The Virtues

In February I had started to teach Deuce about the Theological and Cardinal Virtues as part of religion class. And then we got side tracked and now we have two new students in our school so I have needed to modify my original plans a bit to accommodate 1st, 3rd, and 6th grade levels. Initially I was using these definitions as a concise explanation. I struggled to find something at a 3rd grade level, most things seemed geared towards high school students and I'm not sure if these concepts are mostly taught to those going through the sacrament of Confirmation and learning about the gifts of the Holy Spirit? Eventually I found and printed out this younger kid friendly packet on the virtues.

Because I feel like sometimes I don't have their focus and because some of us are visual learners I also looked for some videos to accompany them. Everyone has been raving about Formed, and I have an account through my parish, but they didn't have a lot geared to the younger ones. But then I found the Tomkin and Blaise videos that EWTN puts out on youtube. They are each about 2 minutes long and are definitely helpful for the 1st grader, a bit childish for the 6th grader, but they are short enough so I don't lose his attention entirely.

Before the pandemic I had checked out several books on ancient Greece and happened to find this beautiful book about the saints, The Loyola Treasury of Saints by David Self. It is nicely illustrated, well organized, and at a higher content level than some of our books about saints that are geared more toward the younger readers. I liked it so much I added it to my recent order from Powell's Books. (Save your local bookstore during the quarantine; avoid purchasing from huge online retailers if possible.) I have been using this books to have the 6th grader read aloud and then we discuss some of the virtues we can think of that the saint exhibited. We also read the page about St. Thomas Aquinas since his work is quoted so much in our studies of virtues. Since we have been studying the ancient Indus valley and the Aryans who settled along the Ganges river and the caste system I also introduced St. Teresa of Calcutta the virtues she reflects. The book was published before she was canonized, but it is still very useful. Formed did have an animated video on St. Boniface which we watched as well.