Using the Saints as roll models with children

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DaniMetzinger

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Of course the Saints are good roll models for us adults, but how should we introduce them into our children’s lives? Share what has worked for you or just ideas you have.
 
Well I haven’t tried anything yet because my daughter is 7 months old, but the first thing I plan to do is name her “cuddle buddy” (a favorite stuffed animal a child is especially attached to) after a Saint. Although I haven’t decided which Saint.
 
I am afraid I don’t have anything helpful (yet), but I can say that it would be unwise to frequently complain, “You SHOULD be reading the lives of the Saints!” at every possible opportunity. Been there, done that.
 
AthenaC said:
I am afraid I don’t have anything helpful (yet), but I can say that it would be unwise to frequently complain, “You SHOULD be reading the lives of the Saints!” at every possible opportunity. Been there, done that.
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Haha. That’s awesome. Thank you 😃 My mother in-law did this to my husband when we were staying with her. It was in one ear and out the other when she mentioned it, but when it was HIS idea… well I’m sure you can imagine.
 
I guess that the best way to introduce them is when they are young. Explain and tell them of the admiring acts they did for God.

It is important that the influence of the saints be remembered so that other people get inspired or caught on with their good deeds. Hail all the saints plus our Lord Jesus Christ.🙂
 
DaniMetzinger said:
Haha. That’s awesome. Thank you 😃 My mother in-law did this to my husband when we were staying with her. It was in one ear and out the other when she mentioned it, but when it was HIS idea… well I’m sure you can imagine.
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Haha - yeah, my mom was one of those pre-Vatican II, old school, big-family, authoritarianism-is-the-best-thing-since-sliced-bread types. As my kids grow I am exploring different ways of raising them. :cool:
 
My parents read me lives of the saints books at bedtime and my favorite one was always my own patron saint, St. Dominic. I had a little statue of him in my room too. 🙂 After prayers my mom taught me to say “St. Dominic, pray for us!” For Halloween I always wanted to be St. Dominic. I think the best thing is to always have stories, images, prayers, etc. to make them feel connected to the saints. 😛
 
I have a Saints book, and every night I get one of the kids to choose a saint to read about. Ten minutes each night and they get a really good feel for how that saint lived. The one I got has a small message about what the saint can teach us, and some questions for the kids to ponder afterwards. They all get interested, even the ones who are trying not to be interested. I’ll have to get another book once we’ve worked our way through this one.
 
I’m not sure exactly how it happened, but my three year old loves Saint Therese. When she was younger we bought two Holy Baby DVDs which she loved. We made an effort to celebrate feast days this past year and after Saint Therese’s day she talked about nothing else and asked to be called “Marie Therese” half the time. We bought the Catholic Children’s Treasure Chest (it’s a 20 book series) and those are now her favorites. After we read the first seven she started talking about saints all the time and wanting to be a saint. And she’s started pointed out other pictures of saints in saint picture books that we have and saying: “Who does he love best? He loves God best!” and things like that.

That’s what we’ve done so far and she’s still really excited about saints.
 
We celebrate the feasts of the saints with traditional foods, activities, and prayers from Catholic Culture’s website. We usually read picture books or short summaries about their lives. Throughout the year we also read aloud, or our kids read independently, chapter books on various saints.

During our morning and evening prayers we invoke the intercession of all the patron saints of our family, the children usually enjoy adding their own patrons or favorite saints to the litany. We also talk frequently about the saints and how God wants us to try and become a saint, too.
 
RedSoxWife said:
I’m not sure exactly how it happened, but my three year old loves Saint Therese. When she was younger we bought two Holy Baby DVDs which she loved. We made an effort to celebrate feast days this past year and after Saint Therese’s day she talked about nothing else and asked to be called “Marie Therese” half the time. We bought the Catholic Children’s Treasure Chest (it’s a 20 book series) and those are now her favorites. After we read the first seven she started talking about saints all the time and wanting to be a saint. And she’s started pointed out other pictures of saints in saint picture books that we have and saying: “Who does he love best? He loves God best!” and things like that.

That’s what we’ve done so far and she’s still really excited about saints.
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How sweet. Maybe she has a vocation. 🙂
 
admonsta said:
I have a Saints book, and every night I get one of the kids to choose a saint to read about. Ten minutes each night and they get a really good feel for how that saint lived. The one I got has a small message about what the saint can teach us, and some questions for the kids to ponder afterwards. They all get interested, even the ones who are trying not to be interested. I’ll have to get another book once we’ve worked our way through this one.
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I’d love to know the name of this book. I love that it has questions too.
 
RedSoxWife said:
I’m not sure exactly how it happened, but my three year old loves Saint Therese. When she was younger we bought two Holy Baby DVDs which she loved. We made an effort to celebrate feast days this past year and after Saint Therese’s day she talked about nothing else and asked to be called “Marie Therese” half the time. We bought the Catholic Children’s Treasure Chest (it’s a 20 book series) and those are now her favorites. After we read the first seven she started talking about saints all the time and wanting to be a saint. And she’s started pointed out other pictures of saints in saint picture books that we have and saying: “Who does he love best? He loves God best!” and things like that.

That’s what we’ve done so far and she’s still really excited about saints.
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The Treasure Box series is wonderful! My kids started to love St. Therese because of those, too. Others we have really enjoyed for that age group are Their Hearts are His Garden and Leading the Little Ones to Mary. Along with many others!

All these books are such treasures in our house. I look forward to reading and rereading them with each kid.
 
domandcarols said:
How sweet. Maybe she has a vocation. 🙂
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She sure thinks she does. She talks about being a nun all the time. I’d pointed out the nuns to her when we occasionally were at Mass at the local university (we hadn’t talked about it much more than that… although she had a nun doll and demanded a nun birthday party, which was kind of hard to decorate for), and the idea has really stuck in her head. When I jokingly asked if her sister (who’s 21 months) would be one too she shook her head like I was crazy and told me “she’s just a baby.” It’ll be interesting to see if it lasts! She surprises me on a daily basis!
kristacecilia said:
The Treasure Box series is wonderful! My kids started to love St. Therese because of those, too. Others we have really enjoyed for that age group are Their Hearts are His Garden and Leading the Little Ones to Mary. Along with many others!

All these books are such treasures in our house. I look forward to reading and rereading them with each kid.
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I’ll have to check those others out too! I’m always looking for suggestions!
 
Blenderx, the book is called “Loyola Kids’ Book of Saints” by Amy Welborn.
 
For all saints day at my church each class of children’s catechism chooses a different saint and performs a short based on their saints lives.
 
Holy Cards

Your local Catholic bookstore should have a rack full of them. You can find ones online that you can print on card stock or paper and then laminate. And many other sources…

They make great little rewards or surprises or gifts for no reason other than you love them… and then it’s an opportunity to tell them a little about that Saint, something about them that your child will identify with or that might get them interested in that Saint… and then you even point out there is a lot more to their story in the book of saints sitting over there on the shelf… don’t make them read it…

when my kids get a card they really like or I tell them the right tidbit about the right saint, they end up reading about that saint on their own, at the right moment for them… and they always seem to remember, they have a bunch of other cards and some of them are in the book too and will end up reading about 4 or 5…

And with my kids, whenever one of them gets a new card, they get really excited to say family prayers that night so that they could lead us in the new prayer…
 
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