St. Patrick.

Saint Patrick's Day is coming up next week and I thought I'd post some links to some activities, lapbooks, and coloring pages in case anyone wants to spend the weekend doing something fun with the kids.

We are constantly in cleaning mode around here; having your house ready to show is lots of work, but I'm thankful that we've decluttered enough to make cleaning up easier. With all the packing, however, we are missing TONS of our usual school supplies. We are working with basics around here...paper, pencils, a box of crayons, a few markers, and some glue sticks. So although I'm hoping to make some fun stuff with the kids, I'm not sure exactly how much we'll be able to do!

On to the link!! If you have yet to make a lapbook, why not start with a St. Patrick's day lapbook?!? Below are links to some FREE lapbooks.

• Saint Patrick's Day lapbook from Homeschool Helper.

• St. Patrick's Day lapbook with pictures.

• St. Patrick's Day lapbook with pictures from Homeschool Share (this one is more for leprechauns from the looks of it.

Not wanting to try a lapook this time around? Here are some more links to other activities.

• Free from CurrClick, Shamrocks and Shillelaghs.
• St. Patrick's Day unit study at Homeschool Share.
• St. Patrick's Day notecards from Paper Dali.
• St. Patrick coloring page from Paper Dali.
• Free St. Patrick notebooking pages from NotebookingPages.com.

*Please note that I have not gone through these pages in detail.

I'll be using some of these sites and reading some books over the weekend all about Saint Patrick. I'll post about that later!!

St. John Mary Vianney.

As part of our religious studies, we are learning and reading more and more about saints following the lesson plans provided by Mother of Divine Grace.

Today happened to be a day where we choose a saint and read about him or her. Since it is August 4th, we decided to focus on Saint John Mary Vianney, patron of priests. And what a wonderful way to start our saint studies for the year, since this is the Year of Priests!

As I searched high and low for a good image of St. John Vianney for Marco to color, I remembered that Illuminated Ink was holding a coloring contest with the image of St. John. You can find the coloring page in their online newsletter. I was so excited about the find that we spent a good 40 minutes reading about and coloring St. John Vianney!!

Tomorrow we'll continue with our St. John study which will include a small narration. We are working on creating our own little saint book this year and this will be our first entry!

Saint Germaine Cousin.

Today I had a hard time getting the kids to be cooperative about cleaning up and getting chores done. This happens frequently, I'm sure, in every family. Either the kids do their chores while complaining or whining under their breath, or they go about doing them slowly and dragging their feet.

I figured this was the perfect opportunity for me to introduce Saint Germaine Cousin to the kids. She is a new saint to them, but a perfect example of accomplishing daily tasks and chores cheerfully regardless of the hardships she had to endure. Catholic Heritage Curricula has a wonderful coloring book on Saint Germaine. You can find it here and it's free!

It was nice for them to compare themselves to the saint and it made them realize how their behavior towards their chores was wrong. They spent part of the day coloring pages from the book and then talked about ways they can imitate Saint Germaine.

I hope this lesson doesn't wear off too soon, but I'm glad they are now familiar with the story. It will be an excellent reminder that I can use whenever I see little feet dragging to do their chores!!

All Saints Day!

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of All Saints. It is a an especially good day to remind our children that we are all called to be saints. We have been preparing for today by doing daily readings about the lives of the saints and then adding coloring pages to the kids' bedroom doors. We have also taken out all our Holy Cards and looked at them, read the prayers, and looked up the saints depicted on the card on the Internet.

We have also been celebrating by praying the Litany of the Saints every morning. It has been a challenge to get all the kids to be still while praying, but I find that Marco and Isabella do an exceptional job setting an example for Anthony. I plan to continue doing this through the Octave of All Saint's Day (November 1 until November 8).

Our Litany wall.

Other good ways to celebrate can be to visit a cemetery and pray for the dead. This will actually gain a plenary indulgence for the souls in purgatory. And of course, you can have your children dress up as saints and play saint games.

Saints Day Party, Saints Alive, and School. Too Busy!

Today was stressful, busy, and fun! We celebrated All Saints Day at co-op as well as with our Faith Formation at church. The kids had tons of fun, but I'm exhausted. Besides waking up and not finding Anthony's St. Francis costume, forgetting some costume accessories, leaving everyone's lunch in the refrigerator, having four kids complain about breakfast, and being late to co-op...it was a good morning! We prayed the Litany of the Saints before leaving home and it really helped lighten my mood like nothing else could.

The Saints Day party at co-op was fun for the kids. Besides being the end of my geography unit, we celebrated by singing "Siyahamba." All the kids did excellent! There was also lots of games, tons of candy, and all the kids got to introduce what saint they were dressed as. I did take off early, however, because I accidentally forgot our lunch and the kids were starving! By the time we got home, Anthony and Christian were asleep.

Isabella dressed as St. Therese of the Little Flower.

The kids starting to get ready for a group picture.

Anthony actually borrowed Christian's costume so that he could be in the picture.

Marco reading the clues to have everyone guess who is dressed as...it's St. Joseph!

Of course, I must have an endless amount of energy today because as soon as we got home and I put the little ones to nap, I made Marco finish his phonics and math lessons. It wasn't too long after we finished with school that Anthony and Christian woke up and joined us downstairs.

DH was home today so I definitely took advantage and made him entertain Christian while I moved on to doing school with Anthony and Isabella. We are still reading Yellow Ball this week and we actually did a lapbook! It was really simple and I let the kids do all the cutting and gluing. They had a great time and Anthony LOVES his lapbook! It is our first together and I'm looking forward to incorporating them into our future BFIAR activities.

Isabella working on the lapbook.

Anthony cutting out a book for the lapbook while Christian smiles for the camera!

The finished product! We also got to play with a yellow ball today!

So, I bet you are thinking that this is the end of my day??? Do you think I'm kidding about all we did today??? (Pssst....check the dates on the pictures. They are all the same!) No Way! We quickly cleaned our school mess, ate dinner, and took off for the Saints Alive party at church.

It was fun!! I decided to get out an old costume for Anthony so that Christian could wear his own and Anthony wouldn't feel left out. Christian definitely stole the show! He did so well dressed as Pope John Paul the Great and he even left his hat on!!! The kids got to announce their saint, march in a parade, and they even got a necklace with a medal of the Holy Family on it (that's the name of our church...and our homeschool!). So I guess I saved the best pictures for last!

We arrived with the Pope on the Pope-Mobile!

Christian makes a cute Pope John Paul the Great!

My four little saints!

Christian happy in his costume!

One proud and tired mom with her saintly bunch.

And that concludes my day. Days like this are made of gold and never forgotten!

Celebrations, School, etc.

Today has been an extremely busy day. We started with lessons around 7:30am and kept going until about 10:30. Since I had a few errands to run, I wanted to get as much done as possible. Once we were back from the store, we got to decorating around the house. Just setting up some spider webs and other fun stuff for Friday. What was really fun to see while I decorated, was Isabella making her own creation. "Mami, I'm working on a sculpture for Halloween." Although I would like to say that Marco and Anthony helped, it was really her creative genius who did all the work!

Isabella working on her sculpture.

Marco and Anthony get in on the picture.

Lessons continue to go well with Marco and Isabella. We are still in the review part of Saxon 2, so everything is fast and easy. Isabella is also doing extremely well with Saxon 1. Phonics and reading is a bit more of a struggle with Marco, but we are making advancements. He just doesn't like it as much as Isabella does. The word wall has definitely added a fun element to our day and Marco is responding well to it (that means he doesn't whine when I tell him it's word wall time).

As for Anthony, today we revisited Yellow Ball. It is such a simple book, that he practically has it memorized. I was afraid that with the lack of words, he wasn't going to enjoy it; but he actually really does like it and likes to make comments on the pictures as we go along. Our activities for today were painting a yellow ball and an ocean scene. I used white construction paper and drew ocean animals with white crayon. When he started painting with his watercolors, the images appeared. It was lots of fun for him (and the other kids!).

Anthony painting an ocean scene.

The kids really love painting!

And since we'll be celebrating All Saints Day on Wednesday both at co-op and faith formation, we've been reading a little about each one of the saints that the children will be dressing up as. Today we concentrated on St. Therese of the Little Flower. We read some stories from Catholic Treasure Box and we made good deed beads. It was a simple enough craft that both Isabella and Marco did it with little assistance. I do think, however, that Marco liked that craft the best and has spent all day carrying around his beads trying make his presents for God.

Marco working on his sacrifice beads.

The finished product!

Sacrifice or good deed beads.

To further help us celebrate All Saints Day we also colored pictures of some saints and posted them on the kids' bedroom door. We'll be saying the Litany of the Saints every morning instead of our regular devotionals. I thought it was a good idea and a good way to celebrate All Saints Day.

So today really was a full and busy day. Tomorrow doesn't look to be any easier since I'll be squeezing in swimming lessons at 1pm and 6:30pm. I'll be doing history during Isabella and Anthony's 1pm class. For Marco's evening swim, I just need to drop him off with dad. We'll see how this new schedule goes!

Choosing Saints.

Next week, we'll be celebrating All Saints Day both at our current Catholic co-op and at our church. The kids are especially excited this year and I've been working at helping them learn a little more about the saints they have chosen.

Marco will be dressing up as St. Joseph. He says that he is a good pick because St. Joseph takes care of all families. I though it was an excellent reason!

Isabella chose St. Therese of the Little Flower. She seems to be popular around here because of the Good Deed Beads I purchased at convention for the kids over the summer. In fact, we are planning on making our own sacrifice beads this week. St. Therese is also a featured saint in our Catholic Treasure Box books and we have been reading all about her this past month.

Anthony doesn't seem to have a good grasp about All Saints Day so far, although he does talk about being one of God's heroes. I imagine because that's how I describe saints to him...as heroes that defend our faith. With all that said, I decided to dress him as St. Francis.

Christian, my little guy, obviously doesn't care either way about anything but Mommy nowadays. He'll be joining the crew as well, however, in his own Pope John Paul II costume. I'm sure he'll find a way to fidget his way out of it, but as long as I get a quick picture of him in it...I don't mind.

I will most definitely post pictures of the kids. Mind you that I don't have great sewing abilities at all and the costumes are merely made up of sheets and fabric remnants. In all, it's always fun to get the kids involved in their costume making. Just a few more finishing touches and we'll all be ready for next week!!