Children's Faith Formation

Here are a few resources to give you ideas.

Faith Formation Models:
As you are prayerfully discerning the faith formation model that would work best for your community, check out the these descriptions of common models and the strenghts and challenges of each. Contact your Evangelization Consultant for more information.

Books:

• 77 Ways to Pray with Your Kids  by Jerry Windley-Daoust
  • Wondering how to teach your children how to pray? How to pray with them? Or how to introduce more variety of prayer with the children you teach? 77 Ways is full of practical advice and prayer ideas for ages 3-17.
• The Little Oratory: A Beginner’s Guide to Praying in the Home The Little Oratory: A Beginner’s Guide to Praying in the Home  by David Clayton & Leila Marie Lawler
• The Religious Potential of the Child by Sofia Cavalletti
  • Sofia Cavelletti explains how a child (age 3-6) comes to know God and learns about him. It is a refreshing way to grow closer to God versus just learning about him.
• Character Building: A Guide for Parents and Teachers by David Isaacs
  • This book offers suggestions on developing the character of children through the development of moral habits.

Websites and Blogs:

• Teaching Catholic Kids
  • From the same people who brought you PB and Grace, a great website for parents learning how to bring the faith home to daily life
• Foryourmarriage.org:
  • Family Life and Catholic Parenting
• Catholic Icing:
  • Catholic Craft Ideas
• CatholicMom:
  • a blog for Catholic parents with information from technology to parenting to marriage to Gospel reflections
• The Catholic Parent:
  • Encouraging Catholic Parents to Live Out Discipleship in their Homes
• Catholic All Year
  • a resource for raising Catholic children.
• Look to Him and be Radiant:
  • Catechetical and Family ideas for living the liturgical year

Special Needs:

To find parishes who offer catechesis for those with special needs, please contact
Katheryn Griffin, Ecclesial Movements Consultant, kathryn_griffin@rcab.org
or visit the Ministries with Persons with Disabilities page of the BostonCatholic.org website.

Publishers:

• Lumen Ecclesia
  • A new press by the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. Focusing on teaching the faith systematically, using easy-to-understand philosophy and beauty
• Dynamic Catholic
  • Presently they offer only sacramental preparation. Their method is videos and small groups discussions. It is a new way to do religious education.
• Loyola
  • Christ our Life has an abundance of reading material to form Catechists. Their textbooks are based on the basal theory. Also a great resource for Adapting to Special Needs. 
• Our Sunday Visitor
  • The curriculum is only a portion of their larger publishing house. This means you have easy access to lots of resources such as books and pamphlets to help with all your creative ways of doing faith formation. It also utilizes the basal approach.
• Pflaum Gospel Weeklies
  • ​​​​​​​Easy for parents to teach their children with these weekly pamphlets and is centered around the liturgical readings each Sunday.
•  RCL Benzinger
  • ​​​​​​​This publisher offers a basal curriculum based on 6 key components of our faith. They also offer supplemental family guides to help parents reinforce what their children learn in religious education.
• Sadlier
  • ​​​​​​​One of the oldest publishers of basal curriculum for religious education, Sadlier provides new catechists with lots of options of how to teach each lesson and works to make their material affordable for parishes.
• St. Mary’s Press
  • ​​​​​​​This publisher is known for its bibles which are specifically designed for different age groups. They also provide materials for sacramental preparation. Highschool e-learning platforms dealing with current events, and bible studies.
• ​​​​​​​Sophia Institute
  • ​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Takes the stance of teaching the child the faith by introducing them to beauty and God’s love for them while also teaching ways of living out the faith. Catechists like the on-line resources and find their material easy to use.

Catechesis at Home
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Helping your children develop a relationship with God begins in the home.
 
"The Christian family constitutes a specific revelation and realization of ecclesial communion, and for this reason too it can and should be called ‘the domestic Church.’… [and] like the greater Church, needs to be constantly and intensely evangelized: hence its duty regarding permanent education in the faith…[for] future evangelization depends largely on the domestic Church." (Familiaris Consortio, 21, 51, 65)