I’ve written a number of posts about two beautiful religious education programs that are Montessori based: Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (CGS) and Godly Play. I truly believe they can make religion come alive for children.
Montessori-Based Religious Education Shelves in our Homeschool, 1994
I also wrote about How to Add Godly Play to Your Homeschool. Even so, I think it can be intimidating to think of preparing a Montessori-based religious education program at home when you consider how expensive the materials can be and how beautiful many of the wooden materials are. While I love the beauty of well-crafted wooden materials, they often just aren’t practical for a homeschool unless you have access to a helpful woodworker.
Interestingly, as I was searching for creative ways to prepare CGS and Godly Play materials, I found this post published today at Wonderful in an Easter Kind of Way – The Materials Aren’t the Key. I love this quote:
When Jerome Berryman began his teaching, he used shelving made from boards and cinder blocks, and only one presentation material: figures for the parable of the Good Shepherd, cut from construction paper and placed in a shoe box he had spray-painted gold.
And I love this quote from the article “Store not your treasure here below”:
One of my Godly Play trainers told us that the best presentation she’d ever seen was done with clothes pegs and pine cones!
My Family’s Montessori-Based Religious Education at Home
When my children were little, I started an atrium and was the catechist in a Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program in an Episcopal church. There, we had beautiful wooden materials. I also used some CGS lessons and ideas at home with my children.
But our home “atrium” was much different from the one at church. Our home “atrium” consisted of one shelving unit in our homeschool classroom with prayer materials, a candle snuffer polishing activity, and a number of materials that were simply purchased (often on sale) at our local religious supply store (photo at top of post). The figures were plastic, which wasn’t ideal, but they still gave my children a hands-on religious-education experience.
In CGS, the scripture is read as part of the lesson, whereas Godly Play uses storytelling without the actual scripture reading. Often, I would read the Bible scripture while my son or daughter moved the figures, or my son read the scripture while my daughter moved the figures. We were able to use this for a number of Bible stories that weren’t actually part of the CGS curriculum but that worked well with our current unit study.
Ideas from Other Bloggers and Sites
A number of bloggers give wonderful inspiration with creative ideas for using Montessori-based religious education at home. Often, wool felt is used instead of wood, or Bible figures are created inexpensively with other materials such as wooden peg dolls. Wooden peg dolls are a great option for many of the figures.
Here are some posts I think are especially helpful in providing ideas that work well at home:
Godly Play: Part 1, Godly Play: Part 2, The New Godly Play Space and other Godly Play posts from Watkins Every Flavor Beans
Godly Play resources from Becky Ramsey
Wooden Peg Doll Good Shepherd and Polymer Clay Sheep (Photo from Explore and Express)
Godly Play posts from Explore and Express (Photo from Sneak Preview), including Godly Play 101 series
Godly Play materials posts from Wonderful in an Easter Kind of Way
Godly Play posts from All Play on Sunday
Godly Play posts from Our Country Road
Godly Play – Adam and Eve (Photo by Julie at The Adventures of Bear)
Godly Play posts from The Adventures of Bear (Photo from Godly Play – Adam and Eve)
Godly Play sets on Flickr by judy_jowers
School: Opportunities for Reflection and Prayer from Spiritual Child Network
The Atrium Environment from Thoughts from the Sheepfold
Catholic Montessori Album/Manual and Catholic Montessori Albums Level II for Ages 6-9 at Montessori Candy
Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Home Altar Work (Photo from Training Happy Hearts)
Catechesis of the Good Shepherd at home from Training Happy Hearts.
Good Shepherd and Sheep (Photo from Discovery Days and Montessori Moments)
UPDATE: On 8/17/11, Discovery Days and Montessori Moments published a lovely example of a good shepherd and sheep for at-home use with Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.
Have you created any materials for Montessori-based religious education at home?
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Really enjoyed this post, Deb. I think I’ve commented before that we want to incorporate more Godly play in our classroom – this post is a great resource. I’d love to know more detail of what’s on the shelves in your homeschool photo. 🙂
Hugs,
Mari-Ann
Thanks so much for your kind comment, Mari-Ann! This photo was taken during the liturgical Ordinary Time shortly after Pentecost, so I had green as the liturgical color. I kept the materials out from our work with the Last Supper through the Empty Tomb because Will and Christina enjoyed working with that a lot. I also kept certain types of independent work in those orange cubbies in the background (which had been the children’s cubbies inherited from my Montessori school). There were maps of the Land of Israel and Jerusalem at Jesus’ time on the walls behind the shelves.
I’m not positive what the papers on the easel were. Will and Christina had recently turned 9 and 4. I think they were probably scripture references and materials for them to enact the stories on their own.
Next to the easel is the Parable of the Mustard Seed with the scripture on a calligraphy paper and actual mustard seeds from the Holy Land in the pretty round box. (I had mustard seeds and lots of herbs and other materials from the Holy Land Museum in Minneapolis.) Next to that is a basket of pretty prayer cards from a religious bookstore. On the right is what would normally be on a prayer table except that I used a cloth place mat the color of the liturgical season.
The middle shelf has candle snuffer polishing, a basket of herbs and other items from the Holy Land Museum (including a real crown of thorns), and our Nativity materials (which we always kept out).
On the bottom are the upper room for the Last Supper, Pontius Pilate, the Tomb, and the figures we used.
We had to rotate materials, typically using Old Testament stories in the fall and parables before Lent (unless our unit study had a different Bible story). I hope that helps!
Wow Deb, this is really good and hard work into researching and putting this together. I’m sure this post will be of immense help to anyone wanting to incorporate Godly play in the classroom.. I really enjoy the Jerome Berryman quote as well 🙂
Thanks, Fernando! I really enjoyed searching for the resources – and love that there’s so much great inspiration available online! 🙂
Wow, Cool Deb! Thank you for this post. I’ve made some materials for use in my home to use with Elizabeth Papandrea’s Catholic Montessori Album ( http://www.montessoricandy.com/2011/03/catholic-montessori-albummanual-update.html ). There are some easy one’s you can make just finding stuff from the craft store. Like for the Pearl of Great Price, I bought the items at Hobby Lobby. Thanks again for this post. I’m going to have fun looking through the links!
Thanks so much for your comment and link, Susana! I should have thought to add your post. I’ve added it to my post now. It’s wonderful that the album is available online! And thanks for your wonderful ideas! 🙂
Ooo! Thanks for sharing some of these links! I’m always looking for more inspiration for my boxes. The kids really enjoy them! I LOVE this Flickr set of Godly Play sets: http://www.flickr.com/photos/judyjowers/sets/72157623049405610/
Thanks so much! I love what you’ve done with your boxes! And thanks for the link – that’s such a creative resource! I just added it to my post. 🙂
Thanks, Deb. This is a wonderful post. Your comment to Mari-Ann was helpful too. So far, I have only just made materials to go with the old testament stories, but am hoping to read more of the Godly Play book to figure out how to incorporate more of the liturgical year into our materials.
Thanks for your nice comment, Julie! I love your creative use of materials to create Godly Play sets! I’ll have fun watching for your future posts! 🙂
Thank you so much for the link-back. I do think that one of your strengths is in spotting a common thread running through various posts (or to remember earlier posts sharing such a thread), and to summarize them for others.
Thanks, Storyteller! I really enjoy searching for resources online – and it’s wonderful there are so many Godly Play and CGS resources now! Thanks for the great work you share from Finland! 🙂
Thank you for this post! I will definitely be coming back to it and to all the links it contains for inspiration, as autumn unfolds, and, with it, my intention to begin anew our exploration of CGS. (Godly Play sounds amazing, too, but I cannot afford another book. I can, however, borrow ideas I find online, so keep sharing – THANKS!)
A description of our humble beginning attempts at CGS can be found found at http://traininghappyhearts.blogspot.com/2009/10/halo-for-jesus.html I admittedly continued in fits and starts after that, so I never wrote more on it. Maybe I will this year!
Thanks so much, Martianne! I loved your explanation in your post: “God’s grace took over where my preparation may have lacked. He made perfect my imperfect attempt to finally begin the CGS journey…” I added your link and photo to my post! 🙂
Delighted that you enjoyed my post and also glad to have you echo my own reflections back to me as I head back into my CGS journey. It gives me more confidence.
Your words were awesome! Glad to hear you have more confidence as you start the new homeschool year! 🙂
Hi Deb,
Thanks so much for linking to my blog in this post. Your blog is such a great resource and I am so grateful for it (and you!) 🙂
Thanks so much for your kind comment, Leslie! I’m very grateful for you and your blog, too! 🙂
I finally posted another Sensory Godly Play lesson with pics from at home play and wanted to share it with you. It’s at http://traininghappyhearts.blogspot.com/2011/12/parables-of-jesus-parable-of-good.html
Loving your sie; I got it from Twylah. Thanks btw for the wrapping paper tube idea…did it myself with my girls and blogged about it, leaving a link to your page with pleasure. Thanks for the memories!
Gianne at cowsgomooandducksgoquack.blogspot.com
Figures for parables should be 2D, not 3D at Catechesis of Good shepherd. It is important because it didn’t happen, they are just parables. 3D figures are used for stories of Jesus’s childhood…
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