Faith Fundamentals Placemats from Ascension

Recently, I was excited to receive a set of four placemats from Ascension. The Faith Fundamentals Placemats feature: the beatitudes, the seven sacraments, the steps for Reconciliation, and the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. I appreciate that the placemats can prompt a range of discussions over time as we share meals together.

My 6 year old will be preparing for her First Reconciliation and First Communion next school year, so the Reconciliation placemat will be especially helpful as she prepares for First Reconciliation. As I have helped with sacramental preparation in previous years, sometimes kids are anxious about remembering what to expect or the steps to follow during Reconciliation. This placemat will likely be one more layer in place to help her to feel more comfortable and to focus her attention instead on the excitement of being able to access another sacrament. I also love that the sacraments placemat highlights both of the sacraments she will be preparing for within the context of all of the sacraments.

Since the resource is something to be used again and again, as a mom I can have different levels of interaction/prompting over time. As we used the placemats for the first time, my 3 year old was instantly drawn towards the baby being baptized. Later in the evening, after we had finished dinner, she brought the mat with the beatitudes on it and started asking some questions about it (based on the illustration of Jesus). We can have natural, authentic conversations as they arise over time. Having the mats within our home environment is a good visual prompt to spark the girls' curiosity and to initiate faith-based conversations.

I appreciate that my 1 year old will hear glimpses into conversations and then eventually be able to grasp more and more. The concepts will be beneficial for my husband, teens, and I as well. It is good to have reminders and refreshers of important concepts. For example, I think that the mats featuring the corporal and spiritual works of mercy and the beatitudes can be good self-reflections. Unlike the 7 Sacraments and 5 Aspects of a Good Confession mats, these two do not feature an image for each concept, some of the concepts are more abstract, and the vocabulary is more challenging, so the most fruitful conversations about this for younger kids will likely come from interactions with others who know the concepts and understand how to convey them in a developmentally appropriate way to younger members of the family.

Ascension has another version that I am even more excited about focused on the Rosary - each one portraying one set of mysteries. Though I cannot currently find it on their site, I did find it in another location. I plan on getting this set sometime as my girls already know that I love the Rosary, and they enjoy praying it with me. I appreciate that the set would help them to visually see the mysteries and to prompt additional discussion so that as they grow and pray the Rosary on their own they would have a stronger foundation to meditate on the different mysteries as they pray.

*Set provided for review.