Hello SKD Family
Happy New Year! If you are like me, the end of 2020 meant putting behind one of the hardest years in human history and looking forward to possibly a new and better future. Of course, no one but God knows what our future holds, but with a vaccine being ready ahead of schedule it has allowed us to think about seeing others in person again, shaking hands, hugging, and hopefully going back to being physically together in community. Having said all this, our hope was to have a family life retreat day for all of our SKD family at the end of this month. Because of the astronomically high numbers in Frederick county we do not feel like we would be able to safely hold this event. As a result, we will hold alternatives to this.
Family Life is a program that all churches and catholic schools must provide as part of their faith formation programs. All people are called to cultivate the virtue of chastity, which allows us to imitate Christ in doing what is right, good and truly loving in the areas of relationships and sexual morality. Different ages engage differently in how this is taught with the youngest focusing more on healthy living and respecting one’s self and others and the oldest kids talking more about healthy relationships from friendship, to familial, to romantic. Parents are encouraged to have honest and age appropriate discussions with their kids about healthy relationships as a whole. We encourage all families to participate one way or another, but if you prefer to opt out of our program, especially those registered in any of our faith formation programs we ask that you fill this form out for middle and high school students and this one for elementary and middle school kids (middle school families can choose either).
If you are looking for material to help you and your family have this important discussion, we will be offering Family life in a variety of ways. As a reminder if you are registered for faith formation you must either complete family life or sign one of the declination forms as this is part of our faith formation curriculum. Please see below for what is being offered.
FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH FOR Kindergarten- Fifth Grade
The Family Life goal for Kindergarten through Fifth Grade is to deliver a wholesome formation of Catholic Moral Virtues.
The lessons will help the children:
· Make good moral decisions
· Respect God’s Creation
· Reverence the human body
· Recognize & respond to inappropriate behaviors to avoid dangerous situations
· Live a healthy, happy, and holy life
Parents will be provided a book and they are expected to complete the book with their children. Books will be available at the church for you to pick up beginning the weekend of Feb.6-7,2021. Contact Theresa Anderson at Theresa.Anderson@saintdrexel.org for more information
FIRE
Each group will have options for their particular group. Please contact me for more information.
Home Study
Books will be made available to families K-8th. Please contact Brian McCrohan for more information at Brian.McCrohan@saintdrexel.org.
Middle and High School Option
The Archdiocese only has one program for high school, and it is not really friendly for a homestudy or individual study model. They provide the same program for our middle schoolers as well. As a result, I will be holding a virtual retreat day for our middle and high school families on March 20th. There is a parent component to this, but it is not mandatory to attend the parent component if your child will be attending the retreat. If you would like to attend or you have a child that wishes to attend please sign up here https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090C45ADAD29A1FB6-middle. Information on zoom link to follow after sign up. If you have questions about this day please feel free to contact me.
May you all have a peaceful rest of your week.
God Bless
