The Highway to Heaven Series
The Highway to Heaven is so much more than just a series of textbooks! It is just one part of an overall system called The Religion in Life Curriculum. We had to build an entire website in order to do justice to it. That website is still under construction, but you can discover the history of its development and get a sense for how broad its resources are by visiting that website here:
Naturally this curriculum has many strengths to recommend it. Here are our top three:
It is Beautiful
Why does this matter?
Because beauty carries Truth.
The illustrations were designed specifically for these books, to illustrate and teach, not as mere ornaments.
It is Versatile
You can use as many or as few of the resources as you like and still derive benefit.
With textbooks, curriculum guides, readers, storybooks and teacher resources, the possibilities are endless.
It is Solid
Based on the Baltimore Catechism and many other time-tested resources.
Developed using proven methods and extensively tested in the classroom, it also features Mother Mary Loyola's books!
We strongly recommend exploring more at the Religion in Life website.
Here is a brief synopsis of each grade level.
First Grade:
The Book of the Holy Child introduces young children to the story of the Life of Our Lord up to his finding in the Temple and his return to Nazareth with his parents, where he "advanced in wisdom, and age, and grace with God and men."
The unit for First Communion preparation is a separate unit, and can be found only in the First Grade Curriculum book; however, it can be used with any of the grades, First through Third.
Second Grade:
The Life of My Savior continues the work of First Grade, this time telling the whole story of the Life of our Lord at an age-appropriate level.
Third Grade:
The Life of the Soul begins introducing the Baltimore Catechism #1 to the children. For this reason, it makes a very good preparation for First Communion and can be swapped with the Second Grade Text if one wishes (or if desired, one could start with the First Grade book in Kindergarten instead).
Reader coming soon
Fourth Grade:
Before Christ Came explores the history of God's people before the coming of the promised Messiah.
Reader coming soon
Fifth Grade:
The Vine and the Branches begins at Pentecost and explores the History of God's people after the birth of His Church on earth. It focuses especially on biographies, in order to maintain the important task of teaching concepts by their application to real lives.
Sixth Grade:
The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass spends the entire year studying the Mass in detail, with a special focus on the prayers themselves and in helping young people to learn to use a Missal. It may prove helpful for newcomers of any age to the Traditional Latin Mass.
Sadly, no Teacher's Manual or Curriculum guide was published for this grade level. We hope to provide one in the future; until then, parents and teachers may wish to avail themselves of the information contained in the book A Curriculum in Religion, which outlines the objectives and planned resources for the entire Religion in Life Curriculum.
Seventh and Eighth Grade are combined in one book: The Highway to God.
This book covers the entire Baltimore Catechism #2 and is accompanied not by a curriculum book, but rather, a volume called Practical Problems in Religion, which contains detailed sample answers for the discussion questions contained in The Highway to God.
We have compiled a thorough listing of all the resources recommended at each grade level at the link below.
We leave you with a series of articles about this curriculum, published in 1937 in the Journal of Religious Education: