Easiest Catholic RE Program For At Home EVER!

Who else has had enough of 2020 and is ready to push the “easy” button?! Some families are able to return to Mass in person, others still can’t. Either way, many Catholics right now are limited with religious ed programs they can have their children in, leaving us teaching them ourselves from home. And you know what? That’s ok. I’m going to hold your hand and provide you with that easy button for this year, and it comes in the form of the easiest at home religious ed program for Catholic kids ever

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, I started an awesome set of Catholic notebooking pages. And today is the day I finished those pages.

Welcome to the complete pack of Tell Me About The Catholic Faith (aka TMACF) notebooking pages program!!!! I knew that these would be perfect for everyone that doesn’t have access to their normal RE programs this year, so I made myself sit down and finish them. 🙂

Temporary Sale!!!

From now until August 15, 2020 the pack on in sale for just $5! After that the price goes up to $8, so be sure to buy yours today!

This is a religious education (RE) program that you can do at home with all of your kids together. It is set up to meet 3 needs:

  1. Teach kids an overview of the Catholic faith
  2. Super easy for Mom to pull off
  3. Useful for kids of all ages 

How Does It Work?

The book has one 2 page spread per topic. So you open the book, read the 2 page spread, and then complete the corresponding notebooking page with a pencil and possibly crayons. That is truly it.

What Do I Need?

This is the beautiful part! You don’t need much at all. None of it is crafty- drawing is the most complex it gets. Here’s what you’ll need to complete this program:

No shopping or collecting random craft supplies required at all. Hang up your scissors. Lay down your glue sticks. Stash away your oven mits. This is as easy as it gets, people!

I originally had some craftier activities in this pack, and I pulled them out. Shopping is stressful this year. Finding what the store isn’t stocked with is crazy this year. Ordering online is expensive this year. I’m ready to simplify 2020. I don’t want to feel guilty about not teaching RE at all, and I also need to preserve my sanity for the sake of everyone in this home. 

What Is Covered?

This book does a great job of covering all the basics, and things that can easily get overlooked if the kids have been learning more specific stuff. It covers things such as the Bible in general, the most important Old Testament stories, the 7 Sacraments, Sainthood, making good choices, Christianity, a lot of Catholic prayers, Mass, and even hard topics such as the Great Schism and the Protestant Reformation. It goes through the most important moments of Jesus’ life, and the work the Apostles did after Pentecost. It ends with an overview of the liturgical year!

The book is basically broken into thirds:

  • First section: Old Testament stories
  • Second section: New Testament stories
  • Third section: Catholic teachings

What Ages Is This Program Good For?

One of the ways that I hold onto my sanity while homeschooling is to teach the kids together whenever possible, especially for Religion class. That’s what makes this program so great! It can be used for a spread of ages (I’d say 10 and younger, but this would be also good for even older kids that didn’t have a base knowledge of the Catholic faith.)

If there is writing involved on any of the pages, I have alternative primary tracing pages for your preschoolers/pre-writers. This way the whole family can truly participate together!

Post continues after this brief information about the Catholic Icing Monthly Membership


Monthly Liturgical Membership

Catholic Liturgical Monthly Membership

Perfect for families! Each month you gain access to printable activity pages, crafts, home altar pieces, and more.
 
Never has living the liturgical year been so easy and affordable!
 

The open-endedness of a notebooking page is what makes it great for such a large age spread. So for instance, on the page about Mary, the kids need to write something they know about Mary in each flower. Your younger kids might write something like “Mary wears blue”, your older kids may write something like “she said yes”, and your oldest kids may write things like “she was conceived without original sin”. And everyone is right. And everyone worked the notebooking page to the best of their ability. 

Also, your smallest one may scribble on the page and rip it in half. Also ok haha. 

How Is The Book?

I’ve written a review of this book before. It lends itself well for individual lessons because each topic is covered in one 2-page spread. This layout means it has very definite topics, and good starting and stopping places.

  • Colorful, easy to understand
  • Each topic is covered in one 2-page spread
  • The pages include different styles and different artists, so it doesn’t get stale. (For example, some pages are laid out like fun maps, others are comic book style, and all are beautifully illustrated)
  • Laid out in a chronological order that makes since (Hey, after years of reading children’s books, I know this isn’t something to be taken for granted- lol!)
  • Covers some hard topics that are best learned about when delivered by a parent, such as atheism, sin, etc. I was (mostly) pleased with the way these harder topics were delivered.
  • Covers the things moms like kids to know to save them from embarrassing moments “Honey, I’m SURE you know who Elijah is, REALLY, remember??!” *blush blush*
  • Covers topics that you may not have thought to talk about generally such as Sainthood, prayer, and the Bible. 

How Do I Plan The Year?

Yeah… you don’t have to plan. At all. There is no prep work- I already did it all. You have a printable chart at the beginning of the download that lets you track what work you have completed so far. You can either use these pages as a sort of “book mark” to hold your place in the book, or you can hang them on the wall or fridge. Check off the lessons as you go (we used star stickers to mark our progress here).

To complete this program in a typical school year, try to complete about 3 notebooking pages per week.

Download Yours Now!

Have you still not grabbed your copy yet? You’re only a click away from the easiest RE program you’re going to find for Catholic kids. Btw, this is THE MOST REQUESTED resource from Catholic Icing of all time- for me to finish these pages. Grab your copy here. The pack is on sale for just $5 through August 15, then it goes up to $8, so get yours today! That’s just $5 for 79 lessons and 130 pages!!! 

 

As always, I greatly appreciate your support of Catholic Icing by purchasing paid products! By shopping Catholic Icing, you are funding the development of future quality resources for Catholic kids. God bless! 

The link to the book in this post is an affiliate link, which means that I earn a small commission for each one purchased. I was also (years ago) provided with a free copy of this book by the company in exchange for a review, but I have never received any money for the promotion of this book. I just like it. And I assure you that I am provided plenty of Catholic children’s books for free that I never recommend, much less write entire programs around. As always, all opinions shared here are my own and I would never recommend something to you that I wouldn’t spend my own money on. God bless! 

Comments

  1. Jennifer says

    Hello Lacy! I am just discovering your website and at a great timing thanks to the Holy Spirit!! I am planning to use your Catholic ABC’s program for my 3.5 year old along with All About Reading. I am also looking to use the Notebooking pages as well but I have a question: Are the notebooking pages doable with the Tell Me All About the Catholic Faith for Small Children? Or do I have to use the regular version? Thank you for sharing all of these wonderful ideas! May God continue to bless you immensely.

  2. Alana Bell says

    Hello Lacy, I am a volunteer helping my parish to set up a Family Catechetical Program. We want to focus on Catechesis for Parents who will in turn educate their children. I really love your program and was wondering what the cost would be for a parish to order your materials. What are your suggestions? We have a plan for teaching the parents at their level, but we wanted to provide something that is easy for them to give their kids. Your program fits. I appreciate any help you can give. I still have to present this to our Pastor so the more info I have the better. Can I get some samples at all. Thank you for doing such a great job.

    • Hi Alana –

      You can check out the listing for this item in the shop here: https://shop.catholicicing.com/product/catholic-notebooking-pages/

      As it indicates on that page, you would need to purchase a set for each family participating.

      To see samples, you can check out all of the pictures in this post that show lots of the pages that are included. If you need a copy to look through fully, you would need to purchase that.

      Let me know if you have any other questions.

      Angie, Catholic Icing Project Manager