Wanted - a beginners guide to Catholicism - is there a webiste or something?

[olivo]

My DD started at a Cathloic primary school this term. I am baptised and cofirmed C of E but would like to learn a little bit to be able to explain to DD and support what she is learning. she comes back from school and tried to explain things but is not very clear; she is a young 4! Sometimes at church she will say - oh we do that at school' etc

Is there a website or a good, not too heavy book i could look at to get some basic understanding?

This is fairly comprehensive but not too wordy:
www.dummies.com/how-to/content/the-essentials-of-the-being-a-devout-catholic.html

Tbh, tell her that the stuff they say is bollocks. Eating flesh? No condoms? Bunch of nonsense, really.

But the simple English wiki page is a good start.

You might want to back up the official explanations with something a bit more more controversial www.agreeley.com/articles/why.html

Hi Olivo. My dds are older but have had a very similar experience in that we've just spent a term in the US where (for various practical reasons) they have attended a Catholic school, even though we are not Catholic.

If you are an Anglican then the basics that your dd will be taught won't be very different from what she'll get at your Church, though there will be more on saints and you should probably teach her the 'Hail Mary' since that seems to be said (here, at least) every day and sometimes several times a day (including throughout one memorable tornado warning while the kids crouched in an internal corridor... but that doesn't happen often in the UK!).

As your dd is so young you won't yet have the communion issue. All the kids in my dds' classes had already taken their First Communion, so when they went up to take Communion (they have Mass twice a week in school here) my dds just received a blessing (and signalled that they should not receive communion by crossing their arms over their chests). This won't be an issue for you for a few years yet, though.

I was a bit shocked by my dds coming home from school and telling me that they had been instructed to pray for an end to legal abortion, and that abortion was the same as murder. (They are 8 and 10 and didn't have a clue what abortion was till then...) But again, this is in the US, where the whole abortion issue is much more of a 'thing' than in the UK.

That was the only thing that really threw me, though, and overall my dds have gained a lot from the experience of being in this school.

HTH

I would recommend buying a children's catechism from amazon or similar. It will help you both to understand. And of course people will always help you on here!

thank you all. she tells me the prayers they learn, and things like assembly and grace seem to be just the same as I did at my 'non denominational' primary school. She did talk about them offering mass last week but said they just had to sit and listen.

Mr Manager, each to their own; anything she is told by me will be a balanced view; I'm a PSE so have had to have many a balanced discussion on these things! But she will get to hear my own beliefs too!

i will take a look at the things you suggest. i'm hoping most of it is similar to things I have learned through the church.