5 Ways to Celebrate the Season of Lent with Children

Lent is about sacrifice, and it’s about detaching ourselves from  worldly things so that we can get our mind and spirit realigned with what is important.

Since Easter is officially 6 weeks away, I want to share with you some ways you can celebrate Lent with your children.

1.  Pray as a Family

You can pray as family. If you haven’t done so already, you and your family can start praying together. You can read a little bit of the Bible and really talk about the story with the little ones.  If you are interested, you can even try the rosary with your children, by doing one decade a day with them.  The rosary is not just a Catholic practice, but has been used by many people of different Christian denominations.

2. Give Up TV together or your favorite shows.

For children to really understand the sacrifice, you can institute no TV during certain days of the week (especially if no TV seems crazy to do all 40 days).

If that seems excessive, how about have your children pick their most favorite TV show (one that they stop everything just to watch) and give that up for 40 days.

3. A Prayer Jar.

In this Jar you can write down names of 40 different people (on separate pieces of paper) whom you would like to focus on that day to pray for. It’s a great way for children to learn to not always pray for things that they want, but to open up and see that they can pray for others as well.

4. Family Time

Not just in spirit, but really push this. Take out one hour (or two or an afternoon—depending on how much time you have) and really spend time with the family. Turn off the television, phone, and remove all distractions, and enjoy the moment.

You can pass the time by telling stories of when you were little and what tradition your family did during lent. You can play games with them, or go for a walk and talk to them.

5. Gratitude Journal

If you have young children, they can draw a picture about their favorite part of the day, everyday or every week.  How often they do it is up to you.  At the end of Lent, everyone can sit down and look back at what they thankful for.  This activity can help them be mindful in their day.

In the very busy world that we live, we tend to forget that the simple things that are important are the things that you cannot acquire and buy. It’s relationships between our Lord, and our family.

This lent, let us be mindful of this.

ABOUT AUTHOR

Kalley is a writer, thinker, wife, mother and everything rolled into one. She writes about life, family, faith, love and anything else that makes her sane. But most importantly, she writes about her journey to know herself better. You can find out more about her over at Blogging While Nursing Follow on Facebook // Twitter // Pinterest For more of Kalley’s post on EMB, go HERE