7 Quick Takes on the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter

— 1 —

It's a Friday during Lent and we gave up sweets, which means we didn't make any special treats for today's Feast of the Chair of St. Peter. However, that doesn't mean we haven't done anything special for this feast day, during this very significant time for our Holy Mother Church as we wonder who will be sitting in the "Chair of St. Peter" soon. So, I thought today would be the perfect day to begin our Papal Unit Study!

— 2 —

Here is a sneak peek at the Lap Book I'm creating for my children to complete and assemble!

Yep, this is what I've been working on all afternoon, instead of exercising or working on my next Catholic Digest submission...  What? Me procrastinate?!  Never! ;)  

— 3 —

I'm so excited with how it's turning out! Isn't the cover perfect? I made a sample for the kids, and will let them each create their own. I used a yellow file folder and a piece of white card stock to create the base, and then attached the Vatican flag in the shape of the country! (Did you know that Vatican City is really a country?) I glued just the yellow of the flag to the yellow file folder, overlapping the rest onto the white. I haven't figured out how many additional flaps it will need, since I am still creating the mini-books, so I'll just add those later.

— 4 —

I'm even more excited about the St. Peter's Basilica Pop-up Book! (It was inspired by the Erie Canal Mini-Book from the boys Early 19th Century Lap Book, and I was so thrilled to figure out how to make it work for St. Peter's!) You can see my rough draft in the picture above along with the final printed version. The kids will be able to color the basilica and the background (the sky) before assembling it and adding their description.

— 5 —

I've displayed some of our "Pope" themed picture books which we will be reading over the next few weeks beginning with St. Peter's Story and Saint Peter the Apostle today. I'll be sure to include a list of all our books when I post the Lap Book (if anyone is interested in using it too?) but in the meantime I have them listed in the sidebar. In addition to reading lots of great books, I'm drawing from My Catholic Faith and some online websites (like this one - thanks, Charlotte, for the link!)

— 6 —

We broke out these fun books too!  My boys loved reading them and I thought they (or at least the first one) might make a fun read aloud over the next couple weeks.   You can find them here:   Lost in Peter's Tomb, Break-In at the Basilica, Curse of the Coins, and Secrets of Siena.   My boys originally received these in their Easter baskets, if I remember correctly...

— 7 —

As for me... I'm currently reading, and loving, Lent with Pope Benedict XVI a little bit each day.

“Let it not be said, or thought, that this ministry of Peter finishes with his life on earth. That which is given as the support of a Church which is to last forever, can never be taken away. Peter will live in his successors; Peter will speak, in his Chair, to the end of time.”  ~ Jacques Bossuet

For additional Quick Takes visit Conversion Diary. Thanks for hosting Jen! 

{pretty, happy, funny, real} :: Lenten Days

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life. ~

{pretty}

Beautiful Lenten Calendars, pretty Metallic Colored Pencils, 

and the beginning of the girl's Lent Lap Books... 

(I'm still working on our usual wall calendar... I'm running a little behind this year. Anyone else?) 

{happy}

I'm very happy that, despite Lent starting (way too) early this year, it is finally starting to look like the Lenten season in our home.  The children have changed the vestments to purple in the school room, and our Jesus Tree is hanging on the wall.   

{funny}

I always feel funny when I take a self-portrait of just myself, unless I'm pregnant, or have one of my other children in the picture too.  An even funnier sight, however, was me stumbling out of the Church after the Deacon put the Ashes on my forehead.  He pretty much showered me in them, filling my eyes and then leaving a long black streak across my face while he was trying to wipe them off.  As the altar girls began giggling he apologized.  Haven't had that happen before!  Through the ashes I was still able to find my way to the restroom to wash out my eyes and dust off my nose and cheeks before returning to Mass.   I should have taken a picture of that!

{real}

I love my helpers!  The big kids are taking turns reading the little ones the bible stories each day before they hang the ornaments on our Jesus Tree.

 

 

As much as "we" try to read a story a day, there are still some days that we need to do a little "catching up" and read two stories (or more).  This actually ends up being a good thing, since each of the little ones gets to hang their own ornament! ;) 

Visit Like Mother, Like Daughter for more pictures of contentment.

The Early 19th Century Unit Study and Lap Book

The next topic in our series of six Unit Studies for American History (plus the Presidential Election Unit Study and we also plan to end with an additional unit on World War II) is based on The Early 19th Century.  I seem to be on a roll this week blogging about some of our (somewhat) recent history and geography studies, so I thought now would be as good a time as any to add this post too!  :)   The boys started this Unit last spring and finished it up in the Fall (while working on their Election Study linked above) before moving on to The Civil War which they are currently completing.

Here is the link to the CD that contains all the printable mini-books that we used for our Lap Book!

Resources and Books for Unit Four: 
(you can print our Unit Four Plans/Booklist here)

Core Text 

• From Sea to Shining Sea (Chapters 10-15)
• From Sea to Shining Sea Worksheets

Additional Books read by the Boys:

• American Slave, American Hero: York of the Lewis And Clark Expedition
• American Tall Tales - Jim Weiss Audio
• Bound for Oregon
• Brave Buffalo Fighter
• By the Great Horn Spoon!
• Daniel Boone: Young Hunter and Tracker (Childhood of Famous Americans)
• Davy Crockett: Young Rifleman (Childhood of Famous Americans Series)
• How We Crossed The West: The Adventures Of Lewis And Clark
• If You Lived With The Sioux Indians
• If You Traveled West In A Covered Wagon
• Lewis and Clark: Explorers of the American West
• On to Oregon! (or watch Seven Alone)
• Riding the Pony Express
• Sacagawea: American Pathfinder (Childhood Of Famous Americans)

Dover Coloring books:

• Daniel Boone Coloring Book (Dover Coloring Books)
• The Lewis and Clark Expedition Coloring Book
• The Story of the Alamo (Dover Pictorial Archives)
• The Story of the California Gold Rush Coloring Book

View our complete booklist here.

Timeline Entries:

• 1734-1820 Daniel Boone
• 1774-1821 St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
• c. 1787-1812 Sacagawea
• 1786-1836 Davy Crockett
• 1788 Second Constitutional Convention
• 1791 Bill of Rights
• 1792-1799 The White House (Lap Book) 
• 1804-1806 Lewis and Clark Expedition
• 1812 War of 1812 - at War with Britain (Lap Book) 
• 1817-1825 Erie Canal (Lap Book) 
• 1832-1888 Louisa May Alcott
• 1840s Oregon Trail (Field Trip) 
• Feb 23-Mar 6, 1836 The Alamo
• 1848-1849 The Gold Rush
• 1846-1917 Buffalo Bill
• 1847-1931 Thomas Edison (Lap Book) 
• 1847-1922 Alexander Graham Bell (Lap Book)
• 1860-1861 The Pony Express

I asked the boys to choose a few of the events from the list above to add to their History Through the Ages Record of Time timeline book during this unit.  The listings in bold are the ones that they choose to include this year.  Here are a few pictures:

 

  Timeline Entries by Captain

   Timeline Entries by Rascal 

Additional Activities:

• Morse Code Machine and Alphabet Printable
• Build a Fort out of Lincoln Logs
• Build the White House: LEGO Architecture White House (21006)  (along with Election Study)

 ~ THE EARLY 19TH CENTURY LAP BOOK  ~ 

~ THE FRONT COVER ~

~ INSIDE VIEW #1 ~

The blue center page/flap addition contains the following mini book: 

The Covered Wagon

Behind each flap you will find various items that the pioneers needed during their trip West. 

On the Top Flap: 

The Barbary Pirates

The Famous Duel

Innovations of the Early 19th Century

On the Bottom Flap:

The Erie Canal

The White House

~ INSIDE VIEW #2 ~

Indian Story Bag

The War of 1812

Pocketful of Presidents

The Center of Actual Lap Book Folder contains the Growth of the Nation Map. 

It looks like the boys are still in the process of creating their overlays, using transparency paper, showing "the Growth of the Nation."  I think I need to add this project to one of their upcoming weekly checklists to finish up! 

I'm hoping that they can finally finish up their Civil War study by the end of this month, and then move on to the Industrial Revolution through the Great Depression while we are still working on the 3rd Quarter of our school year which will end in April.  At least we aren't too far off track in our History Studies, despite how difficult it can be to squeeze in these "extra" projects!