Sunday Read Aloud Basket

When I first began searching for Catholic picture books to read aloud to my children, I discovered that our local library system did not carry many of the new, highly engaging books being published. Pretty quickly, I decided that I would just need to start my own "Creative Catholic Library." I wanted frequent access to books that would open up opportunities for discussions with my little ones about God's love and the beauty of the Catholic faith. 

To build up and diversify our library, I add one book a month to our collection. I aim to buy most of my books from Thrift Books, but sometimes the books I want to add to my shelf are not available there. When this happens, I order a few selections from the publisher and wait to "release" the books one month at a time. 

I keep all of our Catholic picture books in a basket that I call the "Sunday Read-Aloud Basket." We rotate through the stories on Sundays, and I encourage my children to remember they can pick from the basket any time during the week. Our basket is now close to overflowing, so I've begun putting away books to save for certain liturgical seasons or simply as a way to reintroduce them later in the year. 

Before starting the Sunday read-aloud basket, I kept all of our religious books intermixed with our secular read-alouds. I loved this in the sense that the kids would see that our faith is the backbone of our life, and everything we do fits into it. The problem I was having was that my children rarely selected these books for read-alouds. They enjoy them, but many of them are deeper content than my children are looking for during our read-aloud time. 

Saving these books for Sunday seems to keep my children's interest piqued, and we all enjoy making Sunday special by learning more about our faith and God's love for us! These books lead to great conversations and help bridge connections with the Mass readings or the celebration itself. 

Once a month, I'll be sharing our pick of the month, along with a few simple activities for helping your children make connections. You can find our monthly selections here!