Dr. Pat's Orthodox Super Sunday School Curriculum

EPISTLES, FEASTS, AND SACRAMENTS 

PARENTS’ GUIDE

            Each year we send home a parents’ guide to help you continue your children’s Christian education at home and to reinforce what is being taught in Church School.  This gives each family with small children some ideas for exciting activities for you and your children to enjoy together; it is not meant to be comprehensive or exclusive. Use your creativity! If you know the topic of the week, you can also think up some wonderful ways to “bring it home” from Church. This can start as simply as reviewing the lesson of the week (Can the children tell you the story?) in the car on the way home from Church and continue through the week in your daily devotions and prayers. This year it will be especially important to hold things together since it is our “catch-all” year with each of the major feasts (taught right before the feast), the epistles, and the sacraments. On “feast weeks” focus on celebrating the up-coming feast, on “epistle weeks” on the stories of the author and on memorizing the verse, and on “sacrament weeks” on role-playing the order of the service and on their own baptism, chrismation, etc.

             It is very important even for the very young child to have daily prayers (Do you have a family icon corner? What about setting up one in his room?) and Bible (or Bible story) reading, maybe right after dinner or at bedtime. Your “home altar” could include icons (Jesus, Mary, family saints?), incense, candles, Bible, a jar of holy water, matches or lighter, prayer book. How about tablecloths or placemats or a piece of fabric or felt of the Liturgical colors to switch out seasonally. And, of course, include displays of specific artwork done by your child during the year for specific feasts and saints.

            Do you say grace after each meal? Each day they can practice crossing themselves, lighting candles, burning incense, etc. And on Saturday night, in preparation for Liturgy the next day, what about a time of private confession to the Lord? You could even “pray the hours” on days when you are home: 7 AM (First Hour) thanking God for His light, 9 AM (3^rd Hour) thanking Him for His Holy Spirit, 12 Noon (6^th Hour) thanking Him for His crucifixion, and 3 PM (9^th Hour) praying with the wise thief, “Remember me, O Lord, in thy Kingdom.” Very little time spent, but a habit begun.

            There will be some memory work for the year. During the Epistle lessons, any student memorizing his verse for the week and reciting it during opening exercises the next week will get a prize; ages 3-7 have the same verse, ages 9-middle school a different verse. The verses appear below so you can work on them at home or in the car, my own favorite memorization time. There is a word puzzle for each of the memory verses for the 8-10 class. There will also be two big memorization projects for the students. In September we will work on the books of the New Testament with the older children; for younger children, let them just know the names of the authors: St. Paul, St. Peter, St. James, St. John, and St. Jude. Then, in January, we will try to learn the names (and for older children, dates) of the 12 (actually 13, if you count Pascha, which is the Feast of Feasts) Major Feasts. These will be recited when ready during opening exercises and prizes given.  This would be great memory work to do in the car on the way to Liturgy! Here's a bookmark with the memory work for easy review, just print and use. 

            Now, on to suggestions for particular weeks. Note that in the back of the booklet are a coloring or activity page for each lesson; in fact, by the end of the year, your child can have colored an entire set of icons for the major feasts.

MASTER SCHEDULE 2008-2009: Type in the dates for your current year!