Post First Holy Communion
Ages 7 - 10 and 10-13
Many parents use the American Baltimore catechetical series. There are several books which cover the whole catechism in increasing degrees of complexity with questions at the end of each chapter (you can buy them quite cheaply from Cenacle Books, here). Personally, I prefer to use the old Penny Catechism, which is a very handy, neat concise summary of the Church's teaching. Unfortunately, at the moment, there is no accompanying teaching book for use with the Penny, so I am working on putting my own notes up for these as they are ready, in the hopes that they will be of use to someone, somewhere, until something better comes along.
See the main Religious Instruction page for an outline of my own schedules using the Penny Catechism for this age group.
Many excellent British books for the primary years are sadly out of print and, as far as I can see, unobtainable at present unless you know someone willing to part with theirs (one such is the 'Light of the World' series, based on the Scottish catechism, from the 1950s). One book which is available as it has been reprinted is 'My Path to Heaven' by Geoffrey Bliss. You can view pages on Amazon, but you might prefer to buy it from Cenacle books, here. This is quite a short book but you can make a lot of it if you read it carefully, study the pictures and have plenty of discussions.
A popular alternative is the 'Faith and Life' series. This is American, and based on the Baltimore catechism (though I believe the newest edition is based on the CCC). This is a very comprehensive series, with lesson books, workbooks, teachers books - typically thorough. It is also quite an expensive investment, though you can get older copies second hand. You can find out all you want to know at the Faith and Life website. If you like this series, it will take you all the way through secondary school level (and there is no need to swap to a UK programme as there is of course no GCSE in the Catholic faith).
For scripture study at around age 12-13, we use the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible series. These can be bought individually and comprise the text, a very good general introduction about the scriptures and how to study them, extensive notes, a commentary on the text and study questions. So far we have used The Gospel of Mark, and The Acts of the the Apostles. Questions for these texts are available on the main Religion and Philosophy page
Ages 7 - 10 and 10-13
Many parents use the American Baltimore catechetical series. There are several books which cover the whole catechism in increasing degrees of complexity with questions at the end of each chapter (you can buy them quite cheaply from Cenacle Books, here). Personally, I prefer to use the old Penny Catechism, which is a very handy, neat concise summary of the Church's teaching. Unfortunately, at the moment, there is no accompanying teaching book for use with the Penny, so I am working on putting my own notes up for these as they are ready, in the hopes that they will be of use to someone, somewhere, until something better comes along.
See the main Religious Instruction page for an outline of my own schedules using the Penny Catechism for this age group.
Many excellent British books for the primary years are sadly out of print and, as far as I can see, unobtainable at present unless you know someone willing to part with theirs (one such is the 'Light of the World' series, based on the Scottish catechism, from the 1950s). One book which is available as it has been reprinted is 'My Path to Heaven' by Geoffrey Bliss. You can view pages on Amazon, but you might prefer to buy it from Cenacle books, here. This is quite a short book but you can make a lot of it if you read it carefully, study the pictures and have plenty of discussions.
A popular alternative is the 'Faith and Life' series. This is American, and based on the Baltimore catechism (though I believe the newest edition is based on the CCC). This is a very comprehensive series, with lesson books, workbooks, teachers books - typically thorough. It is also quite an expensive investment, though you can get older copies second hand. You can find out all you want to know at the Faith and Life website. If you like this series, it will take you all the way through secondary school level (and there is no need to swap to a UK programme as there is of course no GCSE in the Catholic faith).
For scripture study at around age 12-13, we use the Ignatius Catholic Study Bible series. These can be bought individually and comprise the text, a very good general introduction about the scriptures and how to study them, extensive notes, a commentary on the text and study questions. So far we have used The Gospel of Mark, and The Acts of the the Apostles. Questions for these texts are available on the main Religion and Philosophy page