Christa Petzold

Children’s Bibles serve a useful purpose in our homes. From the time our firstborn was four months old (in other words, when we emerged from our sleep-deprived fog enough to realize it was possible to start an intentional bedtime routine), we have read Bible stories with our children before bedtime. We started with an illustrated beginner’s Bible, moving up to Bibles with more of the stories and more details as our kids get older. Now we go back and forth between the Bible and storybook Bibles (as we have a wider range of ages in our family).

Homeschooling takes a ton of work, but there are resources out there to help! Christa Petzold shares her favorite books for teaching the faith while homeschooling. 

More than just a text to memorize, the Small Catechism is a faithful tool for forming children and families in the faith. Hear more about how Christa Petzold, uses the catechism in her household. 

“Mommy, how do you get a baby in your tummy?” If you’re a parent, there’s a good chance you’ve been asked many sweet, innocent questions like this one that are hard to answer.  The questions aren’t hard to answer because the answers are complicated, but they can feel hard to answer because of the importance of the topic. When explaining topics related to sex and marriage to our children, it is always a balancing act.

Recently I wrote this article about our catechism routine in our homeschool. As I was taking the time to think over my family’s rhythms, I found myself contemplating all the day-to-day ways we benefit from having pieces of the Small Catechism memorized in our household.

One of my favorite things about homeschooling is the opportunity to be intentional about catechesis. I was homeschooled as a kid, and am now going through my second homeschooling journey, this time as the mom. I’m on my fourth year of “serious” homeschooling: this year we have a third-grader, a first-grader, a preschooler, and a one-year-old climbing around and keeping things interesting. Since the beginning, we have developed a rhythm of starting each school morning with devotions and catechism time.