Family in Feast and Feria

I'll start this post with a confession. Frankly, I'm overwhelmed. I don't know how you moms do it!, like Theresa at Lapaz Farm and Maryan are coming to mind right now, but I know there are many others! I really want to implement more presentations of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, but there's so much prep work involved. And then Montessori activities...well, I won't go there today. If only I was made of money, I would buy all the materials ready-made if I could! I just get overwhelmed...I need to think in smaller, workable chunks for my son. I know it's my fault--lack of organization, selfishness, laziness. All of you mothers have much more on your plate, but you're prioritizing much better than I!

Holy Week is upon us and I haven't anything for presentations for this week. I'm hoping to get my Crucifixion and Resurrection Fontanini scene before Good Friday (a wonderful gift), as that will help. No Last Supper scene this year unless I can whip up some paper figures in time...which I will try to do.

I am preparing in one area, but it's not found in the COGS. At the beginning of Lent I pulled out all the books for the feast days and the pertinent Bible Stories to prepare for Easter. I was thinking about the Easter Vigil, the Old Testament, and the types of Christ.

Two of the books are by one of our favorite illustrators, Peter Spier. The first is Noah's Ark, his Caldecott Award book (did you read the article in this month's Faith and Family?) and the second is the other children's favorite, The Book of Jonah. (Note that the reviews mention that the 2001 version of this book is not the Biblical passages, but a fictionalized version. We are using the 1985 version.)

My son was immediately captivated by the story of Jonah, the odd names of Nineveh and Tarshish, and that wonderfully big fish. I wondered at first if he understood the whole story, as it was the exact reading from the Bible. This week he showed it to two of his cousins, and was explaining the whole story, from Tarshish to the ship, to staying in the Fish for 3 days and 3 nights until the fish "spitted him out", until back to Nineveh with the sackcloth and ashes. Spier's illustrations capture the story well, and his cousins were enthralled. Not to worry, ds had it down pat.

In discussing Jonah, I pointed out how he was in the fish for 3 days, just as Christ was in the tomb. And we put ashes on our forehead on Ash Wednesday to show repentance and change.

I then remembered a project from The Year and Our Children written by Mary Reed Newland, called A Jonas Project, with the tie-in discussion of Christ, Jonah and Holy Week. So I have decided to incorporate this project. The illustrations from the books aren't exactly templates, so I'm creating my own pattern and will transfer it to cardstock and create the tray. If I get them done in time I'll make a .pdf file of my patterns and post them...but it's all pretty simple and straightforward. I showed ds today and he's thrilled. He couldn't wait to have the figures...in fact, he took my sketches and starting acting them out immediately.

May you have a blessed Holy Week.