A Fun Advent/ Christmas Game

Journey to Bethlehem

All you need is 2 or more players or teams and a die for this game.
The idea is that each player or team is a caravan heading to Bethlehem to be counted in the census, and the roll of the die determines how your journey goes.  The player or team with the most Health & Wellness points at the end wins.  When I play this with a group of kids at the church, I keep track of the points on a white board.

First Turn:

Mary & Joseph would likely have traveled in a caravan. 

            We sometimes see pictures of Mary riding on a donkey, but this probably never happened.  IF Mary & Joseph had a donkey, they probably would have used it to carry stuff, not people.  Nobody really knows.  – Each group roles the die once to see how many donkeys they get on their journey.  Each donkey is worth 100 “Health & Wellness” points. 

Now it is the first night of your journey.  Each night, your caravan is going to be in a different, strange place.  You will need to figure out where you’re going to sleep.  Roll the die – number rolled shows where your group sleeps & how many H&W points you’ll receive or lose:

1: You are in a town where relatives live, and you stay in their home - +200 H&W points

2. You are lucky!  You find a cave to sleep in. - +100 H&W points

3: You are able to make simple tents for everyone, and it is a warm night - +75 H&W points

4: You make simple tents, but the weather is cold and damp - +50 H&W points

5: You have no shelter, but you have warm blankets and good weather - +25 H&W points

6. You have no shelter, and it rains.  Some of you get ill. - -50 H&W points

            There were many dangers when traveling long distances in Mary & Joseph’s time.  Each day, you never knew whether you encounter danger or catch a lucky break in some way.  Roll again – this number will determine your luck for this day of travel:

1: Lucky You!  A donkey that wandered off from another caravan has found you.  The donkey needs caretakers, and you can always use another donkey! - +200 H&W points

2: Good Stuff: You come across a stream loaded with good fish to catch & eat. - +100 H&W points

3: Nothing much happens today – just miles and miles of walking up the mountains. – 0 H&W points.

4: One of the donkeys in your caravan gets sick and dies.  -100 H&W points

5: Your caravan crosses paths with a wild animal.  You all get away safely, but you have to leave behind some of your food and supplies.  -100 H&W points.

6: Your caravan is attacked by bandits who steal most of your food, supplies, and even some donkeys.  -200 H&W points.

To Finish the Game:

            Nobody really knows how long it took for Mary & Joseph to travel to Bethlehem, but most scholars agree that it would have been at least 5 days, and some think it would have been up to 10 days.  We’re going to assume that your caravan is moving steadily enough to make the journey in 5 days, so let’s see what happens for the next 3 nights and 3 more days of traveling… Roll dice 6 more times, alternating sleep points with traveling points.  See which caravan arrived in the best health & condition.  (Of course, you can always decide before playing to play more or less days)

Advent Mystery Box Family Activity

I debuted this idea at GIFT in 2008, and each year I get a few parents requesting a copy.  So I have updated it to cover the 27 days of Advent 2010.  Enjoy...

Parents: Here is a fun way to keep Christ in the hearts and minds of your children throughout Advent.  If you have a “Countdown to Christmas” type box at home, you can use that, but you will need to add 3 extra days (they usually have 24 compartments, and Advent is 27 days long this year).  Otherwise, simply purchase or make a small decorative gift box.  Click here to download daily verses to include in your Advent Box.  Cut out the verses for each day, and purchase the items from the list below (you can make small changes to the items, as long as they make sense with that day's verse).  

Note: you will need to get a miniature nativity set with at least 9 figurines.  If your figurines are slightly different than what we have listed here, substitute or combine them as needed.  Then, each night before you go to bed, place the next day’s verse and gift in the box for your child to open in the morning. 

Daily Gifts for Advent Mystery Box

1.    (Sunday, November 28 – Advent Begins) Chocolate heart or heart-shaped gift

2.     Bouncy ball

3.     Fruit snacks

4.     Quarter or dollar

5.     Dove candy

6.     Joseph figurine

7.     Candy

8.    Small light-up toy

9.     (December 6 – Saint Nicholas Day) Chocolate Santa

10. Eraser

11. (December 8 – Immaculate Conception) Mary figurine

12. Shepherd figurine

13. Angel figurine

14. Jingle bell – tied with ribbon to hang on tree

15. Sheep or shepherd figurine

16.  Candy

17.  Fish-shaped crackers or small toy, key chain, etc…

18.  Manger animal figurines

19.  King #1 figurine

20.  Star ornament for your tree

21.  King # 2 figurine

22.  Candy OR coupons for favorite restaurant to go out as a family

23.  King #3 figurine

24.  Pretzels

25. Peace sign key chain, jewelry, sticker, or ornament

26.  Lapel pin or other piece of jewelry to wear to Christmas Mass

27.  (Christmas Eve) Baby Jesus figurine

November GIFT: Written in Stone

This month we learned about Moses and the 10 Commandments.  First, kids picked up a "Moses Story Board" to learn more about Moses and draw illustrations from his (abbreviated) life story. Click here to download the Moses Storyboard

Next, we imagined that we would all have to live in the church basement where we were having our class for one year (we were thankful we'd have the bathrooms!).  We asked each table to come up with ideas about how we could avoid conflicts and how we could deal with conflicts when they did happen.  The kids had some great ideas, like making a chore chart, dividing the room into "territories" for each family to have their own space, creating a "work it out" table with an unbiased mediator for conflicts, and following the Golden Rule.  We talked about the Israelites spending 40 years in the desert, and how God gave them all sorts of rules, or laws, to help them avoid and deal with conflict.  The first laws God gave to Moses were the 10 Commandments.

After reviewing the Commandments (found in Exodus chapter 20), we talked about how there were some problems we might have that the Commandments didn't necessarily help us answer, like what to do if someone is being bullied at school, or if one friend tells us we can't be friends with someone else.  To answer these questions, we looked at what Jesus said about the commandments: the most important is to love God, and the second most important thing to do is to love others as yourself.  Jesus spoke not just to the "letter of the law," but to the spirit of the law, which is love.

Lastly, we took a look in our symbol book.  Inside was a carving stone with the Hebrew word "shema" inscribed in it.  This word means to hear or to listen, and it is part of a traditional Jewish prayer about the commandments.  Jesus may very well have grown up reciting this prayer daily!  We talked about how we need to hear God and God's commandments with our hearts, not just with our ears, and live the law of love that Jesus gave us.

Projects:
We added page 2 to our booklets - a page about the 10 Commandments
Each child made their own "shema" stone - email Dez at desire.sobiech@risensavior.org if you are a GIFT parent and would like to pick up materials to do this project at home.  If you are an educator and might like to order the kits, see http://www.guildcraftinc.com/.
Lastly, in honor of our fathers & mothers, and with Thanksgiving coming, we made cards thanking our parents for all they do for us.

Prayer:
For prayer, some 4th grade volunteers read from the Bible for us:
Deuteronomy 6: 4-9 and Matthew 22: 35-40

October GIFT: Church History

Here is an outline of what we did at our October GIFT session.  The lesson was an introduction to our shared history as Christians, with the focus being on Bible stories and how they inform our faith.  We only had time to touch briefly on each story, but it gives us a foundation from which to build, as children will hear more about some of these folks while doing their Faith First textbook work.

Entering In: As families arrived, we took the children's photos for use in their progressive craft books.  Then, families were asked to work on a Bible Scavenger Hunt.  This hunt is based on the "Break Through Bible" from St. Mary's Press; these are new Bibles we are using at GIFT.

Introducing the Theme: Our theme for GIFT this year is "Our Faith Story."  We talked about how each person has a different story of how they came to be at GIFT that day.  I shared a bit of my own story, which led me to my parent's faith stories - we talked about how our stories are like a big puzzle, with all the pieces coming together to make us who we are at the moment.  We went to our "book box" for the session's symbol: puzzle pieces.  Then, I told the children that although we all have our own stories, our own puzzles, we also have shared history as Christians and as Catholics.  Our early history started with people sharing stories that eventually went into the Bible, and these stories are part of all of our faith puzzles.

Active/ Visual Learning: Biblical History Puzzle

At each table there were one or two large puzzle pieces.  Each piece had a hole in the center, where I had placed images of Biblical people.  (I found the images using Google Image Search).  I asked the children to bring the pieces forward in numerical order, and I placed them on the board while I talked a little about each person's story and the lesson we can learn from them.  Making the pieces stick was accomplished by laminating the yellow paper and spraying it with removable adhesive.  Some of the pieces I asked for two-at-a-time, such as Adam and Eve or Mary and Joseph.  We put all 12 of the apostles up at once.  Here is a brief listing of who was on the board and what we talked about:
Adam & Eve: God created everything
Noah: He built the ark when a big flood came: God promised to always be with us.
Abraham & Sarah: They had a baby that God promised them even though they were quite old and Sarah laughed at the idea: Anything is possible with God!
Joseph: Jacob made the mistake of not only having a favorite child but showing it, and this brought Joseph a lot of trouble including being sold into slavery by his brothers and spending time in prison.  But he never lost his faith, and God helped him become an important leader and save Egypt (and those same brothers) from starvation: Hang in there!
Moses: God made Moses a leader, even though he didn't think he'd be good at it.  Then, he sent him the 10 Commandments.
Ruth: As a young widow, Ruth stood by her mother-in-law and took care of her: from Ruth we learn the importance of family love.
David: This king is important because he is an ancestor of Jesus, and there are prophecies about the Messiah coming from his lineage.
Job: The story of Job's suffering teaches us the tough lesson that God won't make everything easy for us; life is hard.  But God will be there and will give us people in our lives to help us through the tough times.
Mary & Joseph: These two teach the ultimate lesson in saying yes to God!
Baby Jesus: Came as a sign of hope and peace to all, especially the poor as he was "born in a barn."
John the Baptist:  This eccentric guy listened when God told him that Jesus was coming, and he had the honor of baptising Jesus.  I pointed out to the kids that their baptism is one thing they have in common with Jesus - cool!
Jesus (adult): He made the list twice; I did point out to the kids that the baby and the man were, in fact, the same person!
The 12 Apostles: We put them all up at once, and I talked about them as the first core group of followers who were then sent out to grow the church after Jesus' ascension.  I did not get into Judas and his particular role in all of that.
Mary Magdalene: Through her we learned that God loves and forgives us no matter what, even if people think we don't deserve it.  I also pointed out her privilege of being the first to the empty tomb.
Priscilla & Aquila: I admittedly had never heard of these 2 before reading the timeline in the front of the Break Through Bible.  They were a married couple who ran one of the earliest home churches.
Last piece: You!  Each of us has our own place in Church History, as the Church is, after all, the People of God!
Here are some more photos of the cross puzzle:

Projects: The kids made 2 projects at this session.

Book: We started our photo books, which we will add to at each session.  Our first page is a collage of Biblical figures, with the caption, "Our Church has a long history, and I am part of it!"  The child's photo shows through a window we punched on the page, so each child becomes part of the collage. 

Puzzle People: Each child made a cardboard version of himself/herself on cut-outs that will fit together like a big puzzle and be put on display in the church commons.  

Prayer: For prayer we sang "Halle Halle Halle", with verses I wrote specifically for 3 different types of GIFT students: Verse 1 was for kids who are new to GIFT and not preparing for Eucharist this year.  Verse 2 was for our First Eucharist students, and verse 3 was for our "veteran" students who have already celebrated First Eucharist.  Each verse welcomed and encouraged the children to grow and share their gifts.  During "their" verse, the children brought forward their puzzle people as a sign of entering into the faith-building process.

Notes:

The Breakthrough Bible is available at Holy Cross Books in Lakeville or through St. Mary's Press

The cross puzzle and puzzle people can be found at Oriental Trading Company.

Parents who missed GIFT this month: Make-up materials are available, but limited.  Email or call Dez to reserve yours!

Our 2010/2011 G.I.F.T. Theme: Our Faith Story

Each program year, we have an overriding theme for GIFT.  The themes are on a 4-year rotation, since any given child is in GIFT for no more than 4 years (grades 1-4).  This year's theme is "Our Faith Story."  While each parent/child session will have its own topic, this theme will weave through them all in how we approach activities and crafts.  For example...

Progressive Craft: "My Faith Story" Book
     I started doing a progressive craft about 3 years ago.  The children begin the project at our first session, and then add to it at subsequent sessions throughout the year.  I have gotten great feedback from the parents about kids looking forward to adding on to their craft each month, and it also makes a great hands-on review tool.
     This year we're making a book that literally shows kids how they fit into the Catholic faith.  We will begin at our first session by taking photos of all of the children and printing them on heavy paper in wallet size.  Kids will make a book using foam covers.  I purchased the foam sheets pre-cut to 4x6 size at the dollar store; I think there were 32 per pack.  On the front cover, kids will use a 1/2-inch circular shape punch (available at craft stores) to cut a round window.  Inside of the back cover, they will glue their photo so it shows through the window.  (using craft glue dots, possibly the best invention ever!)  They will also color the first page of the booklet, which is a collage of important people from history with a window space to punch out.  This way, the child's photo shows up in the center of the collage.  The page reads: "The church has a long history, and I am part of it!"  At each future session, kids will add another window page to the book that fits with that month's lesson.

Bible Stories
     With so much Catholic Tradition, ritual, and theology to teach, we sometimes fail to focus on the Bible stories we think everyone already knows.  But in fact, many kids may not be as familiar with Moses, Noah, and Joseph's colorful coat as we may assume.  This theme will allow us to spend some time with these important stories.  We will also have some fun with the parables of Jesus.

Other Stories
     There are some wonderful fables and storybooks out there that teach Christian values.  One oldie-but-goodie that we'll be talking about this year is "Stone Soup."  I also found a story online about a cricket who is afraid to share imperfect music - we'll be using that story in the spring when we talk about sharing our gifts.

Kids' Ideas
     At our first session, I will ask kids to brainstorm different ways we tell stories, such as movies, poems, music, puppets, etc...and we will incorporate some of those things into the rest of our year.

A Note to My GIFT Parents:
     Chances are your children have been asked by their teachers to "read every day."  Why not choose some books that teach Bible stories, Christian values, lives of the Saints, etc?  Some of these you will find at the county libraries, but you can also find a nice assortment at our parish library.  Yes, we have a parish library!  Stop in when the office is open (you may want to call ahead to make sure nobody is holding a meeting in there), or check it out next time you're here for Mass or programs (like GIFT).  If you need help finding something or ideas for good secular-but-spiritual stories, give me a call or drop me an email at desire.sobiech@risensavior.org.

Will Kids Really Do "Church Homework"?

Home-based faith formation is based on the church teaching that "parents are, in fact, the first and foremost educators of their children..." (Vatican II: Declaration on Christian Education).  Or, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it, "Family catechesis precedes, accompanies, and enriches other forms of instruction in the faith."  Sounds impressive.  But beyond the fru-fru language, common sense and our own childhood memories inform us that our parents and our home life - what we heard, how we were disciplined, and how we lived day to day - had much more to do with who we became than any CCD class we ever took.  How exactly to incorporate this truth into programming can take many forms.  Here's how we're doing it at our parish:

Grades 1-4 do the G.I.F.T. program (the one I coordinate).  They get a book and a schedule of lessons to complete at home.  They also come with parents once each month to a "class" taught by me.  We do activities, discussions, and arts and crafts.  We have fun, but this post is about what they're doing at home, so we'll get to that other stuff later.

Grades 5-8 do a more "traditional" program of classrooms led by volunteer catechists.  This caters to their more social nature at this age.  But they don't meet every week.  This is mostly due to space issues: we can't have them all here at once!  But the coordinator of those programs has taken those weeks off from coming to the church to continue cultivating faith at home (translation: she gives homework).

But do they actually DO the homework?

Actually, many of them do.  The keys to this, I believe, are moderation, bribery, and consistency.

Moderation: In my first year as the GIFT coordinator, I felt as though it was my job to get those kids through that whole book in the 7-8 months that I had with them.  My homework schedule was long, complicated, and involved at least 2 chapters per week.  I had my own second grade daughter in the program at the time, and even we had given it up by month three.  I learned quickly that if you give families too much to do, they won't do any of it at all.  I now try to keep it down to 1 chapter per week.  If they're preparing for Sacraments as well (also family-based), we incorporate much of the homework for that prep into the GIFT homework plan rather than piling it on here and there.

Bribery: Yes, I cop to it and I am not ashamed.  It works.  Our kids use materials from RCL's Faith First program.  One nice feature of this program is the website, where kids can play games and access chapter reviews.  Our reward system (the nicer word for bribery) is based on those online reviews.  As GIFT kids do the chapters in their books, they follow up with the online review.  For every review completed, they get a raffle ticket at the next at-church session.  I have some small prize to offer, usually around $5 in value, and I pull a name at the end of the session.  We also have a "Treat Tray" filled with little goodies around 10 cents in value; any child who completes all of their homework in a given month gets to choose 1 treat.  The parents are in charge of keeping their kids honest.  The 5-8 grade system is similar, except the parents aren't there.  Those students are required to use the built-in feature from the website to email their review results to the coordinator, who then makes sure they get their tickets.  They also sometimes have written work to show for tickets.  Rather than having a prize at each class session, they have 2 big "Game Show" nights.  Kids can add tickets to the mix by answering game-show style questions about what they've been learning, and then there is a drawing for multiple "fabulous prizes."  Of course, the kids who have done their homework all along are the ones most likely to answer the questions correctly!

Consistency: This element needs to be covered by the parents.  Having a consistent time and/or place to do the homework makes a big difference.  Last year I I had one child in each program: my first-grade boy in GIFT and my 5th-grade girl in 5th grade.  We declared Wednesdays "God and Pizza" nights.  Sometimes the "God" part was actually attending their programs at the church.  When their were no programs, we did church homework.  And we ate pizza.  Every Wednesday.  Now that's a plan we all embraced!  And we got our homework all done, every month, with no last-minute cramming.

Of course, there will always be families that blow off the homework.  These are probably the same families that would blow off a number of classes if we had them every week.  But as a certain Fr. Tom once said to me, "We don't count the empty pews.  We focus on the ones who show up."

Amen!

Gearing Up for Change

Ah, summer... I always start out feeling like I'm going to have all sorts of time to do all sorts of things at home and at work; go to parks, clean out storage closets, get all my ducks in neat little rows.  But then, of course, there's Vacation Bible School in July, so the first two months get dedicated to pulling off those 4 days.  Then there's the week off for family time at the cabin, and by the time I get back to the office, the back-to-school sales have started.  Time to buckle down and plan, plan plan!

The two big things on my radar screen right now: Parent Orientation in September and our first G.I.F.T. (Growing in Faith Together) family session in October.  This year the Parent Orientation presents a new challenge: something has changed, and it must be communicated.  We have bitten the bullet, so to speak, and are adjusting our programs to prepare children for First Reconciliation before First Eucharist.  There are different arguments as to the effectiveness of this approach.  Developmentally, it can easily be argued that fourth grade is more appropriate for confession.  However, Theologically, we have been directed to cleanse them before feeding them.  Although I personally had some concerns about making the change, I think we've found a good way to "make it work" as Tim Gunn would say (I'm a big Project Runway fan). 

The concern, and it is certainly not new, is that children will in fact be making their first & last confession in one fell swoop; they'll get it "over with" and never return to what can and should be a beautiful healing Sacrament.  Our attempt at a solution:  We will prepare children (mostly second graders) for First Reconciliation in the fall, celebrate in winter, move on to Eucharist preparation, and celebrate that in the spring.  It will all be rolled in to one big Sacramental prep program (and this year we will also have to "catch up" those who have already received Eucharist but not yet Reconciliation).  But here's the kicker: every year at G.I.F.T. we will revisit the concept of Reconciliation with kids and parents, and all families will be invited and encouraged to attend the celebration.  Will it work?  We don't know.  It will probably click with some families and not with others, but it's better than nothing at all.  How cool would it be if even just some of our kids come out seeing the Sacrament of Reconciliation as a regular, familiar, and comforting part of celebrating their Catholic faith?

We can only hope.  And pray.