L is for Leaves

We are slowly making our way through letter "L".  Today we collected some fresh leaves from our yard to use for leaf rubbings.

Then we simply put them under paper and made crayon rubbings.  A tried and true project that delights the kids every time.  Kayla had a blast watching the leaves appear as she rubbed.

St. Catherine of Siena

Well, we can either look at this post as being a day late for St. Catherine's feast day (April 29) or we can look at it as being nearly a YEAR EARLY for her feast day.  I will, of course, go with the latter.

St. Catherine is really an amazing Saint.  She had 24 brothers and sisters!  Both the hubby and I come from (what I thought were) rather large families,but St. Catherine's family makes both our families seem tiny in comparison.   She received her first vision of Jesus at age 5 and made a vow of chastity at 7.  She wished to be a nun and refused to marry against her wishes.  Eventually she became a Dominican nun and though she had almost no formal schooling, she became a Doctor of the Church with her great wisdom and inspired writings.  She even begged the Pope who was in Avignon at the time to return to his rightful place in Rome and he listened.

She is the patroness of Italy, miscarriages, nurses, illness, people ridiculed for their piety, firefighters, and against sexual temptation.  We prayed especially for all those under her patronage especially the firefighter and nurse in our family, all of our Italian ancestors, and our family members and close friends who have miscarried.  There is a beautiful prayer for mothers who have miscarried that I found here

 Check out this neat site for some symbols of St. Catherine and some pictures.  For our project today we will use the symbols of the crown of thorns, roses, and the lily.

Crown of thorns with roses:

It is said that in a vision, Catherine was offered two crowns: a golden crown or one made of thorns.  She chose the crown of thorns.

You can construct a crown of thorns several different ways.  I found a neat construction paper crown done by Catholicinspired here.   I also found a more durable crown of thorns made by Catholic Sistas here.

I decided to just make a crown out of the abundant rose bushes flourishing in our yard currently.  That way, I could add some of the roses from them to add in more symbolism and make the centerpiece a little more lovely as well as a remembrance of Christ's sacrifice.  This crown could also be used during Lent (just the thorny part) or for May crowning (see tomorrow's post)

Paper Calla Lilies:

Most people opt for the hand print lily in the more traditional fashion shown in this blog post from Little Lovables, but I chose instead to make my lilies the Calla variety.  Same basic concept though, just a little different looking end product.  White squares instead of white hand prints.

"Be who God meant you to be, and you will set the world on fire."  -St. Catherine of Siena

Letter L projects and basic preschool ideas

Keep in mind that as a parent or a teacher, every project doesn't have to be time consuming and AMAZING!  Kids learn in a variety of ways and most of them are actually quite simple.  For example, if you want your child to have a diverse vocabulary, the #1 way to help them is to simply talk to them.  When you are driving in the car, narrate for them (i.e. "Do you see that big truck?  It's gigantic!"  or "I love the beautiful scenery.  There are so many trees and look at that gorgeous hillside filled with colorful flowers!")  In the same way, the very best tactic to use if you want your child to be a successful reader in the future is to READ TO THEM.  Change it up sometimes too.  Read board books, read parts of novels, read picture books and magazines.  And start when they are babies.  As they grow, you will see their love of reading grow as well.

Of course that doesn't mean there aren't other activities that are more complicated that you can do to boost your child's knowledge.  But it is wise to remember that simple activities can be really helpful and necessary in a child's learning process.  Here are a few very simple letter "L" projects that we completed to add to our Alphabet book.

"L" is for Line

Make a few dotted lines (see some of the varied examples below) and have your preschooler practice holding a pen/pencil correctly and trace.

This is an easy way to boost their pre-writing skills.  In order to write letters, they need to have the fine motor skills to make all the curves and loops.  This sort of activity helps with that and is easy for you to make.  Make a few a week for your child to practice until they are able to trace the various dotted lines easily and accurately.  They should be ready to begin with some letters at that point.

"L" is for Love

Kayla tried to copy the letters in the word, LOVE herself on this project.  We also discussed things and people we love.  A simple way to make some connections and practice some letters.  Coloring in the lines is also good practice.  The ability to stay inside the lines is an indicator that your child is improving on their fine motor skills as well.  Just be sure that you don't expect your toddler/preschooler to be able to color in the lines the first time you give them a coloring book.  :)

Our Saints Alphabet Project

Formerly I had shared this project (or rather, the first 11 Saints) on my other blog site.  In an effort to keep our family affairs private, but still share craft ideas, recipes, and thoughts on faith and family, I created this blog.

So keep in mind that you are coming into a project that is nearly halfway done at this point, so don't be overwhelmed.  It is also not advisable to attempt to complete 12 Saint projects in one day...I am only showing you pictures so that you know we don't think the alphabet begins with letter 'L'.

St. Anne and St. Bruno

St. Cecilia and St. Dominic

St. Elizabeth and St. Francis of Assisi

St. Gianna and St. Helena

Obviously there are a plethora of Catholic Saints to choose from.  These are the ones that we have chosen thus far.  Essentially it is like creating your own paper dolls (except the clothes don't come on and off).  For now I have them taped to the papers where Kayla has colored in the appropriate letter.

We use clothes pins to attach them to a ribbon that hangs in the girls' bedroom

St. Isidore and St. Jane Frances de Chantal

St. Kateri Tekakwitha and St. Lucy

Lucy was our latest project.  We just finished her the other day.  Kayla was thrilled with St. Lucy because of the birthday cake on her head.  I explained that the wreath of candles she wears on her head is to show that her name means 'light'.  The white robe is for purity and the red sash is for martyrdom.  We talked about how St. Lucy loved God so much that she gave her life to him and some people didn't like that and tried to make her say that she didn't love Jesus.  St. Lucy didn't back down and the mean people had her killed.  St. Lucy is the patron Saint of blind people (spiritually and physically).  At Catholicicing, I found these awesome activities which we might just do this week because WE CAN...and perhaps in December on St. Lucy's feast day we can begin to make some of these traditions.

St. Lucy--- Pray for us!

When we finish the entire alphabet, Kayla will be old enough that we can carefully remove all the 'paper dolls' and she can use them in some gentle and quiet imaginative play without them all becoming shreds of garbage in two seconds.  It will be a fun Catholic paper doll set for her to expand her love of these great Saints even more.