This past weekend, I was a vendor at the St. Emmelia’s Conference in Houston. For those of you who were unable to attend the conference and would like to download the handouts I had available at my tables, they are available below. A Brief Overview of Worship,...
Below, you will find several ways you can incorporate your family into the Nativity Fast this year. The calendar print-outs are provided as a count down to Christmas and as a way for your family to follow along with the lives of the saints during this time, as well...
This week’s goal was to learn about our icon of Abraham and Isaac in our church’s narthex. (Genesis 22: 1-19) In November, our parish has a “Youth Sunday” where our Sunday School students have an opportunity to do tasks around the church just like everyone...
This week’s goal was to learn about our icon of the Prophet Elijah in our church’s narthex. This is part 2 of 4 for our Youth Sunday project coming up in November. Week 8: In addition to the the teacher’s outline, you will need the following for this...
In November, our parish has a “Youth Sunday” where our Sunday School students have an opportunity to do tasks around the church just like everyone else. Each class is assigned something to do for that Sunday. This year, the 3rd/4th grade class was asked to...
This coming school year, I am thrilled to be returning to the church school classroom! I haven’t taught Sunday church school since having my youngest two children, so I’m pretty giddy about teaching again. I’ll be teaching 3rd and 4th grade at our...
I’ve spent almost all of my adult life researching an Orthodox approach to education. Twenty years later, it has become a deep passion of mine, which has led me on an unexpected and joyous journey. When I realized we would only be an hour away from St. Vladimir...
Several years ago, I set out on a quest to successfully dye a batch of eggs red using yellow onion skins. My first two attempts failed to even come close to that desired deep red I was told could be achieved using them. I searched and searched online and was basically...
This past autumn, my kids and I embarked on a semester long study of North American saints, ignited by a love of Saint Herman of Alaska. My goals for this project were: to read about the lives of these saints, locate where each saint passed away (for consistency sake)...
A couple of years ago, I ran across a bracelet on Ancient Faith Publishing made of seeds called “Panagia’s Tears” or “Tears of the Mother of God”. I found the story of the bracelet fascinating and ended up buying it for my daughter for...
Saint John Chrysostom asks parents to tell their children stories relating to the Scriptures, “for thou art raising a philosopher and athlete and citizen of Heaven”. (On Vainglory & The Right Way for Parents to Bring Up Their Children,...
I had several people ask me to show them how I made the Jordan almond favors for my daughter and son-in-law’s wedding this weekend. Honestly, they are much easier than they look and I’d be more than happy to share how I put them together over about four...
*This is a post I wrote three years ago as a guest author for another Orthodox website. I’m re-posting it on Illumination Learning for those of you who have children currently interested in The Hunger Games series or would like to use it as a framework for a...
One of the many beautiful aspects of Orthodoxy is the rhythm of seasons year after year. As the buds start appearing on the trees and bushes outside, I know it’s time to start thinking about my little garden and to remember the story of Saint Helen’s...
I spent the weekend preparing our home for our journey to Pascha as Great Lent is on our doorstep once again. We received our Pascha Passports in the mail along with the new companion booklet, Raising Lazarus Project Booklet, which is intended to help prepare our...
This was part of my presentation at the last IL webinar. For the foreseeable future, Illumination Learning will not be hosting anymore webinars. As time permits, I will be archiving as many resources as possible from these past webinars on the website. The following...
The Our Patron Saints Unit below is a much smaller spin off from the unit I put together on “Special Agents for Christ” by Annalisa Boyd for my presentation during the previous webinar. I had originally created this mini unit for my boys as part of our...
The lessons and resources found on Illumination Learning are offered as a gift to the Church. You are more than welcome to print and use them for your home or class, as well as, share them with others, but please provide a line of credit or link back here so others can find them as well. Please do not use the photos on IL anywhere online or in your own printed materials without receiving written permission first. May your efforts be blessed!
