What Catholic Homeschooling Moms Can Teach Catechists

I have enjoyed networking with the catechists and catholic educators who have developed an online presence through blogs and social networking sites. I’m always looking for new people for collaboration, inspiration, and new ideas. My mission with The Religion Teacher is to provide religious educators in Catholic schools and parish education programs with tools and resources to become better educators. I hope to provide resources, activities, and lesson plans that are as practical as possible.

In the process of searching for catechist resources, I have found the many Catholic homeschooling mom blogs to be a treasure chest of ideas. The many mothers sharing their experiences and ideas for creating fun crafts and activities have so much to offer catechists. One weakness I often fall into is that I can become so focused on reaching lesson objectives and lesson assessment performance that I forget that the kids want to have fun. The things I wrote about in my e-book, The Religion Teacher’s Guide to Lesson Planning, are essential but we can easily get lost in our lesson plans. If the kids are not engaged, they will not learn.

Like CatholicMom.com, these blogs are very well liked by catechists and DREs. They provide step-by-step instructions for creative crafts that any kids would enjoy. That is the key. The kids enjoy these things. Look at the pictures of the smiling faces of the kids on their blog posts. They love it.

Keep it up, moms. You are inspiring catechists like me to be better teachers.

Some of the blogs I have come across, follow, and enjoy are: