This audio cassette tells the stories of three different animals who played roles in the lives of the Saints. They are told from the animals' point of view and are appropriate for small children. Similar to other Regina Martyrum audio dramas, they are performed with a full cast of voices and appropriate music and sound effects. I especially like the first story which helps to explain the Catholic belief about the Eucharist and the story of a miracle and a conversion involving St. Anthony of Padua and a donkey named Joshua.

AntWorks was one of the highlights of our summer natural history studies! This simple kit became a quirky centerpiece on our dinner table, engaging the entire family from the 18-month-old who insists that they are "Nants" to a 40-something daddy. AntWorks comes as a thick-walled plastic home with a stable base; this became important as the little ones spent time watching the ants. We have tried the sand-filled ant farms with dismal spills that freed too many of the inhabitants. The AntWorks home is filled with a blue gel-like substance that provides both nourishment and liquid to the ants. Accompanying literature explains that this gel was developed by NASA for experiments carried out on the Space Shuttle. One of the nicest features is that this gel is translucent, allowing observers to see completely through the tunnels. An optional illuminator is a nice addition which makes an interesting night light, but we thought that it wasn't necessary.

Ants are not included with the kit. You can either catch your own or mail in the enclosed coupon. We opted for the mail-order ants, and that boosted interest in the project for our little ones who love to receive mail. Once the ants are added to their home, the only maintenance that is needed is opening the top for a few seconds a week to allow fresh air to enter. Occasionally you will need to remove a dead ant, but our industrious insects buried their fallen comrades deep in the gel in sealed chambers. It was incredible to observe! This kit, combined with a few books from the library and a couple of diagrams and coloring pages downloaded from the Internet, provided a wonderful investigation into the life of ants for our elementary school-aged students.

Fairy tales clear the way for sanctity. They are the child's first morality play, clear-cut, no-nonsense black and white, good and evil, life and death - with a bit of fun thrown in to alleviate the pain. The lives of the saints, so filled with derring-do, gaiety, charm and courage, are all the more fantastic because the persons are real, even though they might seem right out of the pages of Hans Christian Andersen. You will not find dates and statistics here, except where they seem necessary to explain how or why a saint got to his particular spot. And I have used the embroidery of legend because I feel that under its eye-catching trivia, there is the good homespun of fact. Sometimes it has been hard to discover which facts are the real facts. In reading six books about one saint, you may have as many versions of his or her death - he may have died on the battlefield, in the arms of a wife or son, pinned to a tree with seven arrows... or a combination of all three.