I can always tell when mid-August hits. The peepers are loud outside my windows at night and in the morning my in-box is full of queries: How do I access my curriculum subscription? Do you have a teacher commissioning service? I can’t find your planning calendar. What do you recommend for first communion instruction (with the caveat – “I know, but the parents were raised Catholic.”). The same questions appear year after year and I’ve tried to curate many of those answers within this site.

So here are some links (or documents) in one place to help finalize all those last-minute details as you prepare (or have already begun) to start your Christian education program year.

• Commissioning of Church School Teachers (found on page 58 of Awake My Soul edited by  Ernesto Medina & Julia Huttar Bailey – a resource chock-full of many creative ideas)
• The Blessing of Backpacks: 
  • Prayer by Wendy Claire Barrie
  • Building Faith article on tips for backpack blessings
  • Tags from Illustrated Children’s Ministry
  • Olive Wood Crosses from the Holy Land (via Connecticut)
  • St. Christopher’s medal (for travelers)
  • Guardian Angel medal
• Recommended Resources – Top Ten Lists on a variety of topics that need to be on your shelf, or on your digital reader.

Lastly, many questions that are often asked can be found in The Episcopal Christian Educator’s Handbook. Just look at the Table of Contents’ pages and you can see how much information (practical and tongue-in-cheek) you can have within reach 24-7-365.

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Still can’t find what you’re looking for? You know how to reach me – so just send along an e-mail and I’ll return your message within 24 hours. Or you can always put a query in the search engine here.