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Making Advent Real for Catholic Kids

Make Advent REAL for your Catholic Children this season with these simple, meaningful and totally doable ideas! Engage the minds and hearts of your children and help them see the beauty of Advent while enjoying all that the liturgical season has to offer.

In this video I offer three simple ideas for making Advent REAL for your Children:

1. Embrace the Silence and Darkness of Advent. The best way to do this is to turn the TV and devices off a bit more, turn down the Christmas Music, and use your Advent wreath. Kids love lighting candles!

2. Encourage your children to play with the Nativity Set and imagine what these characters were doing BEFORE Christmas, as many of them were asked to wait, just like we are. Here are a couple of the Nativity Set featured in this video:

Print and Color your Own Set: https://www.catholicsprouts.com…
Make your own felt nativity set: https://www.catholicsprouts.com…
Fisher Price Set: https://amzn.to/2qTEkJL
Melissa and Doug Wooden Set: https://amzn.to/2PGHq2L
Shining Light Dolls Wooden Set: https://shininglightdolls.com/collect…

3. Sing an Advent song each night as a family. Even if singing isn’t your talent, try to sing during Advent. The best song for this purpose, I feel, is “O Come, O Come Emanuel”. Your kids will love hearing you sing, and this song really helps the season become REAL for your children.

I hope this video was helpful!

We also love doing the Jesse Tree during Advent! You can find out more about that Advent Devotional right here: https://youtu.be/891eT7yD8hs

Also, I would love to have you join us at Catholic Sprouts, the DAILY Podcast for kids! Each episode is just 5 minutes long! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm7n…

JOIN US ON FACEBOOK! https://www.facebook.com/groups/21255…

Thanks for being here, and I hope these ideas help you create a beautiful Advent for your Catholic Kids!

https://youtu.be/y90qfj2pEes

Your sister in the small things,

Advent Ideas for Catholic Families

by Nancy Bandzuch · Leave a Comment

Advent can be a fun, beautiful, and meaningful time for Catholic Families. It can be very hard to wait to celebrate Christmas, especially when the rest of the world is already doing just that, but with these simple ideas that ANY Catholic Family can do, your kids will fall in love with Advent and remember it fondly.

I share three basic ideas for celebrating Advent with your family:

1. Set up the Advent Wreath and light it. I also encourage you to share the meaning of the Advent Wreath with your family–the darkness of our sin and the light of God’s grace even while we are surrounded by that darkness.

2. Resist putting up ALL of the Christmas decorating…for as long as you can. This is hard, but if we want to stay in Advent, our homes and hearts need to be aligned. Wait to put up the tree and pull out all of the decorations for as long as you can and instead embrace the quiet and the darkness, key elements that allow us Catholics to wait during Advent.

3. Create a daily prayer routine for your family. Advent is a great time to create a prayer time for your family. I encourage you to set aside time every day and to keep your prayer simple.

A great prayer to use during Advent is the NAMES OF JESUS ADVENT COUNTDOWN. This is a scripture-based countdown that your kids will love. Grab the FREE activity right here: https://pages.convertkit.com/e34aecf6…

The Jesse Tree is also a great daily devotional that you can do with your family! To learn more about the Jesse Tree, watch this video where I answer all of your Catholic Jesse Tree questions! https://youtu.be/891eT7yD8hs

You can also grab the FREE QUICK START GUIDE FOR THE JESSE TREE right here: https://pages.convertkit.com/4b39e2c3…

Also, don’t forget to tune in each day for the Daily, 5 Minute Podcast for Catholic Kids, Catholic Sprouts: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm7n…

JOIN US ON FACEBOOK! https://www.facebook.com/groups/21255…

I’d love to hear what you think of these ideas in the comments!

Have a blessed Advent!

https://youtu.be/x4rDuVq20dI

Your sister in the small things,

The Jesse Tree: Explanation for Catholic Families

by Nancy Bandzuch · 1 Comment

The Jesse Tree is a beautiful Advent Devotional that many Catholic Families use during the season of Advent. But, what is the Jesse Tree…and is there a way to use this devotional that is EASY and MEANINGFUL for Catholic families? I strive to answer both of these questions in this video.

First of all, the Jesse Tree is a walk through the ancestors of Jesus Christ, starting with Adam and ending with Jesus Himself. Each day of Advent is assigned a different character from Jesus’s family tree (the Jesse Tree) and the family will spend time looking at that character through some Bible Verses and a symbol that is often portrayed on an ornament that is hung on the tree.

If you would like to use the Jesse Tree with your Catholic Family this year, I encourage you to download and use the FREE QUICK START GUIDE TO THE JESSE TREE. It lists all of the characters, verses to read for each and a symbol as well. You can grab the guide right here: https://pages.convertkit.com/4b39e2c3… But, many families struggle with the Jesse Tree once they get into weeks two and three of Advent. The characters aren’t very familiar, and the verses can be lonnnnnggg. However, I have discovered, that they REAL point of the Jesse Tree is NOT to memorize all of these characters from the Old Testament.

The point is to get to know GOD THE FATHER so that we are ready to welcome His Son on Christmas, Jesus Christ. JOIN US ON FACEBOOK! https://www.facebook.com/groups/21255… I encourage you to get started with the Jesse Tree and pray that you have a blessed Advent season with your family!

https://youtu.be/891eT7yD8hs

Your sister in the small things,

Advent Coloring Pages

by Nancy Bandzuch · 5 Comments

So, here’s what happened.

It was Halloween. I had just picked the kids up from school and I realized that we had ZERO candy to hand out to trick or treaters, so I made a quick stop at Walmart. I walk in there with all 4 kids and we are amazed to see a huge crane right inside the main door. We stop to look because, who are we to pass up free entertainment? After a moment we realize that the crane and a whole team of people are busy taking down the Halloween decorations, so they can immediately put up Christmas decorations.

On Halloween day!

The kids were, or course, thrilled. As soon as we got home they momentarily lost interest in Halloween and instead started to beg to put up our Christmas tree. When I said no they countered, “but it’s Christmas at Walmart, why can’t it be Christmas here?”

Why can’t it be Christmas here? Because it isn’t Christmas yet! And it won’t be Christmas until December 25th–nearly TWO MONTHS after the date we saw them hanging decorations and setting up an enormous blow up tree at our local Walmart.

Each year we as Catholic Mothers fight the battle of Advent. How do we protect and promote this season when the whole world is already celebrating Christmas? How do we teach our children to wait…and how do we have the discipline to wait ourselves?

I don’t have all of the answers, but I am determined to help, sisters!

I have spent a lot of time over the years putting together a TON of Advent ideas for Catholic Families, and I just put together another one: ADVENT COLORING PAGES FOR MOM AND ME.

You can find the materials for this project, and MANY other Catholic projects in the Catholic Family Digital Resource Library. To get instant access, and join a thriving community of over 10,000 Catholic Parents, just enter your in your email address.

Coloring continues to be an activity that the kids love and I enjoy doing with them. It is simple, enjoyable and a great time for discussion. For this reason I put together a simple Advent Coloring Book for Catholic Kids.

The book is full of fun things to color that keep a child’s mind in Advent. It also has some simple explanations that can be read together to explain why we wait and what we can learn about God through the waiting.

The image below includes pictures of the pages for the first week of Advent.

In the coloring book for kids, each week of Advent is assigned a virtue God wants to teach us: Hope, Peace, Joy and Love. The pages for that week of advent explore that virtue and a symbol assigned to that virtue. For hope we look at the symbol of a candle, for peace a wreath, for joy a star and for love a gift.

Each week concludes with a little prayer and once your family arrives at Christmas the children are encourage to present their Advent Coloring Book, and all the waiting the kids, to Baby Jesus as a gift.

But what about the moms? We need help waiting too, right?

Well, at least I do!

Advent is a wonderful time to slow down and recommit ourselves to our prayer routines. It is also a wonderful time to spend more time in God’s word. A few years ago I got into coloring to help me stay in and reflect on God’s word. I wish I was naturally talented enough to write out scripture verses in beautiful calligraphy, but I’m not–and I’m not disciplined enough to learn how!

Instead I like the gentle, easy approach of coloring, which is why I created a set of coloring pages for the 2018 Advent Season.

This set includes 24 pages to color (since Advent is 24 days long this year). Each page features a verse from that day’s Gospel as well as a floral element that you can color as you reflect. This year I also added the full citation for that day’s Gospel reading and many times to write your thoughts during prayer.

Like the Advent Coloring Book for Kids, the Advent Scripture Coloring and Reflection pages for Mom are a digital product. Once you purchase they for $7 you will be able to save them and print them as many times as you like.

Once again, you can find the materials for this project, and MANY other Catholic projects in the Catholic Family Digital Resource Library. To get instant access, and join a thriving community of over 10,000 Catholic Parents, just enter your in your email address.

I hope these actives are helpful as you fight the battle of Advent. I am excited to use them in my own home, with my kids and during my morning prayer time.

Keep it up, sister!

Your sister in the small things,

Free Printable Finger Puppets for Lent

by Nancy Bandzuch · 2 Comments

Hello there, friends!

I hope your Lent has been wonderfully restful and fruitful. Mine, thus far, has fallen a little bit short of expectations, but that, of course, is 100% my doing. It is hard for me to embrace quiet, even thought I REALLY need to!

In these next weeks, and especially during Holy Week, I plan to really get back on track, find more time for prayer, and set aside some time for really meaningful faith discussions with my kids.

Something we have done the last few Lents is use Finger Puppets to act out, understand and commemorate the events of Jesus’s Passion, Death and Resurrection. I know, finger puppets are a little cheesy, but they are a fun way to help children learn and engage with all the characters in this story. Our finger puppet play is pretty free and easy. Often times the kids want to put on the finger puppets and act out, in part, what we just read or discussed. Sometimes we just set the puppets out on the table and discuss who did way.

Either way, they puppets have been a fun faith tool for us.

And guess what, I am happy to offer you 2 versions of Lenten Finger Puppets–totally FREE! Just enter your email address right here and I will email the PDF’s directly to your inbox.

The first set of finger puppets are ones that you can easily print, color, cut and glue together. My only word of advice: make sure to either place a really thin line of glue around the edges, or use clear tape…or else the finger puppets will be too narrow to fit your finger into!

The second set of finger puppets are made of felt. The downloadable PDF for these puppets will supply you with all the patterns for the 13 Lenten Finger puppets pictured below, and don’t worry! These puppets are GLUED together, not stitched:

The characters included in both sets are: Jesus at the Last Supper, Peter, the High Priest, Judas, Suffering Jesus, Simon of Cyrene, Mary, Pilate, Christ on the Cross, the Good Thief, Veronica, Roman Solider, and the Risen Christ.

Which puppets do we use around here? BOTH!

Yup, a few years ago I made all of the Felt Finger Puppets, but my kids are at a stage where they really love creating their own things. So, while I still use the felt puppets, I have a strong feeling that we will be making a new paper set this year–and maybe a couple paper sets! I really love making the paper sets, actually, because the kids always ask SO many great questions as we are coloring. Questions like, why is Judas holding money? Who is this other guy on the cross and why is Mary’s heart like that? So many great moments for Catholic instruction!

So, if these finger puppets would be helpful, I encourage you to download and use them!

I hope you children love these puppets and learn as much from them as mine have.

Your sister in Christ,