Catholic Mass Listening Pages — Novus Ordo and Traditional Latin Mass

jen + | 21 May 2013 | No comments

Catholic-Listening-Pages copy

For my CatholicMom.com post today, I shared about how to keep children in the sanctuary during mass with a post titled: Keeping Your Children in Mass – A How To Guide From Birth to Age 5. In connection with that, I wanted to share these Catholic Mass worksheets (or listening pages) for ages 4-7. There is a set for both the regular (Novus Ordo) Mass and the Traditional Latin Mass. Each set includes a page to be used during each liturgical season.

Click on the image or the the text link to download the Novus Ordo Listening Pages.

Click on the image or the text link to download the Traditional Latin Mass Listening Pages.

Enjoy!

Jen S.

Category: 01 - God, 04 - Parent | Tags: Me...elsewhere!, Printables

Fostering Independence {Prepping For Baby}

jen + | 20 May 2013 | No comments

prepping-for-baby copy

This whole mothering thing is pretty funny. To be good at it, you have to have things under control yourself. It’s pretty hard to be a model of something you can’t, won’t or don’t do. One thing we have managed to be pretty good at is fostering independence in our kids. Once they are old enough to do something, they are expected to do it for themselves, however imperfectly that may be. While we’ve been preparing for the arrival of baby number 3, we’ve been examining the following areas to see if there have been any areas we’ve been lax on enforcing independence in.

Self-Feeding

Now if you have children just learning to eat and use utensils, this has no use for you. But our oldest is 2-1/2. Plenty old enough to feed herself, provided we cut things up for her. Are you spending time feeding, coercing or otherwise spending too much time dorking around at mealtimes? Is that something that you would like to continue doing with a newborn or is it not worth the energy at this point?

Dressing

With our first, we didn’t have to teach her how to dress at all. She knew where her clothes were and we had to get her a new dresser at age two. She would parade around like a runway diva with a new outfit every 30 minutes! My second, we were pretty lazy about making her get dressed. We have been working diligently on teaching her the tricks of getting dressed — where to grab your shirt to put it on, how to put on pants, how to pull OFF pants, where the tags go, etc. Is this something you need to make a point of helping and guiding?

Chores

Even my 2-1/2 year old has “chores.” I’m not great at enforcing chores on a regular basis, but the kids have grown used to mom calling in the troops to help pick up the house — we consider it part of being a family. Everyone helps each other, even if YOU didn’t make the mess.

My two year old can help empty the dishwasher & even put silverware away with a stool handy. She can set the table (one plate at a time). And she can help bring books & toys to their proper homes and help put them away (with MUCH guidance).

My 5 year old has “real” chores. It is her job to put her own clothes in her dresser drawer and closet. She also has to sort and pair up EVERYONE’s socks (not just hers). She mops the bathroom floors on bathroom day. Her job is to put the books on the shelf (even though her sister gets them out 80% of the time) and pick up her arts & crafts messes daily before meals. Sometimes, I have her clean the table, too, since she is most likely to complain about a smidge of food droppings at her spot .

So is there something that your child can do to help out the household, herself or others in it? You can find some awesome chore charts on Pinterest. My favorites suggestion lists, arranged by approximate age is from The Happy Housewife. It lives on my fridge to remind me what they are probably capable of .

Next week, I will address the most helpful piece of fostering independence in it’s own post — Eating!

This post is part of the Prepping for Baby Series — check out the full list of posts!

Jen S.

Category: 04 - Parent | Tags: baby, Prepping for Baby

Sylvan-Dell Spring Science Books {Review}

jen + | 17 May 2013 | No comments

Amazon.com Widgets

Last Fall, I was lucky enough to review my first set of Sylvan-Dell science titles. I reviewed each book individually in two separate posts. This time I decided to do it a little differently. For spring, Sylvan-Dell sent me the 7 new books they published (also seen in the widget above):

The girls descended upon the pile of new books like they were starved and hadn’t eaten in weeks when I brought in steak and ice cream! Nothing like their mom, ahem. Anyway, we quickly sat down to read several of our new selections and my 5 year old had the following opinions:

Which book was your favorite?

The Deductive Detective.

Why?

It has all the different animals in it. And I like the numbers. Oh! And the kangaroo says “My joey is all doughy.” That’s funny!

Mom’s note — the book contains several animals being accused of doing something and every time an animal is eliminated, they do a math problem. i.e. — 10 suspects – 1 kangaroo = 9 suspects.

What other books did you like?

I liked Shark Baby and Balloon Trees, too.

Overall, my kids tend to like the illustrated ones better than the ones with the photographs. Hubby wasn’t a fan of Balloon Trees, because as far as he is concerned, they don’t get rubber from rubber trees anymore and the whole thing is silly. Everyone is a critic, right?

I really liked the concept of The Deductive Detective. I, frankly, don’t have great logic skills and so I liked the idea of my kids being introduced to it early. I also like the On the Move: Mass Migrations. The Nature Recycles – How About You? book irritated me a little bit. I’m not sure that the animals were recycling per se, and the “critter x recycles, do you?” was irritating. On the flip side, it was interesting to learn the symbiotic relationship that animals have with each other.

If you are in the market for some cute science books that have additional downloadable activities (like this set for Mass Migrations), the Sylvan-Dell science books are a great resource! They are meant for elementary aged children and some are more detailed than others, but all have great expansion activities for ANY subject, not just science.

Jen S.

Category: 04 - Parent, Homeschool | Tags: Elementary, Homeschool, Science

Mother-Daughter Banquets: A Reflection {Me…elsewhere}

jen + | 15 May 2013 | No comments

Last week, I shared a reflection on Mother-Daughter Banquets at Catholic Mothers Online.

This year is kind of a sad one for me; it’s the first year since my daughters were born that I probably won’t be attending the annual Mother-Daughter Banquet with my grandmother in the town where I grew up. I am due to have a new baby next month and driving 3 hours and chasing around my 5 and (especially the) 2 year old and then trying to get them to settle down for bed in a strange place just sounds like too much for me this year.

Check out the full post over at CatholicMothersOnline.com.

Jen S.

Category: 02 - Self, 04 - Parent | Tags: Me...elsewhere!

Make Your Big Changes Early {Prepping for Baby}

jen + | 14 May 2013 | No comments

prepping-for-baby copy

When I was pregnant the first time, I kept hearing other mom’s say to get any big changes done well before baby comes. At the time I didn’t understand it. Now, though, I get it. When I had my second child it completely rocked my first-born’s world and she became different for several months afterward. While I don’t expect that the second will be completely unscathed, I do expect her to make some adjustments.

There are a few changes I considered when determining how ready we were for baby #3.

Weaning

The first, and most obvious for us, was whether any weaning “needed” to be done. With our first, we just kind of let things happen. With our second, it was obvious to me that night weaning needed to happen, just for sanity’s sake. Later, we needed to totally wean for the sake of my health. I just couldn’t keep up with feeding all 3 of us.

Consider these questions. Are you healthy enough to feed all 3 of you? Are you open to tandem nursing (nursing both the newborn and the older child)? Do you need to wean, if just to keep your sanity?

Sleeping Arrangements

Are there any sleeping arrangements that need to be changed to welcome a new member of the family? Our youngest was sleeping in her own bed, but I was still sleeping with her (and nursing) most nights. First, we needed to get her to sleep without nursing. Then, we moved her to her sister’s bedroom, but still snuggled her to sleep. Then, we had to transition her to falling asleep by herself. It took most of the pregnancy to accomplish those three things. Now we have to get her to do all that in her sister’s room .

So do you need to make sleeping arrangement changes? Does someone need to graduate to a toddler or twin bed? Sleep with a sibling? Move to another room? Do they need a change in process or person who puts them to bed?

Potty Training

Many mom’s have told me not to bother with this one because they may regress and end up back in diapers. We haven’t had this experience. I’m not sure if it’s because we don’t push it or what, but my oldest daughter was wet/dry potty trained for at least a month or two before my 2nd was born. The poop? Well, she finally decided to do that about a week or two after the birth. As for the second, we haven’t even tried that yet. I think we are going to try soon and hopefully the weather will cooperate with commando-style PT, but we will see.

Either way, it’s something to consider. Do you want to be diapering two children? Is the older one old enough to get it? Can you afford it? Should you switch to cloth if the thought of disposables for two makes you swoon (in a bad way)?

Attention

The last thing to consider is whether or not the other child(ren) need to get used to spending time with others — like daddy, or a grandparent or a sitter. My oldest was a daddy’s girl through and through so I didn’t really consider this for her. My youngest, though, is a mama’s girl so we’ve been sending her out to spend more time with daddy so she gets used to it. Grandma & grandpa have returned from Florida and she will be spending some time out there, too, with her sister.

So. Do you need to get your child(ren) used to other caregivers? Who? How will they be helping? Can they help now or are they just coming for a short time?

This post is part of the Prepping for Baby Series — check out the full list of posts!

What do you do to prepare your children for the birth of a sibling?

Jen S.