Halloween Prayers

Kids and adults will all enjoy creating their own prayer using a Fun Size pack of M&Ms candies.  Peanut alergy or non-chocolate eater?  Re-work the colors and use Skittles!

Click the link below for a PDF of the prayer activity, plus another fun Halloween Prayer.

Enjoy!

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B2Jb2-8xEDPGTDIyUFFUam9TQXc

Cleaning House with Reconciliation

Generally, I blog about children's formation.  But this one is for the grown ups...

Last night we had our Parent Meeting for First Reconciliation Preparation.  I always enjoy this opportunity to talk with adults about this often misunderstood and under-appreciated Sacrament.  We start by asking parents to recall their own childhood experience(s) with Reconciliation - What did it look like?  Who was there?  And most importantly - How did it make you feel?  Unfortunately, the answers to that last question are almost always negative, and last night was no exception.  Parents remember feeling scared, embarrassed, intimidated, and ashamed.  My goal is to help parents see the Sacrament in a new way, so that they can prepare their child for a positive, uplifting experience.

After a very brief look at the history of the Sacrament, we delve into the question: what is sin?  Sin is anything that causes a break or strain in our relationship with God.  Sin often also causes a similar break in our relationships to others.  And, because we are all members of the Body of Christ, our personal brokenness weakens our faith community.  Sin is both personal and communal.

Not all sins are created equal.  Certain sins create a much larger and more severe break in our relationship with God and our community.  Things like murder, theft, and adultery are considered "mortal" - or serious - sins when the sinner both understands the seriousness of the sin and freely chooses to commit it.  These sins require the Sacrament of Reconciliation to help us heal that wound.  It would be quite unusual for a second grader to commit a mortal sin.  So for many, this begs the questions: Why do we "make" kids celebrate this Sacrament?  And the follow-up question: Why should I, as an adult who has not committed mortal sin, "have" to go to confession?  The best way I've come up with to answer those questions is the analogy of cleaning your house...

Think of your soul, and your relationship with God, as your house.  Every day, you do little things to clean up around the house - loading the dishwasher, wiping the counter, tossing your clothes in the hamper.  Similarly, every day we are called to pray - to spend time with God contemplating our actions, asking forgiveness when we fall short of living as Jesus would, and asking God to help us do better.  This is our daily "straightening up" of our relationship with God.

Once a week, you probably do things like vacuuming the carpets and dusting.  This more focused cleaning effort helps keep your house manageable throughout the week.  This is like attending Mass, with the Penitential Rites and many prayers of forgiveness.  The prayers of the Mass are sufficient for the forgiveness of most sins and prepare us to receive Christ in the Eucharist, which sustains our faith life throughout the week. 

Then, once or twice a year, you do a good, thorough cleaning.  Perhaps you get your carpets shampooed, clean the baseboards, or move the fridge to clean behind it.  I love the feeling of peace I get when the house is really clean.  This is like the Sacrament of Reconciliation!  It's a deep cleaning for our souls, a chance to really reflect on bad habits we've too easily fallen into and start afresh with a clean slate.  Ideally, it brings us a sense of peace, comfort, and renewed energy to live our faith.

But what about mortal sin?  Or a sin that may not officially be categorized as mortal, but for whatever reason is eating away at you and making it hard to feel authentic in your relationship with God?  The example I use for these situations always gets a few giggles, but it's a pretty effective visual: sometimes my dog poops on the floor.  I don't leave it there until spring cleaning time; I deal with it immediately.  Those sins that are eating at us are like the poop on the floor - we must deal with them right away.  This is why we may sometimes feel the need for the Sacrament of Reconciliation more than once or twice per year, and this is why the Church teaches it is necessary in the case of mortal sin.

When we celebrate First Reconciliation at Risen Savior, we actually celebrate; our service is followed by a reception with treats and colorful balloons.  If I've done my job, this makes perfect sense to the children, because they recognize the peace and joy that this Sacrament brings.  If I've done my job really well, it makes sense to the parents, too.  And ultimately, with the help of the Spirit, I hope that our families will be inspired to join the celebration again and again!

Away We Go!

This month at GIFT, we kick off our "Faith Journey" theme.  The symbols to introduce our monthly topics will come out of a fabulous old, avocado green, hard-sided suitcase.  This month's session is titled, "Getting on Board," and the object in the suitcase is a boarding pass.  Remember those?  I know it's a dated symbol, but I liked it too much to let it go.  The main themes of this session are having a positive attitude about growing in our faith and getting to know the people who are there to help us on the journey.  We also dip our toes into the faith journey field guide - the Bible.

Opening Activity/ Discussion Starter

As kids and parents arrive, they pick up the Getting on Board worksheet to complete at their tables.  It's a pretty simple, straight-forward matching game about who does what when you fly on a plane.  Then, after revealing the boarding pass as our symbol for this session, I hand out bookmarks that look like this:

When you place the bookmark on the worksheet and line up the pictures, you can see how on our faith journey, our parents are like our pilots, coaches and teachers our copilots, etc.  When I'm talking through this with the kids, I point out that even though our teachers and coaches may not be talking to us about God, they are teaching us Christian values like hard work, cooperation, and respect.  I also stress that the kids are like the passengers - their main job is to listen to the people who are there to help them, especially their parents.

Download the pdf of this activity

 

 

Crafts & Paper Airplane Activity

We have a lot of activities for this session!  The kids make their own name tags, but I won't go into the details of that right now - if they hold up as well as I hope, I will dedicate a post to how to make them.  Because this is our first session, we also get started on the "progressive craft" that we will add to at each future session.  This year I have made it easy on myself by purchasing a kit from Oriental Trading Company.  Their travel-theme VBS products from this past summer offered me some great options.  We are making the Awesome Adventures Foam Cross.  We will add a different foam sticker to it each month. 

But my favorite activity for this session is the paper airplane game.  First, kids make a paper airplane.  Then, they fly the plane at a "game board" which is just a large piece of foam core board divided into 4 numbered sections.  Whichever number the biggest part of the plane lands on, they take that numbered activity card from the table.  The card then directs parents and kids to look up something in the Bible, discuss a few questions, and do a quick activity.  The kids like it for the airplanes; I like it for the parent/child time spent together discussing Scripture.  How often doe that happen?  (Note: we use the "Breakthrough Bible" by St. Mary's Press; some content is only found in this Bible)

Download the pdf of the activity cards

 

Closing Prayer/ Commitment

For our closing prayer, each child is given a boarding pass like the one I pulled from the suitcase.  With a closer look, the kids can see that the coding at the bottom spells out "Got 2B Open."  We talk about approaching GIFT and Mass with an open heart and mind.  The kids write their names on their boarding passes as a sign of their commitment to do just that, and then the parents whisper a little blessing over them for the year.  They turn in their passes, which will be hung in the Church commons, so that our parishioners can pray for them, as well.

 

Download a pdf of the boarding pass



 





So that's our start to the year...and we're off!

 

 



Take Time to Make Time

I was at a seminar for Faith Formation professionals last week, and the speaker quoted a study that said the average parent spends an average of 1.5-3 minutes in "non-directional" (meaning, "Did you do your homework" or "Brush your teeth" doesn't count) communication with their children each day.  We all gasped, and I immediately started adding up my stats in my head.  How much time do I spend just having conversations with my kids?  I did a little more research, and I found another study that put American parents at an average of 2 minutes per day.  A Canadian study gives us 10 minutes - that seems better - until I read on to find they were talking 10 minutes per week.  Ouch.

Now, compare that to how much time our children spend in front of a screen, watching TV or playing video games.  On average, a few hours.  Every day.  Double ouch!

Some of us may be doing a little better with this, but I think all of us have room for improvement.  So, I'm asking parents who read this to comment on this post, sharing your tips for making time, facilitating meaningful conversations, or being a better listener for your children.  Maybe together we can improve our average!

Cute Fall Printable

I got this in my email inbox today - I thought some of our GIFT families might enjoy doing this activity at home! 

http://freebiefriday.guildcraftinc.com/index.php/freebie-friday-johnny-appleseed-fingerprint-printable/#

Start the School Year with RESPECT

School starts for my children next week, which means that GIFT will be starting soon, too.  To prepare for the year, I have been cleaning out drawers and closets.  I'm sort of a "tosser" - I adhere to the "If I haven't used it in a year..." rule pretty well.  But doing a program on a 4-year rotation means keeping things around for those 4 years, in case I want to bring them back.  Some things I pull out and can use as-is, others I feel the need to tweak or change out completely.  Occasionally, I come across something that makes me think, "Wow.  That's pretty good; I should share this."  That's what happened with the R-E-S-P-E-C-T handout I found yesterday.  I used this as part of a PCYI safety program in 2009/2010.  I will most likely bring it back to GIFT next year.  But I felt like it was so timely, I was compelled to share it right away.

Click here to download the PDF of the handout

I think this is a great message as kids go off to school, play fall sports, and spend more time away from the eyes of their parents.  It goes like this...

R: I am Reliable - I can be counted on to do what I say and be where I say I will be.
E: I am Encouraging - I don't put down myself or others
S: I am Strong - When I say NO, I mean it.  I can say no even if my friends don't like it.
P: I have a Purpose - God created me to be good in the world.  God created everyone else with a  
     purpose, too.  I will remember that!
E: I make an Effort - I am not perfect, but every day I do my best at being who God wants me to be.
C: I am a Child - The grown-ups in my life are there to guide and protect me; I will listen to them.
T: I am Truthful - I tell the truth, even if I am afraid I might get in trouble.

Parents, I encourage you to print the PDF, and sit down to talk with your children about what these words mean, and how living them can help them be safer, as well as helping them to achieve.  Try to think of real-life examples of when these virtues come into play.  For example, my son had some problems with getting in trouble on the bus last year, because he didn't know how to say "NO" to a friend.  When we talk, I can remind him of the importance of standing strong when a friend is trying to talk you into bad behaviors.

Teachers and Program Coordinators - print it, copy it, do what you like with it.  I hope you find it useful!

Super Fun Gem Activity

Here's an activity to teach about finding the "good stuff" that's inside us all, or any other similar theme that you can use as an excuse to do it.  We did this at our GIFT Lent session, and the kids really "dug" it!

First, I bought cheap but sparkly "gem" beads at JoAnn ETC.  I also purchased Crayola air dry clay in both terracotta and white.  The basic idea to prepare this activity is to "bury" one or two gems in a "rock" made from the clay.  I found that mixing the two colors of clay made it look more like rocks, because the color was less uniform/more natural.  Then, I experimented with how long to let them dry.  2 days out in the open air was too long; the clay got too hard to dig into.  One day was not enough; it was still too clay-like and too quick and easy to get the gems out.  I found that the best was to let them dry about 1 1/2 days in the open air, and then I could store them in an airtight container for up to 3 days more without the clay getting too hard.  Each child got 1 clay "rock" with 2 gems inside, a pie tin to catch the mess, and a spoon (got them at the dollar store).  They loved this activity!

We turned our gems into a craft, stringing the beads on black cord through a pencil-top eraser to make a pencil topper.  You could do anything with them.  Some kids chose to just take them home to put in their "treasure box."  It was a lot of work to prepare, but I would definitely do this activity again!

Forms of Prayer Game

Here is a fun game we played in February to learn about different types of prayers:

Each table got a foam die from Oriental Trading Company.  These are a great size, very colorful, and very quiet.  I had written on the white board:

1 = Thank you, God, for...
2 = Please forgive me when I...
3 = God, please bless...
4 = God, one thing that makes you so great is...
5 = God, please help me to be more...
6 = God, please help me to be less...

The game is simple: You pass the die around the table, and each person takes a turn (or two) rolling the die.  Whatever number comes up, that's how you start a one-sentence prayer.  This was a great way for kids (and parents, too) to practice some types of prayers and (hopefully) encourage everyone to add some variety to their personal prayer time.

Having A Ball While Learning the Trinity

In January, we played an oldie-but-goodie game (with a twist) to help us learn about the Trinity:

First, I established with the children that they all probably knew the 3 people of the Trinity, because they all know the sign of the cross.  We did the sign of the cross together to be sure.  Then, parents and children split into groups of 6-9 people and stood in a circle with their group.  One adult from each group was chosen to be the "Messenger from God" and came forward to get the message.  The message was a fairly long Bible passage written on a beach ball:

The Kingdom of God will not come in such a way as to be seen.

No one will say, Look!  Here it is!

The kingdom of God is within you.

The messengers took the balls back to their groups but were not allowed to show anyone the message.  Instead, they whispered it to the person next to them, who did their best to pass it on to the person next to them, and so on and so forth - the old "telephone" game.  Of course, by the time the message got around the circle, it had lost all meaning.

Next, the messengers tried a different way to spread the message.  They passed the ball to a child in their group, who read the passage with their parent.  The ball was passed from child to child until everyone had the chance to read it for themselves.  In this way, everyone got the right message.

So what does that have to do with learning about the Trinity?

Well, we talked about God our Creator (sort of a review from our first session this year), also known as God the Father.  We talked about how in the Old Testament, God sent messengers - or prophets - to spread God's word to the people.  But sometimes the messages didn't get through correctly, like in the telephone game.  Then, God sent Jesus.  This was like when we tossed the ball around - the message, or the Word, came right to the people.  "The Word became flesh," and the message was clear.

Lastly, I asked the kids if the ball would travel on its own, and as an example I held one up and let it drop.  Nope!  When we toss the ball, there are forces at work that we can't see carrying that ball to the other person.  This is like the Holy Spirit - by whose power Mary conceived Jesus, and who Jesus promised would be with us as an advocate between heaven and earth.  All 3 work together to keep the Word of God alive in our world!

Craft: Holy Water Fonts

After the game, we talked a little bit about how the Holy Spirit was with us at baptism, and through our baptism, we all have the power to bless in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  The kids made holy water fonts to take home, and we had water that had been blessed by our parish priest for them to take as well.  Our fonts were pretty fancy this year, as we had a GIFT parent who brought me cool little 4" square blank plaques that her company was going to toss out.  To these we added small works of art - the kids drew a picture that they felt symbolized God - and a little cup to hold the water.  Our cups were actually baby bottle tops leftover from a Respect Life fundraiser.  However, I have made fonts with kids in the past using simpler materials.  Plastic dessert plates and condiment cups work fine.

Prayer: Build-A-Blessing

We ended our session with parents and kids writing blessings for each other.  I handed out a simple worksheet to help them build their prayer.  It went something like this:

God Bless ________________

Clothe him/her in _____________,

and crown him/her with ________________.

May he/she never be afraid to __________________________________.

And may Your Spirit give him/her the gifts needed to follow in the footsteps of Jesus.  Amen.

At the bottom of the page were fill-in-the-blank options, such as love, kindness, and wisdom for first 2 lines, and things like "speak your truth" and "share your love" for the last blank.  Feel free to email me at desire.sobiech@risensavior.org to request a copy of the Build-A-Blessing worksheet.