Speaking of the Pharisees...

/

In the past few Sunday gospels, Jesus has gone to great care to admonish and instruct the Pharisees. And then, clearly, He was certain that His lessons were recorded in the Word, because they are as timely today as they were when He walked the earth.
In today's gospel, Jesus said: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with allyour soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
-- Matthew 22:37-39

Lord, let us hold those words in hearts and live them in our lives, mindful of the words of St. Margaret of Cortona who, so many years later, said

My daughter, I see more Pharisees among Christians than there were around Pilate.

Elections for Kids

/

I'm in the midst of planning our Election Study for this week. And since I'm already multi-tasking (Colleen's on the phone and Karoline's "helping"), there's no chance we'll have nicely laid out lesson plans across the ages for you to read. I'm working on individual plans for my children of all ages and I'll post my notes later at Faithful Over Little Things. In the meantime,here's a list of links we're using. Click around; there's great stuff here!

Great Books:
D is for Democracy
Woodrow for President

For the bigger kids: The League of Women Voter's Guide to the 2008 Election

D is for Democracy comes with an entire free unit study here.

A rockin' trip down Memory Lane for Mom and Dad and some seriously catchy jungles for a whole new generation of future voters: Schoolhouse Rock Election Edition DVD. This comes with a map and stickers for election night.

Here are plenty of sites from which to glean ideas:

Charlotte's Great Ideas for Teaching the Electoral College

• Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids
    • Congress for Kids
    • Constitution Center
    • Kaboose
    • First Gov for Kids
    • National  Archives
    • National Geographic Kids
      • National Museum of American History
        • PBS for Kids
    • Scholastic
    • US House of Representatives for Kids
    • Weekly Reader

Once they're educated voters, be sure to have your kids vote before October 30 in the national mock election for kids.

Comments are open below if you have links or ideas on this topic to pass along.

New Doings at Serendipity

/

There's an update post at Serendipity, to let you know we are still plugging along. Of special note, is Cindy's new creation, a forum for sharing ideas and answering each other's questions about any aspect of Serendipity. Do pop in there and let everyone know what you've been up to. Your ideas will surely bless someone else. There's a new reading list up for our Lewis and Clark Trail and lessons will follow soon. See you along one book-strewn path or another;-)!