Lent 2026

Thank you for supporting Sparks4Orthodox Kids! I haven’t written any blog posts in the past couple of years so let me re-introduce myself- a lot has changed for our family!

Hello, I’m Kh Kassiani

My family currently live in PA, where my husband is assigned to an Antiochian parish. We homeschool, but sold the homestead when we moved last summer.

We teach our three kids who are heading into the middle school years!
I also work part time for St Raphael school, teaching elementary art. I love teaching art, and working from home allows us flexibility to continue homeschooling and living the liturgical calendar.

Sparks started simply, as a need, for my toddler to have coloring pages to give us natural moments in the day to talk about the faith. Sitting together, to color and chat opens many doors. So we wanted these moments to direct the conversations to topics of the feasts, saints and prayer in a way that was developmentally appropriate and accessible in the toddler stage.
As life moved forward I knew Sparks would change too. My drawings changed and I played with border designs. I created word art for saints’ quotes and hymns. I tried digital art, but that is just not for me! Everything you see on my page is by hand. Not filters on screens. These are all things that I have used with kids in lessons either at home or in the parish for retreats or Sunday school. I don’t post anything that hasn’t gone well with our groups!

Sparks has changed as my kids have grown and so have my priorities and needs as a mom. It has been important to my husband and I that conversations about the faith NOT become “homework”. I have lots of fun teaching Sunday school lessons but we see the Sunday School model as a failing Protestant system. The data is showing that having kids in Sunday School is not “keeping” them in church as adults. So just as we don’t rely on a school system that didn’t work for our family; we also don’t rely on “lessons about the faith” to teach our kids how to live the faith. We rely on our routines and dinner conversations and decidedly not as a school-like lessons. I had assumed Sparks would shift into worksheets as the kids grew but that was not our path so I don’t have them to share.

During 2020 there was a lot, I started painting again. I made little icons for the kids in our local parish. I began reading about iconography (this was before online classes were available). I practiced what I had learned in iconography workshops back in college. The last one I took, I painted with a baby in my lap! So it had been some years! This led to Kassiani’s Art Studio as a part time, commissioned based “hobby” business…Shortly afterwards, I began teaching elementary art for St Raphael’s school! Its been a great blessing to us. I really enjoy it! The kids are wonderful. They are fun, and love to share what they have made on their own time in classes. We end every class with a chance for showing their projects! I also get to help with the art work for the Antiochian Dept of Education’s Sunday School curriculum. I really like their anchor word program and am very happy to support that as a system for building Bible literacy!

My husband was ordained a couple of years ago!

We sold the homestead and moved to a new state last summer. This has been a huge adjustment. We seem to be settling into a routine here in PA. Our kids are a bit more independent these days; so I look forward to finding a few moments here and there to add to Sparks! I updated the craft page. I have a pile of unscanned drawings from the past couple of years. God willing, I will get those uploaded over the summer.

Check the Pascha Preparations Page on the website for a few craft ideas, a free Holy Week booklet download and some word art. The Lord of the Powers Hymn is one of my favorites, so making this word art was special.
The beaded “prayer bracelets” has worked SO well over the years! We made them with a parish retreat, the older kids (ages 10-12) really got into it and the littles always love beads!
The empty Tomb paper plate craft was a staple in our home during the toddler season. Its a great craft for parish retreats or Sunday school if you want to send them home with a decoration. I prepared the “grass” ahead and let them have at it. So the photo has the angel glued on backwards because it is important to let them engage their imagination. Sometimes just hold your breath and smile! I offer suggestions, but I never override their choice in art, it is their creation. Art is a way we experience God, by sharing in a tiny experience of creation.

You may have heard that clip from Jonathan Pageau how we interact with God beyond Beauty… Here is a conversation about “Our Primordial Need for Beauty” and THIS is what we really want to pull the kids into.