This program encourages children to learn about themselves and their world while imparting Catholic ideals. Pilgrims of the Holy Family is well suited to be used by individuals or in a group setting as an alternative to secular scouting programs. Written by a homeschooling family of five, "Pilgrims" presents 75 enrichment activities each of which allows the child to achieve a degree of mastery in a particular topic. Those familiar with scouting will recognize some of the topical activity sets as similar to scouting badges. Catholic Heritage Curricula has produced a beautiful set of badges to be awarded at the completion of each topic.

Each topic set is paired with a saint and includes a brief biography along with a list of 5-10 actives that must be done in order for the child to have achieved mastery of that topic. For example "Citizenship" is paired with St. Paul and includes activities such as discussing the difference between loyalty to family, community and the Catholic Church and reporting on five types of government that can be found in history. Topics range from American History and Botany to Reading and Wilderness Survival. Topic areas unique to the Catholic faith include: Catholic Social Thought, Charity, Church History, Missions, Prayer, Virtues, Vocations. There is an appendix at the end of the book that lists appropriate reading material for each of the 75 topic areas.

The authors recommend this program for ages 10 and up. Younger children may find a few topic sets that they can complete, but to perform the work independently the majority of the topics require the cognitive maturity of a child who is at least 10 if not older. We plan on continuing to use this program for after school activities and during summer break throughout high school.

Those interested in support from the authors and others using the program can sign up for the yahoogroups e-mail list.