Resources

Resources

The Kind Stranger
Once in a peaceful village, there lived a boy named Samuel who couldn’t hear or speak. Although Samuel was a bright and joyful child, he often felt lonely because he… Read More
Children are a Vital Part of Their Parish Community
The parish community provides a supportive environment for families to grow in their faith. Children can support their parish community in meaningful ways. Here are a few ideas: Participate in… Read More
Being Good Stewards of the Earth and God’s Creation
In the book of Genesis, God granted humankind “dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the… Read More
The Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist
Jesus as the living bread is a concept that refers to the Eucharist, which is the sacrament in which Catholics believe that bread and wine are transformed into the body… Read More
Explaining the Images of God in the Bible
When explaining the images of God in the Bible to children, it’s important to use language and examples that they can understand. Here are some suggestions: Father You can explain… Read More
Teaching Your Children How to Talk to God
Conversation with God, also known as prayer, is one primary way to foster a relationship with God. Teaching children to talk to God, or to pray, is an important aspect… Read More
Teaching Children to Come to the Aid of Others
Teaching children to come to the aid of others is a fundamental aspect of living out the teachings of Jesus Christ. In Matthew 25:40, Jesus tells us, “Amen, I say… Read More
Teaching your children about The Holy Spirit
Parents play an important role in teaching their children about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is one of the three persons of the Holy Trinity, along with God the… Read More
Nurturing Faith and Wisdom
The Importance of Reading the Bible to Children In the journey of nurturing a child’s faith, reading the Bible holds immense significance. The Bible is not just a collection of… Read More
Nurturing Faith through Art
Empowering Children’s Spiritual Expression Storytelling through Art Children can express their faith by using art as a medium for storytelling. Encourage them to illustrate their favorite Bible stories or create… Read More
Nurturing Love and Guidance for Children
Parental blessings are a beautiful and meaningful way for parents to express their love, support, and guidance to their children. Through these blessings, parents invoke God’s grace upon their children,… Read More

What Parents Should Know About How Children Learn about Their Faith

Faith is more caught than taught

Words Describe Our Experiences

Faith Grows Over Time

The Early Years Are Essential

Children Want to Know ‘Why?’

It’s Up To You

The Keys to Success

Practice Makes (nearly) Perfect

The first thing you need to do is be a parent — do what children need parents to do: love them, protect them, guide them, show them how much they are valued as a child of God, and invite them to share their gifts and talents with others as a sign of God’s generosity. If you create a family environment in which these things are present, you will have created a solid foundation for your child’s faith. This foundation will be even stronger if children see you participating in a faith community which helps you experience, understand, express, and live with faith. Practice your own faith and let the children see how important it is to you.

According to Leif Kehrwald, an expert in family faith development, the four keys to children’s faith formation are things every parent can manage: 
   • rituals and traditions, which help children experience their faith; 
   • caring conversations, which help children learn about their faith; 
   • prayer, which helps children express their faith; and 
   • serving others, which helps children act with faith.

Because faith shapes how we feel and how we think, helping our children grow in faith means helping them do four things: 
   • experience faith, 
   • learn faith, 
   • express faith and 
   • act with faith. 

In the early years, nurturing faith will focus primarily on helping children experience and express faith.  The ability to learn and act with faith develops more gradually as the child’s ability to think and choose develops.  Everything else, including formal religious education, depends on this experience. Religious professionals can teach your child about faith, but they cannot give your child the fundamental experience of faith that he or she receives in your home.

Link to section – how to support your child’s faith development

As children become more consciously aware of the world around them, one of their first – and persistent – questions is “why?” This is an indication that the child is beginning his or her life-long effort to understand the world. This ability develops gradually, but from early on a child will not only want to know what a parent believes, but why the parent believes. In other words, they will want to know what difference faith makes in a parent’s life. This is the biggest challenge for parents – being able to show and explain, in ways a child can understand, how faith makes a real difference in practical, everyday ways.

The first four or five years of life are critically important in a child’s faith development.  Long before a child can think about faith, he or she is developing basic perceptions and attitudes about reality which may or may not be consistent with what they will later learn about faith.  Many experts agree this experience begins before birth, in a pre-conscious or sub-conscience way, while the child is growing in the womb.  No one has more influence over these pre-birth and early life experiences than parents and others responsible for the child’s primary care. 

Link to Alphabits

Forests filled with trees do not just appear. Seeds are planted. The ground is watered. Trees grow. 

In the same way, the seeds of faith are planted. Faith grows and develops as we do, and it changes as we grow.  The faith of a young child is different from the faith of an older child, a young adult, or a mature adult.  This growth occurs because our experience of faith and our ability to consciously reflect on, or think about, faith develops gradually as we grow.  As a parent, it is helpful to understand how faith grows and changes so that you are providing what your child needs at various stages in his or her faith development.

[document on stages of faith coming]

Just as we tell stories at home to help young people understand truth, beauty, and goodness, our faith has a long tradition of telling stories to teach. As those stories develop and as faith communities reflect on their experiences, they develop certain statements about their faith which describe their faith experiences.  These statements are expressed in creeds or doctrines.  Faith-statements are not the same as facts we can “prove;” they are belief-statements which express what we have chosen to believe because they explain mysteries about life in a way that makes sense to us.

[link to section on what parents can teach their children]

It is often said that children do not “learn” faith, they “catch” faith.  In fact, this is true of human beings at any age.  Human persons come to faith first through personal experience.  These faith experiences determine how we perceive reality – they first change how we feel, then how we think and finally how we act.  Coming to faith (what we call “conversion”) always begins in the heart, and it is always the result of a personal experience or encounter which shows us the deeper mysteries of God’s presence and love. This is why the Baptism Rite ends with a prayer calling mom and dad the “first witnesses of faith” – it is up to parents (and godparents, grandparents, etc.) to witness the faith to young children.

  1. Faith is more caught than taught

It is often said that children do not “learn” faith, they “catch” faith.  In fact, this is true of human beings at any age.  Human persons come to faith first through personal experience.  These faith experiences determine how we perceive reality – they first change how we feel, then how we think and finally how we act.  Coming to faith (what we call “conversion”) always begins in the heart, and it is always the result of a personal experience or encounter which shows us the deeper mysteries of God’s presence and love. This is why the Baptism Rite ends with a prayer calling mom and dad the “first witnesses of faith” – it is up to parents (and godparents, grandparents, etc.) to witness the faith to young children.

  1. Words Describe Our Experiences

Just as we tell stories at home to help young people understand truth, beauty, and goodness, our faith has a long tradition of telling stories to teach. As those stories develop and as faith communities reflect on their experiences, they develop certain statements about their faith which describe their faith experiences.  These statements are expressed in creeds or doctrines.  Faith-statements are not the same as facts we can “prove;” they are belief-statements which express what we have chosen to believe because they explain mysteries about life in a way that makes sense to us.

[link to section on what parents can teach their children]

  1. Faith Grows Over Time

Forests filled with trees do not just appear. Seeds are planted. The ground is watered. Trees grow. 

In the same way, the seeds of faith are planted. Faith grows and develops as we do, and it changes as we grow.  The faith of a young child is different from the faith of an older child, a young adult, or a mature adult.  This growth occurs because our experience of faith and our ability to consciously reflect on, or think about, faith develops gradually as we grow.  As a parent, it is helpful to understand how faith grows and changes so that you are providing what your child needs at various stages in his or her faith development.

[document on stages of faith coming]

  1. The Early Years Are Essential

The first four or five years of life are critically important in a child’s faith development.  Long before a child can think about faith, he or she is developing basic perceptions and attitudes about reality which may or may not be consistent with what they will later learn about faith.  Many experts agree this experience begins before birth, in a pre-conscious or sub-conscience way, while the child is growing in the womb.  No one has more influence over these pre-birth and early life experiences than parents and others responsible for the child’s primary care. 

Link to Alphabits

  1. Children Want to Know ‘Why?’

As children become more consciously aware of the world around them, one of their first – and persistent – questions is “why?”  This is an indication that the child is beginning his or her life-long effort to understand the world.  This ability develops gradually, but from early on a child will not only want to know what a parent believes, but why the parent believes.  In other words, they will want to know what difference faith makes in a parent’s life.  This is the biggest challenge for parents – being able to show and explain, in ways a child can understand, how faith makes a real difference in practical, everyday ways.  

  1. It’s Up To You

Because faith shapes how we feel and how we think, helping our children grow in faith means helping them do four things: 
   • experience faith, 
   • learn faith, 
   • express faith and 
   • act with faith. 

In the early years, nurturing faith will focus primarily on helping children experience and express faith.  The ability to learn and act with faith develops more gradually as the child’s ability to think and choose develops.  Everything else, including formal religious education, depends on this experience. Religious professionals can teach your child about faith, but they cannot give your child the fundamental experience of faith that he or she receives in your home.

Link to section – how to support your child’s faith development 

  1. The Keys to Success

According to Leif Kehrwald, an expert in family faith development, the four keys to children’s faith formation are things every parent can manage: 
   • rituals and traditions, which help children experience their faith; 
   • caring conversations, which help children learn about their faith; 
   • prayer, which helps children express their faith; and 
   • serving others, which helps children act with faith.

  1. Practice Makes (nearly) Perfect

The first thing you need to do is be a parent — do what children need parents to do: love them, protect them, guide them, show them how much they are valued as a child of God, and invite them to share their gifts and talents with others as a sign of God’s generosity.  If you create a family environment in which these things are present, you will have created a solid foundation for your child’s faith.  This foundation will be even stronger if children see you participating in a faith community which helps you experience, understand, express, and live with faith. Practice your own faith and let the children see how important it is to you. 

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