The Big Book of Catholic Customs and Traditions for Children’s Faith Formation is the best all encompassing book of Children’s Liturgical activities I have seen to date. Published by Our Sunday Visitor, it goes through the whole liturgical calendar, providing not only a summary of each month as far as dedication for the month, liturgical colors (useful if you have a home altar) and major saint feast days, but activities, recipes, craft projects, and stories and discussion starters, as well!
While going through the liturgical year, it also includes many everyday activities that are excellent for making sure that you aren’t missing teaching your littles some of the basics. There are some reproducible pages (though not many). One of the things that I like best about this book is that it includes several secular holidays BUT it always approaches them from a Catholic viewpoint. Things like Thanksgiving, Mother’s & Father’s Day, and Memorial Day all have a tie in to Catholicism have scriptures verses and family or God centered discussions and activities to go with them. It’s a very lovely way to ensure that you are not completely isolated from the world, but that you are not OF the world, either.
I think that if you are homeschooling, this would be a great starting place for some activities for preschoolers. I would also recommend this book if your children go to a public school. From what I remember, CCD does a lot of preparation for the sacraments. This would be a good way to ensure that your children realize that their faith is not something that happens on Sunday, but is a lifestyle that your family lives. I haven’t found anything contrary to the faith in this book, but in some of the secular activities, the Catholic connection is limited. Like any resource, you should use what works for your family and ignore that which doesn’t. I highly recommend this book as I believe that you will find much more that will help enrich the faith of your family than not.
I wrote this review of The Big Book Of Catholic Customs And Traditions For Children’s Faith Formation for the Tiber River Blogger Review program, created by Aquinas and More Catholic Goods, the largest Catholic store online. For more information and to purchase, please visit Aquinas and More Catholic Goods.
