How to Celebrate Lent with Your Kids!
The season of Lent has been important to Christians for more than 1700 years. It’s a time of preparation ahead of Holy Week, allowing us to prepare our hearts, bodies, and minds for the annual remembrance of Jesus’ death and resurrection. We spend time in humble awareness of our human sin and limitation, which deepens our appreciation for the vastness of God’s mercy and God’s love.
Different Christian traditions have marked the season in different ways, but the three pillars that have remained steady are fasting, prayer, and almsgiving. Inviting children to participate in this season can be difficult—a long season of fasting and prayer does not exactly sound like a child’s ideal scenario!
Here are a couple of resources that might help you engage your children all Lent long, so that they can grow up with a deeper appreciation of the ways God can speak to us in this special season.
1. Little Way Lent Guide
Little Way Chapel, created by Alissa Case, offers liturgical resources for kids of all ages. Their Lent guide includes daily activities throughout the season to help your children learn the history of Lent and the many different traditions surrounding it.
2. Bake with the Bible
Our Bake with the Bible program is perfect for the family during Lent. The 6 lessons line up perfectly with the 6 weeks of Lent, opening with the story of Jesus’ temptations in the desert (which is the first source of inspiration behind the 40 day fast of Lent) and culminating with the Path to Emmaus, which takes place immediately after Jesus’ resurrection. We even include a bonus lesson to use on Ash Wednesday to help your kids understand why bread is a valuable way to draw closer to God in Lent.
