Alicia Van Hecke

Faith and Life Religion Series

Book cover: 'Faith and Life Religion Series'

This is a very popular religion series for Catholic homeschoolers. There are probably many reasons for this: they're reasonably priced, they're filled with beautiful selections of fine religious art, and they're unquestionably orthodox. The series incorporates questions from The Baltimore Catechism for memorization. Some homeschoolers don't like the brief content (the text contains approximately one lesson per week - although there is also a work book, teacher's manual and extensive resource guide available for each grade).

Catholic Bible Quiz: Elementary Level

Book cover: 'Catholic Bible Quiz: Elementary Level'

This book provides 200 questions and answers - forty each in five different categories - the Law, the Prophets, Wisdom, the Gospel and the Epistles. The book is designed to be used as a quiz game - keeping score (based on the difficulty of the questions - each question is awarded a particular point value) to determine the winner. It could just as easily be used as an informal reinforcement of Bible Study. It is very similar in format to the New Catholic Quiz listed above.

The New Catholic Quiz: Second Grade

Book cover: 'The New Catholic Quiz: Second Grade'

Based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church. See description above.

Sample questions from this book (page one)
God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are called ________.
(a. the Communion of Saints, b. the Most Holy Trinity, c. the Beatitudes)
The Eucharist helps us to ___________.
(a. dream, b. think. c. love)
Jesus teaches that forgiving others is better than revenge. True or false?
Prayer is more like _________.
(a. running away, b. looking for fun, c. thirsting for water)

The New Catholic Quiz: First Grade

Book cover: 'The New Catholic Quiz: First Grade'

This book provides 200 questions (50 each in four different categories based on the four sections of the Catechism of the Catholic Church - Beliefs, Sacraments, Morality and Prayer) to help children reinforce basic points of Catholic doctrine. Each page has a question from each category with answers on the back of the page. The color-coding makes for easy reading and checking of answers. My children really enjoyed the sometimes humorous choices for the multiple-choice questions. I thought these made the Quiz more engaging and helped them be more memorable for children.

A Catholic Garden of Puzzles

Book cover: 'A Catholic Garden of Puzzles'
Author(s): 
Sandra Garant

This book includes nearly 100 word puzzles (for ages seven to adult - varying levels of difficulty) based on Catholic beliefs, prayers, litanies, precepts of the Church, famous Catholics of the past and present (nice to have some current material sometimes!), the Popes, etc. The book is organized by topic (not difficulty level) and includes five main sections - God, Scripture, the Blessed Virgin, the Saints and Virtues, and Catholic Life and Traditions. Types of puzzles include: Connect the words, Restoration, Vowelless, Purgation, Cryptogram, Which Way?

Pope Fiction

Book cover: 'Pope Fiction: Answers to 30 Myths and Miconceptions about the Papacy'
Author(s): 
Patrick Madrid

This is a wonderful, very readable, book on history and apologetics that takes readers (chronologically) through 30 myths about the papacy and provides very clear answers. The myths cover topics such as: that Peter wasn't really a pope (because he refered to himself as a "fellow presbyter", that the Rock referred to in Matthew 16:10 was not really Peter, that Peter wasn't the ultimate authority in the Church because he was rebuked by St.

The History of the Papacy

This CD ROM provides a complete and orthodox look at the History of the Papacy in a professional and attractive interactive format. Each of the Popes from St. Peter through Pope John Paul II are presented with a short biography (from one or two paragraphs to one or two pages each - the text is taken from The Popes Through the Ages by Joseph S. Brusher, S.J. - 1959), numerous images (portraits, coins, commemorative stamps, statuary) and the coat of arms.

Catholic Book of Quotations

Book cover: 'Catholic Book of Quotations'
Author(s): 
Leo Knowles

This inexpensive paperback offers a wide variety of memorable Catholic quotations from both ancient and modern sources. The book is organized according to subject. Here are just a few: Abortion, Art, Baptism, Blessed Sacrament, Conscience, Devil, Divine Mercy, Dying Words, Family, Fasting, Free Will, Generosity, Grace, Guardian Angel, Incarnation, Justice, Marriage, Our Lady, Prayer, Priesthood, Rosary, Sin, Suffering, Transubstantiation, Virtue and Vocation. Authors quoted in this work include: St. Augustine, Pope John Paul II, Msgr. Robert Hugh Benson, St. Josemaria Escriva, St.

The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima

This is a full length color movie of the story of Our Lady's apparitions to three children in Fatima, Portugal in 1917. It is faithful to the true story with just enough "Hollywood" to make it entertaining and likable even for the little ones. The scene where the three children are interrogated by the government officials might be is a little intense, so I wouldn't recommend having your little ones watch it without supervision. Otherwise, it's a great film for the whole family. My daughter (almost 6 years old) received this for Easter (Thank you Grandma! : ) and absolutely loved it.