Catechism Bulletin Board

This bulletin board came about through need. One: the need for the children to have something visual to see and Two: as parents we needed to have focus to keep us consistent in teaching.

As we journey through the year for Family Faith Formation we determined that to provide supplemental lessons to our children at home we need something tangible. We learned last year that our approach of dinner table teaching was fine but needed something more. Our children were often confused by things and needed frequent reminders of the weekly prayers. At any rate we decided this year we need to try another approach. Our middle schooler suggested we get a white board to make lists etc. This is how we can about the idea of a Catechism Bulletin Board.

In our home we do not have chalkboard or whiteboard or pinboard or anything of the sort to put this type of display on. If you have one of those things then you could arrange something similar. Our best option is using a foam board. Wall space is a limited resource in our home which is why we do not have boards hanging up. Our kitchen is more windows than walls. If you share a similar circumstance then you’ll understand why finding a central location has been tricky. Currently this board is propped up against the wall on a cabinet in our dining room. It will most likely end up in the kitchen on the door going to the basement.

On to how we came about the headings on this board. These were selected based off of conversations Keith and I had about formation teaching. What are the ones that must be taught and what are the ones we want to teach. I’ll tell you that list could have been vast! I narrowed it down to the 7 options because, well, 7 being a significant number in Catholic teaching. Sometimes starting with a number helps your focus! These 7 made sense to us in how we have been sharing lessons at home with our children throughout the years.

• Catechism of the Catholic Church: This is exactly what is says. We pull the CCC from our textbook and put it in this section. Thematic topic of the week. It can be one or several depending on the week. The size of this section does not need to be spacious for the information.
• Prayer of the Week: Here we will select a prayer that the children will need to work on memorizing. This may change weekly or less frequently depending on the prayer. The size of this section does not need to be spacious for the information. It can contain one prayer or a few. We can customize to our children’s ages and formation needs.
• Liturgical Season: In this section we will indicate the Church season. The question: “Where are we in the Church Year?” is one that all Catholics should know. For a great portion of the year this will remain the same. The size of this section does not need to be spacious for the information. We are intentionally keeping this section smaller to fit in the other topics.
• Noteworthy Pope: This section is more than the heading indicated. Here is where we needed more space for information. In this section we will cover ANY Pope or Pope related history as a way to learn about Church History. We have found that many Catholics are lacking on this understanding (me included!) and would do good for all ages to learn about our Papal traditions.
• Virtue Lesson: Going to the fundamentals was the point of this heading. We want to bring a focus back to the learning of Virtues as once was commonplace through children’s literature. As education goals have changed we have seen a decline in this being included in language arts in the elementary years. We intend to have a thematic purpose but our default will be begin with Virtue 1 and go down the list and repeat year round. We are choosing stories, parables, etc. One idea is to choose based off your parish’s weekly homily. Our priest mentioned one (charity) and we felt that was a good one to begin with on our board.
• Noteworthy Saint: We want to provide ample space in this heading for learning about saints. The intent was to have space for the Saint of the Week featured at our Family Faith Formation classes and have room to share on an additional saint. Again, this section at minimum has one saint as its focus but may have more. (For example December has a LOT of important feast days in one week and having two saints would be a reasonable option for being present in the season.)
• News & Notes: This heading is a way to basically say “here’s some extra stuff we want you kids to learn” . It can be ANY THING. We were initially thinking current events in the Church. After talking more we thought it best to be open ended so that it can encompass much more. It can be seen as simply Topic of the week. We will put geopolitical news, science, philosophy, etc. This is a place to add in additional topics that ARE connected to the Catholic life.

Keith has specifically taken on the CCC, Noteworthy Pope, and News & Notes sections. These are the areas he has in the past led our family discussions on and we are continuing this format. He has begun making the plan on his end.

Next question: What are we using? See the book list below for the books. For some of the sections I have gone to Katie Bogner’s website Look to Him and Be Radient as a way to get us started. She has many good printable resources to use in your home. I am using her materials for the Virtue Lesson and Liturgical Season sections.

Keith is using PowerPoint to make slides for the CCC section. We print them out as needed. Keith has created his own format in word processing for the Noteworthy Pope section. In the Prayer of the week section we will at minimum have a prayer typed up in a word processing document. This is most likely our first choice as we have 2 distinct ages that have to focus on different prayers quarterly. I can see using prayer cards or other things to place here. For the Virtue Lessons we are choosing stories from the Book of Virtues. In the Noteworthy Saint section it will vary. I made space for an 8 by 11 sheet so that the typical handout given to the students at FFF could easily fit here.

Book List

Confirmation Books:

• Focus on Confirmation for Young Catholics by Seton Press
• Confirmation Preparation Teacher’s Manual 2008 edition by Seton Press
• The Sacrament of Confirmation A Complete Preparation Course and Activities with Parents and Sponsors The Didache Series By: Rev. James Socias
• Baltimore Catechism III with notes and study helps Seton Press By: Rev. Francis J. Connell

Additional Resources:

• Catechism of the Catholic Church By: Pauline St. Paul Books & Media
• The New Saint Joseph Baltimore Catechism By: Father Bennet, C.P.
• The Church Rocks! A History of the Catholic Church for Kids and Their Parents and Teachers By: Mary Lea Hill, FSP.
• Totally Catholic! A Catechism for Kids and Their Parents and Teachers by: Mary Kathleen Glavich, SND
• St. Joseph Bible Handbook By: Terry J. Day & Carol J. Smith
• The Book of Virtues A Treasury of Great Moral Stories By: William J. Bennett