Our homeschool group recently began a new activity day. We are meeting once a month in an old Catholic school building. We have activities/clubs going on for children of all ages. My boys and I are involved with the "Bosco Boys Club" for boys ages 5 through 10.
We chose Saint John Bosco as our patron. He is the patron for youth and is known for the amazing work he did with poor boys. He had FUN with them --- playing games, juggling, doing magic tricks --- as well as catechizing them and caring for their temporal needs.
Each month the Bosco boys will focus on a virtue. (We chose to use the same virtues that the girls are working on in their Little Flowers group.) We'll base our opening talk, snack, and activities on that virtue. We will also have a story and prayer card of a male saint who models that virtue for the boys.
Our first virtue was an obscure and challenging one: EUTRAPELIA! It means "pleasantness in conversation" or wit or good humor. We did an "icebreaker" in which we practiced some pleasant conversation with one another and got to know each other a bit. We learned about John Bosco. I got the boys' attention with an amazing magic trick! ;) Unfortunately I forgot to get pictures of this! It was basically a chemistry trick in which I added white powder into glasses of clear liquid and got various results. ;)
Next the boys decorated plastic containers with their family name. They added slips of paper with various discussion questions on them. They took these containers home so that they could practice Eutrapelia with their families by leading interesting conversations at the dinner table. We've been enjoying these questions here at every meal!
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