My Prayer Journal and Prayer Puzzles

This is something that came to be at the end of the year.  All of the children had been working on their Missals and a few especially loved doing the work.  They asked me if they could make another book.  We had been discussing prayer and how to pray for the sick, etc.  So I got the idea of a Prayer Journal.  They loved it.  It meant I had to go home and cut out beautiful pictures from Christmas, birthday, and all occasion cards and put them in the box you see to your left.  There are only 5 pages in the journal but they could add pages if they wished.  I told them that they had to talk to Jesus as in a letter to him.  The picture they would glue on the left and perhaps this would give them an idea what they would write to Jesus.  Lined paper is pasted on the right only.  Then when they are finished I tie yard through the holes and tie the pages together just like we do with the Missals to take home.  This material is kept in the bookcase behind the starfish.

Under this old desk I keep the prayer puzzles which really help the children learn their prayers.   So when they come early which most do, they know I will test them on their prayers and while waiting they should be doing these puzzles to learn the prayers.  They really help.  A catechist friend made a couple of them for me and I really don't know if they are CGS material.  However, they work well and they help the children learn their prayers.  So I made one for each prayer we learn in Level II.

     After I retired from classroom teaching I took 5 computer courses at Cochise College.  Never did I dream how much they would help me with CGS.  I've made all the Scripture booklets for our atriums and prophecies, prayer cards, prayer books, Maxim booklets, Ten Commandment booklets.  It's been so helpful.  I had a mother one year tell me she was disappointed that we didn't prepare the children for Reconciliation using the Ten Commandments.   I told her that we use the Maxims and showed her what they were.  However, she wasn't convinced one bit.  So after that I thought, "Well, how much extra time would it be to introduce the Ten Commandments to the children in one of the class meetings?"  From that time on I've done so.  In the Maxim Booklet and the Ten Commandment booklet, I have written in small print at the bottom of each page an "Examination of Conscience" for each Maxim or Commandment.  These booklets go home with the children to prepare them for Reconciliation.

Rosary Puzzle

 The Rosary Puzzle was something I saw when I started as an aide in the atrium in 2004.  I made an assumption that somehow I missed seeing this material in my training.  Later when I was expected to start an atrium from scratch, it just seemed natural to have it.  I saw how well it worked for the children in the atrium.

This year due to Covid, we did a few Zoom classes up until December.  The Annunciation, The Visitation and The Adoration of the Shepherds were presented.  It always seems that this is the perfect time to begin the rosary with the very "first story" of Jesus life especially because the Rosary is really the story of the life of Jesus.  As we are talking about prayer after lighting each candle, it seems like the perfect time to introduce one Joyful Mystery each week and pray a decade after I read the Bible story to them and then discuss it with them.  I've put in their envelopes for pickup in our office a rosary for each child and a rosary coloring sheet as well as the two items you see below.   As an assignment at home I ask them to say just one decade of the rosary using the Joyful mystery we read after lighting the Advent Wreath each evening.  They could read the same story from the Bible.  It also gives them practice with the Our Father and Hail Mary.

I tell them it would be a good way to thank Mary for saying, "Yes," and thank Jesus for coming to us and being born.

My husband is very good in his workshop and has taught me to use the tools as well.  We used a drummel drill to make the little circular round depressions in the wood to fit the small wooden caps.  These are actually wooden covers to hide holes in wood after drilling and putting a screw in place.  You can buy them in any hardware store in a bag.  They come in different sizes and these are the smaller ones.  I do the painting and staining.

After reading what the CGS Group on Facebook had to say,  I read that some of the catechists had heard of a rosary puzzle but never saw one,  I added these photos for them and realized I hadn't posted them here in my blog.  So here it is.  Hope you like it.