My children and I recently had the opportunity to check out the October Catholic Family Crate, and let’s just begin by saying that it’s been a long time since my kids have been so excited to get religious materials in the mail. My son, who is five, has a pen pal who is a religious sister, and he definitely does not get so excited about the holy cards she sends every few months. But this box held so much promise. It was colorful and filled with lots of things to explore.

Each month’s box includes short biographies of the featured saints, along with a bunch of related activities, a catechetical component, and a playlist that can be downloaded online. October’s featured saints were St. Francis and Pope St. John Paul II, and the catechetical component focused on the Rosary, since October is the month of the Rosary. My children are 5 and 3, and they both loved the different elements of the box.

My son absolutely loved the Rosary key ring. We try to pray a decade of the Rosary as a family every morning, and now my son brings the key ring everywhere with him so that he can follow along whenever we decided to pray our decade. It’s the perfect visual aide for both him and his little sister, and there is nothing sweeter than seeing him gazing at the picture on the card as he prays.

My daughter, on the other hand, liked the St. Francis plant best. She loved planting the seeds and watching them grow. She especially loved seeing the plants sprout on St. Francis’ “head.” It was very entertaining for both of my kids to watch his “hair” grow, and it doubled as an educational activity to explain what plants need to flourish.

I absolutely love the idea of becoming more liturgically-minded in our home. I would love to have planned activities to teach my kids about the saints. But if you’re anything like me, you only realize that it’s a feast day when you’re getting the kids ready for bed at night and you’ve already missed your opportunity. The Catholic Family Crate takes a huge amount of planning out of liturgical living in the home. Every month you get your box in the mail, complete with calendar stickers for the featured feast days for the month. Then all that’s left for you to do is enjoy everything in the box and start learning!