Lent with kids can be a difficult balance, but bringing our children into our Lenten journey is so important. Making sure that it brought to their level can be hard. 40 days of sacrifice and growing darkness can seem too hard for our children to handle or comprehend.
Additionally, our children understand more than we think they do. They learn through all of their senses. I believe it is so important to bring to them activities that combine the senses and move their hearts as well. Lent is not only about deprivation and sacrifice, but it is also about increasing our love for God and showing that love through praying for and giving to our neighbors. That is what i want my children to learn through these activities.
Here are 8 activities that we do to bring our children into the Lenten season and into the Lenten spirit as well.
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1. Bury the Alleluia
Firstly, burying the Alleluia is such a great idea. In the Church, the Alleluia is omitted throughout Lent. It is a time of sacrifice and the Alleluia is a word of celebration so it is reserved for Easter. As such, families have their children decorate a sheet with Alleluia on it and then they bury it in a weather-proof tin, bin, or bag and then on Easter Sunday it’s dug up and the Alleluia is displayed in celebration of the risen Lord.
2. Prayer, Sacrifice, and Almsgiving
Lent is about getting our hearts and souls ready for Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Jesus spent 40 days in the desert and that is what Lent is supposed to be for us as well. The three major pillars of Lent are Prayer, Sacrifice, and Almsgiving. To help my children come into the spirit of Lent we make corresponding Prayer/Sacrifice/Almsgiving popsicle sticks. They are placed in a jar on our family altar and every child picks a stick, completes the activity on the stick and then proceeds to put a bean in the sacrifice jar.
Basically, my children love completing the activities. They are chosen at random and put back in the jar. I have some sticks labeled specifically for my younger children who need activities that they can complete on their own according to their age. My oldest two sons (8 and 7yo) can complete any stick in the jar. You’ll need a jar or cup, popsicle/craft sticks, and a marker.
Here is the list that I put on the sticks:
-write a thank you note to someone
-learn a new chore joyfully
-donate gently used clothing
-share your toys joyfully
-give a toy you love to a sibling or friend
-give a compliment to someone
-pray for peace
-have 5-10 minutes of quiet prayer time
-memorize a short Bible verse
-pray for your siblings & cousins
-say a decade of the rosary
-fast from noise (silent time)
-offer a prayer of thanksgiving
-pray an Our Father, Hail Mary, & Glory Be
-read a Bible story
-fast from junk food
-fast from your favorite toy
-give up dessert or a sweet
-fast from arguing
-fast from yelling
-pray for your priest
-fast from meat
-fast from television
3. Stations of the Cross
During Lent we like to incorporate the Stations of the Cross into our weekly schedule. Our parish offers Stations every Friday, but we are a busy family with 5 kids and it can be difficult to perfectly schedule the parish Stations into our family’s schedule, so on the Fridays that we cannot attend the parish’s service, we do the Stations of the Cross at home in a very simple kids friendly way.
Here is an article about how we complete Stations of the Cross at home with our kids and all that you will need to do the same.
4. 46 Day Prayer Chain Countdown
My children love this activity. We cut up 40 small strips of purple construction paper, 5 slightly thicker strips of white constructions paper, and 1 strip of pink. The white strips are for the Sundays in Lent, the pink is for Laetare Sunday, and the 40 strips are for the other days of Lent.
I do this activity with the children. I let each of them come up with special intentions for each day. The kids get to pick about 9 intentions each. We write the intention on each strip and coordinate the color by the day of Lent. We’ve done this a few times. Sometimes I’ve linked the chains with tape and sometimes with staples depending on what I have on hand. I don’t like the sticky mess of glue so I personally don’t use it for this project. Every day of Lent we take a chain off and during our family prayer time we take that special intention and dedicate our prayers for it.
5. Sacrifice Bean Jar
This activity is super simple and helps keep the kids encouraged to make sacrifices throughout Lent. All you need is a clear jar or cup and any type of dry beans. I also have a paper bag that holds the beans. We keep the Sacrifice Bean Jar on our family altar. Every time our kids make a sacrifice they get to put a bean in the jar. At the end of Lent the Sacrifice Jar goes from the dried beans to jelly beans and through out the Easter season the kids get to enjoy the fruits of their sacrificial labor.
Here is a list of some of the sacrifices that we reward with a bean in our home (remember that this is your family’s Lenten journey so reward what your children are working on):
-an immediate act of obedience
-giving something up that our child wants
-reading to a sibling
-helping a sibling
-giving up something and giving it to their sibling
-comforting a sibling
-helping with a chore without being asked
-donate a toy or book
-share a toy with a sibling
-offer to do a chore
-pick up the toys without being asked
6. Meat Free Ash Wednesday and Fridays
In the Catholic Church, Ash Wednesday and the Fridays of Lent are days that you are supposed to abstain from meat. Fridays were chosen by the Church because that is the day that Christ died on the cross. Additionally, there are dispensations for pregnancy, breastfeeding, children under the age of 7, and those with certain health conditions, do not have to abstain for nutritional reasons. It is a precept of the Church. It can be very difficult, but it can be a lot of fun finding new recipes for your family try this Lent.
7. Lenten Candle Family Activity
This is a such a great idea that I got from The Littles & Me blog. Every year during Lent, one of our family’s traditions is to eat dinner at the actual dinner table on week nights during Lent. I really love the idea of having something to add to that tradition by adding some table decor to it. The idea is that starting at the beginning of Lent you light all 6 candles and each Sunday you extinguish the light of another candle. Good Friday is when you extinguish the last candle, but you replace the candles on Easter Sunday with white candles to celebrate Jesus’s resurrection.
You will need 5 purple candles, one pink candle for Laetare Sunday (although some use a white candle), a container/platter (I like the idea of using a wooden one to represent the cross like this one), and sand to represent the desert that Jesus suffered through for 40 days, to represent what Lent should be for us as well.
8. Lent with Kids Book List
Having books for each liturgical season is one of the easiest ways I find to bring my children into that season. Books that my kids can pick up read any time and really start to understand what Lent means and what Jesus gave us.
I have a complete list of Easter books for kids here, but have included some of my favorite Lenten below.
Little Bible Playbook Story of Easter
Stations of the Cross
Easter is Coming
Listening for God
The Easter Storybook
Stations of the Cross for Kids
Ready, Set, Find Easter
The Life of Jesus (Seek and Find)
The Donkey Who Carried a King
God Gave Us Easter
The Berenstain Bears and the Easter Story
The Berenstain Bears and the Very First Easter
Conclusion
All things considered our children growing in their Faith during Lent is so important, but it is more important to meet them where they are. We should expect from them only what we show in our own actions and efforts. Lent starts with us as their parents.
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