While you may check out my old posts about what we do for Lent and Easter, here is our general plans for 2011.
LENTEN CRAFTS & COUNTDOWN:
Mardi Gras we kick off with pancakes in the royal colors, and later we’ll eat up a King’s Cake – basically a large cinnamon bundt cake with sprinkles. We take down all decorations, and stage simply for Lent with purple cloths, stations of the cross, crown of thorns and our Jesus Tree (new this year). Posting more on this later.
We start a countdown calendar from Ash Wednesday until Easter Sunday. Holy Heroes has an excellent Lenten Adventure we use for coloring and word finds. They also have children friendly videos and audio rosaries said each week.
For SACRIFICES I plan to use the idea of the Crown of Thorns idea I’ve found on many websites. As the thorns (toothpicks) are removed for each sacrifice made, they can SEE how they please God. Added beans if hopefully all the toothpicks are gone early. I like Familia Catolica’s idea to add flowers when each thorn is removed. Hopefully I can get over to Joann’s coupon comotion and get some flowers!
I try to get the kids to use their sacrifice beads, but they get lost a lot. Maybe when they’re older. We had great success with our Sacrifice Bin last year, so we will do it again. We take a plastic bin, add our favorite things we need to let go of, at least for Lent – and pack it away the whole 40 days.
Holy Thursday will will have our traditional Unleavened Bread meal,
and watch inspirational portrayals of Jesus in The Passion of The Christ and The Animated Passion.
Another excellent choice for kids we found on Netflix instant movies is The Miracle Maker: The Story of Jesus. Wonderful, life-like claymation with flashbacks and dreams in eye-catching cartoon. My kids really enjoyed seeing so many familiar Bible stories, and I love watching it capture their hearts. However, it is funny to hear the characters speaking in English and Scottish or Irish accents!
We, of course, want to pray the rosary, which hang from the crosses we made in Lent/Easter last year.
>What the children are asked to do is carry this plain wooden cross with them for Lent. At times it will be hard or bothersome. It may get worn, dented, scratched or colored on. And when I ask them to do something, they take their “cross” with them and offer it up. When they are wondering if they should do something questionable, such as watch a tv program, they need to ask themselves - “Would Jesus want to do this with me?” If the answer is no, then stop. At Easter, we will take a good look at our crosses and talk about it. Then we will grab bright paints or decoupage colored tissue paper, painting our crosses to look bright and new as Jesus’ body on Easter morning when he rose from the dead. Then attach hooks near the bottom so we can use these as rosary hangers.
The rosary for our children is more easily done a decade at a time. 5 Decades = Mon-Fri.
The Rosary for Little Children DVD is available through Netflix!
The Catholic Company sells wonderful children’s books on the Rosary.
They can also color each bead of a rosary coloring page.
Our EASTER TIME will most likely include:
We will make our Paschal Candle for our table centerpiece. Display our Easter Tree I crafted. And bring out all the spring décor hidden in the garage.
Easter Bunnies filled with treats, made from socks! – directions and picture found Here and Here
This looks like a fun idea for the 50 days of Easter found on Catholic Icing / Waltzing Matilda Blogs.
Let’s just pray that we have a warm Easter, so we can actually hunt for eggs OUTSIDE this year.
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