This article is about how we are setting our priorities straight: catechism first!
As one school-year draws to a close, and the next school year begins, I am drawn to all the different opportunities for the coming year. Do we need more books? More math? More subjects? There are so many great and amazing resources out there! And advertisers are great at preying upon a mother’s fear of missing out.
At the end of the day, it turns out only one thing is necessary. God.
And that is why, amidst even my desire to look at more and more curriculum for various subjects, I need to start with what is truly important: passing on the faith. Doing catechism matters more than completing any of our other subjects. Also, what we do for catechism matters more. So that is why I am looking at what we do at home for catechism (also known as Catholic Studies by our local school board).
Catechism at Home
If you asked my children what matters most to me, I’m afraid they’d probably tell you it was math, or reading. If you asked them which was worse, missing icon corner, or not finishing their daily work… well… I am still working on living our day to day homeschooling life in a way that shows I prioritize learning about God above math. Even so, we are starting a new season of homeschooling, and we have found some great resources to help change the way we express the importance of catechism to our children.
The Badger Dad and I have worked together to assess our goals for Catechism at Home. First I will tell you what these goals are. Then I will show how we are addressing each goal.
- Consistency
- Byzantine Content
- Solid Faith Engagement
Consistency – For Me and Them
When planning for consistency, it is important to discern what is reasonable according to your current state in life. As it turns out, having a one year old boy in the house is far more difficult than having a 3 month old and a 2 year old girl at the same time. For the past year, my writing life has suffered. But, thankfully, that doesn’t mean the same thing for my prayer life! At the moment, my daily prayer routine has less then if I was a single university student. I can’t plan to do the full divine office at the same time everyday, everyday. But morning prayer, prayers before meals, the rosary, and many other prayers fit in well throughout the day.
As my children get older and older I can involve them more in this daily prayer routine. 
Our priorities for consistency are daily icon corner for all the children, catechism memory work at least every other day, and rosary with the older children.
Byzantine Catechism Content
This year I have been putting together notebooks for the kids for various subjects. In our Catechism/Catholic Studies notebooks, I put together many of the colouring pages from ByziMom in the order of the Church Year this year. ByziMom shares the icon colouring pages for free, and they have been rearranged for easier finding of the appropriate icons since I last downloaded pictures from that page! My children love colouring icons as a part of catechism time, and it is great Byzantine content.
The Badger Dad found Byzantine Catechism lessons from God With Us publications. We have been using the series since Little Fox was in Kindergarten for some strictly byzantine catechism. If you get the Teacher’s Manuals, there are some adaptations included for prayers for the Melkite, Ukrainian, and Ruthenian usages. To get through these books, we do about three lessons a month from September to June.
We are also extremely lucky to have a Ukrainian Catholic copy of the Baltimore Catechism! The book is in Ukrainian, but at the back is an appendix to all the q+a either adapted or added for the Ukrainian Rite usage.
For example:
- Who administers confirmation?
- The sacrament of confirmation is administered by a bishop or priest, immediately following baptism.
I have learned so much from studying this text, and look forward to continue learning with my children for the years to come.
Solid Faith Engagement
Since I learned about Maria Montessori being raised Catholic, and her ideas for applying her approach to catechesis in the book The Child in the Church, I’ve been searching for ways to include these methods in our lives. Technically, Catechisis of the Good Shepherd is the official forum for this. Hands on activities. Beautiful materials. Information not “dumbed down” for children, yet still presented in an age appropriate manner. Sophia Montessori Academy in Denver does this with our Byzantine traditions.
We do have some part time Catechisis of the Good Shepherd in our community. However, I’ve been on the hunt for a straightforward way to study the truth and beauty of our faith daily with the kids. How can I extend what is good about Catechisis of the Good Shepherd to our home life?
The Answer … Into the Deep
Into The Deep
The Into the Deep program has three levels of year round catechisis (72 presentations) plus various unit studies that can fit in and around these times. Many presentations have an activity directly attached. All presentations have the option for a “deep dive” to take the content of the lesson further. With this curriculum, catechesis is linked to practical applications for how we see God’s intricate design and plan for salvation in our day to day lives.
While Into the Deep is produced in a Latin rite setting, it is very Byzantine-friendly. Rublev’s Trinity and other icons, prayers, and poems from the East are included. And more so, beauty is a major focus of the content, just as beauty is a major focus of the East.
We are using Into the Deep as a part of our icon corner time during the week. The children love it, and are always excited for icon corner now. In fact, adding Into the Deep to our catechism at home is really helping us achieve all our goals: consistency, byzantine focus (for its emphasis on beauty as well as by encouraging us to say our daily byzantine prayers in our icon corner), and by providing a solid way to engage our children with the truths of our faith.
The Byzantine Life
Thank you for being here with The Byzantine Life! If you enjoyed this week’s article, you’ll be pleased to know there are more related articles arriving in the coming weeks!
Please note I was not compensated for recommending these resources. These are all my own opinions and those who created resources shared here were not aware I would be sharing them!
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