Reviews are In!

Books

A Treasure Chest of Traditions for Catholic Families

Review by Letters, Numbers and Books, oh my!
Review by Happy Little Homemaker on Catholicmom.com

Hand in Hand with Jesus

Review by Karen’s Adventures in Mommyland
Review by Catholic Homeschool Support

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NEW! Advent and Lent Quest… for the Year of Faith and MORE!

Are you ready for Advent? We have expanded our popular Advent & Lent Quest Cathletics Craft Kit …actually we have expanded it 3x! There are now THREE different themed paper chain links included in ONE kit! Season with the Saints includes 48 + a do-it-yourself template for you to add any of your family patron saints if we didn’t already include them! Each link is packed with information about the saint…years of life, patronage, feast day, vocation highlights and a special quote or prayer. Saints include St Therese, St Pio, St Anthony, St Jude, Bl John Paul, St Nicholas, St Benedict, St Peter + 40 more!

Imagine if your family learned specific details about a new saint every day this Advent!

Year of Faith includes 48 + a do-it-yourself template for extra Catechism. Catechism facts include 7 Virtues, 7 Gifts of the Holy Spirit, 7 Sacraments, 4 Marks of the Church….and less commonly remembered…4 Fruits of Holy Communion, 4 Characteristics of the Church, 3 Graces of Marriage, 9 Mysteries of Faith  + 40 more!  These links include the Catechism or Bible reference wherever possible for more information! Imagine if your family learned a new Catechism teaching…every day this Advent! The activity is easily geared to various age groups…choosing as much or as little to read or memorize each day. Advent & Lent Quest Challenges are reformatted from our classic Advent & Lent Quest Cathletics Craft Kit, covering a range of prayer, Saint-centric, Bible and Catechism challenges for the whole family. 40 challenges are included + a do-it-yourself template to add your own.  Challenges include: “List at least 3 things that God has arranged in your life…what blessings are you most grateful for?” “Read the Gospel and/or the readings for the next Sunday’s Mass.  How can this reading help to refocus our Advent or Lenten Journey?” “How many times throughout this day can we make the sign of the cross with EXTRA reverence…remembering that we offer to God our mind, our will, and our entire body?” To purchase the Advent and Lent Quest (3 crafts in1)! Paper Version for $16 + shipping (email to order)

3 in 1 includes Season with the Saints, Year of Faith
and Advent & Lent Classic

PDF Downloadable: $13

Check out our other Cathletics Craft Kits…available by PDF Download at the Arma Dei Shoppe!

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Painted Saints: September Edition!

Better late than never!  I know that it’s the THIRD week of September already, but I wanted to post some of the new wooden painted saints that I created recently.  We have Blessed Mother Teresa and Saint Padre Pio (and Mother Mary, see 2nd picture below) for September saints…and well, Jesus is ALWAYS in season, right?      I am working on another post for yet MORE ideas to incorporate these little wooden saints into the regular crafts, activities, traditions and routines that we already enjoy with our kids. See What to do with Painted Saints…part 1 and check out how we use them in Checkers, Snakes & Ladders and Trouble to add a little Catholic culture ro regular family fun!   Watch for new ways that we plan to incorporate our own little growing army of painted saints.  We’re thinking about chore charts and treasure hunts… Advent countdowns and nativities… and another popular tradition that we can’t wait to convert 2 Catholic!  Make sure that you are subscribed by email to Equipping Catholic Familes for future posts!

Thanks to all those who entered in our Back to Catechism Class
Cathletics Craft Kit Giveaway!
Congratulations to Susan, Michelle, Yenyen and Annie!  All FOUR winners have been contacted and have chosen their favorite Cathletics Craft Kit to receive by PDF and use with their families or CCD classes.  Congratulations!
 

 
 
Other Arma Dei: Equipping Catholic Families
FREEBIES for FRIENDS Printables
are available for

Back to Catechism Class {GIVEAWAY}

Enter to win your choice of Cathletics Craft Kit (PDF Download), from the TEN available at the Arma Dei Shoppe! Print at home and copy for a WHOLE CLASS or for all the children who live in your house!   TEN Craft Kits to Choose from! FOUR WINNERS WILL BE SELECTED! Catechism Catcher ~ Catechism Cube ~ Catholic Family Calendar ~ Catholic Lingo Bingo (English or Spanish) ~Color Me Catholic ~ Journey with Jesus through the Sacraments ~ Journey with Jesus through Confirmation Lace-Up Missal (English and Spanish) ~ Spiritual Bouquet

a Rafflecopter giveaway

See Reviews of these Cathletics Craft Kits from our

Catholic Review Panel

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Back to School Special: Teach Catechism the FUN way!

  Yesterday was the big day! First day of Grade 11, Grade 9 and Grade 6 and French Immersion Grade 1 at a new school! The little one stays home with me, but desperately wants to be part of all the excitement!   It’s a great time to get organized for Religious Ed programs!  I thought I’d offer this special deal:  

Purchase TWO Cathletics Craft Kits by PDF download

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Cool 2B Catholic Crayon Batik

Ever since I reviewed Suzy’s Crayon Batik and Faux Stained Glass Tutorial, I have wanted to try my hand at Crayon Batik!  I bought a couple cheap t-shirts while my kids sorted through our old crayons, peeling the wrappers and placing them by color in an old muffin tin. We melted the crayons in the oven. That’s a strong smell…you will want to open the windows and put on the fan. The muffin tin is also very hot…remind the kids to keep hands away from the metal and the hot wax! We quickly learned that painting with wax takes some patience!  Every few minutes, the wax cools down and gets lumpy and becomes very difficult to paint with.  We would then put the muffin tin back in the oven to re-melt the wax.  We also cleaned the brushes in boiling water to melt the hardened wax. When we were finished painting with the wax, we liked how vibrant the colors were!  The t-shirt at this stage was pretty clumpy with the hardened wax all over it. Ironing eliminates the hard clumps of wax, but also softens and mutes the colors a little bit.  We noticed that the painting now had a more airbrushed effect with softer, kind of fuzzy outlines.

We decided to add puffy paint to outline our letters for a more finished effect.
Do you like the airbrushed or outlined look best?

This is my first attempt at a picture tutorial for pinterest!  Please pin! read more...for Equipping Catholic Families!

The New Catechism Catcher

You can purchase the Catechism Catcher at the Arma Dei Shoppe!  This is a paper craft kit, with permission to photocopy for your household or classroom and it has GROWN! It now includes TEN different templates, offering a quizzing tool for 10 different collections of catechism and Bible categories. Here’s a sneak peak at one of the new Cathletics Catcher templates, just to give you an idea of what the templates look like.  Sorry! I’m not publishing pictures of the other designs…I’m keeping them as a surprise!  Trust me…I think you’ll like the innovative designs of many of the 10 templates…like the Mysteries of the Rosary (fitting in all 20, with a proper quizzing format, descriptions and virtues!) and special graphics related to each category. These were fun to design and will be even more fun to use!

 

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Review by Happy Little Homemaker of Sacraments Craft Kit

I’m so excited to receive my second review of the Journey with Jesus through the Sacraments Craft Kit, by Happy Little Homemaker

Here are a couple excerpts from Jen’s Review:

Journey With Jesus Through the Sacraments is a printable craft kit that runs some 30 pages and is in black and white so that it can be colored by the kids and not eat all your ink! 

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Learning Math the FUN WAY {FREE 12th Elf Times Tables Printable}

Times Tables the Fun Way!
By Judy Liautaud and Dave Rodriguez
When one of my kids was having trouble learning the Times Tables, I discovered this book: Times Tables the Fun Way!  I later purchased the Addition edition (Addition the FUN WAY!), because I was so impressed!
Check out the direct link at the end of this post, to purchase your own copy.

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Scrapbooking for Sacraments {free printable}

=&0=& series of Cathletics Craft Kits by PDF downloadable,

with edits reflecting the NEW Mass,
added Kelly Comics graphics and better resolution, we are releasing a FREEBIE PDF of graphics (in vibrant color) and journalling prompts for use with any of our 3 kits:

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