Creative Catholic 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 a few books to our collection every year. I'm making an effort to choose books that are not only good read-alouds, but also contain a depth of content that will "grow" with my children. 

(If collecting Catholic picture books doesn't sound appealing to you, consider asking a few Catholic friends if they want to buy and rotate books! You may also appeal to your public library for these books to be purchased, or you can talk with your local parish about adding new children's books to the parish library. Begin by visiting your local library and taking a look at the Catholic picture books that are already available!)

I keep our Catholic picture books in a basket that I call the "Creative Catholic 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. As we add more saint stories, Catholic/Christian chapter books, and biblical story collections, our basket will have to be transitioned into a bookshelf.

Before starting the Creative Catholic 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 daily read-aloud time. 

Saving these books for Sunday (or feast days and other liturgical celebrations) 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 of the Mass 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!