. At that point I decided to get involved, now I can setup my lesson plans, the kids and their parents appear to be happy with them. I use modern folksy books as well as the CCC and the Baltimore catechism (do not forget the apologetics cheat sheet with all the biblical references). Nobody has complained yet about being too traditional. I started with 4th grade and now I am working with middle school. My son is happy to have me as a teacher and he loves to be with other kids.

Just get involved but be humble, you will realize that probably you are not as good of a teacher as you thought. Keep studying the topics, it is as important for you as it is for the children. I assumed that teaching graduate students could be more challenging than young kids. Oh my, was i wrong??

If you get involved try to get a laptop, a good projector for the laptop and sound system. This is the multimedia generation, and it will make your life easier.

 

[garyr]

. . . .
That being said, I am in need of some help. My family has relocated and the new parish is LACKING horribly in CCD. No bible reading/study, No catacism(spelling) and very little in the way of Official Church teachings.

Can anyone help me with an online program? My husband and I are planning on taking over our son’s religious education and need very sound faithful teaching material.

Here is an AWSOME and completely free online one: familycatechism.com/
(built in references to the bible, catechism, papal documents, etc).

Here is an advanced one for the parents: familyland.be/family_consecration/introduction-to-consecration-to-the-holy-family.html

 

[kage_ar]

Image of God and Faith & Life are the best I have ever used.

What text is your Parish using?

Have you considered volunteering to teach CCD?

 

[tampagrl]

Image of God and Faith & Life are the best I have ever used.

What text is your Parish using?

Have you considered volunteering to teach CCD?

I homeschool & use both of these and have been very happy.

I have also used the “familycathechism” link that garyr gave you below.

I’m pretty sure I’ll be enrolling in Seton in the future, and have heard their religion is exceptional. I have seen the K book and thought it might be a little too intense, so I wouldn’t start Seton until after the kids are older. But that’s just my humble opinion.