Adapting Holy Week for the Domestic Church: Holy Thursday Thoughts

Christopher is downstairs watching the Tenebrae service streaming from St. John Cantius right now.  I am struck by several thoughts on this. One, it seems miraculous that he could be watching this beautiful service in this beautiful church so far away from us. And it seems so sad; watching something on the screen seems so distancing, so isolating, so removed from the true purpose of what you are watching, which is to have this connection with God, which would seem to require being present in a way that you can't be if you are only experiencing it on the screen. And I feel afraid, afraid of the screens, of how easy they are, how seductive they are, and how ultimately alienating they can be, as we accept this false reality. Combined with the fear of other people that we have now, we can fully justify an acceptance of this fake reality, and that it will become the default reality for us in the future. I fear the loss of the community that I have worked so hard for several years to create for my children, I have been walking around with that knot of anxiety in my stomach today about that. Will our communities still be there at the end of this? Will we be able to overcome our fears and still gather together? I prepare my Holy Thursday reflections with that fear, with the prayer that our Holy Thursday rituals can bring us together.

And those thoughts tie into other of thoughts today, of Dorothy Day, of her loneliness and her search for connection and love and meaning. Her autobiography was even entitled "The Long Loneliness," in case you miss the point of her search. I have been thinking about Dorothy Day today, and I don't really have a fully formed thought on her, or, rather, I have many many thoughts about her, but nothing fully coherent.

These thoughts began to swirl around after I read an article in the online version of the New Yorker; a new book and a new documentary on Day are being released soon, and the article reviewed Day's life in that context. Certain elements of the articles struck me. The author was bemused by what she saw as the inherent contradictions of Day's beliefs. On the one hand, pacifist, women's rights, champion of the poor, critic of capitalism; but on the other hand, firm supporter of the church's teachings on sexuality, including abortion and homosexuality, a firm believer in the teaching authority of the church, a firm practitioner of the prayers and the liturgy of the church. My thought was: there is no inherent contradiction in Day's thoughts. Only in today's political system--and that is the key phrase--only in this moment, and only in this particular political structure--are these beliefs viewed as being in opposition. They aren't, and they shouldn't be. In this time of crisis, when everything is now up in the air, maybe it is time to think about the society we have and the society we want to have. I feel close to Dorothy Day today: her search for community and connection echoes my own fears of loss of community and connection.

Which brings us to Holy Thursday! Holy Thursday just feels tricky, right; the part of Holy Week that is most about the institution of the priesthood; how do you mark that without a priest, without a Mass? My sources suggest a Passover meal, or a Seder, to mark the day. I have to make a confession at this point: I have a very limited skill set. I am not artistic, not good at arts and crafts, and I am not a cook. A meal like a Seder is a daunting task, not helped by the fact that I am very limited at the present moment at my ability to go out, go shopping, and get the supplies needed for such a meal.

However, I take heart from two suggestions from Maria von Trapp (she, of course, who had her own house priest to bless her Seder meal). She points out, as her priest blesses the meal, that his tray includes the unleavened bread and wine glasses. He blesses the bread and the wine, before passing them around. Von Trapp points out that "people in the time of Christ used to clear the table after a good meal and bring some special wine and bread, and in the 'breaking of the bread' they would signify their love for the departing one ... To share bread and wine together in this fashion, therefore, was not it itself startling to the Apostles, but the occasion was memorable on this first Holy Thursday because it was Our Lord's own great farewell." She goes to add that, "Every Holy Thursday spent like this knits a family closer together, careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, one body and one Spirit ... one Lord, one faith." So, in that spirit, we will break the bread and share the wine together on Holy Thursday. And, Maria included a recipe for unleavened bread that Eileen and I are feeling ambitious enough to attempt. I will let you know how it goes. I include for you Maria von Trapp's recipe for unleavened bread, you know, just in case you can't get out to the store to find it for yourself.

1 and 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup warm water

Mix salt, flour, egg, and butter. Add the water, mix the dough quickly with a knife, and then knead on a board, stretching it up and down to make it elastic until it leaves the board clean. Toss on a small, well floured board. Cover with a hot bowl and keep warm a half hour or longer. Then cut into squares of desired size and bake in a 350 degree oven until done.

If you are feeling really ambitious, and have the elements on hand, you can include more elements of a Seder meal, including a bowl with 'bitter herbs' (parsley, chives, and celery greens), another bowl with a sauce (I don't have recipe for said sauce), and the aforementioned unleavened bread. The entrée is the roasted lamb, eaten with the bitter herbs and sauce.

I will keep you posted on how the bread turns out.  And, next up: ideas for Easter Vigil (backyard fire, anyone?)

Adapting Holy Week for the Domestic Church: Spy Wednesday, Good Friday, Stations of the Cross

How did your Palm Sunday go? Ours was interesting, I think. The kids cut long branches from some overgrown bushes in the backyard; we teased the five year old that hers was as big as she was, to her great delight. We sprinkled them with holy water, and then the eight year old sprinkled them, and all of us, with the holy water again. Twice blessed. We marched around the entire backyard, waving our branches singing “All Glory, Laud, and Honor.” We went inside, read the Gospel, recited the Sorrowful Mysteries (a decade a child), and made a spiritual communion. The afternoon was warm and sunny, befitting a Palm Sunday (didn’t you find it to be true, as a child, that Palm Sunday was lovely, and Good Friday dark and stormy?), and we went outside to sit and watch the kids run around in the front yard, an unheard luxury; after all, when do we ever have the luxury, on a Sunday afternoon, for both us parents to sit in the front yard and watch the kids, without laundry, and lesson plans, and dishes, piling up?

It is a weird feeling, to be afloat like this ... it is what it feels like, unmoored, lost in time, reflecting on what we would be doing ... a subjunctive kind of mood, trapped between the what is and what should be. I should have just finished up a busy time of the school year, grateful for the break from schedule that Holy Week usually provides, as school work and school planning pause, while gearing up for Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and the family stresses of Easter. All that is gone. I think about how fortunate we have been, with our Masses and our Triduum and our Good Friday services. I think about how, for so much of our Catholic history, though we have the habit of idealizing the past, our foremothers did not have the luxury of these things either, and what they must have done to mark these feasts for their families. I think of priests, writing from the coal camps of eastern Kentucky, saying that they did not have High Mass, because they did not have the choir to sing, or the deacons or subdeacons to serve. Of the women who didn’t even have a church, and who worked to create a church, like the Catholic mothers of Barbourville, who worried about their children growing without instruction in the faith, writing to the bishop so as to create the space for a priest to be assigned and a church built in their town. Of my grandmother, who moved to eastern Kentucky in the 1950s and who managed to raise her sons Catholic without a priest or a church, spending her life celebrating Mass in people’s houses whenever the visiting priest from Paintsville made his circuit around to Prestonsburg. We have a long lineage of creating church from what we can, to make what we need it to be.

Maria von Trapp has some nice ideas for Holy Week, though they do seem to be determined by some elements that I personally do not have access to, such as servants who can make lots of soups and make sure that the house receives its Holy Week cleaning (evidently, what Monday and Tuesday of Holy Week are for, in case you weren’t sure); a chapel, and family priest, on call and on the grounds; and a family of professional level singers. I can’t imagine why I don’t have these things! We need a book in the vein of Julia Child’s first cookbook, which was subtitled Cooking for the Servantless Woman; how about, Holy Week for the Servantless Woman? Nonetheless, I think that there are some ideas to be gleaned from her account. 

I think that this one could work for either Spy Wednesday or Good Friday, a combination of a Tenebrae service and a Stations of the Cross. I honestly thought I had read this idea somewhere, but as I look through my materials, it is not exactly there, so I may have taken a couple of ideas and fused them together. Wednesday is often celebrated as a Tenebrae service, beginning with a church fully lit up and then with lights gradually extinguished until the church remains in darkness and silence, a symbolism that I truly love. Of course, Stations of the Cross is the traditional prayer of Lent, one I am really missing this year, as we have not been able to go to a Stations at all this year. Kerri Baunach had a wonderful idea; she said that she printed out Stations, which her boys colored, and then they put them up around the house, and they did the Stations that way. I did really like that idea. (Sidenote: I have long been plotting to get permanent outside Stations put up in my backyard; however, they cost into the thousands of dollars, so it has not happened yet. One of these years. Sigh). I combined Kerri’s colored Stations idea with something that my family does for the Rosary; we have a flip book of pictures, one for each mystery of the rosary, so as we pray the mystery we have the corresponding picture open in the flipbook. So, color and make a Stations of the Cross flipbook, and use it as you pray the Stations. 

Or you could do this: start with lighting fourteen candles. As you say a Station, extinguish a corresponding candle, until all the candles are extinguished, and the stations said. This could work for Wednesday, for Tenebrae, or Good Friday, as you say the Stations of the Cross in lieu of the Mass of the Pre-Sanctified. Now, I would probably just find fourteen candles and candlesticks, I gotta say. But I did find this for those ambitious or talented people out there: make a candelabrum for the Stations of the Cross. Mary Reed Newland suggests fourteen candles in one long candelabrum, or two short ones of seven each. She made them in this manner: with two shoes boxes with six holes apiece for the candles, or with plaster of paris poured into two empty Kleenex boxes and the candles held in place (a few minutes). After 24 hours, remove the Kleenex boxes, and, voila, candelabrum! Paint as desired. Newland recommends starting the Stations with all fourteen candles lit, saying, with the naming of each station, this prayer: “We adore Thee, O Christ, and we praise Thee, Because by Thy holy Cross Thou hast redeemed the world,” followed by an Our Father, a Hail Mary, and a Glory Be, then putting out the candles, until all fourteen are extinguished and the room is in darkness.

I also liked this idea for Good Friday. For some reason, this has been an element of missing Triduum that has really bothered me this year. Something that has really been a key element of Triduum, and Good Friday in particular, is the empty tabernacle at the end of the Mass of the Pre-Sanctified; this emptiness, and the missing bells, is chilling and really bring home for me the empty tomb and the missing Christ. So I found a suggestion of building your own empty tomb, or at least, having your children build an empty tomb, with whatever “they could find at hand—stones, mosses, sticks, acorns,” very appealing.

Of course, I say all of this with the caveat: these are some ideas I found appealing, as I have been thinking through the process of marking Holy Week without the traditional practices of the church. They are meant to be supplemental to the prayers of the church, which I think are well found in such resources as the "Holy Week at Home" pamphlet from Liturgical Press.  I hope and pray that they help you as you think your way through this time.

Coming tomorrow: ideas for Holy Thursday Seder meal and Easter Vigil.

Adapting Holy Week for the Domestic Church: Palm Sunday

I have been thinking a lot lately about women’s work and women’s role in sustaining the faith,
keeping it alive, and ensuring that it gets passed down to the next generation. In many ways, I keep
seeing parallels between our current situation and the situation of the early Church in Kentucky. 

While the circumstances are very different between the early Church and ourselves, similarities to our
current situation abound: there was no regular access to the sacraments, and there was not ready
access to vowed religious for teaching and instruction. Women, such as Grace Newton Simpson,
noted for her strong theological mindset and willingness to stand up for herself against all comers,
including bishops and priests, did the work of holding faith alive for their families, ensuring that their
children were instructed in the faith and of keeping traditions alive. The historic accounts of the early
Kentucky church are alive with the accounts of these strong women who were noted for their faith,
works, and tenacity. 

The challenge facing them, which they met with such aplomb, is similar for us today, even though the
solutions we need are very different I feel this is the challenge facing us at the present moment; I
have seen it coming for a long time, in fact, but this present moment has created an urgency to the
problem that I had not anticipated.

We have to ask ourselves, as these Kentucky pioneer women did, how can we keep the traditions
and the faith alive in circumstances that are less than ideal? How can we come together when we are
kept apart from one another? It seems particularly heartbreaking this week, the holiest week of the
year, as we are unable to come together in the celebration of the Triduum. I do think that this requires
a reframing and understanding of the role of women in the church. The sacraments are the lifeblood
of the church, it is true; but women build the body through which that lifeblood flows. The question
before us today is how do we build that body now.

So, I thought I would look into some traditions and adapt them for our domestic churches. There are
many wonderful suggestions out there already; I offer these in this blog post in the spirit of my own
interests, which tends to want to imbue the home with liturgical touches, as well as my own
indifference to arts and crafts projects. Today, some thoughts for Palm Sunday:

First, even though it is already past, I thought I would throw it in: last Sunday was Passion Sunday. In
light of the last sentence of the Gospel, recounting that “Jesus hid himself” away, the tradition was to
cover all icons and art works depicting Jesus, His Mother, or the saints, in the church, with purple
cloth—this is a really easy one to do at home, and really helps set the tone for the last weeks of Lent.
Turn pictures and icons to the wall; cover statues and crucifixes with purple cloth. My kids really enjoy
going through the house and covering everything up.

For Palm Sunday: I felt that I wanted to do something liturgical-minded to mark the day. I ran across
this idea in a book, by Maria von Trapp, entitled Around the Year with the von Trapp Family. She
discusses that during her childhood, in Austria, they did not have ready access to palms. So, they
made use of the plants of early spring that were available; she mentions pussy willows and
evergreens in particular. Her family would make several little bouquets out of these plants—one for
the vegetable garden, one for the flower garden, one for each field, as well as many single twigs
placed around the house.Her family would take them to church and get them blessed with holy water,
carry them home in a procession, and then take them around the property as a blessing on the home,
while saying the rosary.

Now, we can’t do that exactly, as we can’t get the bouquets blessed in church right now, but I thought,
to adapt the practice, we could find available plants here, in Kentucky, as Maria did in Austria; bless
them with holy water—many of us have our own holy water, blessed and brought from church; and
then go as a family around our homes, saying the rosary, or singing alleluia, while placing them
around our living areas, which are in deep need of blessing as they serve as our refuge and
protection from sickness. So we have our own Palm Sunday procession!

I am including here as well a couple of links: 

Sarah Wilson sent along a link for a very cute Palm Sunday craft project as well as a coloring page.

Mike Allen shared a pamphlet from Liturgical Press with some prayers and rituals for the home for
Holy Week.

Coming shortly: ideas for the rest of Holy Week.

No Vacation, No Zoo, No Museums!! Spring Break During Quarantine

It's been 2 weeks since schools have closed (for most of us in the Lexington area). Many business have closed down as well. Many of you have been juggling working from home while also managing your children's school work. Finally, you have a break this week!!

Or is it really a break?

Most of the schools in our area will be on spring break this week. So, no more school work, for at least a little while. But those vacation plans have most likely been cancelled. The Zoo is closed, all museums are closed, no gym time or trampoline parks, no library programs ...

So what is one to do??

Here are a few suggestions our Homeschool Association members have put together:

First and foremost, all kids need free play. All the activities listed here are great activities, but don't neglect free play. And don't forget, too, that it's okay to be bored. Kids get creative when they have free time with no activities. It's good for the brain too. 

It's finally starting to feel like spring (hopefully it'll stay that way), so don't forget to get out and take a walk. You can check nearby nature centers or parks, but those might not be a good idea at the moment, plus many may be closed. Take a walk in your neighborhood. Even if you are working from home, the break will do you good. Many neighborhoods are also doing Bear Hunts. Check your Nextdoor app/site to see if one is happening in your area. 

Speaking of good weather, get the whole family involved in washing the car. Or wash the dog, or really any outdoor activity that everyone can work on together. We may be washing our cars this week and starting our garden.

While the weather is good, encourage your kids to play outside. They may need to stay in your yard and not play with neighborhood friends, but they can still kick a soccer ball around or play catch or use their imagination with whatever is on hand. This goes back to the free play idea, let them dig in the dirt, run laps around the house, play with the hose or water balloons, or set up a tent outside. Try to stay away from screens as much as possible.

We've had so much rain this winter that it's a good bet we'll have some rainy days this week. So while you're indoors, have kids draw pictures and write notes/letters to nursing home residents. You don't have to know them, but most of them are not getting visitors and some sweet pictures or letters from kids would help lift their spirits. 

Try some art projects! We have some art projects listed in our post on Growing Creative Brains, and you can find many more on Pinterest or YouTube. Maybe you want to finally learn to knit or crochet, or sew. Dust off those needles and find a YouTube video to help you out. 

Related to the above, check out this fun website: Little Bins for Little Hands. This website is chock full of fun activities involving slime, Legos, slime, tons of STEM activities, and did I mention slime? Kids can have lots of fun with these projects. There are also several Easter related projects on the site.

Build a fort! This is not just for the kids. Get in there with them, grab some pillows and blankets and have fun. When it's all done, get some flashlights and books and have your own story time in the fort. Even older kids will have fun with this if mom and dad are involved too. 

Plan a scavenger hunt (either indoors or outdoors or both). Keep it close to home. Just do a Google search for "at home scavenger hunt" and you'll get a plethora of ideas to choose from. It could keep the kids busy for hours while you get some work done. 

Have Tea Time one afternoon. Seriously. I tried this one summer with my boys. We did it once a week and they loved it. They didn't like tea but I would get pink lemonade just for tea time and they would drink it from tea cups. We would use the opportunity to find new treats or bake something new. When we last did this each kid got a week to help me and they got to choose the snack. Our snacks included things like:

• Cheese and fruit (sometimes on kabob sticks)
• Microwave s'mores (microwave a few squares of chocolate on half a graham cracker for just a few seconds, spread marshmallow cream on the other half and put together when the chocolate is a bit melted. Don't microwave the marshmallow cream.)
• Smiles: Apple slices with almond butter (or peanut butter or whatever your nut/seed butter of choice is) and mini-marshmallows. The nut butter is just to stick things together, apple slices are the "lips," the marshmallows are the "teeth."
• Bake something like a quick bread, cookies, brownies, etc. Most important, get the kids involved.
• Buy the little brownie bites that have the indention in the top. Top with jam or whipped cream or anything else that sounds good. Easy and no baking on your part required. 

Get some exercise!! Try some new exercise videos, check out things on YouTube, get the kids involved too. Ask around, some exercise videos that were behind pay walls may currently be open for anyone to use during the quarantine period.

Don't forget about maintaining skills. I often treat spring break at home similar to summer break. My kids still have some things they have to do even when not in school. Nothing that takes a super long time, but all things that will help them to not forget too much over the course of a week. So my 3rd graders will be required to do math and Latin flashcards each day, practice piano, read for 30 minutes, and do a catechism lesson (mostly because we have gotten behind in that one subject so we're trying to catch up). My Kindergarten kid will do his math flashcards and maybe read a book with me each day. 

Finally, don't neglect the spiritual. Watch Mass, the Rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, and much more. I know many churches and religious organizations are streaming these things. Some go up on YouTube so you can watch whenever you like. No matter how you fill your days, be sure your kids know how important it is that we continue to pray and participate in the Mass as much as is possible in the circumstances find ourselves. And FYI, I am planning a post with more spiritual enrichment ideas.

There are so many fun things you can do right in your own home. Many of the suggestions in our previous posts can also be used during this break from school. Allow your kids some free play time, take breaks from your work to enjoy some fun with them, and maybe plan one extra activity a day. We are often so busy running from activity to activity and juggling 3 or 4 or 8 schedules, that we should use this time to enjoy some simple activities with our kids.

It's a great week for making memories. 

Free Homeschool Resources For ALL Families

If your children attend public or private school you may not be aware how homeschoolers put together their curriculum for use at home. For many of us, we purchase a curriculum from one of many (MANY!!) homeschooling publishers. Some of us will pick and choose from a variety of these curricula and assemble something that works for our family. A few of us use online schools or even part-time schools right here in Lexington. There is a plethora of ways to go about it.

Some of the homeschool publishers are currently offering some free resources for all families during this time of quarantine.

The first one is from the Charlotte Mason Institute. They are a Christian-based program and for 30-days they are offering free activities on their blog. You can participate in these #ChoosingBeauty activities simply by going to the blog and starting with their Day 1 post. Of course, you don't have to do Day 1 to see the others, all are available on the blog. Look over what they have and choose ones you think you and your kids will enjoy. Then you can post pictures on social media and use the hashtag #ChoosingBeauty. I'm told you can even search that hashtag on Facebook (maybe other social media sites as well) and see what others are doing, too.

Another publisher is one I had mentioned in a previous post, Memoria Press. Memoria Press publishes lots of homeschool materials, they are also Christian based, and located in Kentucky. In addition to the materials they offer they also have an Online Academy for grades 3-12, so homeschool students can take classes online with expert teachers. Through their online academy they are offering some free classes.

Memoria Press had two literature classes that filled up already, but they are offering two other classes as self-paced. The first one is their beginning Latin course, Latina Christiana for grades 3-7. The second is their Traditional Logic I course for grades 8-12. For both classes you do need to purchase the books needed, although they are making the first week materials available by PDF to allow time for the books to ship to you.

Homeschoolers also have conferences!! Lots of them. And some are online! This week there was a conference (today is the last day) called Homebound. It's a free online conference. You need to register if you want to get in on this last day, but it is free. However, if you scroll down the page linked above, you can see the schedule and further down there are descriptions of the various daily offerings with links to the replays. I clicked on one and as far as I can tell you can watch the replays without registering. Since this is the last day it may not be worth registering now. There are talks for parents, storytelling/read-alouds for kids, and much more.

Does your child need some extra help in math? Why not try Teaching Textbooks? It's a math curriculum that many homeschool families use. You can go in and get 15 free lessons and the free trial doesn't expire. Never hurts to try it out and you can use it just as a supplement to help a struggling student.

Another resource any homeschool families use is the Institute for Excellence in Writing. Currently they are offering 3 free months of Teaching Writing: Structure and Style Premium Membership. This could be a great resource for supplementing what your student is already doing or to help a student who struggles in this area.

These are just some of the free resources available. I'm sure there are many, many more. If you're thinking of homeschooling in the future there is even a free Charlotte Mason-based Catholic curriculum called Mater Amabilis. Some even offer a subject free for a year or other incentives.

I hope some of these resources can be helpful to you. If you are one of the many parents who suddenly have your children home and you're managing their schoolwork for the first time, let us know in the comments if you have found anything helpful here or in any of our previous posts. We'd love to hear from you!

Grow Creative Brains with Arts, Culture, and Crafts

There is no shortage of places to go to find crafts for kids. Pinterest, anyone?? You can easily search there and find tons of things to do, from uber complicated to pretty simple. But it's also incredibly easy to get lost and overwhelmed by the plethora of posts. And really, how many of them are educational also? Some, yes, but many will just create more arts and crafts to clutter your home.

Kids like crafts though and we should still be giving them creative outlets during this time of quarantine. So let them do crafts with whatever you can find around the house. But let's also find some other ways to feed that creativity. Keep reading for some links to crafts.

In the meantime ...

Let's explore arts and culture!! The art teacher at my kids' school sent a link to Google's Arts & Culture site. WOW!! There are so many things to look at here. View art work and read about it while focusing in on details and learning about the artist too. I see Klimt, Van Gogh, Monet, and tons of other artists featured. You can also look at architecture (it uses Google's street view). I just looked at the London Bridge and the Milan Cathedral. There is so much more including videos, museum exhibits, virtual tours, facts about dinosaurs, the universe, etc. Definitely check it out and explore the diversity of art and culture in our world.

Want more art in the most Catholic location in the world? Check out the virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel available at the Vatican Museum website. After checking out the Sistine Chapel, click on the word Museums in the "crumb trail" above the window where you viewed the chapel. You'll be taken to a list of the various rooms and galleries. You can explore tons art work, some areas have virtual tours, some video, and some just links to follow to view parts of the rooms or the various pieces of art. Lots to explore!

The Louvre in Paris also has several virtual tours of their museum up. I discovered after exploring the ancient Egyptian exhibit that if you mouse over the various art and display cases you sometimes see an little "i" in a circle, click on it, and more information comes up about that particular pieces. It was very cool! The Egyptian exhibit was neat and there is a tour of the remains of the moats under the museum (it was once a castle).

All across the world museums are closed and are making virtual tours available. If you find a neat one, share it with us in the comments on this post. Whatever your kid may be studying in history, or art, or music, or almost any other subject, you can likely find a museum that has something available to help make that subject come to life for your child.

And now for the crafts!!

You may be familiar with Joann's Fabrics, a craft store around the country, including in Lexington. They are offering a variety of "craft at home" videos on their YouTube page that are worth checking out. According to the email I received from them recently you can order online and get things delivered right to your home. They also mentioned curb-side pick up but you may need to call to ask if that's an option in our area.

One of our homeschool members sent me a link to a website called I heart naptime. In addition to lots of food recipes, she has a section on Kids Crafts. Many are easy to do right in your home, hopefully with materials you have on hand. Several are also seasonal, but there is a wide variety of options. One I think looks pretty cool is this paper feather garland.

If you really want to get ambitious, Memoria Press (a Kentucky based company) has several art and craft items for sale on their website. I have the Junior Kindergarten Book of Crafts and used it a lot with the local co-op here last year. All the crafts in that book either go along with one of the read-aloud books for that age group or with a letter of the alphabet. There are several options for older students as well. Take a look at their Art, Music, & Enrichment section for all their offerings.

All the information here can keep you busy for months if not years. Explore museums, architecture, special exhibits, tour the Sistine Chapel, and try some crafts at home. Take a break from math and reading to be creative!!

Homeschooling During the Coronavirus

Homeschool families are used to having some flexibility in their day. If you get a nice day after several rainy days you may take the afternoon to go for a long walk and maybe add some nature study along the way. The school work can be done another day. Homeschooling hours do not necessarily line up with "traditional" school hours, especially if the parent responsible for the bulk of the homeschooling also works part- or full-time.

Currently we are in an interesting situation. With most of us stuck at home (including our peers with kids in traditional schools) we are all looking for ways to not go stir crazy between school work and regular household duties. (Still, go out for those walks on those nice days, it's good for you!)

I hope to create a series of posts here on the blog to share some ideas from our St. Joseph Homeschool Association members to help all of us through these interesting times. We hope these ideas will benefit not just homeschoolers but also our family and friends who suddenly have kids at home 24/7, juggling their own work commitments and the kids' schoolwork while possibly having a toddler or baby to care for too. 

As a quick start to this series, one of our members sent a couple good suggestions to me about keeping a routine. Whatever routine you may have had in the past might not be working now under these new circumstances. If it is, great!! If not, time to establish one. 

Our member's suggestion was to keep a steady routine. Make sure everyone gets up and dressed, and has breakfast at a regular time. Start your school work, take regular breaks (especially if you have little ones) for play, relaxation, etc. Breaks help reset the mind, which is good for all of us. If you also have work to do yourself, set a routine that works with your children's school work. Can you work alongside them as they do their work? Or maybe you need to only work when they have breaks? Come up with a plan and then stick to it. 

I hope you'll come back to our blog and check out more of our posts. We hope these posts will help those of you who are home with your children and managing their school work for the first time. If you have questions or things you think we can address, please add a comment and we'll try and answer it through one of our posts. 

In the meantime, I found this article on CatholicMom that I thought would interest our readers as well: Are You Suddenly a Stay-at-Home Mom?