Ideas for Celebrating the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul (Jan 25)

January 25 is the Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle. Since we've "adopted" St. Paul as our family's patron saint for 2012, I thought I'd share with you some ideas (some of which, are not originally mine to claim) for celebrating today's feast. (I tried Googling for ideas, but there seems to be only a few posts about it.)

We won't be able to use these ideas today though, since Timothy joined his Papa Anthony on a "mission trip" to Baguio to prepare for the Couples for Christ Magnificat Weekend Retreat (their FIRST ever trip together as father-and-son. I'm a bit nervous about it, but totally ECSTATIC too!) I hope we could still do them though, even on a different day. I'm really grateful to God for reminding me about "what is essential" through St. Paul's conversion.

Here are some ideas:

1. From Catholic Cuisine: "Although the story from the Acts of the Apostles doesn't mention St. Paul falling to the ground off his horse, it seems that is how the scene is always artistically rendered. After all, falling to the ground from a standing position hurts, but it isn't as dramatic as a fall from a horse!" 

Image source here.

a. Make horseshoe cookies and include other "horse-themed" dishes in the family's meals.
b. For snack time, prepare something horses eat, like celery or carrot sticks with dip.
(Find more ideas from Catholic Cuisine by clicking here.)

2. Read Bible stories about St. Paul. Tim's current Bible is "My Favorite Bible Storybook for Early Readers." We got it from Booksale, and although it's not a Catholic children's Bible, it's really good - Tim loves "reading" it with us! I like that the stories are a bit more detailed than those in our other Bible storybooks.

Alternatively, we plan to read (for the nth time!) the comic book about St. Paul that we bought a while back at the St. Paul's bookstore at Ali Mall in Cubao. Maybe we'll do some role-playing while we're at it! ;-)

3. Do St. Paul-themed activities. Catholicmom.com has some good ideas from their 2008 archives on celebrating "The Year of St. Paul." You may find these resources helpful:


Resources for Children and Families:

Year of St. Paul Lesson Plan from CatholicMom.comOSV St. Paul "Giant of the Church" - interactive stories, quiz and more
OSV St. Paul Crossword Puzzle
OSV Take Out Kids Page for Year of St. Paul - filled with several great ideas and activities for families
OSV St. Paul Coloring Book for Kids
OSV "Year of St. Paul" poster
St. Peter and St. Paul Coloring Page

4. Watch videos about the Conversion of St. Paul. You can find these on YouTube. Here are two such videos:




Here's a music video about "Saul of Tarsus." (Note: Our internet connection is kinda spotty now, so I wasn't able to view the video - I hope you can do so without any problems though!)


Happy Feast Day everyone! To God be all the glory! ;-)

Teaching Our Kids To Be Grateful

We live in a time now where gratitude is something that is sometimes forgotten and often taken for granted. As parents, we would do well to teach our children to be grateful.

After all, it is usually when we take on an attitude of gratitude that we receive more blessings. Why? Because gratitude is "like a magnet," according to Bo Sanchez (who just happens to be one of my "big bosses" now - something I'm very grateful to God for!). The more we are thankful, the more we are blessed!

It is quite challenging to teach our little ones to be grateful though. Admittedly, it's a struggle for me too! ;-) Hopefully, these articles may be of help to us all, who are striving to teach our kids intentionally:

How To Instill Gratitude In Your Children
Give Thanks: A Unit Study About Gratefulness
10 Ways To Get Your Kids To Stop Whining (*Whiny kids usually tend to be ungrateful, too ;-)

Happy homeschooling, everyone! ;-) May God bless us all and may Mama Mary guide us, especially us moms! ;-)

Another confession (AND the Top 100 Educational Websites for 2012)

When I was a new mom, I told myself that I'd never let my kids watch TV or play computer games at a young age. Like fellow homeschool/work-at-home mom Blessie, I wanted my kids to "play outdoors, read books, and build things from scratch." (Yes, we homeschool moms are of the idealistic sort, aren't we?! LOL! ;-)


But, as most people probably know by now (through reviews I've written, like the ones here, here, here and here) I DO let my kids watch TV/DVDs (*gasp*) and I DO let them use the computer! In fact, I don't think our homeschool life would be as frugal and fun without it (the computer, at least!) *NOTE: The key word for our family now is frugal! He, he! :-)



Don't get me wrong though - our kids, like Mommy Blessie's, still get to play outdoors, read books (well, have books read to them at this point in time - two favorites are "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" and "The Runaway Bunny"), and build things from scratch (or recyclable items). We also like listening to audio stories, especially from The Story Home.


However, I believe in the need for balance. And, since I still haven't achieved my ULTIMATE dream of being a fulltime stay at home teachermama (I work from home most days of the week), most days I need time to work and so I need to keep the kids occupied - and A LOT of times, this involves the TV and computer! (Please forgive me!)

Photo source here.

So it pleased me a lot when fellow homeschool mom Racquel recently posted about the top 100 Educational Websites for 2012, which came out on the Homeschool.com website. I browsed through the list (you can do so too by clicking here), and found some of our own favorite websites listed there, among which were:


http://pbskids.org - Tim LOVES playing "The Cat in the Hat" games here! Seussville is another favorite site! Yes, we're Cat in the Hat fans! ;-)