Catholic History and Religion :: 2026-27 School Year

 

Excited to share here my annual post of recommendations for books on Catholic history, literature, and religion tied to the time period we will be studying with the CMEC this year: roughly 1780-1900 in American and British/European history, alongside ancient Rome.

For previous years' recommendations, check out my Catholic History and Religion archive. At this point, I have written posts every era! I have shared about this period before, but I have reorganized and refreshed my previous suggestions here and added a few new ones.

This post is organized into the following categories: Bible for all Forms, Catholic Historical Supplements for Forms 1-3, Religion for Forms 1-3, and Catholic Historical Supplements and Religion for Forms 4 & 5 (High School).

BIBLE

Lower Forms

The CMEC follows the PNEU in scheduling Paterson-Smyth's books as a complementary resource for Bible lessons, and I will be using them in my preparation as well. I don't agree with everything Paterson-Smyth writes, but he offers good "captain ideas" for Bible lessons that get at the overarching themes of the assigned Bible texts.

I like to take his suggestions in light of Catholic thought, so I rely on Knecht's A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture as well. This tome provides a Catholic perspective on both Old and New Testaments, from historical background to theological and doctrinal connections to application. It also includes nice images and diagrams helpful for our Book of Centuries.

I will also be using these two references in preparing to go through the Gospel of Matthew and the prophets and kings of the Old Testament with my Form 1 & 2 students.

Upper Forms

For Old Testament, Form 3-5 students will be reading through Jeremiah and then some of the minor prophets this year. We have the following commentaries on hand:

• Dummelow's One-Volume Bible Commentary - This PNEU-recommended commentary has a good amount of historical details for each book. (This is the new edition -- we have an older used one.)
• Navarre's Major Prophets and Minor Prophets have served my older kids well throughout their Old Testament studies.

For New Testament reading, they'll be working through the Gospel of St. John. This was a special request from my senior daughter. For commentary, they have the Navarre and Thomas Aquinas: Selected Commentaries on the New Testament. They will also be working through several epistles alongside the Navarre.

All Forms

In all of our lessons, we will be reading from our preferred translation, the Douay-Rheims. Each of my Upper Forms students has his or her own copy to use, and I use mine for the younger kids. 

We rely often on The Dore Bible Illustrations. I have used this volume for years and it so handy to have these scenes so reverently and beautifully illustrated all in one place!

As a side note: the CMEC TBG Songbooks include the Bible passages for the year in the King James Version, so I print ours in the Douay-Rheims and tape them in for our recitations. We also add at least one Latin hymn to our hymn study each year.

~~~

CATHOLIC HISTORICAL SUPPLEMENTS FOR FORMS 1-3

This coming year, we will be studying roughly 1780-1800 (beginning with the French Revolution through Reconstruction after the Civil War). My Form 2A and 3 students will also be studying ancient Rome.

Saint Biographies

Most of these are from the Windeatt series, the Vision series, or the American Background Series being reprinted by Hillside Education. This isn't an exhaustive list -- just what we have on our shelves, in no particular order. My students and I will pick 1-2 for them to read each term on Sundays. The others will go on the free reading shelf. (Form 3 students who are strong readers may also like some of the options under High School as well.)

• Windeatt's The Miraculous Medal (on Catherine Laboure), The Little Flower (on St. Therese), The Cure of Ars (on John Vianney), and Pauline Jaricot
• Keyes' Mother Cabrini: Missionary to the World (or save for next year)
• Osiek's Saint Rose Philippine Duchesne: A Heart on Fire Across Frontiers
• Powers-Waters' Mother Seton and the Sisters of Charity
• Beebe's Saint John Bosco and Saint Dominic Savio (a favorite of my sons!)
• Mother Mary Eleanor's The Last Apostle (out of print, to tie to our reading in ancient Rome)
• Garnett's Florence Nightingale's Nuns
• Smaridge's Hands of Mercy: The Story of Sister-Nurses in the Civil War (I have an old copy)
• Heagney's Chaplain in Gray: Abram Ryan
• Lomask's General Phil Sheridan and the Union Calvary
• Hurley's John Hughes, Eagle of the Church
• Hopkins' Black Robe Peacemaker: Pierre De Smet
• Bartelme's Simon Brute and the Western Adventure
• de Wohl's St. Helena and the True Cross (he also wrote an adult version, linked under High School)
• Betz' Knight of Molokai and Yankee at Molokai (both out of print, unfortunately)

Other Notes on Form 1-3 History

Arnold-Forster's A History of England and H.E. Marshall's Our Island Story are both written from a British, Anglican perspective. I love the books and think they are certainly worth using! I can't really imagine our homeschool without them. However, I do generally edit here and there and supplement with Catholic reading as described above for a more balanced view. With this approach, I think my students get to understand how the viewpoint of the author colors his or her work.

This year's assigned chapters don't need to be adjusted at all in my view, though. The only time they discuss Catholics is when describing the Catholic Emancipation Act in England, which is presented in both texts as a positive move toward justice.

The same can be said for our American history texts this year, This Country of Ours and Builders of Our Country, Volume 2.

~~~

RELIGION FOR FORMS 1-3

Catechetical Instruction and Sacramental Prep

Each week I have a half-hour religion slot in which I work with my Form 1 & 2 students (with my Form 3 students joining in some weeks, reading independently some weeks). We read aloud, add to notebooks, memorize prayers and catechism, etc. 

This year our foci will be the Creed and St. Joseph.

For the Creed: We are going through the Baltimore Catechism, and I am reading parts aloud of Knox's The Creed in Slow Motion (I have an older copy than the one linked) as well as using some old traditional Catholic resources I have on my shelf. 

For St. Joseph, I'll be reading from A Practical Manual of Devotion to St. Joseph and we will work through the Litany to St. Joseph.

My two Form 3 students will also begin preparing for Confirmation this year. Here are the resources they will be using, as did my older kids before them:

• Two books by Mother Mary Loyola: The Soldier of Christ: Talks Before Confirmation (for both) and Home for Good (just for my daughter)
• Fr. Lasance's The Catholic Girl's Guide and Young Man's Guide
• Baltimore Catechism 2
• Preparation for Confirmation (very slim book with just the basics, cheaper to buy directly from Angelus Press)
• They also will be reading about the saints as they discern their Confirmation names!

Spiritual Reading

My Form 3 students will read a book a term for additional Sunday reading:

• Marigold Hunt's St. Patrick's Summer
• Mother Loyola's Coram Sanctissimo
• Lauren Ford's Our Lady's Book

As a family, we will continue our re-read of Mother Loyola's First Communion.

Liturgical Year (read as a family)

This year, we will continue A Character Calendar, which has been a favorite with my younger students. I read this at breakfast time, so my older kids listen in too. Many of the mottoes from A Character Calendar have found their way into my students' motto books!

(Also, I have some special titles in this post if you're looking for religion books to read aloud to littles or that children learning to read can read for themselves!)

~~~

CATHOLIC HISTORY AND RELIGION FOR FORM 4 & 5 (HIGH SCHOOL)

As always, please preview the books listed below before handing to your high schoolers.

History Texts

The CMEC's high school history texts, which are written from a secular perspective, are quite nuanced and well-balanced, so I find our additional reading on Catholic-specific persons and events more than rounds out the period for my students.

I also add a weekly Catholic history block to my high schoolers' timetable. Here's what will fill that slot this year:

• Selections from Carroll's The Revolution Against Christendom: 1650-1823 and The Crisis of Christendom: 1815-2005 (This series is not perfect by any means -- my kids get frustrated with Carroll's voice sometimes. But it is thorough and does a good job setting up the major issues of each period. We'll be reading Chapers 8-end of Revolution and 1-6 of Crisis.)
• Belloc's The French Revolution (my kids love his style -- this may end up being a free read because Carroll is pretty long)

Religious Reading

For the older kids, I have assigned a bunch of books in various categories. These will be for daily devotional reading, Sunday reading, and leisure reading.

Spiritual classics written during the period:

• Daily Thoughts of Mother Seton
• Msgr. Benson's The Friendship of Christ (our priest has been quoting from this off and on for the past year, and we love Benson's fiction, so I want to give this a try)
• Selected Sermons, Prayers, and Devotions from John Henry Newman
• The Sermons of the Cure d'Ars (mine will be alternating between the St. Francis de Sales sermons listed below and these, depending on the liturgical season, reading one weekly) 

Saint biographies and autobiographies:

• Farrow's Damien the Leper (scheduled by the CMEC as one of their term biographies)
• The Life Of Father De Smet S.J.: Apostle Of The Rocky Mountains (good American biography for us)
• Venerable Fr. Germanus' The Life of St. Gemma Galgani (one of my favorite saints)
• St. John Bosco: The Friend of Youth and Forty Dreams of St. John Bosco
• The Story of a Soul: the Autobiography of St. Therese of Lisieux (another personal favorite!)
• Father O'Sullivan's St. Philomena: the Wonder-Worker (her bones were discovered in the 1800s and she lived in ancient Roman times)
• de Wohl's The Living Wood: A Novel about Saint Helena and the Emperor Constantine (another de Wohl novel -- takes place in the later days of the Roman Empire) and The Spear: A Novel about the Crucifizion

Catholic literature:

• Gertrude von le Fort's Song of the Scaffold (a thought-provoking novella what provides a new perspective on the French Revolution)
• Sienkiewiczk's Quo Vadis (to connect to our Ancient Rome)
• Willa Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop (assigned by the CMEC in Term 3)
• Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins and Francis Thompson (assigned by the CMEC in Term 3)
• Benson's The Necromancer (we have enjoyed Msgr. Benson's books but I have not personally read this one yet)

Additional religious reading through the year:

• Lewis' The Screwtape Letters 
• Chesterton's The Everlasting Man
• Fulton Sheen's Life of Christ
• Msgr. Hugh Benson's The Friendship of Christ (a favorite of mine)
• Fr. Jacques' Philippe's Searching for and Maintaining Peace
• Father d'Elbee's I Believe in Love (after our reading of Story of a Soul)
• Fr. Laux's Catholic Morality and Catholic Apologetics (for catechesis)

~~~

I hope this helps those studying this time period with us this fall!

Any wonderful books I should add to the list above? Let me know in the comments!

(Amazon links above are affiliate links. Thanks for your support!)

{This and That} :: Two Weeks In!

We are beginning our third week of school and things are moving along pretty smoothly! I am so happy with how things have shaped up thus far.

Form 1 students working together

This past weekend I had a (very rare!) few hours to myself and was able to sit with all of my notes and think a bit about the rest of the term. So restful!

After Week 1, I made a few tweaks to the schedule and printed new timetables to try. But my Week 2 reflections didn't require any timetable adjustments, so I think we have now hit on a nice rhythm. (Except for the baby, that is -- my #1 wild card as to whether my day will go smoothly or not! :) But she is still unpredictable in her napping so I am honestly trying not to plan around her too much because I think by Term 2 she will be napping at the same time as my little boys. Always an adventure!)

I did spend some time sketching out more complete ideas for special studies, art, handicrafts, and foreign language. Those are often subjects that I plot out a few weeks' work for to start off with, then wait until Week 3 to fill in more thoroughly for the year. I actually always have a "Consider on Week 3" list in my planner for the things I didn't quite have time to flesh out before the year began but that I wanted to think through once we had settled in. I find it to be a helpful practice -- I keep the same kind of list of things to Consider for Next Term and Consider for Next Year. Plopping things that come to mind there (rather than letting them swirl around in my brain) helps me to stay focused on the work in front of me.

~~~

One great addition to our schedule this term has been chalk drawing! 

So far our lessons have used circles and symmetry.

I am doing it with all of my students, from age 14 down to 4, and not only are they really enjoying it, but also they are taking away skills and ideas that I am now seeing in their other art during free time. It has been such a good addition.

I also have my Form 1 students draw in chalk a scene from one of their readings each week while I do Plutarch with the older kids. The first week, for example, they all drew the Creation story from Genesis from our Old Testament lessons.

Even my kindergartener can't bear to be left out of chalk time!

This week, I think we will be drawing fruits and do some more warm-up circles. There is so much flexibility in these lessons.

~~~

My older kids are reading in astronomy this year, so we are all taking it up as one of our special study topics for the year -- it fits so nicely with the Weather and Sky special study focus that we are doing alongside the rest of the CMEC. We have begun our lunar charts and are working on the constellations of the summer sky. August ended up being a wonderful time to start, not only for the meteor shower, but also because Saturn and Jupiter are easy to find right now.

It may not look like much, but we were SUPER excited about it!

A friend sent me a star chart and Vincent has been faithfully taking it out at night with a flashlight and looking at what is visible with the naked eye. It turns out that even with the city lights (we have a street light RIGHT in front of our house), we can see quite a lot. I always consider this the best place to start -- with what we can see without any "help." It gives us a good reference point for further work. (But we do have a telescope on the way -- should arrive any day now!)

~~~

Emilia is seven months old tomorrow and is crawling all over the house, cruising along the furniture, and getting into all kinds of mischief.

Luckily she has lots of people who love to play with her! Justin runs down first thing in the morning to see how he can make her giggle.

~~~

The high schoolers got a good start on the Fesole Club Papers. We did the famous Lemon assignment over the past couple weeks -- with a sleeping kindergartener, to boot! :)

From here, we are planning to move on to the chapters covering trees in leaf, architectural drawing, and still life composition before circling back around to the Boughs of Branstock and Fesole Flower Studies (which will be better in winter/spring here). We will also fold in some work from the other books assigned for art for the CMEC Upper Forms here and there. (I am looking forward to the mini-retreat in the fall all on art in the Mason method!)

~~~

I was on The Charlotte Mason Show to chat with Julie Ross about the basics of notebook-keeping in the Mason method. If you would like to hear both the philosophy behind it and some super-practical tips, have a listen! I hope you find it helpful.

~~~

So that's what's happening around here! Later this week I'm going to sneak in a post about our summer reading. I meant to get it up sooner but school planning took up my time. But even though it's not quite summer break here anymore, it IS over 100 degrees here this week, so I'm pretty sure I can still count it "summer."

Have you begun your school year yet? How are things going so far?

Back to School! :: Fall 2020

 Last week we kicked off our new school year!

I have seven formal students this year...

Vincent and Gianna are in 9th grade -- high school! I am so happy to be doing these next (last!) four years with them.

Cate and Xavier are in 6th and 5th grade (Form 2) and Bridget, Clara, and Andrew are in 3rd, 2nd, and 1st (Form 1).

My Kinderleben cuties are 4 and 3 and can't bear to be left out of anything! 

Baby Emilia (6 months) decided that right now would be a good time to start cruising along the furniture, pulling herself up on anything and everything, and generally just getting into all the things. We love her spunk but also look forward to her naptimes every day. ;) 

We always take a photo on the first day of the children with the books they are most looking forward to from their shelves. It is fun to look back at the end of the year to see if those books end up being favorites.

We also kicked off our first day with a special breakfast and some first-day goodies.

And then it was on to to the good stuff... History, science, Bible, math, literature, chalk drawing, folk dancing, singing games, recitation, Plutarch, Shakespeare, geography, nature study, brush drawing, picture study, composer study, and more! We are serving a full feast here and it is delightful.

My big kids are basically running their own schedule and keeping their own logbook and timetable. Their first week back went GREAT. I was so pleased with their work.

This is Andrew's first formal year of learning -- he is in Form 1B. He was so excited about everything, but especially about his "real" nature notebook kit, which in our house is a school-age privilege. (Before that, they have to content themselves with colored pencils and little spiral notebooks.)

We had a very full week and I finished each day desperately in need of quiet time! But that is par for the course here -- we have a bustling home with lots of people truly LIVING in it. I did try to take it easy on other obligations and on online time/social media last week to create a bit of extra quiet in my brain, and I set aside some time each evening to just sit and read a bit.

This weekend during my weekly prep time, I made a few small tweaks to the timetable and printed out new copies, but other than that, I didn't need to adjust much of anything. We'll see how this week goes! It always takes a few weeks to get those final kinks in our routine all sorted when I am dealing with this many students. But we had an amazing week and I can't wait to see what this year brings to all of us.

(As always, I am grateful for the CMEC community and the encouragement and vision I find there -- I felt quite clearly this week how "broad and balanced" this life of learning really is!)

Catholic History and Religion :: 2020-2021 School Year

Tis the season for school planning!

Have you been busy pulling together books, resources, and plans for your homeschool? I have been pre-reading quite a lot this summer, and enjoying it all. Usually I leave most of my prep work for my weekly prep session, but with high schoolers this year (and seven students in all!), I felt the need to get a jump start on whatever I could. It has been time well spent.

I have also been preparing a little share here of the Catholic resources we will be using this year alongside our studies for the CMEC. These suggestions are really suitable for any Catholic families studying the Renaissance/Colonial period with elementary through high school students.

I'm also adding in what we'll be doing for Bible and religion this year. I have a few preparing for sacraments and family and individual spiritual reading to schedule, so I have been happily shopping my shelves.

All the details below!

Bible

The CMEC follows the PNEU in scheduling Paterson-Smyth's books, which are a very good resource for Bible lessons. In fact, on the programmes, Mason did not even list out the Bible text; she relied wholly on Paterson-Smyth's breakdowns and worked from the Scriptures according to his suggestions.

There are a few reasons I really do like Paterson-Smyth. He knows how to get to the heart of a story without neglecting all of the interesting side stories and details. His abridgments of the Scripture texts are thoughtful and helpful. Mason used his guidance to "bring home the story to the children" and think his words do just that. I have learned a lot from his books and will be using them this coming year as helps in planning our own lessons. We will be using his commentaries on Matthew and on Genesis this year, as suggested.

However, there are a few moments in the text where he misses a key Catholic idea (for example, his comments on p. 114 against the primacy of Peter in the Gospel of Matthew). I like to take his suggestions and add in with Catholic resources, so I rely on a couple other books as well:

:: Knecht's A Practical Commentary on Holy Scripture. This tome (it's a thick one!) provides a look at both Old and New Testaments with lots of good Catholic connections, wisdom from the saints, and more. I have used it in various ways over the past few years and always with good results. It is a thorough but usable reference.

:: Mother Loyola's First Communion. If you have not read this, schedule it as a family read! She walks through the "types" for the Eucharist in the Old Testament and walks through the life of Our Lord in chronological fashion. We read her narrative alongside the Gospel of John last year, story by story, and it was truly lovely. This was our second time through the book as a family and the experience was rich.

My plan this year is to read Genesis from Knecht's Practical Commentary. It helpfully includes the abridged Scripture readings as well as the comments, so it will be a good text for me to work from for my Form 1 and 2 students. For the Gospel, I will use the Knecht commentary and the Paterson-Smyth book on Matthew to prepare our lessons and then will read from the Douay-Rheims, which we love.

My high school students will be doing the Bible reading as scheduled by the CMEC: a couple prophetic books from the Old Testament and their commentaries. Saviour of the World alongside the Gospel, and three Epistles spread over the year. Several friends have shared how much they enjoy the Navarre Bible, so I may use the Major Prophets volume for the older kids. The whole set looks so good!

Just a note about Bible lessons: very often I do not provide any additional commentary for my students. The Holy Ghost often "brings home" the story to the children in amazing ways, and in those moments, I don't feel that I should add anything more. But I do always have a thought or questions ready. The process of preparing Bible lessons has enriched me personally and has encouraged me to read Scripture in a new way.

Catholic Historical Supplements

This coming year, we will be studying 1450-1600 along with the CMEC. This is a period I enjoy very much, both in American and British history! There are so many good additional Catholic books for Renaissance England for all ages, so I am compiling some ideas here in one place for those that are using the CMEC and are Catholic. Non-Catholics who are interested in "both sides of the story" when it comes to the persecution of Catholics in Elizabethan England may appreciate these books as well. It is a part of history that is little included in most textbooks but full of living interest and heroic deeds.

I have all of these currently on my shelf and am in the process of selecting which will be assigned which terms for Sunday reading, which will be simply leisure reading and set on the free read shelf, and which might be family read-alouds. I haven't made any of those decisions yet! I'll be pre-reading this summer to decide.

Note: Several of these suggestions have come from Amber Vanderpol and Amy Snell, who are my go-to sources for good Catholic supplements!

Form 2 and 3

Garnett's Crossbows and Crucifixes (historical fiction about priest hunters and recusants -- my Big Kids loved this one when they were in elementary school)
Garnett's The Blood-Red Crescent (on the Battle of Lepanto, the Crusades, and 16th century Italy)
Vision books on St. Thomas More of London, St. Edmund Campion: Hero of God's Underground, St. Francis of the Seven Seas (family favorites)
Also a Vision book: Father Marquette and the Great Rivers (already scheduled by the CMEC as an option for Term 3)
Canton's The Story of St. Elizabeth of Hungary (scheduled by the PNEU even though it takes place slightly before this era)
Sun Slower, Sun Faster (more historical fiction involving priest holes, relics, and time travel -- what a combo!)
First Martyrs of North America (an out-of-print book I picked up a long while back and will have on the leisure shelf for additional biographies)

Form 4 & 5 (High School)
Some of these will be scheduled as biographies, some as historical fiction, some as spiritual reading.
Please preview before handing to your high schoolers.

Monsignor Benson's Come Rack! Come Rope! (I have an old edition and can't find a good in-print version to link to) and By What Authority? (both historical fiction -- I read these years ago and know my kids will enjoy them too)
Hunt's Treason (in looking for an edition of Come Rack! Come Rope! to link, I came across this book, which seems similar)
Waugh's Edmund Campion (thinking of this to replace Twain's Joan of Arc, which we have already read and LOVED)
Lyra Martyrum (beautiful poetry collection from Catholic martyrs of the English Renaissance)
De Wohl fictional biographies: The Golden Thread, Set All Afire (these are fictional saint biographies but often profound and very engaging -- please preview before reading!)
St. Teresa of Avila's The Way of Perfection and Interior Castle (to offer alongside the poetry of St. John of the Cross, which is already scheduled)
Eamon Duffy's books: Fires of Faith: Catholic England Under Mary Tudor and The Stripping of the Altars (I already own these but haven't read them, but I thought some non-fiction would be a nice balance? I need to pre-read them though.)
Belloc's Characters of the Reformation (pre-reading this to choose selections)

My older kids will also be reading from Starr's Continental Ambitions this year, a comprehensive Catholic history of America. I plan for them to read this alongside the CMEC's American history spine. I am hopeful about this pairing and from the pre-reading I have done so far, think it will serve my high schoolers well through their whole four years. (This was a recommendation from Amber, who also is part of the CMEC high school curriculum team.) ETA: There are sections of this book that we will be skipping. Be sure to pre-reading this text if you decide to use it!

As I said before: these books will all be added to the program for leisure reading and Sunday reading. The program doesn't need Catholic substitutions. But my eager readers will appreciate the additional selections!

A few more notes on history:

Ball's Great Astronomers, which my high schoolers will be reading from this year, tells the story of Galileo in the usual way. I would like my kids to read the fuller story so have printed this article on the common misconceptions about the Galileo affair and tucked it into the book.

One thing I like about the CMEC is it tries to tell the story of the French and Spanish settlers of America too, not just the English and Puritans. Even our travelogues highlight some of these lesser-studied figures and events. Much British writing from or about the period is very anti-Spanish by default, so I am happy to have, for example, Cabeza de Vaca's account to balance this out. Just because this was the period of treasure-hunting Spaniards does not mean all Spanish were brutal, obviously! And I'm pleased to be reading about Marquette, who has a beautiful story of adventure and service to the native peoples. I am hoping for a good combination and I am sure these will inspire worthwhile discussion in our home this year.

Arnold-Forster's A History of England and  H.E. Marshall's Our Island Story are both written from a British, Anglican perspective. As such, they laud "Good Queen Bess," pass fairly quickly over the Catholic martyrs, claim that the Church didn't want commoners reading the Bible, approve of the rebellion of the Scottish presbyterians, and so on. I love the books and think they are certainly worth using! I can't really imagine our homeschool without them. However, I do edit a few chapters covering this period and supplement with the above biographies and such about Catholics who lived then and what life was actually like for them. With this approach, I think my kids get to understand how the viewpoint of the author colors their work.

I have listed below the chapters that Catholic families may want to preview. You may decide to include them and discuss them with your kids, or you may choose to omit/abridge.

Our Island Story: chapter 63 (I begin the chapter at "When King Henry heard..." on p. 285), chapter 66 (I edit p. 301), chapter 68 (I omit the first four paragraphs on p. 308), chapter 76 (I read the first half only, stopping at "Like King James" on p. 346)

A History of England: chapter 41 (I omit), chapter 42 (I edit sections on "The Oxford Martyrs" and "The Death of Cranmer"), chapter 43 (we discuss the section on treason on p. 365-6)

Also, if students (or parents!) would like a fuller picture of Guy Fawkes, this article is interesting!

The high school book the CMEC uses for general history, Robinson's Medieval and Modern Times, is much more even-handed on the Renaissance and Reformation. This year's chapters were a pleasure to read. They will provide good context for what my students have read before and it is perfectly timed for their last pass through this historical period.

Religion Reading

I always schedule religion reading in a few different categories:
:: saints' lives (assigned by Form, listed above under history because they are also biographies)
:: spiritual reading (assigned by Form)
:: liturgical-year reading (usually as a family)
:: specific sacramental prep (as needed, assigned individually)

I'll start with that last category first...

Sacramental Prep

This year, I have two preparing for Confirmation and one for First Holy Communion...

Confirmation

My Confirmation kids read Knox's The Mass in Slow Motion (a reader recommended this version, but I have an older one) and The Creed in Slow Motion over the past two years, which I have found to be fantastic preparation.

This year, I have some Confirmation-specific reading for them:
For my 14yo son: Loyola's Soldier of Christ: Talks before Confirmation, Father Lasance's Young Man's Guide
For my almost-14yo daughter: Loyola's Home for Good, Father Lasance's The Catholic Girl's Guide

Really, though, these two kids have read so many wonderful Catholic books over the years that I don't feel like they need much focused preparation for this sacrament! I want to do some special reading to mark the event, but they have read about so many saints, about angels, about doctrine, about the Mass, about the liturgical year, about Our Lady, about the sacraments... Some of these books were written for children, some for adults, and all of them were very good. But we'll see how the year goes and what I end up adding to their stack! Their Confirmation, which was supposed to take place this fall, has been pushed out indefinitely for now due to COVID-related restrictions, so we may have more time for preparation than we expected.

First Holy Communion

For First Holy Communion: I have written up my general approach to First Communion prep before. My daughter who is currently preparing isn't reading fluently yet, which alters my plans somewhat. She has been reading Loyola's First Communion with the family for the past year or so and will finish it this coming year. She has narrated her way through two of the gospels. We will focus this year on learning the Ten Commandments to prepare her for her first Confession, and on memorizing the St. Joseph First Communion Catechism, which includes a short overview of the sacraments and the precepts of the Church and is a requirement of our priest. I think my husband will take the lead on both of those things, as he did for the two last First Communicants we had. It was such a nice time for them to prepare with him! I think I will read First Communion Days with her, and I will ask one of her older siblings to read from a few other books from that old post over the course of this coming school year. (My kids have all loved the story of Blessed Imelda and I wouldn't want her to miss it, for example!)

Liturgical Year

I recently bought three sets with simple devotions for the liturgical year and I can't decide which one to use this year! They all look excellent. I think we will jump into With the Church and then see if we would like to take up the Troadec or D'Hulst books for Advent or Chirstmas or Lent.

With the Church: Advent to Ascension (Volume I) and Ascension to Advent (Volume II)
Crib to Cross: Meditations on the Life of Christ M D'Hulst
From Advent to Epiphany and From Epiphany to Lent by Fr. Patrick Troadec

We have been reading from A Character Calendar most mornings and really like the little stories and meditations.

And as a side note: we recently got Chadwick's My Book of the Church's Year and my littles adore it!

Spiritual Reading

For my Younger Kids

We pulled together a big Kinderleben Guide for the CMEC this past spring, and one category of books we didn't include is religious reading! But it made me excited to straighten up my kindergarten shelves of religious books.

In addition to religious picture books, lists of which you can find in various places, we have some favorites I save for kinder-aged kids: Manners in God's House, I Believe, Jesus and Mary, Saints for Boys, Saints for Girls, Their Hearts are His Garden, and others.

Also, I highly recommend the Saints and Friendly Beasts series of easy readers from Neumann Press. Clara (Form 1) is learning to read this year, so I made her a little shelf of easy/early readers and these are some of the best!

For Form 2

My Form 2 kids haven't read Mother Loyola's Hail, Full of Grace or Marigold Hunt's A Book of Angels yet, so I think I will schedule those for them this year. (Last year they did My Path to Heaven and Montessori's The Mass Explained to Children.)

I also got back out the Catholic Treasure Box series (Set 1 and Set 2) for them to read in free time. It had been a while. They have been loving those this summer!

For the Older Kids

My older kids' spiritual reading is covered above under sacramental prep and history since we are using the CMEC's historically-tied religion reading for the Upper Forms. I also take a bit of time at the beginning of Advent and of Lent to choose a few books for their free reading shelf. They like having this to select from for devotional time.

I hope this is helpful to those joining us for the Renissance and Colonial times this fall! I am so happy to see our shelves begin to fill up for next year's studies.

So -- any wonderful books to add to the list above for this period? Let me know in the comments!

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