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I was just casually shopping at Walmart in the middle of my glorious summer vacation when I saw it: Back to School Supplies. In the middle of July! How rude!
Here in Iowa, our school doesn't start until the third or fourth week of August so we had plenty of time, but in a way, I was thankful for the reminder to soak up these last few weeks of summer before school starts this fall.
It got me thinking about how we moms can help our kiddos prepare for the school year best. I thought about new back packs, school clothes, shoes and socks and of course the school supplies! But then I thought about the difficulties and stresses they may face DURING the school year. I knew I had to think of a way to help prepare their souls for back to school, Catholic style!
So we hosted a Catholic back to school session for moms and daughters! This session could be for any kid and any parent, but because of the book Bloom I wrote, I wanted to speak to that Mom/Daughter passion of mine.
Also, you could do this at home with your kids, no need to do it at parish level if that seems too intimidating!
The Catholic Back to School Session for the Soul Plan:
What: Moms and daughters come and drink tea and have cakes and paint canvas bags to be used in Mass and Adoration!
Where: We met in the meeting space at our parish but it could be in someone’s home too!
Who: All moms and their daughters old enough to work with acrylic paint!
Cost: I charged $10 per person to cover supplies!
Supplies:
Canvas bags
Catholic Stencils
Paint brushes
Acrylic paint
Folders
Spiral Notebooks
Pens
Colored Pencils
Pencil sharpeners
Pencil pouches
Mass Helper Flyers
My Mass Sheet
How to pray the Rosary worksheets
Tea bags
little cakes
bags of popcorn
Catholic Back to School Session Set Up:
Before everyone arrived, I set up three tables:
One with my tea set, electric kettle, tea bags (I used the Red Rose Dessert Tea bags which were a huge hit!), little dessert bites from Sams (we used lemon cake bites and brownie bites) and had bags of popcorn too!
One with the canvas bags (from Amazon), Catholic Stencils, paint, paintbrushes, and acrylic paint (with paper plates as pallets for paint).
One with supplies to aid in Mass and Adoration:
Folders for:
Holy Heroes' Mass Prep Coloring Page and Beginner Reader's sheets, found for download on their Mass Prep Page that updates weekly!
My Mass Sheet which helps people of all ages to take notes during Mass to keep you engaged! Print off several and put in folder.
Rosary Coloring Sheet (Designed by the awesome DRE of my parish!)
Spiral notebooks for taking notes, writing poems, etc.
Pens
Pks of colored pencils
Pencil sharpeners
Catholic Saint Pencil Pouches (I ordered several of these from Autom!)
Catholic Back to School Session Outline:
I invited the moms and daughters as they came in to get themselves some tea and load their plate with sweet bites and or popcorn.
We invited moms and daughters to sit with one another. I welcomed them all and started with prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to guide our conversation and time.
I wrote the following questions for moms and daughters to discuss on the white board, but you could have a printout for the tables too.
How are you feeling about the beginning of the school year and why? (excited, nervous, dreading, hopeful, etc.)
Do we have a "back to school for the soul" plan (prayer routine) to receive the grace from God to have an awesome year? If not, let's design a prayer routine together! You can use this Prayer routine menu to help!
Do we have a regular time to check in and talk one-on-one to discuss how school is going? I suggest having a weekly Tuck in Time. Read about Tuck in Time and how incredible it is for building relationships with your kids!
Then I told them the next hour or so was for them to discuss, paint their bags, and stuff with supplies. It could be in whatever order worked best for them!
Some other things:
I brought my personal tea set and encouraged moms to bring theirs as well!
I designed the flyer to send out to moms on Canva. Here's the flyer we used-feel free to make a copy and use it!
I'd love to invite you to bring this idea to your DRE or Youth Minister or Faith Formation Coordinator at your parish! OR you coordinate it yourself! Comment if you use this at your parish and I would LOVE to see pictures of the bags you create!
One last note-I absolutely loved how engage the kids were with their Mass bags. They loving having something that was “theirs” that they could work with to engage with Mass!
Happy Back to School, everyone!
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