Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Catholic Child Website

Looking for Catholic gifts for your children? I recently received a catalog in the mail from Catholic Child. I was very impressed by their selection of gifts for children from newborn through teen.

In addition to more traditional religious items such as statues, wall decorations, medals, etc, they also offer games, puzzles, dvds, and books - all with Catholic themes.

According to their website, they have been in business for 16 years. They offer this explanation of how the business got started:

It's been 16 years since we put our first catalogs in the mail. It was the autumn of 1996. That time of year found our sons returning to elementary school and their little sister "playing school" as she spent her days with her dad and I at work. Athttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif that time we were busy processing and packing orders for our Angel Book Club company (now found at angelbookclub.net.)

We mention the book club because that's where it really all started. We'd begun Angel Book Club 16 years earlier to fill a need for the kids at Catholic schools: we understood that those children deserved a faith-based alternative to what the secular book clubs were offering. While filling those student book orders for Catholic school teachers we began to hear from more and more parents. And what we heard was that they wanted more!

More books on the saints and the sacraments, the Rosary and Church teachings; more faith-based movies and games; more storybooks to teach and celebrate their Catholic faith. These parents from across the nation seemed to be echoing our own thoughts: Why was it so difficult to find appealing, fun, doctrinally sound Catholic-based resources for our children?

Over the years we found our own collection of favorites growing - picture books our children were drawn to day after day, audio stories that took the "are we there yet?" blues out of a long journeys, story books we never tired of reading aloud to them, faith-based games that were actually fun and educational, and movies that nurtured our family faith, reflected our morals and held our children's interest. It was when we realized we had a collection worth sharing that our "fourth child" was born!

Joseph and I used to joke that our Catholic Child project was like our fourth child; it required our love, prayers and attention; demanded that we trust in our Lord as we journeyed into unknown territory; reminded us to keep a sense of humor and, gave us a sense of hope.

Since mailing the first issue of Catholic Child Catalog we've nurtured it and watched it grow right along with our children, who as kids were eager to be our #1 product testers. Today our eldest is a college grad, our second in finishing up his final college year, and that baby who used to love "playing school" is now thriving in high school. We appreciate their opinions now more than ever, only these days we have to bribe these busy young adults into reviewing peer products!

Like our kids, Catholic Child Catalog has grown up. What you see here is the third launch of our web site over the last decade. Our looks may change but our commitment to you will not. Each one of the hundreds of items you find here has been chosen by us with care, reviewed for faith and quality, and has been child and parent approved. When you buy from us you are supporting an independently owned, personally run business that remains committed to searching out products to guide, inspire and delight the young Catholics in your life.

Our goal is to help you find products to nurture the faith of your Catholic child. We'd love to hear how you think we're doing.

Sincerely,

Leane and Joseph Ambrosio,
Founders, Catholic Child Catalog
Since 1996

No comments:

#OpenBook for March 2024

  Welcome to #OpenBook. I'm joining up with Carolyn Astfalk who hosts an #OpenBook Linkup on CatholicMom.com . Here's what I'v...