New Dormition Printable

 I've been using this printable Dormition Calendar for many years, but this year I decided to quickly sketch up a new one that includes the cross. We bring the cross into the church, venerating it throughout this fast and remembering how God heals us through Christ's saving work. The cross is a comforting reminder for us, as we prepare for the death of the Theotokos, that we do not grieve without hope. Death is overcome and becomes now the entrance into the mystery of life with Christ. We look to the Theotokos as the leader of Christians, the first to believe in Christ, the first to enter into life with Him. Most Holy Theotokos, pray to God for us!

Color a flower each day to decorate the icon and cross for the feast! Just grab the image and save it. I've always thought it would be lovely to do this activity by gluing paper or other fake flowers onto the paper each day, but we haven't done that yet. We do love to bring flowers to church for this feast!

Back to School with Calendar Printables (and other stuff)

We're back to school this week! I'm really grateful for a return to routine, oh yes, I am.

We've returned to a mostly Charlotte Mason style again this year, although we're keeping many elements of the Waldorf program we used last year. Its hard, really hard, to make all the choices about what and how to teach and to feel confident you've made the right decision. But I'm really appreciating Ambleside Online this year, and I'm feeling more and more confident that what we're doing works well for us.

Calendar Cards sitting on our kitchen corner shelf

Last year, I shared these feast day cards, and as I noted at the time I had forgotten a few important feasts. We moved our school work from upstairs to the kitchen table (which has been great), and suddenly our feast day cards have a nice place to sit and are much easier to see and remember. This has worked really well for us as a Church Year Calendar, and our whole family has enjoyed them beyond school time.

Initially I kept the extras in my teaching folder, but now the entire stacks sits on this corner shelf. I flip the card to the back when the feast/fast is passed to see what's coming up next (being mindful of moveable feasts and feast days in the middle of a fast). You can download the updated file here.  There are 40 cards: one for the 12 major feasts, many popular saints, and fasting periods. Each card includes the date of the feast and the troparion (or other relevant hymn for fasts). I printed mine through fed ex printing on nice card stock (and they even cut the pages for me).

We're enjoying our Dormition Fast printable, and looking forward to celebrating the feast this weekend with lots of flowers!

I made some new animal bookmarks (sea animals and horses) for my girls. You can find the animal bookmark printables on my craft blog.

Happy New School Year!

Dormition Fast Calendar Printable and Lesson Plan

Briefly, this is my lesson plan for a class at our mission church this week on the Dormition. We have all of our kids in one class, so its a challenge to try to keep everyone's attention and not let the noise level get out of control! I'm thinking of telling the story with flannelgraph this week - can't wait!

Dormition Fast Lesson:

1. Start with songs and finger plays (“It is truly meet,” “this is the church…” “Our Father”

2. Teach kids to sing refrain, “Most holy Theotokos, save us,” for the paraklesis. 

3. Tell the story of the Dormition in an exciting way.

4. What does it mean? God raised her up and took her to heaven, and he will someday do that for all the faithful. 

5. Give kids Dormition Calendar with instructions to color one flower per day to count the days of the fast and celebrate the feast. 

6. Encourage children to bring flowers to the church for Christ and his mother on the feast of the Dormition (Saturday, August 15, or the next Sunday if their family can’t come).  

Grab the Dormition Fast calendar png above, or print the pdf below. 

 

"Finally it must be stressed that, in all of the feasts of the Virgin Mother of God in the Church, the Orthodox Christians celebrate facts of their own lives in Christ and the Holy Spirit. What happens to Mary happens to all who imitate her holy life of humility, obedience, and love. With her all people will be “blessed” to be “more honorable than the cherubim and beyond compare more glorious than the seraphim” if they follow her example. All will have Christ born in them by the Holy Spirit. All will become temples of the living God. All will share in the eternal life of His Kingdom who live the life that Mary lived."

The Dormition Fast

Feast Day: August 1-14
Liturgical color: dark blue
Themes: the death and resurrection of our mother the Theotokos, and of all the faithful in Christ

Special prayers: the Small Paraklesis

Around the web:
Festal Learning Basket from Charming the Birds from the Trees
On Ancient Faith Radio
Readings for the fast: 15 Days for Panagia