Expanded Catechism Catcher from Arma Dei

Catechism Catcher

So you remember the cootie catchers from grade school, right? I don’t know about you, but I spent all day meticulously folding them and picking my favorite colors for the top. I’m sure I put a ridiculous amount of thought on the fortunes inside, too. Well, Arma Dei has created a cootie catcher to help review your catechism! Well, to be precise, they have actually created 10 of them. You can purchase a PDF of the Catechism Catchers and you will get a cootie catcher for each the following 10 areas:

Classic (covers 16 areas of the Catholic Catechism)
Rules to Live By (sacraments, virtues, etc.)
Gifts & Graces (Beatitudes, gifts, fruits, etc.)
Sacraments
Mysteries of the Rosary
Mysteries of Faith (Eucharist, Ascension, Assumption, etc.)
Vessels & Vestments
Sins, Sorrows & Stations
Old Testament
New Testament

I like the vessels & vestments, mysteries of the Rosary, and sins, sorrows, and stations catchers the best. I like that the packet has several different areas of faith to review so that my daughters and I can work at one at a time. It’s a really interesting way to test what they are learning in catechism class/CCD and I like her suggestions to print each subject on a different color paper. My daughter thinks they are fun to play with – since she can’t read yet, maybe catechisis by osmosis?

Like I mentioned in my review of A Treasure Chest of Traditions (also by Arma Dei), some of the catchers are a little cluttered. In order to make them more readable, it’s almost necessary to color them to make things stand out a little. Also, you kind of have to make up your own rules since they aren’t quite like traditional cootie catchers. She does give suggestions which are useful and luckily my girls don’t know how normal ones work so they aren’t thrown.

Overall, I think these are very cute and a great tool to make studying catechism fun. I would recommend them for older students as they are more for review and less for learning. I would think you could start in 1^st or 2^nd grade while reviewing for first communion prep and could go as old as high school/RCIA/adult. You can get the PDF for $12 or the printed version for $14 + shipping at http://armadei.blogspot.ca/2012/06/catechism-catcher-20.html.

Disclaimer: Monica at Arma Dei provided the product for review but all opinions are my own.