Ideas for Lent

This year we came across many wonderful ideas to help the kids learn about Lent and to help us, as a family, grow in faith during the the Lenten Season.  We have friends that were creative enough to come up with some of the below ideas and the others we pulled from the book Guiding Your Catholic Preschooler by Kathy Pierce, which has been a really nice resource.  The kids have loved these so much that I wanted to share.

1. Beans for Lent: The kids (and parents) get to put a bean in our "Lent" jar every time they do something above and beyond, every time they attend mass and every time they say their prayers.  The children will earn beans throughout the season and when they wake up on Easter morning the beans will have "transformed" into Jelly Beans.  The moment we were given this idea I knew that the girls would LOVE it!  The beans have been a wonderful incentive for Charlotte and Bridget.  They are very proud of every bean they've earned!

Our beans for good deeds!

2. Calendar: We pulled this idea from the book Guiding Your Catholic Preschooler.  Forty days feels like forever for a preschooler.  The girls are eagerly anticipating Easter and having this calendar has been a nice way for us countdown.  We make off every day with a sticker to show the progress that we are making towards Easter.  We also pasted our family goals for prayer, fasting and giving alms on the calendar to serve as a constant reminder.

 

3. Operation Rice Bowl: This idea came from one of the blogs that I read and I thought it was fantastic.  Every day we pick one item in the house to count (so far we've counted puzzle pieces, band-aids, books, dolls, etc.).  Once we've done our counting, we put the corresponding number of coins into our rice bowl.  All of the kids, including Joe have loved this activity.  The kids put the money that they're collecting into a little box that our parish gave to us to benefit Operation Rice Bowl.

4. Jesus Tree: The Jesus Tree is a kit for Lent that I am slowly putting together (when I ordered this I didn't realize that you have to make the banner and each ornament).  Each day during Lent, we read a bible story about an event or teaching during Jesus' life, which is represented by a brightly colored felt symbol that you place upon a felt branch.  The Jesus Tree has been great for teaching the kids (and parents) more about Jesus' life...and of course, it is a very big deal to get to hang up the ornament of the day!

Our tree which will be full of ornaments by Easter!

....more to come as I have time....