Many years for the feast of the Holy Cross! This is such a great feast day to celebrate as it brilliantly shows the power of God at work through the sign of the cross. For little children, I think the story of Saint Constantine is one that can be particularly helpful in understanding why we have such reverence for it and why we make the sign of the cross on ourselves all the time.
Today we read the account in our favorite Lives of the Saints book. We love reading about the Saints and feast days in children's books, but of course this isn't always possible, so we have begun reading to our 4 year old out of the Synaxarion and Rostov's Great Collection of the Lives of the Saints. A friend of mine and her husband read their small children the Lives of the Saints every night at bed time, and I think this is a beautiful practice. Giving them exposure to words that are above their current understanding helps in the expanding of their vocabularies. It also sends them to sleep thinking of God and His endless love for us.
Miss A understood about half of what I read, so we talked about what was going on every so often. Her favorite part was when Saint Constantine and the people saw the sign of the cross in the daytime sky, made of brilliant stars, with the words, "BY THIS SIGN CONQUER." We happened to have some foam sticker stars hanging around, so of course we made a craft!
Today we read the account in our favorite Lives of the Saints book. We love reading about the Saints and feast days in children's books, but of course this isn't always possible, so we have begun reading to our 4 year old out of the Synaxarion and Rostov's Great Collection of the Lives of the Saints. A friend of mine and her husband read their small children the Lives of the Saints every night at bed time, and I think this is a beautiful practice. Giving them exposure to words that are above their current understanding helps in the expanding of their vocabularies. It also sends them to sleep thinking of God and His endless love for us.
Miss A understood about half of what I read, so we talked about what was going on every so often. Her favorite part was when Saint Constantine and the people saw the sign of the cross in the daytime sky, made of brilliant stars, with the words, "BY THIS SIGN CONQUER." We happened to have some foam sticker stars hanging around, so of course we made a craft!
Before she began, I had her tell me 1.) Who put the stars in the shape of a cross in the sky, 2.) What was God telling Saint Constantine with this sign, 3.) What did Saint Constantine put at the head of his army when they marched upon Rome. With that fresh on our minds, I asked her to draw Saint Constantine looking up at the sky. Above him, she made a cross with our foam sticker stars. She took this opportunity to emphasize, additionally, that boys also have eyelashes. I think it turned out well, and even led to a second excellent rendition, featuring Saint Constantine and his army marching with their cross.