Over the past four years, our boys have completed Years One and Two of the Blue Knights Boys’ Club twice, first in a group that was led by all of the dads on a rotating basis, and then with another group that was led by a mom. This year our boys will finally be moving onto Year Three here at home with their Dad & I!
They are very excited, and even more so, with the knowledge that they have a new “online” group, and will each be assigned a new pen pal within the group to write on a monthly basis! (Thanks to everyone that has sent in the registration for this Online Group! I will be emailing you all soon with a list of all the members and pen-pal assignments. I am also in the process of setting up the private Facebook group for this Online Club! Thank you all for your patience!)
The third year of the Blue Knights Boys’ Club is based on Missionary Saints. I already posted our schedule and link-up dates, and you can also see that I’ve moved the meetings around to coincide with feast days we already celebrate. I had to simplify this as much as possible… I am already not able to keep up with everything I would like to do with my children! 😉
Anyhow, our first Meeting was based on St. Peter! Here is an overview of what we have been doing in honor of this great Missionary Saint:
The Leader’s Guide suggests making a Fishing Pole using 3′ dowels, string, duct tape, markers and 3×5 cards with various words written on them like grace, truth, goodness, virtue, etc.
However, instead of making the craft the boys actually went fishing with their Dad and my youngest brother, their Uncle David. They had so much fun, and they got to spend some special time with their Dad. My boys do enough crafts, and I hope to incorporate more physical activities for their Blue Knights projects when the weather and our schedule allow. (For example: Next month is Saint Paul. Instead of just crafting a walking stick, I am hoping that they can go on a hike with their dad instead!)
As another activity in honor of St. Peter, I planned a back-to-school field trip with a few other families, to go back to Crater Lake! It was a gorgeous day, and the lake looked even bluer than the last time we were there in August!
The Leader’s Guide suggests playing a Fishing For Men, which we played this last summer during some of our Saintly Summer Fun. (You can see pictures here: Saintly Summer Fun :: Saints Peter and Paul) It has been raining here this week though, so I opted to create a Fishing for Men (Go Fish!) game based on all of the Missionary Saints that the boys will be studying this year!
For a Blue Knights themed snack, we choose the St. Peter Cupcakes that I had come up with this past summer. The boys had been wanting to try out their idea of making the boats out of caramels instead of the orange candy slices we used last time. They also wanted to color the sails/shields for the boats, using the color yellow/gold for the keys and red for the sail, representing the fact that St. Peter was a martyr. I loved that they decided this on their own, with out any prompting or encouragement from their mom! 😉
They had so much fun flattening the caramels with a fondant roller and then molding them into the shapes of boats!
- Saint Peter the Apostle
- The First Christians: The Acts of the Apostles for Children
- The Man Who Never Died: The Life and Adventures of St. Peter, the First Pope
- Lost in Peter’s Tomb
Between now and the next meeting the boys will be working on the 10 assignments listed in their Member’s guides. I dug out an old “treasure chest” I have had since I was younger, took all my little keepsakes out of it and plan to stock it with prizes for the boys to choose from at our next “meeting” based on how many of the assignments they complete. I have been doing something similar with the my Little Flowers Girls’ Club since we started and it is always great motivation!
Note: For those that are joining us each month and would like to share pictures from your own first meetings, here is the link-up post for this month!
Delightful as always!!! You make me smile! Your photographs of the lake could be postcards or inspirational posters! Wow! Keep up the amazing photography.
thia looka really neat…I would love to sign my son up…how do I find out if there is one in our area…he will be 10 next month, is he too old?