Catechism Books - Big Truths for Little Kids: Teaching Your Children to Live for God
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Today we're going to look at a book based on the Children's Catechism!
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Tracking Catechism Questions
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I think I've tried a lot of tracking methods in the short few years I've been working on catechism stuff with my kids. It has been a pretty big stumbling block for the perfectionist in me when I get stuck on how to track them instead of just working on the questions.
I tried marking them in the little book I mentioned in a previous post with the date they knew it and their first initial. This was simple, but I just didn't love it because 1. they couldn't see the progress and 2. sometimes I lost the book (mommy brain!). I should have probably also gotten a second book for my second kid, but alas, poor not-first-child-problems. Now, I just keep this book around or even in my diaper bag.
I do know a lot of people use this method and it works for them. Also, the publishers of the book recommend you let the kids color in the numbers (which are outlines) when they complete them, so that's another option.
At one point, I wrote a bunch of the questions and answers on index cards and with sticky tack had one closet door in the bedroom be "Questions I Know" and one be "Questions I'm working on." I did like how visual this was; it made it very easy to incorporate it throughout the day since they were always in front of us. It also made it super simple for both my husband and me to know what questions we were doing. I may go back to this, but it didn’t look as cute as I wanted it to and as I started doing it with two kids, it would have been too much to have all the questions on cards for each kid. Now that I have three kids, I can only image the insanity! But perhaps, cuter hand-written or printed out versions would be nice when we're working on questions as a group. Look for future posts about that!
(Note: The links to Amazon in this post are affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy here.)
Right now, we're using a simple printable you can grab here (I’ve since updated it to make it better for you from the picture in this post!) with stickers. I love these stickers from Amazon because you get over five thousand little stickers for such a good price. Seriously, you could get through the catechism 33 times with these stickers and still have some to spare.
Catechism Songs - Part Two: First Bible Truths
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Today, we're looking at another collection of songs with the Children's Catechism questions and answers. The album is called “First Bible Truths” by Family Devo. My kids love these songs! I will admit they qualify as stop-and-have-a-dance-party type songs. They advertise them as "not your normal cheesy, kids Christian music..." and I think they really deliver on that promise. In addition, there is also quite a variety (listen long enough and you'll even hear some rap!).
(Note: The links in this post are affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy here.)
Where the Ask Me Whooo series of songs are just the catechism questions with answers and proof texts from Scripture, First Bible Truths are more individual songs. So they add some additional wording to fill out the songs more than purely being a memory tool.
The album contains 9 songs covering the first 21 questions of the First Catechism. If you're goal is to get the first few questions down or you want to review them, this is a great resource.
These are only available as digital downloads. You can purchase it from either Amazon or Apple.
If you missed yesterday's post where I wrote about the general benefits of using music to learn the catechism, make sure you check it out as it applies to this album too!
Thanks for being an early reader of the blog! I plan to have a Resources tab up soon where I'll link all the best resources on one easy-to-find page.
Catechism Songs - Part One: Ask me Whooo
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Disclaimer: We do not recommend letting babies listen to music with noise cancelling headphones, but it sure is cute!
I'm so excited that I get to start sharing about songs and books to help teach the Children's Catechism! If you haven't read the earlier posts about why teaching the catechism is a good idea, I hope you can take a little time to scroll through the blog.
(Note: The links in this post are affiliate links. Read our disclosure policy here.)
I knew the very first post had to be for our favorite resource for the Children’s Catechism! It is the Ask me Whooo collection of three albums (available on both CD and audio downloads).
If you want to get the catechism into your home (or car or wherever), this is the first and must have. It is the most comprehensive and matches the wording and order of questions exactly as in the versions I've been linking most often on this site. When people tell me that they don't know about these songs but taught the catechism or are trying to, I'm always shocked! This is a great place to start and then to go back to for those times when you get "stuck". I know other people love these too because after I launched the blog last week I got two text messages asking if I knew about these songs!
Diana Beach Batarseh has put all of the children's catechism questions into song form. Each track has one to three questions, so that they can be repeated, especially some of the shorter answers. Then at the end some of the proof texts are read by children. It is an extremely easy thing to just put on and listen to (and by that I mean, it isn’t as annoying as some of the songs my kids like but to be fair, it does qualify as "kids music" in my book) in the car, while doing chores, while coloring, whenever you feel like you could sneak it in!
Click on one of the album images to listen to a sample of the songs on Amazon (on a tablet or computer, they should display on the right and on a mobile device, just keep scrolling below the post content). Or there is a link to listen on Apple music too.
It’s always surprising how much kids learn just from listening. When my daughter was 3, she would walk around belting lyrics from Disney's Frozen, “my soul is spiraling in frozen fractals all around…” It's obviously nice to mix it up with some of these songs that serve to teach a bit more truth about our souls (instead of Elsa's).
It is hard work parenting little kids. But it's good work! Having resources like this that you can listen to after a hard day at work or after a long night where the baby was up nursing every two hours can help re-orient everyone back to life-giving truths regardless of how tired and frustrated we may be.
If you have Amazon Prime, you can listen to all of Volume 1 (which is questions 1-52) for free as part of Amazon Prime Music. If you don't have Prime, you can try it free for 30 days by clicking the ad below.
Tomorrow's post will be on another album based on the First Catechism!
