Practical Life & Toddlers:
Join Kel with his occasional practical life lessons for toddlers. Kel is an AMI Assistance to Infancy guide and a Level 1 CGS catechist with specialized training in the spiritual development of toddlers. His joy is helping the littlest among us enter into the abundant joy-filled life with the Good Shepherd using their whole bodies.
Toddler Making Silence
Join Kel in a demonstration and conversation about the Montessori practice of Making Silence with Toddlers. This presentation is the beginning lesson that culminates with the 30 month child able to make silence for quite a while – maybe even 5 minutes.
Toddler Flower Arranging
Kel shows how to offer a young Toddler a lesson on flower arranging. This is layered with nomenclature of small, medium, large. Come enter into the realities of working with Toddlers.
Free Forums
Monthly hang out with our community and ponder theological, practical, and pedagogical speed bumps and conundrums, so we can root deepen in our lives and broaden our understanding of our place in God’s project.
It’s a place is to deepen our roots and grow new branches. The topics are chosen by questions folks send us and by what our collaborators observe and wonder about.
What’s Their Story?
Vicki’s 13 years working with children in a church setting led her to become acutely aware that she needed to know what was going on in children’s lives before they entered the atrium (or classroom). We carefully construct spaces for children to optimally do that.
What happens when we don’t know the outside forces on that child, we might not be able to support that child’s connection to community or God. How do we construct relationships with caregivers to support the child’s life with God?
Practical Life: Spooning
This Practical Life Spooning video is a support for you as you walk with the three to six year old child seeking to become independent. God loves our whole being. Children grow their ability to concentrate, self-regulate, and focus through the work of their hands. These are aids to prayer. We begin with an example of the first presentation and progress through different spoons and items.
Join me in this conversation about supporting the skill of transferring with spoons that physically helps refine the child’s pincher grip, individual joint articulation, and the wrist turning motion so important for many other skills.
Master Classes
Want to understand more deeply. Master classes can be taken in total or broken up so you can purchase just the modules you want.
Refresher Cohorts
“We hear from lots of catechists that they need a little support. They may be in their first year and are feeling overwhelmed and unsure. They may have been out of the atrium for several years and would like to remind themselves of the pedagogy.” Anita
Spend seven week in with a group of folks who have questions, too. Refresh your notes on topics ranging from pedagogy and practical life to the Infancy Narratives and classroom management.
Refresher – Level 1
Refresh your notes on topics ranging from pedagogy and practical life to the Infancy narratives and classroom management. Share, ask questions, try to out ideas, and settle into the 3 to 6 year old’s atrium life with more peace. Anita’s emphasis is on the theological underpinnings, how to sit with the child and their questions, and how to shift with children’s needs.
Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Formation Courses
Committing to the rigorous formation required to be certified as a Catechist in the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is a prayerful decision. Formation is a process of reorienting and reorganizing your approach to children, theology, and even your own self. There is so much joy found in the formation community. Your cohort wrestles along side you through uncertainties, discoveries, and prayers. They journey forward with you as an ongoing sounding board.
Is it challenging, absolutely. Is it worth it. Absolutely. To understand more about the requirements, visit here.
These support materials are only available to folks who have registered in their appropriate course.
St. Tikhon’s CGS Level 1b Practical Life
This is the practical life portion of the St. Tikhon’s formation course.
St. Tikhon’s CGS Formation Level 1b Supports
This course offers general supports for St. Tikhon’s Level 1 Formation Part B.
St. Dominic’s CGS Level 1a Practical Life
This course supports the practical life portion of the St. Dominic’s formation course Level 1a.
St Dominic’s CGS Formation Level 1a Supports
This course offers supports for St. Dominic’s CGS Formation with Anita Vincent.
CGS Formation Level 2
To guide 6-9 year old children, adults are required to enter into a 96 hour formation which includes theological contexts, pedagogical lectures, presentation, material creation, and Socratic conversations about the themes discussed.