Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus

Saint Therese of the Child Jesus: Feast Day Oct. 1

Today as we celebrate Saint Therese of the Child Jesus, also known as Saint Therese of Lisieux, my family chose to focus on her beautiful title: “Saint Therese the Little Flower.” Even though she only lived a short life, Saint Therese’s book,“Story of a Soul,” and her concept of “The Little Way” have inspired many throughout the world; and she was declared a Doctor of the Church.

Activities and Crafts:

Focusing on the “flower theme” with my toddlers, we began our day by making paper flowers. Here is a great website (“First Palette”) with directions for folding Paper flowers . If your children are older, you can use these printable templates, from the same website, for younger children. After making paper flowers, we then learned about the parts of a flower using these worksheets from “Itsy Bitsy Fun” (scroll to the bottom of the page to click on worksheets for parts of a plant and parts of a plant diagram). This website Simply Kinder also provides another free downloadable parts of a plant worksheet. You can extend this activity by also discussing and completing the Life cycle of a plant worksheetsfrom SuperStar Worksheets.

Another activity we did today, was a modified flower counting math lesson from Montessori-inspired flower math activities . Instead of using flowers, we used dried beans, and I added subtraction to the activity as well as addition. I put the counting sheet in a page protector so my four year old could use dry-erase markers to write and re-write numbers.

The final activity we did was to create a “Little Way Prayer Book.” We printed a couple of Prayers written by Saint Therese and then I helped my children write one of their own. We then put them together in a construction paper book for them to keep on their nightstands for nighttime prayers.

The Little Flower Meal:

For lunch we served flower-shaped tuna fish sandwiches and tomato soup. We used this recipe from Kraft for decorating inspiration.

I hope you find these activities helpful for you and your family as you celebrate Saint Therese the Little Flower.

Comments

Invite Your Parish Priest Over for Dinner:

Invite Your Parish Priest Over for Dinner: Four months after moving into our new house, my husband and I decided to invite our parish priest over for dinner and to bless our new home. We still had piles of unpacked boxes, our toddlers were bouncing off the walls with excitement, and my husband and I were a little nervous. Was our home clean enough? Would we be able to engage in good conversations with our guest? When the doorbell rang, our children raced to the door, and began bouncing around, welcoming Father inside. During dinner, we found that the conversations flowed easily. We shared stories about where we grew up, our families, and various other details as we got to know one another outside of church. We laughed as our daughter spilled the beans that my husband and I were expecting our third child, and when we shared our due date, our priest began enthusiastically sharing all sorts of common, as well as some crazy sounding, saint names for days on and near our due date. Afte...

Saint Hildegard von Bingen

Saint Hildegard von Bingen: Feast Day Sept. 17th Not only is Saint Hildegard a Doctor of the Church, but during her life she was a writer, scientist, and conveyor of the "spiritual importance of femininity" (Catholic News Agency). During her life, she was not only a confident leader, but she also served as a beautiful witness of humility, allowing others to observe that confidence, leadership, and humility can all exist and work together. This article , from the Catholic News Agency, contains not only biographical information on Saint Hildegard, but also a wonderful discussion of how modern women can relate and connect with this smart and accomplished female saint who supported the truths of the Church. Since Saint Hildegard is from Germany, and the majority of my family's ancestry derives from Germany, we decided to make "Nussecken" —dessert mini-nut bars—to celebrate today. The modifications that we changed to this recipe, were using raspberry jam instead of...

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha: Feast Day July 14th “I am not my own: I have given myself to Jesus. He must be my only love.” Saint Kateri Tekakwitha When I was a child, my siblings and our neighborhood friends would often dress up like Native Americans and play outside. We would explore the cedar tree- filled vacant lot, with its babbling creek, next door to our house, and would roam our two acre yard, building bed-sheet tents hanging from our front trees, and basking in the wonders of summertime. When I reflect back on these fond and treasured childhood memories, I think about how often I feel connected to God when I’m outside experiencing the beauty of His creation. When I gaze at the beauty that fills the sky with the rising and setting sun, feel a breeze upon my skin, or watch a thunderstorm roll in as I sit on my front porch, I feel a sense of delight, wonder, and peace. Nature has a special way of connecting the soul with its creator. Today, as we celebrate Saint Kateri Teka...

Just a Catholic Mom

Search This Blog