Sunday School Help!

[Floorance]

Hi!

I could use some help.

I’m in the process of developing a product that has to do with Catholic Sunday School and I want to make sure that I cover all the bases.

What I need from you is to know your biggest Sunday School question. It can be about starting a Sunday School program at your church or about your existing Sunday School.

In exchange I would like to **offer you a free copy of my product **once it is launched.

If you could please follow the link below and leave your question that would be appreciated! If you know more teachers or potential teachers, please let them know about this too! The more questions I get, the better the guide will be!

catholicsundayschoolblueprint.blinkweb.com/
Thanks again and I am looking forward to hearing your feedback!

God Bless!

 

[Floorance]

Hi!

I could use some help.

I’m in the process of developing a product that has to do with Catholic Sunday School and I want to make sure that I cover all the bases.

What I need from you is to know your biggest Sunday School question. It can be about starting a Sunday School program at your church or about your existing Sunday School.

In exchange I would like to offer you a free copy of my product once it is launched.

If you could please follow the link below and leave your question that would be appreciated! If you know more teachers or potential teachers, please let them know about this too! The more questions I get, the better the guide will be!

catholicsundayschoolblueprint.blinkweb.com/

Thanks again and I am looking forward to hearing your feedback!

God Bless!

 

[Floorance]

Hi!

I could use some help.

I’m in the process of developing a product that has to do with Catholic Sunday School and I want to make sure that I cover all the bases.

What I need from you is to know your biggest Sunday School question. It can be about starting a Sunday School program at your church or about your existing Sunday School.

In exchange I would like to offer you a free copy of my product once it is launched.

If you could please follow the link below and leave your question that would be appreciated! If you know more teachers or potential teachers, please let them know about this too! The more questions I get, the better the guide will be!

catholicsundayschoolblueprint.blinkweb.com/

Thanks again and I am looking forward to hearing your feedback!

God Bless!

 

[Scoobyshme]

Why would we use a Protestant term, “Sunday School” rather than “CCD?”

Just seems odd, yes? Do you, perhaps, live in a very Protestant area, maybe?

 

[Catholic1954]

Hi! If you were Catholic you would know that we don’t have “Sunday School” we have CCD and that we don’t get our CCD materials from the internet, we get them from approved sources from the diocese. I guess we should say that we are not interested. Thanks for calling. Dial tone.

 

[Lutheranteach]

Hi! If you were Catholic you would know that we don’t have “Sunday School” we have CCD and that we don’t get our CCD materials from the internet, we get them from approved sources from the diocese. I guess we should say that we are not interested. Thanks for calling. Dial tone.

For all the posts in her moaning and complaining about how poor CCD is and how badly catechized people are and how many posts there are about how big a pain in the butt small children are at mass it seems odd to totally dismiss the idea…and especially in such a rude way.

 

[joandarc2008]

OK, for those that are involved in picking curriculums for youth programs whether they be CCD, youth, young adult, or Sacrament prep I absolutely apologize for the rudeness on that post. It is tough to develop something from scratch. I would that we as a Church are moving away from the old VII (not desecrating - no one yell) personal-relationship mentality into the Benedictine/Augustine Faith through reason and understanding. Yes, faith through reason and understanding can even be taught to first graders. I believe those that develop curriculums at that age first along the Pope’s initiatives will sell the best among dioceses. Just my opinion from having educated myself as opposed to just being handed book and reading out of it to kids.

 

[Tantum_ergo]

Lutheranteach, while I might not have put in the "dial tone’ at the end, the rest of Catholic1954’s post was not at all rude. I mean, when a person has presented themselves as an expert yet demonstrates that he really doesn’t know the market he supposedly is poised to conquer, there’s no nice way of saying, “Um, you appear to have totally mistaken your subject, sir.” No doubt Catholic 1954 looked at Floors profile and saw that basically all Floor’s posts were variations (in the vocations thread even!) of “I have developed this Catholic Sunday School product and want to cover all the bases”. . .and by the way, here is a LINK which could be full of nasty viruses too. . .

And so yes, for somebody who has just ‘come on’ and is pretty much saying, “I have this GREAT teaching tool idea, help me out” yet doesn’t even know enough about Catholicism to know that the term “Sunday School” is almost never used with regard to Catholic education --well, it is jarring. I mean, imagine going over and offering to help the local Baptist congregation “Say, people, I have a great tool for your Sunday Mass experience! Let me know some of the things your group wants to focus on for teaching. . .like transsubstantiation– and infant baptism. . .”

You’d kind of look, um. . .clueless and you would either amuse or offend the very people you wanted to ‘help’, right??

Really, this is NOT the place for such a query. IF this is indeed a Catholic (living in some area which is so deeply protestant that the terminology is used in Catholic-ville as well!), he or she should be contacting his diocese and asking to set up a meeting with the diocesean religious education program people. AND ditch the link. People don’t usually want to risk getting a virus from a web site from who knows who and god knows where. Somebody who is really legit should NOT be going onto a message board and asking for ‘tips’. OR viewing some unknown site. I mean, somebody could come on (hopefully not a Catholic) and pretend to be all legitimate and feed this poor person a rigamarole of what Catholics ‘supposedly’ would want. . .that wouldn’t be helpful or nice. If this is a legitimate query it needs to go to a legitimate authority. . .and that would not be ‘here.’

 

[joandarc2008]

Lutheranteach, while I might not have put in the "dial tone’ at the end, the rest of Catholic1954’s post was not at all rude. I mean, when a person has presented themselves as an expert yet demonstrates that he really doesn’t know the market he supposedly is poised to conquer, there’s no nice way of saying, “Um, you appear to have totally mistaken your subject, sir.” No doubt Catholic 1954 looked at Floors profile and saw that basically all Floor’s posts were variations (in the vocations thread even!) of “I have developed this Catholic Sunday School product and want to cover all the bases”. . .and by the way, here is a LINK which could be full of nasty viruses too. . .

And so yes, for somebody who has just ‘come on’ and is pretty much saying, “I have this GREAT teaching tool idea, help me out” yet doesn’t even know enough about Catholicism to know that the term “Sunday School” is almost never used with regard to Catholic education --well, it is jarring. I mean, imagine going over and offering to help the local Baptist congregation “Say, people, I have a great tool for your Sunday Mass experience! Let me know some of the things your group wants to focus on for teaching. . .like transsubstantiation– and infant baptism. . .”

You’d kind of look, um. . .clueless and you would either amuse or offend the very people you wanted to ‘help’, right??

Really, this is NOT the place for such a query. IF this is indeed a Catholic (living in some area which is so deeply protestant that the terminology is used in Catholic-ville as well!), he or she should be contacting his diocese and asking to set up a meeting with the diocesean religious education program people. AND ditch the link. People don’t usually want to risk getting a virus from a web site from who knows who and god knows where. Somebody who is really legit should NOT be going onto a message board and asking for ‘tips’. OR viewing some unknown site. I mean, somebody could come on (hopefully not a Catholic) and pretend to be all legitimate and feed this poor person a rigamarole of what Catholics ‘supposedly’ would want. . .that wouldn’t be helpful or nice. If this is a legitimate query it needs to go to a legitimate authority. . .and that would not be ‘here.’

I understand to a point where you are coming from - but you know what - some parts of the country the parents and kids- call it Sunday school because they want to fit in - It’s not right - but it is what happens. Especially if the Catholic teachings at your local parish look just like your protestant ones except for the sacraments. I came from one of those Churches and have never been so glad to be home. And I will tell you something - the divorce rate at that parish was ridiculous among other things. Our own DRE IMHO was poorly catechized. I personally did not see the link so I am just throwing it that we should be charitable as well as evangelize.

 

[Tantum_ergo]

I understand to a point where you are coming from - but you know what - some parts of the country the parents and kids- call it Sunday school because they want to fit in - It’s not right - but it is what happens. Especially if the Catholic teachings at your local parish look just like your protestant ones except for the sacraments. I came from one of those Churches and have never been so glad to be home. And I will tell you something - the divorce rate at that parish was ridiculous among other things. Our own DRE IMHO was poorly catechized. I personally did not see the link so I am just throwing it that we should be charitable as well as evangelize.

I understand too, but as I mentioned, this person has only had a few posts at all and they are variations of the same thing, and offer a link to some absolutely ‘unknown’ web site. Even if he or she is perfectly legitimate, the whole format is a problem. Anybody who is interesting in coming up with teaching ideas for religious education should be consulting their diocese’s director of religious education and getting any needed requirements from the legitimate source. Then once he or she has gotten the necessary information, he or she can develop some ideas, and then ‘paste’ some of the ideas into a thread. This will get really specific help to the individual, and it won’t waste time, AND it won’t put people in jeopardy (nobody wants to risk getting viruses).

If the person is far enough along to have ‘developed a teaching tool’ then he or she should be putting out one or two of the topics he or she has already developed and asking rather, “Would this be helpful in YOUR religious education program?”

 

[jmcrae]

Hi!

I could use some help.

I’m in the process of developing a product that has to do with Catholic Sunday School and I want to make sure that I cover all the bases.

What I need from you is to know your biggest Sunday School question. It can be about starting a Sunday School program at your church or about your existing Sunday School.

The only thing remotely like “Sunday School” in the modern-day Catholic experience is Liturgy of the Word for Children, which is intended for children ages three to seven.

There are various kinds of Youth programs that can potentially meet on Sundays, but they normally go by designations like “Youth Group,” or “Kids for Christ” and the like, rather than calling them “Sunday School.”

It’s up to the Bishop’s Office of Education to choose the materials that are used by each of these various groups, so you’d be better off contacting your Bishop to have a look at your program, rather than random Internet users.

 

[Floorance]

My apologies for causing any issues!

It seems that I was not clear in my question…please let me explain.

I run a nursery program at our church (we are trying to get the name changed as nursery implies babies). This program is intended to teach 3-5 year olds about our faith while their parents are free to attend mass. Parents drop their children off before mass and then pick them up after mass is over.

We teach them things like he sign of the cross, about the rosary, the saints, and tell them bible stories using a storyboard.

In reality, it is more of a Children’s LOW for toddlers.

Again, I apologize if I caused any issues…I just see a need out there for this ministry and I wanted to put together something to help those who would like to start this ministry at their own parish.

Concerning the outside link. This was a way for me to easily keep track of the questions I was going to receive, nothing more.

God bless and thank you for helping me to realize my mistake.

 

[Mommyof02green]

The only thing remotely like “Sunday School” in the modern-day Catholic experience is Liturgy of the Word for Children, which is intended for children ages three to seven.

There are various kinds of Youth programs that can potentially meet on Sundays, but they normally go by designations like “Youth Group,” or “Kids for Christ” and the like, rather than calling them “Sunday School.”

It’s up to the Bishop’s Office of Education to choose the materials that are used by each of these various groups, so you’d be better off contacting your Bishop to have a look at your program, rather than random Internet users.

We just got a new rector in July and he made changes to our RE/CCD program.

Starting in October we will be offering the liturgy of the word for children during the 9 am Mass and all CCD classes grades K-8 will every Sunday in between the 9 am and 11 am Masses.

 

[Mommyof02green]

My apologies for causing any issues!

It seems that I was not clear in my question…please let me explain.

I run a nursery program at our church (we are trying to get the name changed as nursery implies babies). This program is intended to teach 3-5 year olds about our faith while their parents are free to attend mass. Parents drop their children off before mass and then pick them up after mass is over.

We teach them things like he sign of the cross, about the rosary, the saints, and tell them bible stories using a storyboard.

In reality, it is more of a Children’s LOW for toddlers.

Again, I apologize if I caused any issues…I just see a need out there for this ministry and I wanted to put together something to help those who would like to start this ministry at their own parish.

Concerning the outside link. This was a way for me to easily keep track of the questions I was going to receive, nothing more.

God bless and thank you for helping me to realize my mistake.

You need to talk to your Pastor, RE director, and find out what is approved by your Bishop. There ARE already good Pre-School programs that are approved by the USCCB.

This is the link the to PDF of approved materials. At the beginning is a list of pre-school materials.

usccb.org/catechism/document/Currentlist.pdf

 

[puzzleannie]

We just got a new rector in July and he made changes to our RE/CCD program.

Starting in October we will be offering the liturgy of the word for children during the 9 am Mass and all CCD classes grades K-8 will every Sunday in between the 9 am and 11 am Masses.

I like that idea and some parishes here do that but we are “inner city” and have parking issues that would never allow it. We also have an insurance issue with the school that means we can’t offer child and infant care, although we could offer Sunday classes for the same ages the school serves, 3+. I can’t get catechists for Sunday however as this is seen here as “family day”. We have CLOW at one, it was here when I arrived but has nothing to do with CCD, except I ordered new books more in conformity with Catholic teaching than their old resource.

My DD in NC informs me her parish uses the term “Sunday School” for their children’s classes that day since it is a generic in her part of the country, so we were perhaps hasty in our knee jerk reaction to that term. Her parish does have nursery program for toddlers to 3, and a preschool for 3-5 which is an immense help to young parents. there are still what seem to be hundreds of small children at Mass. It relies however on a small army of volunteers but her parish is huge and they are forthcoming, and have facilities specially built for this in their school.

I too do not click on any links here or any other site unless I know what they are and who sponsors them, too many bad results, viruses etc.

 

[Floorance]

Thanks to a fellow poster I now understand the concern about my use of the term “Sunday School”. I truly apologize for offending anyone as this was not my intention! I did not have a better way to put this at the time - but now I do.

Please replace the “sunday school” words with “Tot Worship Program” ages 3-5.

It is my intention with this guide I’m creating to help more parishes begin a Tot Worship programs by providing step-by-step blueprints they can follow. We have seen so much enrichment in the tots in our parish since we began this over 4 years ago.

My belief is two-fold with our program.

First, and most importantly, it allows us to begin teaching our Catholic faith to toddlers. They learn the sign of the cross, about the rosary, the saints and bible stories through our storyboards we prepare each week. It really gives them a good solid base to build upon until they are old enough for the Children’s LOW at mass (and CCD of course).

Secondly, having our worship program allows the parents of our tots to fully engage themselves with the mass without any distractions.

Most parishes have a Children’s LOW at certain masses, however they do not have more than a “crying room” (what we used to call it when I was younger) for parents with small children.

Okay…I’m getting long winded here Please forgive me for offending you with my words. Hopefully I have better explained my intentions.

If you have any questions, please let me know! I’d love to hear your feedback.

 

[joandarc2008]

Thanks to a fellow poster I now understand the concern about my use of the term “Sunday School”. I truly apologize for offending anyone as this was not my intention! I did not have a better way to put this at the time - but now I do.

Please replace the “sunday school” words with “Tot Worship Program” ages 3-5.

It is my intention with this guide I’m creating to help more parishes begin a Tot Worship programs by providing step-by-step blueprints they can follow. We have seen so much enrichment in the tots in our parish since we began this over 4 years ago.

My belief is two-fold with our program.

First, and most importantly, it allows us to begin teaching our Catholic faith to toddlers. They learn the sign of the cross, about the rosary, the saints and bible stories through our storyboards we prepare each week. It really gives them a good solid base to build upon until they are old enough for the Children’s LOW at mass (and CCD of course).

Secondly, having our worship program allows the parents of our tots to fully engage themselves with the mass without any distractions.

Most parishes have a Children’s LOW at certain masses, however they do not have more than a “crying room” (what we used to call it when I was younger) for parents with small children.

Okay…I’m getting long winded here Please forgive me for offending you with my words. Hopefully I have better explained my intentions.

If you have any questions, please let me know! I’d love to hear your feedback.

It sounds like you have a good program there. I think it is important to note that some diocese give pastors/DREs more say/leeway in the programs they pick so while it may be one way in your diocese it may be another way in another. Also - while Floorence’s is for toddlers I was working with a Young Adult/Youth program with a Lay Order and we basically got to pick our own formation materials as long as we ran them through the Fraternity - so some topics like chastity, etc we may grab from other places. People - charity. Relax. If it doesn’t affect you - quit attacking.

 

[jmcrae]

We just got a new rector in July and he made changes to our RE/CCD program.

Starting in October we will be offering the liturgy of the word for children during the 9 am Mass and all CCD classes grades K-8 will every Sunday in between the 9 am and 11 am Masses.

That’s actually very sensible.