Family lent activities?

[MonkeyandParrot]

I'm a Christian and I've always marked lent with fasting and reading - this year I'd like to mark lent with my DCs. Obviously at 2.5 and 1 this means fun activities and I wondered if anyone had any good family activites around lent? Thanks

We've used Live Life Love Lent activities, but some of them will be too old for your children. Perhaps you could adapt though?

WE've used the Live Life, Love Lent stuff as well. It's very good but not really for kids as young as yours. Christian Aid do Count Your Blessings at Lent to raise funds, they have a children's version, but again, it's really for children who are old enough to understand some of the issues involved.

Agree with both the above recommendations - Live Life Love Lent, and Count Your Blessings (children's version - which you can download and print off from the Christian Aid site). All activites are really for children of an age to understand something of what they are doing.

We have also created a prayer board for Lent, with the kids cutting out pictures from the paper of people and situations that need prayer (one each day). But that presupposes a daily paper and children of an age to know about national and world events.

Perhaps you're looking for something that will be an equivalent of an Advent Calendar but for Lent? Some simple activity that marks the season.

An issue will always be that whilst Advent is sober but joyous and exciting as well, Lent is plainly just sober and leading up to something fairly dark (then light), and it's not the time or place for "fun" activities that a child can look forward to in the same way as getting a chocolate or little gift or opening a calendar window each day. Its themes are quite difficult for children to understand anyway.

When they're older, it might be useful to mark Lent with particular forms of daily prayer or prayer activities, and with some of the "putting pennies aside" each day for some charity - but don't forget that Sunday's aren't included in Lent and are Feast Days so don't do your Lenten activity then and make it a special feast day with some kind of treat - activity or sweets or something like.

I had another thought. You could try and make a Lenten tree. It's basically just a twiggy stick. You make leaf shaped cut outs and write prayers/blessings on them. Then every day, you hang a new one on the tree.

Again, this is really for children who understand a little about prayer and the people and things for which we are praying/giving thanks. I agree with Dandy, lent isn't a fun time, it's more about prayer and reflection, which aren't really fab for very young children.

I am CoS, so we don't really have Lent (we are supposed to be mournful and repentant all the time!) but I always do something (usually involving fasting and extra service) and we do special daily prayers and bible readings along with a charity thing. My kids are all a lot older than yours, though, and I have never really involved them in much until they were at least school age and a bit more aware of things.

we used to make daffodils from crepe paper.

I love StressedHEMum's idea of the Lenten tree.

I didn't mention it because it's not strictly Lenten but Easter, but we always have an Easter tree in our house. We put it up on Palm Sunday - basically a large twiggy thing a few feet high in a bucket of pebbles (covered with pretty crepe and spring paper), and decorated with little chicks and eggs bought from craft shops or made at home. We sit cuddly Easter chicks and bunnies at its foot. If you could find Easter sweets or chocolate to hang on as well, that would be good. It stays up quite a long time to be honest - usually until Ascension Day which is 40 days after Easter Day.

also, you could make an Easter Garden.

Make a pile of earth, and put flowers on it (our guides used to do this and plant bulbs in the winter, so that they would be up in time for easter), and moss, and on the top put 3 crosses, and at the bottom of the hill a big flat stone to mark the tomb.
They also put little pebbles etc on to mark paths and other things.

Shrove Tuesday - have fun with the pancakes but talk about where ther tradition came from, using up the food before the fasting of Lent started

can you do some kind of fast with them - fast from a particular food - friends often fast meat for all of Lent except Sundays, and then give the money saved to charity?

yes make Easter Gardens, Easter biscuits, decorate eggs and make Easter baskets at the other end of Lent, but the bit on the middle very difficult for tinies. We've used the Live Life LOve Lent booklets too, for several years, but our DC are much older

Thanks everyone there are some great suggestions! This all started when I overheard my Mum (who is wonderful) talking to DD1 about Easter and how it was when the Easter bunny came and everyone got chocolate. I just wanted some way to mark the true meaning of Easter and Lent though I don't expect them to fully understand! I think at this age its more about creating traditions to build on as they get older.

I love the idea of a Lent Tree (my DD1 understands prayers thanks to a wonderful sunday school teacher) and the idea of putting pennies in a jar to give to charity. And we'll have a go at a garden too though my arts and crafts skills are limited.