I used to pray the Rosary with my son sometimes at bedtime, but it's probably been about a year since we've done it. It's tricky because we have to do a nebulizer every night through April, and I also have to try to get him to bed at a decent hour so he'll be able to get up for school in the morning. But I'm thinking that for Lent we can try to do it on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. I'm also going to encourage my son to give up complaining for Lent (and I will try this myself!). There are a lot of Catholic blogs that have some great ideas about Lenten activities for kids: Catholic Inspired, Catholic Icing, Smart Martha...
I try really hard to make Lent feel different from the rest of the year, so we do a number of things.
Every evening my daughters and I add to our "prayer garden." The girls take turns writing an intention on a flower that I have cut out of decorative paper, then we glue it to a piece of posterboard. Then we say one Hail Mary for that particular intention, and another "for all our other intentions." By Easter it really looks pretty and makes you feel like you have really done something.
Together, we fast from something as a family. It's always a bit tricky to hit on something that is a hardship for all of us -- this year we have decided to fast from potatoes in all their various forms.
Every day, just before doing our prayer garden, we select one can of vegetables or other staple from our cabinets and put it in a basket. We bring the food weekly to church for the food pantry.
We also read the day's entry from the book "A Family Journey with Jesus Through Lent" every evening.
And finally, I like to use purple placemats and napkins every day throughout Lent -- a visual reminder of the season. (I suspect this is too subtle for my family, but I like it.) I change it up on Sundays to something brighter and more colorful.
I used to pray the Rosary with my son sometimes at bedtime, but it's probably been about a year since we've done it. It's tricky because we have to do a nebulizer every night through April, and I also have to try to get him to bed at a decent hour so he'll be able to get up for school in the morning. But I'm thinking that for Lent we can try to do it on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. I'm also going to encourage my son to give up complaining for Lent (and I will try this myself!). There are a lot of Catholic blogs that have some great ideas about Lenten activities for kids: Catholic Inspired, Catholic Icing, Smart Martha...
ReplyDeleteI try really hard to make Lent feel different from the rest of the year, so we do a number of things.
ReplyDeleteEvery evening my daughters and I add to our "prayer garden." The girls take turns writing an intention on a flower that I have cut out of decorative paper, then we glue it to a piece of posterboard. Then we say one Hail Mary for that particular intention, and another "for all our other intentions." By Easter it really looks pretty and makes you feel like you have really done something.
Together, we fast from something as a family. It's always a bit tricky to hit on something that is a hardship for all of us -- this year we have decided to fast from potatoes in all their various forms.
Every day, just before doing our prayer garden, we select one can of vegetables or other staple from our cabinets and put it in a basket. We bring the food weekly to church for the food pantry.
We also read the day's entry from the book "A Family Journey with Jesus Through Lent" every evening.
And finally, I like to use purple placemats and napkins every day throughout Lent -- a visual reminder of the season. (I suspect this is too subtle for my family, but I like it.) I change it up on Sundays to something brighter and more colorful.