kid’s stuff | Revolution of Love

Now that August is here I’ve been reading on the blogs about many homeschooling moms starting school or getting ready to start. A couple people have been asking about the Little Saints Catholic Preschool Program.

Although we aren’t homeschooling (at least not at the moment) I have used the Little Saints program for the kids while they were younger. The lesson plan can be used for a classroom setting or for homeschooling.

Personally, I loved it. I also liked that it had everything written out – including all the materials I’d need for the projects and lessons. Since I was using it informally, there were sections I skipped and others that I implemented. I thought the program was worth having just for all the project ideas, book suggestions and learning material that I adapted to my own schedule.

Last year, some of the local homeschooling moms did a once a week co-op for their homeschooling children. One mom tutored the older kids in English. Another mom taught the preschoolers, including Andrew, while I watched the babies. Although it wasn’t a formal preschool setting she used a number of the ideas and projects from the program.

Here is a partial sample chapter so you can see how it is organized. (This is for reference only. The pages have a copyright.) You can learn more and purchase the Little Saint’s Catholic Program at CatholicPreschool.com.

Table of Contents – Page 1

Table of Contents – Page 2

Sample Page (Prep)

Sample (partial) Lesson

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

I haven’t taken any pictures with my regular camera this week so instead, here are the photos I recently took with my iphone, hence the blurrier quality.

{pretty}

When I was going to Mass at the Carmel Mission I couldn’t help snap a picture of these gorgeous flowers. Bella smiled and said, “Mom, you can use that as one of your pictures for pretty, happy…whatever it’s called.” She knows me well.

{happy}

We finally bought Andrew a new bike helmet so he could stop using Bella’s old pink one. Now John-Paul wants to use the pink helmet, not to ride a bike, mind you, but to walk around the house. He must be worried he’ll trip over the many train sets on the floor.

{funny}

I snapped this one of Matthew relaxing in his swing. I looove that thing! It makes me sing! (Wow, I’m reading too much Dr. Seuss.) Anyway, the funny aspect is the way he has his chubby little leg resting on the tray. California kick back.

{real}

From now on I am going to put a shower cap on John-Paul before he eats his yogurt. And why does he always do this after I just washed his hair??

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

My camera battery has been dead all week and I couldn’t find my charger so this week I am posting photos from the last few years. I had so many to choose from that I picked two for each category.

{pretty}

Here is Bella when she was the flower girl for my brother and sister-in-law’s wedding. She is holding the flowers to be given to Our Lady.

*****

This is such a pretty cake! My mother-in-law bought this for my birthday a year or two ago. I think I was turning 35 (again…and again…and again…)

{happy}

Here is Bella and Andrew enjoying a lollipop after a walk in downtown Carmel.

*****

Here is one of the three kids playing on the floor. 🙂

{funny}

I was looking at old Halloween pictures and found these two favorite ones. Here is Andrew dressed as St. Francis for an All Saint’s Day party.

*****

Here is John-Paul as a mustached fireman. LOL!

{real}

Here is a photo of Andrew when he was playing with his Walle toy. He dumped out the remaining animal crackers and crushed them up to make a desert landscape. What a mess.

*****

Here is John-Paul playing IN the dishwasher. And I just noticed that JP is wearing Andrew’s old pajamas from the photo above. Maybe it’s the pajamas that have a mischievous effect. 🙂

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

{pretty}

One of the projects I am working on is sorting through all our photos and getting them organized and I came across this pic of Bella from a couple years back. I love this photo of my pretty, little girl. 🙂

{happy}

Here is a photo of Matthew on a “warm” summer day in Carmel. We actually don’t get our warm weather until fall. Then we can go outside without a jacket. LOL!

{funny}

John-Paul loves that he has graduated from the high chair to a booster chair at the big table. He is also proud of being able to eat his whole container of yogurt by himself and to get most of the yogurt in his mouth.

{real}

I went on a laundry washing spree yesterday. I got everything washed but I thnk it’s time to fold and put it away!

Hosted by Jen at Conversion Diary.

– 1 –

Blessed Junipero Serra & the Carmel Mission: I can’t believe that it is July 1st already! Time just goes too fast! On the plus side, today we celebrate two great feast days, the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Blessed Junipero Serra. Living in California, on summer vacations we would often visit the various missions when we were younger. It’s funny that years later my parish church is the Mission San Carlos (Carmel Mission.) Brian and I were married here and our children were baptized here. It really is a beautiful Mission and it has the distinction of being where Blessed Serra is buried. If you are ever in the area, you should make a visit. In fact…

– 2 –

Founder’s Day: …if you’ll be in the Monterey Bay area tomorrow (Saturday, July 2) stop by the Mission for the Founders Day celebration. There is music and live demonstrations of how things were made during the early days of the mission (ie. food and crafts) and a special Mass at 5:30 PM. (There is a dinner afterwords but you need tickets for that.) It’s always interesting and a lot of fun.

– 3 –

Cars 2 is too scary for little kids!: We are big Pixar fans in our house with the favorite movies of the kids being Cars, Toy Story and Walle. Bella used to be obsessed with Cars and had all the toys for it. Now Andrew loves Cars (and inherited the toys) and was so excited to see the new movie for his birthday. Since I am the one who usually takes them to the movies, Andrew was excited to have a daddy date with Brian as his movie buddy. Bella had a treat and was movie buddies with my visiting sister. From what Brian told me, the movie started out okay but it was really violent and should have been rated PG not G. By the last third of the movie Andrew (who just turned 4) got too scared with all the shooting, cars dying and the bad guys trying to kill Lightning. He started crying so Brian had to take him out to the lobby. Bella finished the movie with my sister and she enjoyed it but she is 9 years old. So if you are taking your younger kids to see it, beware.

– 4 –

Is there such a thing as low cal food that’s yummy?: I’ve been trying to eat healthier so I can get off the rest of the baby weight (and then some) so I tried a Weight Watchers recipe for macaroni salad. I’m a little leery of “light” recipes but this was really good. I used bow tie pasta, substituted half the celery with red bell pepper and added a bit more fresh Italian parsley, which gave it a nice touch. It was really tasty. Check it out at Weight Watchers.com Recipies: Macaroni Salad

– 5 –

Summer Reading: Brian purchased the book Poor Banished Children and I hope to start reading it next week. There is an interesting interview with the author Fiorella De Maria over at Ignatius Insight. If I like this book, I’ll check out her other novels.

– 6 –

He can’t possibly be teething??: How soon can a baby start teething? Matthew is not yet three months but he is drooling and gnawing as if he’s teething. It just seems too early for that.

– 7 –

“JFT”: My “just for today” goals: First, when things get hectic I’ll recall today’s gospel reading “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” and I will turn my heart to Christ for strength. Second, I’ll get that overflowing basket of clean laundry folded!

That’s it for today. Have a wonderful 4th of July holiday! God bless America and watch over our troops.

Revolution of Love

Do small things with great love.

Category Archives: kid’s stuff

Little Saints Catholic Preschool Program

{pretty, happy, funny, real} – vol 8: iphone edition

{pretty, happy, funny, real} – vol 6: flashback edition

{pretty, happy, funny, real} – vol 5

7 Quick Takes – 7/1/11