Martinmas

Today is the feast of St. Martin of Tours. In my religious education class on Sunday we read a little story of St. Martin. We made candles and played a game about Random Acts of Kindness to earn dimes. After earning the money we took our candles and our money and processed to the church to put our money in the poor box to remember that St. Martin was full of charity for others.

Martin was a Roman soldier but was more interested in Christ than soldiering. While a soldier he came upon a beggar who was cold due to lack of clothing. Martin was filled with compassion and cut his cloak in two with his sword. He gave half to the beggar. In keeping half he was able to continue to fulfill his duties as a soldier. That night he drempt that he saw Jesus wearing the half cloak. Jesus told him that in clothing the beggar, he clothed Christ. Martin went on to become a monk and was eventually the Bishop of Tours. Read more about it here.

The one thing I really miss about homeschooling is the extra religion we were able to learn. I still try to incorporate that learning into our lives in whatever way possible. Today we had pancakes for supper (something that will definitely be memorable to my boys) because I read that sometimes children celebrate St. Martin's day by having a lantern walk followed by a pancake supper at the church. We ate by lantern light and during dinner I told the story of St. Martin.

Our lives are so full of work and school that I often wonder how we ever get anything else accomplished. I see so many wonderful fruits from this labor of work and school that I know we're on the right path. I just have to work a little harder to get everything in. I guess the saints of old didn't have it so easy so I shouldn't complain.

On another note, for quite some time I've felt the call to become a teacher. Specifically a special education teacher. More specifically, a special education teacher in the Catholic schools. This first hit when I was homeschooling the boys. The Catholic schools in our county do not really accommodate children with learning differences. Our son was not able to attend a Catholic school due to his disability. God put such a burden on my heart to find a way to change this. At that time I looked into getting my Special Ed. certification. The price of going back to school was just overwhelming. I figured there would not be a way for me to do it. I put the idea away. I should know that God works in His own time. We knew it was time for the boys to go back to school. We did our research, we visited, we enrolled the boys in a local Mennonite school. I got a job. My job will reimburse college tuition. The organization I work for has partnered with a local university for those with a college degree to get their teaching certification. I live within walking distance from the location of these classes.

So what do you think??? An answer to prayer? I am still very nervous about this. I work from the moment I get home from work till the moment the kids go to bed on the boys' homework many nights of the week. In between writing this blog entry I was quizzing Nathan on his Bible memory. The idea of beginning my homework at 9:30pm is daunting for me. Well, I've got my enrollment application filled in. I plan on asking two colleagues for references tomorrow. I have my transcript letter ready to mail. I'm just going to do it.

Pray for me!

Story Folders

I've been working away like crazy to get myself organized and prepared for my Religious Education class. I don't really have a curriculum to follow but am using lots of different ideas. Since the children in this class have difficulty learning in a typical environment, I am trying to come up with teaching tools that are more visual than would typically be used in a regular religious ed classroom. Knowing that Autistic children are generally very visual, I wanted to give them something to help learn/retain the stories we will be discussing. I will be starting the class with Bible Stories, stories of the saints, the sacraments and the Church. One of the things I've been making have been what I'm calling Story Folders.First I labeled a file folder using stickers. I then had it laminated and put two rows of Velcro across the folder.I then printed out a mini book that I found online and had it laminated as well. I just cut the mini book into rectangles and attached Velcro to the back of each piece. Now each child will have a visual way to practice telling the story of the week. I will send each story home with the child but also keep copies in the classroom for review. This particular mini book about Creation can be found here. There are lots of good ideas on this site. I have also started making my own story cards for the story folder. I'll share some of them as I have a chance.

Mini Prayer Table

Next Sunday I will begin teaching a Religious Education class for children who are unable to attend the regular class for some reason. At this time I have a child with Autism and a child with Down Syndrome registered. They are in 3rd and 4th grades. I am working on ways to make the class very visual. I'm not exactly clear on their learning levels or what will work best with them so I'm sure I'll be tweaking my teaching over the next few months as I figure it out. To teach the liturgical year I think it is best to incorporate it into their weekly lesson and schedule. I made each child a miniature prayer table to use each week as we say our opening prayer.
This is a photo box. I was glad to find plain boxes as I didn't want the decorations to distract from the purpose of the box. I wanted a box so that we could store all of the items for the table inside from week to week.
Inside the box for the first week are liturgical cloths. The only color I don't have is rose. Since we don't need it until December I didn't stress over it. I also included a picture of the Good Shepherd and a battery operated votive candle. Here it is all set up. The votive candle actually flickers like a flame. How cool is that? I wanted little statues of the Good Shepherd but couldn't find any that were inexpensive. This actually works well. The picture is taken from The Teacher's Helper book of clip art. I love this art so much and use it often. I may add a picture of an angel to the box as we will be learning the Angel of God prayer the first month.

To begin we will be working our way through the Old Testament stories. We will start with Creation, Sin Enters the World, Abraham, Sarah and Isaac, Jacob, Moses, etc. I will begin the Life of Jesus when it makes sense: During Advent and Christmas. I like to teach about the Church and the Sacraments by combining them with stories from the Bible. I think it makes more sense for the kiddos. I'm going to post some of my ideas here this week and some of the great sites I found to be a record of what I'm doing and also in case anyone else wants to use these ideas.