Parent Sessions Leaders Guide Introduction
The Joys of Catholic Parenting
Parent Sessions
with the book
Speak to Your Children*
79 concise, faith-filled topics on decision-making, truth, and life
(It grows with your children and makes them leaders.)
This "Parent Sessions" leader's guide gives information on implementing weekly/monthly gatherings using the Catholic parenting book Speak to Your Children. Parents will pass their faith onto their children through conversations, prayer and good works. This guide is designed so that parents meet for instance, in the 90 minutes their children are in religious education classes.
The "Joys of Catholic Parenting":
- Begin with prayer. Invite parents to weekly sessions, perhaps while children are in Catechism or Confirmation Classes.
- Read “Letter to Parents” in front section of book.
- Parents take turns reading each exercise. (Include introduction to each Chapter.) Parents pencil in the blank lines of book. If you are working with a set amount of days, use a few exercises from a different Chapter (there are seven) each week.
- Briefly discuss each exercise and the subjects you might talk about to your children in the week ahead. (Help for different age groups are found in the Introduction, at the beginning of the book. In other words, If the subject matter of a particular exercise is not age appropriate to share with your children, find something else in the book that is good for their developmental faith.)
- Show parenting films at random, if time allows.
- Pray and adjourn.
Family Time (at home):
- Determine a set time, day, and place during the week: perhaps dinnertime, Sunday afternoons, coke dates, one-in-one, etc.
- Pray—5 minutes.
- Discuss topics and how it applies to faith and everyday life—5 to 10-minutes.
- Optional: Play games or do other family activities according to ages of children, after prayer and discussion.
*Speak to Your Children, Catholic parenting book distributed at (308) 384-8472 or online at http://www.speaktoyourchildren.com/
