As my son grows, I'm constantly looking for engaging, age-appropriate ways to teach him about the Catholic faith. With the onset of Lent, I've been doing some research on activities that our family can participate in together. Below are five Lenten activities that are perfect for the whole family!
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Paper Prayer Chain
This is a super easy but effective way to engage the whole family in prayer throughout the season of Lent. A few years ago, I was an aid in a PreK classroom, and this was one of the activities we did during Lent.
You'll need enough strips of paper for each member of your family for forty days. As a family, set aside a few minutes every day to work on your prayer chain. Each member writes one person or thing they're going to pray for that day on one of the strips of paper. After you've written your intention, choose your favorite prayer or make one up, and pray for those daily intentions. Then, you attach the strips together with staples or tape to begin building your chain. Hanging it in a prominent room in your house is an awesome visual for all the prayers you've said.
Resurrection Eggs
If you've ever struggled with explaining the events of Holy Week to your children, then Resurrection Eggs are a must-have! Each egg contains a different item that was important in the Passion story with the last egg being empty like the tomb. The set comes with an illustrated book to help tell the story.
There are so many ways to utilize these eggs. You can hide them around the house, and have a Resurrection Egg hunt. Depending on the ages of your children, you can have them try to put the items in order before reading the story, or you could put them in order as you read. You could even create a scavenger hunt for older children using the scripture verses provided in the book to lead your child to the next clue.
Watercolor Cross
For my arts and crafts lovers, this is a simple activity you could do together as a family. Simply tape off a cross shape in the middle of a piece of paper and get creative with the watercolors in the surrounding area. Once it's dry, peel the tape away to reveal the cross.
This can be a great opportunity to have a family conversation about Good Friday and what the cross means to our faith. It could also be a conversation about God's love. Each person's picture looks different because all of us are different, but at the center, the cross is the same. God's love for us is the same.
40 Items - 40 Days
I mentioned this activity in another article, but it bears repeating. Giving things up for Lent can be a challenge so why not challenge yourself in another way? Get a trash bag or a box. Each day of Lent, you add one thing to the box or bag, and at the end of forty days, you have forty items to donate.
To make it a family activity, this can be done in multiple ways.
Each person can add one item every day so you'd end up with more than forty items.
Each family member can have their own personal box or bag and puts an item in every day.
You can create a schedule so that each day, a different person gives away an item. (This option might be best if you have younger children.)
Christian Passover Meal
I have a friend who converted to Catholicism from Judaism, and every year, she still has a traditional Passover seder so her children can experience their mother's cultural history. For the past six years (excluding last year because...COVID), I have gone to their Passover seder, and it quickly became one of my favorite Lenten traditions.
I came across this blog post from Feels Like Home's blog in which she explains how you can celebrate a Christian version of the Passover seder. She even includes a pared-down version of the Haggadah that is much more kid-friendly (and excludes the Hebrew prayers and songs).
Even though Passover is technically a Jewish holiday, it is an important part of our Catholic roots. We commemorate Passover on Holy Thursday when we remember Jesus's last supper. Having a Christian Passover meal is an awesome opportunity to gather as a family and discuss where the roots of Holy Thursday come from and why Passover an important part of our faith history.
These are just a few ways you can celebrate Lent as a family. I'd love to hear how these worked for you! What are some activities your family does to celebrate Lent?
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