Preschool Day 2

J.M.J.

Here is day 2 for the preschool program I am putting together.  This year's plans will come in fits and spurts (and not necessarily in time for specific feast days) and as time permits, so my apologies to those who have 4 year old children this year.  But if you have 3 year olds, the these plans should be ready for you to use by next year!  Enjoy!

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We will call today Day one and a half, as we only got through half of the curriculum.  I had waaaay too much planned for a 4 year old!  But that is OK, because I have also decided he needs school almost every day.  So instead of a new plan for Friday, I will have the rest of today's plan to use tomorrow.  :)

We celebrated the Immaculate Heart of Mary today, as it is her feast day on the Traditional calendar, but it is also her month, so this would work for anyone in August.  :) 

My thought process behind today's lesson plans is focusing on Our Lady and her Immaculate Heart.  With this, we will also be exploring issues of personal hygiene and keeping ourselves 'immaculately' clean.  We only got through the religious portion of the lessons today, so tomorrow we spend the day with a petri dish, washing our hands, learning about germs, playing a fun game online and going on a germ hunt and a 'sin' hunt in the house, both of which will be appropriately labled.  (You'll just have to see it tomorrow - trust me!  LOL)

We wanted to make the Immaculate Heart cookies seen on Catholic Icing.  One quick comparison between her cookies and mine will tell you I did not have some crucial ingredients onhand today.  I thought I had food coloring, but alas I did not.  Living 40 minutes away from the nearest store meant I had to do some quick thinking.  So I convinced Fulton we needed to have the hearts white because Our Lady's heart was so clean and pure.  We colored the flames with carrot juice (and you all know why I suddenly have a gallon of that stuff aroung the house!) and the strip of flowers was made out of dough colored with homemade blueberry preserves!  We tossed a chocolate chip to give a color contrarst to the flame and voila!  Immaculate Heart of Mary cookies, natural style!

They smelled soooo good baking, but I had to resist, as they were not on my fast plan, even if they were 'natural'.  The children are still enjoying them as I type, though, which means the temptation will not last long.

Immaculate Heart of Mary

Use ‘Yes Ma’am’ page throughout the day and use as part of accountability to Daddy

Read 2^nd half of Treasure Box book

Do pre-writing worksheets, write name, etc

Rosary Quilt program:  Discuss the story of the Annunciation.   Pray the Our Father, Hail Mary and a Glory Be using activity blanket

Color Immaculate Heart picture and write 'I love you' on it  (picture found below)

Read this book  pgs 2-15 and 26 – 28

Quote for the day:  St. Francis of Assisi:    “Immaculate Heart of Mary, cause of our joy, pray for us.”  (Recite for Daddy at dinnertime as part of his accountability)

Make Immaculate Heart cookies –  Listen to ‘Immaculate Mary' song and try to sing it. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCgk-b4iMOk

 Also use this time to count, discuss letters of the alphabet, and talk about Our Lady 

Play online puzzle of Immaculate Heart of Mary while cookies are cooking  http://www.jigzone.com/puzzles/20155468E57

End with praying the prayer the angel taught the 3 shepherd children before Our Lady appeared to them:

Fatima prayer of the Angel

My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love Thee. I ask pardon for those who do not believe, who do not adore, who do not hope and who do not love Thee.

 

Coloring page



Raw cookie

Cooked cookie

Carrot juice and blueberry preserves colored cookie dough!

Catholic Preschool Plans

J.M.J.

I must be slightly out of my mind, but I am considering writing a preschool curriculum, even though none of my children are currently in preschool.  Fulton is too old, and Marialina is too young, but I had so much fun creating lessons for Fulton back in 2012, I thought I would continue them.  My plan is to eventually have 3 'classes' a week, but that will depend on how well my computer is working and if I can actually get to use it, now that the children are working on it all the time.  HA!  We shall see. 

I had so much fun doing this with Fulton, but I am getting a little teary eyed, too, remembering him before the accident.

Below is a copy/paste job from my old blog with the first day of preschool posted.  It will be tied into the liturgical year and will be mostly internet based, so the only materials you will need will be some crafting and baking items and maybe one of those mega-curriculum workbooks you can get in many stores this time of year.  I will try to use online workbook pages when I find them.

If people like this, I will maybe lay it out a little better....we shall see where the Spirit leads me.  But I need your input too!

 So let me know what you think!  Should I continue this or not?

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(Post from my old blog)

First day of preschool for Fulton!!!  I can't even believe how quickly time is flying by, but here we are, homeschooling 5 kids this year.  (Prayers, please!)

I have decided to toss the preschool programs I used in the past and piece together something I could work with. He just turned 4 in June, so I know I will have to take it a little slower in some areas, but overall I think he is more than ready for this adventure.

I decided to revolve his school year around the Liturgical calendar, using the day's feasts as my guide.  I went cheap and bought 2 different MEGA preschool workbooks, plus some Catholic-specific workbooks for him to work through.  He has never had any formal training on writing before, so this week we are working mostly on how to hold a crayon, how to trace and follow 'mazes' and so on.  He loves coloring and painting on his own, so I highly suspect he will catch on fairly quickly.  You have never seen a little boy happier than the frst time he sees his name in print - in his own handwriting!

Today is St. Bernard of Calirvaux's feast day, so here was the plan:

Read half of book #1 of the Treasure Box series and discuss
Do pre-writing worksheets, write name, etc
Begin Rosary Quilt program: Just introduce activity blanket and its components today.  (Have it out for him to get used to during family rosary at night)
Color picture of St. Bernard of Calirvaux  (picture found below)
Read some basic information about St Bernard of Clairvaux
Memorize his famous quote: "Jesus is honey in the mouth."  (Recite quote to daddy at dinner as part of his accountability)

Discuss bees

• Only insect that makes food for people
• Makes wax
• What does it make honey out of?
• Why does he make honey?
• Why does it make the wax?
• The bees live to serve the queen bee.  Should we live to love and serve Our Blessed Mother?  What sweet things can we bring to her? 

Read 2 quick stories on bees found here and here   Lots of giggles with these!
Make honey candy (recipe follows)
Play online bee puzzle while waiting for candy to boil and while it cools
Decorate candle for prayer room
Cut out bee pieces and have him tape together the bee.  Attach to stick and make it fly!
Read this story
Pray the Memorare (a prayer St. Bernard wrote):

REMEMBER, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession was left unaided. Inspired with this confidence, I fly to thee, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother; to thee do I come; before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me. Amen.



Devotional candle decorated with stickers



Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..........

Coloring page

Honeycomb Candy Recipe

•3/4 cup sugar

•2 tablespoons honey

•2 tablespoons water

•1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda

Instructions

1.Grease a casserole dish or pie plate. You can use oil, butter, or non-stick cooking spray.  But be generous and grease it all the way  to the rim or you will have a difficult time removing it from the pan.

 2.Add the sugar, honey, and water to a saucepan. You can stir the mixture, but it isn't necessary.

 3.Cook the ingredients over high heat, without stirring, until the mixture reaches 300°F. The sugar will melt, small bubbles will form, the bubbles will become larger, then the sugar will start to carmelize to an amber color.  Do not burn!  LOL!

 4.When the temperature reaches 300°F, remove the pan from heat and whisk the baking soda into the hot syrup. This will cause the syrup to foam up.

 5.Stir just enough to mix the ingredients, then dump the mixture onto the greased baking sheet. Don't spread out the candy, as this would pop your bubbles adn you will lose the 'honeycomb' effect.

 6.Allow the candy to cool, then break or cut it into pieces.

7.Store the honeycomb candy in an airtight container.

 I am sure this this candy would be delicious, had I not burned it a little, and if I actually stirred it.  The baking soda made it foam up so quickly (we used a small pan), that I had a moment of panic and dumped it in the pie pan before it was completely mixed.  Hence the white chunks in the picture.  CJ loved it, everyone else just focused on the 'burnt' taste.  I took the tiniest taste (Honeycomb Candy was not part of the 40 Day Fast-40 Day Feast plan!) and could imagine it would have been quite good with a bit less time over the flames.  Lesson learned.

I think we will do preschool 3 days a week with other activities on the off days.  Fulton needs to stay super busy, both in body and mind, but I have other children to teach as well.  It is going to be a delicate balance between the 2 different types of schooling, but Lord willing, I shall succeed!

St. Lawrence and Burn Safety Activity

J.M.J.

 

Today's Collect: O God, giver of that ardor of love for you by which Saint Lawrence was outstandingly faithful in service and glorious in martyrdom, grant that we may love what he loved and put into practice what he taught. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

 



I am so inspired!  St. Lawrence's day is today and to celebrate, I have decided to designate August 10 of every year:

The Feast of St Lawrence and Poppe Fire Safety Day If I Happen to Remember to Check the Calendar!

(I have a lot going on and I try to be honest with myself) 

After reviewing some of my early entries I wrote on the Pray For Fulton Facebook group about Fulton's burns and care, I am reliving some of that horror and sorrow all of us mothers were going through on the critical burn unit floor.  Praise God Fulton has no memory of those first several weeks, but so much of the images and sounds of utter suffering will be with me forever. 

Now over the years I think I have done a fairly good job of teaching my children what is dangerous and what can cause burns.   But what I never once even mentioned to any of them was what to do if they actually got burned.  And this will be one of my regrets I will take to my grave.  Lord help me, by kindergarten I knew to Stop, Drop and Roll if I ever caught on fire.  But Fulton never knew.   It is not like I kept the secret from him.  It just never occurred to me that such a horrible thing could actually happen to people, unless it was on TV.  But that was drama.  And actors.  And if they didn't die in the story, they never looked too bad off in the following hospital scenes.  No.  Fire wounds were never on my parental radar.  Because who could imagine seeing one's own child in flames?

Burn safety, needless to say, is becoming my passion and I will dedicate this post to remind all of you to please be sure your children are well versed in burn safety!

I want everyone who reads this to try to recall the last time you spoke with your child about being safe around hot things.  The stove, bathtub, fireplace, burn barrel, electrical outlets, power lines, irons and candles are all possible safety hazards you should point out to your children.  Chemicals and flammable fuels are also high on the list of  dangerous items.  And, of course, matches. 

I created a little fire safety activity I want all of you families to play on every Feast of Saint Lawrence.  It is easy to play and full of action, so your children will love it!  Below is a page I created with several flames on it.  It is a JPEG file, so just paste it on a document and stretch it out to fit if you need to.  (I don't but your computer may be different)  Print it, cut the squares out and go around your house and tape one to everything that could cause a burn.  Stove knobs and oven doors, outlets and curling irons, hot water taps and candles.  Everything!  Print out multiple pages if you want to.  Go nuts with it - decorate your house! 

As you tape the flames by each item, talk to them about how the burns can happen (no forks in the outlets, please!), what to watch for (is that electrical cord frayed?) and how far away they should stay from dangerous items (if you blow towards the candle flame and it flickers, you are too close!)  Tell them that steam burns are especially painful and to always let an adult take care of steaming items on the stovetop. 

The special flame with Fulton's picture on it should be used on a box of matches and a can of gasoline (if you have it).  While Fulton was not playing with matches when he was burned, matches and gasoline are extremely dangerous especially when used together.  You have permission to gently tell them of his accident and how he now warns all the children he meets that gasoline is very dangerous.

Then tell them how to treat first and second degree burns and how to tell the difference.  Talk to them about third degree burns, too.  Although there may not be much a child can do about helping to treat a third degree burn, just knowing the information could save a life somewhere down the road.  Use a medical book or this site here for now: Burn Care   (When I get the game all together, I will include this information as well)  I have an issue with the administering pain medication to anyone who is badly burned, but that is something I learned in the hospital and will be covered when the game is complete.  So you may tell them that for first and small second degree burns, this treatment is OK.  But for burns that require medical attention, this is not always a good idea.

Finally, show your children where the first aid kit is and make sure you have sterile gauze pads and a bag of clean washcloths stored with your first aid kit. You can also purchase a few packages of sterile lap rags which will come in handy for both burns and any wound that is bleeding a lot.  Tell them that when someone has a first or second degree burn, cool water will be the first thing they will want to apply to the wound.  Second degree burns should be covered with a moist sterile bandage until an adult can look at it and decide if a physician must be seen.

Then teach your children how to Stop, Drop and Roll.  It is very simple and fun to practice, too!  (Remind them to cover their face if they can, as this is what happened to have saved Fulton's eyes.) 

Once they get the basic idea, each child and parent will take a turn getting 'burned' by something you marked in the house.  Have the child holler in pain and everyone else will come running.  Ask your other children how the 'injured' child probably got burned.  Now you take a look at the injury and assess it out loud.  "Oh no!  Michael burned his finger from the outlet here.  The tip of his finger is red and has blisters on it.  What degree of burn is it?"  Have them answer.  "And how do we treat it?"  Send a child to the first aid kit and actually treat the pretend wound.  After it is treated, ask, "what should we do now?"  Call a doctor, watch it and see how it does, etc.  And finally, "What should we do if we see someone playing with an electrical outlet?" or whatever object that caused the pretend burn.

Put your supplies away and start again.  Let each child get 'burned' at least once, and let each child take care of an injured person as well, so that they all know how to quickly get the first aid kit.  Hopefully a parent will be home when a real burn or other injury happens, so having children who all know where the first aid kits are kept and how to get the washcloths wet for you will be very helpful in a true emergency.

Obviously if your child gets frightened easily, this level of teaching might be overwhelming.  Tweak it where appropriate. 

I am sorry this game is not in its final format for today's feast, but I will post it in its final form when it is complete, and on every Feast of St. Lawrence.  And St. Florian, too!  Please leave a comment below and let me know how it went in your home and if you have any suggestions on how to make it better.  And please, please, please spread the word about this game!  Like I said, if I had read a blog post about fire safety just the day before the accident, I would have been reminded to teach my son Stop, Drop and Roll.  "If onlys" and "I should haves" will haunt me forever.

One last request:  if you could, please end your game with a prayer to St. Lawrence for all burn victims.  There is a certain mother in Oklahoma who will sleep a little better tonight knowing so many pure souls are praying for her son!

Stay safe and God bless!




This post is linked up to the Catholic Monthly Bloggers Network monthly linkup blitz
 and the Equipping Catholic Families Saints Cele-linky

Sorrowful Mysteries for Holy Week

J.M.J.

I am taking these last few days of Lent to continue to examine my heart, to pray, and to love Christ Crucified.  I invite you to read the following articles I have written on the Sorrowful Mysteries.

Bless you all!

The Agony in the Garden for Contrition

The Agony in the Garden for Obedience

The Scouraging at the Pillar for a Spirit of Mortification

The Crowning With Thorns for Contempt of This World

The Carrying of the Cross for Patience

The Crucifixion

St Patrick's Day

J.M.J.

And on the lighter side:  Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  Usually I tend to get a little giddy on this day, but this year I celebrate it with a sense of mourning.  Loss.  And a deep sense of grief.  For this is the first St. Patrick's Day I have ever had WITHOUT my precious green Hostess Sno-Ball.  (What does Walmart have against green Sno-balls, anyway??)   And so I leave you to review my musings of happier days in my childhood - days of grassy green smiles and coconut dreams:

When we were kids, my sisters and I could hardly wait for March. Not because spring was coming, mind you. Oh no. We were excited because we would get to eat Sno-balls! Those cream filled, coconut and marshmallow covered chocolate cake treats were cherished among my sisters and I. They were better than a pot of gold.

You see, growing up, I never got the kinds of lunches other kids got. While they brought peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on Wonder Bread, with bags of chips and Twinkies, we were stuck with liverwurst sandwiches on whole wheat with a hard-boiled egg and carrot. We longed for the treats other kids ate and would sometimes lament out loud our culinary woes. My mother would listen with a sympathetic ear, and sometimes she would bake wheat berry cookies, but overall, there was no reason for morale to improve.

Don’t misunderstand me. My mother loved us, and she did the best she could on the income we had. Every bite of food was packed full of vitamins, fiber and minerals. We simply ate to live – we certainly did not live to eat. And that was why St. Patrick’s Day was so special. Because on St. Patrick’s Day, we got to eat Sno-balls!

If there is nothing else my mother taught us as children, she made sure we knew that we had Irish blood in us. She taught us her version of the Irish jig. We actually loved corned beef and cabbage (OK, not technically a traditional Irish feast, but hey - there's cabbage and potatoes). And we learned to never, NEVER call anyone super! (Actually, the word was ‘souper’, but to a child they sounded the same, so super was not in our vocabulary.) We knew the real story behind the potato famine by the time we were in first grade.

And did I mention that we got to eat Sno-balls on St. Patrick’s Day?

On the morning of St. Patty’s Day, the Sno-ball effect would begin. 

We prepared for school like an Olympic athlete prepares for competition.
Get dressed in an all green outfit, braid hair with green ribbons, and straighten ‘Kiss Me I’m Irish’ pin.
March downstairs and eat green oatmeal and drink green milk, all the while focusing on the green-gold prize: the Sno-ball.
Wait for Dad to play Irish Night at the Pops and dance the Irish jig for Mother.
Polite, Vaseline teeth smiles, arms motionless at our sides as our feet flew wildly to and fro to music only a leprechaun should dance to.

Sno-balls.

Sno-balls.

Sweat pouring off our brow, green ribbons flying.

Sno-balls.

Sno-balls.

At last, the school bus would come and we flew out the door, never looking back, always looking forward. 

Looking forward. 

To lunch.

We soon found that other kids in our classes looked forward to our St. Patrick’s Day lunch as well. During the rest of the year, they usually glanced at out lunches and rolled their eyes or snorted as they scooted a few scoots away (liverwurst, eggs and milk do not make for the best breath, after all). But, on St. Patty’s Day, they would actually crowd around us to gaze at our green feast. A can of Green River soda, a green apple, a few slices of green pepper and celery sticks with peanut butter. And then, there it was – a very special, just for St. Patrick’s Day glistening green Sno-ball.

As I ate this lunch, the kids would ask why my family was so weird on St. Patrick’s Day. I would then begin to happily babble, between bites of cake and coconut, about St. Patrick, how one day I would live in Ireland, and about the plight of the Catholics during the potato famine.

“Famine? What’s a famine?” an older boy once asked as I licked the last of the green coconut flakes from my fingers.

Satiated, I sighed and turned to the poor, uneducated child before me. “A famine is when there is nothing good to eat for anyone. Sometimes people get so desperate that they eat strange things, just to stay alive. In Ireland, they had nothing good to eat and many people died of a disease called green mouth because all they could eat was grass.”

Looking closely at my green coconut speckled mouth and the careless remains of my lunch on the table, he snorted, “Yeah. I’ve seen that before.” And he wandered off to recess.

We laugh at the stories now, but I can also appreciate their underlying theme. We were taught about our Irish heritage in a way that made my sisters and I fiercely proud of who we are. Our passion for our history was stronger than our worries of what others thought of us, and this same passion allowed us, one day a year, to boldly bring our Catholic faith to others around us. I pray that I am able to pass along this same passion for our faith to my children as well.

Your assignment: Celebrate St. Patrick’s Day!

 
Learn the Irish jig and eat green pizza. 

Tape a shamrock on every part of your child that is mentioned in St. Patrick’s Prayer. 

Discuss the Trinity. 

One year we had a Conversion Hunt: I hid 200 popsicle sticks in our yard and 12 kids hunted for them like Easer eggs. Each stick was a person they found and “converted”, just as St. Patrick did.   

**There was an added urgency to finding all the people to convert, as Dad was going to mow the lawn later that day...

Celebrate this day while instilling in your children a strong connection to and pride for their Catholic heritage – no matter what nationality they may be!

And remember to get excited about your faith yourself. Enthusiasm, after all, has a “snowball” effect on everyone!