Growing Up Catholic Doorways to Faith
A flexible annual curriculum built around short learning center style activities. Each session covers a broad category of faith, such as Scripture, prayer, service, or the liturgical year. Offer up to 11 sessions per year.
Content Overview & Preview
The curriculum is organized into numbered years, each with monthly sessions on similar focus areas. Most sessions have 5-10 short activities.
| Month | Focus Area / Session Title | Description | Preview | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | September | Scripture: Introduction to the Bible | Seven activities to introduce families to the Bible and Revelation, plus an enthronement ritual to use in the session and have families use at home. | Preview English Preview Spanish | |
| 2 | October | Liturgy & Worship: Introduction to Liturgy | Eight activities introducing various aspects of Catholic liturgy, including the liturgical year, sacramentals, and parts of the church building. | Preview English Preview Spanish | |
| 3 | November | Service: Fall Service Activities | Six hands-on service projects with a fall theme, with connections that help families reflect on our call to serve as Christians. | Preview English Preview Spanish | |
| 4 | November | Advent: Wreath-Making Party | Instructions and tips for holding your own parish event in which families make their own wreaths and bring them home. Includes take-home prayer sheets. Make this an annual event families look forward to! | Preview English Preview Spanish | |
| 5 | December | Church Year: Sensing the Seasons | Five activities—each related to one of the five senses—that help families understand the seasons of the church year and the liturgical calendar from different angles. | Preview English Preview Spanish | |
| 6 | January | Prayer: Forms of Prayer | Eleven activities to help families learn and experience five forms of prayer: petition, contrition, blessing, praise, and thanksgiving. | Preview English Preview Spanish | |
| 7 | February | Loving Relationships: Conversations about L.I.F.E. | Interactive, engaging, age-specific family sessions on loving and safe relationships. | Preview English Preview Spanish | |
| 8 | March | Lent: Lenten Plans for Busy Families | Talking points and four activities to coach families to embrace the Lenten season and choose what they will do differently this year. Includes calendars that you can customize to include your parish events. | Preview English Preview Spanish | |
| 9 | April | Saints: St. Catherine of Siena | Six activities for learning about this saint and what we believe as Catholics through her example. Includes hands-on crafts accompanied by meaningful learning and discussion. | Preview English Preview Spanish | |
| 10 | May | Mary: Mary, the Mother of God | Seven activities to help families better understand and encounter Mary, the mother of God, and ways to pray to her. | Preview English Preview Spanish | |
| 11 | June | Service & Justice: Seeing Jesus: I Was Hungry | Seven hunger-related activities for service and justice rooted in Matthew 25 ("Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food..."). | Preview English Preview Spanish | |
Features & Options
Languages
All leader guides, parent pages, and activities are provided in English and Spanish.
Age Levels
Individual activities support a range of ages, with options from ages 5-14.
Parish-Hosted
Designed for parish-hosted events, which can be held in small spaces like classrooms or large ones like parish halls.
Components
Leader Guides
We provide a leader guide for each session to guide you through how to best host your event.
Passports
Editable passport pages list name, description, location, and age level for each activity.
Activity Pages
Most activities are built around an activity page, although other simple materials may be involved.
Parent Pages
A page with simple, step-by-step instructions coaches parents to lead their child through each activity.
Session Walk-through
The structure of events is flexible, but we give you a simple standard format for most activity-based sessions.
Introduction
We provide an opening prayer and talking points for "Setting the Scene" to introduce the topic.
Activities
Families can move around your space from activity to activity based on their own interest.
Closing Ritual
We suggest large group sharing prompts and a closing prayer to end each session.
Ordering & Pricing
- Annual, per-child pricing. Simply pay $3 per child using the program each year (minimum 3). There is no additional cost for leader components. You print your own handouts.
- You can place an initial minimum order and then later purchase more licenses once you know the number of families who will be participating (even if you have to wait until after the event).