Lent and children

Lent begins February 13 this year. Less then two weeks! If you follow or want to follow the Liturgical calendar this means it's time to start getting ready.

I have past posts on Lent here and here.

Lent begins yearly with Ash Wednesday. Our church marks Ash Wednesday with a service and imposition of ashes- or placing ashes made from the Palm Sunday palms the year before on the forehead in the sign of the cross.

Lent is not Pre-Easter. It is “a holy season of prayerful and penitential reflection". It also has many opportunities to deeply teach our children the faith. 

I plan to use many of the past activities our family enjoys for Lent. I also will be using Lutherans for Lent- a free daily devotional. 

Our church does midweek services through Lent and we will attend as many as possible. 

I hope keeping time through Lent is a blessing to your family this year!

Lenten beginnings

Yesterday marked the beginning of Lent with Ash Wednesday. We went to the evening service where we shared a meal and then had the imposition of ashes- something that Sweet Pea liked and Little Bird was very unsure of.
Today we began setting up some of our Lent stuff- we have the cross for going over the six Sundays of Lent on our table now- although it still needs a purple ribbon tied around the middle.

We also got a Resurrection set- it's out right now so we can see it, even though it's unseasonable. I'd debating putting it away until Easter or covering it with a purple cloth- we'll see.


Also pictured, although it's not specifically Lenten, is our devotional line up. One top are two of Luther's Small Catechism, then a Bible, then Luther's Family Devotions, a copy of the Lutheran Service Book, and then the new Treasury of Daily Prayer.


School is continuing as normal, too. We started Singapore's Primary 1A this week- I am really, really glad that I got the Home Instructor's Guide. The first lesson was just numbers 1-10- and me cutting out about a million flash cards- but I think we'll enjoy this as much or more then we did Earlybird Mathematics.

Also completed now is Cursive First. It's important to note that it's our second time through, and I believe our last. We'll keep it around for Little bird when she's ready, and for review as needed for Sweet Pea, but it's a great feeling to be finished with handwriting instruction for now! Yay, Sweet Pea!

We're one week in on the great seed project, but so far none have popped a seedling above the surface yet. Still anxiously waiting!

Otherwise, all is good.

Lenten planning

I'm still working on compiling everything I want/ need to get done for Lent for our family, but I thought that I'd share the ideas that I have together so far.
A lot of this has been pulled together and adapted from many sources. Many of the ideas were Catholic and have been adopted to fit a more Lutheran piety.

Ideas in no particular order:

• Lenten candelabrum. The Catholic version of this utilizes the stations of the cross, but we will change the number of candles to seven and use the seven words of Jesus from the passion accounts. As we read the accounts and come to words that Jesus spoke from the cross we'll let each child take a turn blowing out a candle. The darkness at the end is meant to symbolize the loss of the light of Christ.
• Lenten centerpiece. Kind of a similar idea to the Advent wreath, only for Lent. It's a cross shaped candle holder made out of wood- I've read that the best is to use the stump from the Christmas tree, but ours is fake so that's a no go. You tie a purple ribbon around the middle and place six candles in it- one for every Sunday in Lent. You can light the appropriate number nightly to track progress through the Lenten season. Ideally this would be done during family devotional time, which would probably include the previous idea, as well.
• Purple cloth. I'll change out the cloths underneath items in the home to purple- the color for the church season.
• Purple bean poster. The one that I read about used lima beans, liquid RIT dye, and then a poster with the outline of a cross. Children get beans throughout the week for some type of even that I haven't fully pinned down yet, and then on Fridays get to glue the beans into the outline of the cross. My husband suggests memory work as the bean earners, but I don't know what it'll be yet.
  
• Plants. Apparently it's pretty customary to plant things in Lent. I'm going to get seeds and have the kids plant some tomatoes or something inside and we'll watch them grow throughout the season.
• Hot cross buns. These are usually a breakfast item on Good Friday.
  

That's the main bulk of what I have right now. As items get made, I'll post pictures.
Anyone else doing anything for Lent?

Living the life liturgical

We are rapidly hurtling toward the Lenten season, and since we follow the one year lectionary my family is currently in pre-Lent. I'm looking around and trying to get things in order so we can incorporate some Lenten activities into our lives. It was easier during Advent- more established family and Church traditions guided that. Lent is a tougher nut for me to crack.
Others who celebrate Lent (that sounds wrong, but I don't know how to rephrase) have any family traditions? We currently have Luther's family devotion book, but I'm looking for something more.