Penance Printable Cupcake Toppers or Stickers

I have two kiddos receiving their First Penance and First Communion this year! (Plus one receiving her Confirmation! It's a busy year!) My 4th and 5th born were blessed to receive First Confesstion this past Saturday! It was a wonderful time! While Joshua (age 9) just went through the ceremony and into the confessional like an old pro, Elizabeth (age 8) needed a lot of sweet talking and hugs to calm her fears, but she came skipping out of the confessional with a grin on her face that just beamed and stretched for one ear to the other!!

So for a special treat I made white cupcakes with white icing to symbolize their clean souls! I added a topper to each cupcake like this:

I just taped a toothpick to the back and stuck one into each cupcake.

Or you could make stickers for those kids who have just made a Reconciliation to wear!!

Stickers for the kids who have received Reconciliation could be nice for any age! Teachers could give them to the kids who choose to go to confession in the time allowed during school! Perhaps his could add a bit of "advertising" to the other kids who choose not to go?!?! ;-)


To read more or for the link to the free printable click here

God Bless!

~Jennifer

My Lenten Journey for Kids

I posted EGG-straordinary Lenten Rosary Project for your Family - a tutorial for a Lenten activity for families - over at Catholic Sistas. As I was revamping this post from one I did last year, I came across many great additions. While I won't go into the specifics of the Easter Egg Rosary Project here, I will show you the booklet that evolved from it's transformation from a post that was original to Designs by Birgit last year. I simply used links to various ideas for coloring pages, Stations of the Cross carousels, and other ideas and created a Lenten Journey Book for Kids.

My links are here: My Lenten Journey for Kids

Celebrating Lent in the Domestic Church

Advent and Christmas have only just come and gone, but believe it or not Lent is only a few days away! I have been in planning mode since just a bit after Christmas, trying to order my home and make lessons to ensure that the season is really lived and savored. While I do have a few new traditions I hope to add to our family this year, (like the Lenten Book Basket and 40 Bags in 40 Days), here is a look at what helped to make the season memorable for our family last year. My hope is that they will bless you and your family as we approach the penitential season and await the resurrection of the Lord!

Lenten Lamb of God Calendar

Burying Alleluia

 

Chocolate Crown of Thorns Tutorial

 

Salt Dough Crown of Thorns Tutorial

 

Sacrificial Bean Jar

 

Giving Alms for Children

 

Stations of the Cross Box Montessori Printable Cards

 

Palm Sunday

   

  La Toquette :: Pocking Eggs

 

Alleluia! He is RISEN!

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Already have plans in mind for the Lenten season? Share how you will Keep a Holy Lent with all of us in the comments!

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Holly resides in the Deep South where you are sure to find at least one monkey jumping on the bed. You can find her at Three Sided Wheel, Facebook, and Twitter, where she blogs about home education and creating Catholic culture in the heart of her home.

Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread

Artisan bread - only 4 ingredients

The Lord’s Prayer, as taught to us by our Savior, seems simplistic on the surface – yet is profound and multi-faceted in its message. One of the petitioning lines of this prayer has always intrigued me: ‘Give us this day, our daily bread’. Although this sentence of supplication speaks to our daily, physical needs, it has a connotation of so much more. 

Read the complete post and the recipe for Artisan Bread by going to Designs by Birgit

Unschooling and Catholicism - Yes, it's possible! :)

I don't define myself strictly as an unschooler since we've been attempting to use a curriculum lately, but during the earlier days of homeschooling, I didn't realize that we were actually unschooling in a way. Now, for those of you who may be thinking: "Huh? What in the world is UNSCHOOLING?," you may find the links on this page useful.

Image source here. (Disclaimer: The blogger whose site I got this from says she's a "free thinker," so I don't know if she believes in God. Just being clear that I'm not "advocating" free thinker-ism [if there's such a term, LOL]. Of course, God loves ALL people and it's up to Him to make the final judgment.)

Actually, come to think of it, what we've been doing these days could be classified as unschooling too, especially since I still haven't been able to "land" my dream "job" of becoming a fulltime stay-at-home mom. It's been a real struggle for me to plan our lessons and implement them, and most days I end up letting the kids play to their hearts' content, and make up for the seeming "lack of lessons" by reading more books as usual during bedtime. ;-)

In this light though, I am really grateful that I've stumbled upon the Unschooling Catholics blog and have even joined their yahoogroup. (Though right now, I'm more of a silent member, hehe!)

Homeschooling our children is still one of my top priorities now, and I find it really exciting that God is showing me different ways of how my fellow Catholic moms and our fellow Catholic families make it work. ;-) At least I know that there are lots of options out there for us who feel and believe that we are called to homeschool our kids - thank You, Lord! ;-)

So if you're interested to see how unschooling and Catholicism work out for the family's best, try going over to the Unschooling Catholics blog! ;-) They have a list of Catholic unschoolers' blogs on the right sidebar of the blog page, which you may want to explore too. ;-)

Here's to Catholic homeschooling, whatever "form" or "style"! ;-) + AMDG +

Family ~ A Little Bit of Heaven ~ Art Project!

This is an art project for an individual to create or for a large group to make together:

It's fun and simple!

Perfect for families and groups of school kids!

Here's an example of one on paper:

Here's a bulletin board: 

For the complete instructions and printables visit here.

HAPPY SAINT Valentine's Day!

When Victor (another Catholic Blogger!) from Happy Saints graciously gave me permission to use his awesome saint pictures in a craft, I was so excited!  I just love this company and their adorable saint pictures!

These made an awesome matching game to help my 5 year old learn more about the saints...

...and she's handing out her SAINT Valentine cards tomorrow...what a nice Catholic change from Barbie and Buzz Lightyear!

Check out the whole blog post for HAPPY SAINT Valentine's
at Equipping Catholic Families.