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Angie Mc
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What are your favorite books, activities, food, anything!, for the 3-6 year old set. What do you especially enjoy at home? What do you especially enjoy doing with a small group of little friends?
Thanks!
Love,
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Angie Mc
Maimeo to Henry! Dave's wife, mom to Mrs. Devin+Michael Pope, Aiden 20,Ian 17,John Paul 11,Catherine (heaven 6/07)
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joann10
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We always enjoy making pretzels with the littles. They love the mixing and kneading, although the pretzels often have unuasual shapes... 
My littles also get a big kick out of putting the change in our sacrifice jar, actually, they often fight over it! 
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DominaCaeli
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Favorites here with my clan:
:: Paper chain - Each slip of paper has a prayer written on it for them to say. They pull the paper for the day, say the prayer, and remove a toothpick from the...
:: Crown of thorns - We have done salt dough and grapevine wreath versions.
:: Jenn's Lent for Children readings - We do these as part of our morning prayers. Lovely!
:: Stations of the Cross box - The kids LOVE this.
:: Stations of the Cross coloring pages - These are nice, but we use images from the Father Francis coloring book, which are a bit simpler for this age group but still reverent.
:: Jenn's Stations of the Cross readings - Love this version.
:: Lent calendar to color - I love Kimberlee's but she hasn't posted one for this year yet, so I may use Lacy's instead.
I think Ruth's tenebrae Stationswould be a big hit with a group of littles, and it has been on my list to do for several years. I will probably do the Stations box with my children and our family friends during Holy Week.
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Celeste
Joyous Lessons
Mommy to six: three boys (8, 4, newborn) and four girls (7, 5, 2, and 1)
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Angie Mc
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| Posted: Feb 23 2012 at 1:19pm | IP Logged
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Thanks so much, Joann and Celeste!
Compared with Advent, our family Lent has never established itself with "little" traditions. We have done many, many, different things over the years, few of which have stuck (excluding our Holy Week traditions). Perhaps this is natural...as our children have grown older, their grasp of Lent and their practices have matured, whereas Advent is a more childlike, joyful preparation.
I appreciate your ideas and look forward to finding some that are just perfect for this Lent.
Love,
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Angie Mc
Maimeo to Henry! Dave's wife, mom to Mrs. Devin+Michael Pope, Aiden 20,Ian 17,John Paul 11,Catherine (heaven 6/07)
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threesidedwheel
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My children are ages 3 and 7 and we really try in our home to help make Lent just as fun as Advent. We have always decorated the family room mantel just like at Christmas time. We have also enjoyed picture books of the season, but this is the first year that I have accumulated them all into our Lenten Book Basket. Perhaps some of the titles we will read this year would be appropriate for your children, too.
We also make a salt dough crown of thorns as well as a chocolate one. And just like with an Advent calendar, my children have really enjoyed counting down the days until Easter using our Lenten Lamb of God Calendar. And then to help them understand alms giving, a bean sacrifice jar and food donation box have been greatly utilized.
Hope this helps with your family's Lenten journey!
Holly
ThreeSidedWheel
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Grace&Chaos
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threesidedwheel wrote:
My children are ages 3 and 7 and we really try in our home to help make Lent just as fun as Advent. We have always decorated the family room mantel just like at Christmas time. We have also enjoyed picture books of the season, but this is the first year that I have accumulated them all into our Lenten Book Basket. Perhaps some of the titles we will read this year would be appropriate for your children, too.
We also make a salt dough crown of thorns as well as a chocolate one. And just like with an Advent calendar, my children have really enjoyed counting down the days until Easter using our Lenten Lamb of God Calendar. And then to help them understand alms giving, a bean sacrifice jar and food donation box have been greatly utilized.
Hope this helps with your family's Lenten journey!
Holly
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Holly, your Stations of the Cross MontesorriBox has some great ideas too. I don't know if I could put one together now that Lent has started but I like the ideas (and it would give me an excuse to use my pretty purple paper ). I could see putting it under our nature/season table to be used by my little ones. Hmm...I might just have to try a few ideas 
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Jenny
Mom to dds(00,03) and dss(05,06,08,09)
Grace in Loving Chaos
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Jenn Sal
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We do several things. Not one is an original idea, but I don't have time to link-up where they came from.  So here's a quick run-down: We place a purple cloth over our crucifix, place the rice bowl from church on our kitchen table, bury the Alleluia on Ash Wednesday, pull out our Lent/Easter books basket, put physical sacrifices away in a bag, take everything off our mantle and put a purple cloth on it with a crown of thorns. This year, I printed out the Stations of the Cross, glued them to purple ribbon and have them going across the front of the mantle. I also used the left over ribbon to wrap around a wreath for our front door. The kids use Lacy's Lent Calendar. This is the first year we are not doing the dough crown of thorns, but it is a favorite. We just ran out of time. We watch the children's Animated Passion Trilogy
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Jennifer, Texas
Wife to Mark, Mom to Cora 13,Kade 10, Sarah in Heaven 12/05, Colette 7, Corin 5, & Kieran 2
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jawgee
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We do a bean sacrifice jar and we do a Stations of the Cross for kids throughout Lent (one station every few days). We also do Resurrection Buns the day before Easter. Those are a big hit.
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Monica
C (12/2001), N (11/2005), M (5/2008), J (8/2009) and three angels
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JennGM
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We keep it simple, so we have a grapevine wreath with thorns, purple tablecloth, Daily Display to focus on the gospel of the day and a prayer for the child.
We hide an alleluia, and have visual reminders of NOW -- the NOW cross, echoing St. Paul on Ash Wednesday: "Behold, Now is an acceptable time, Now is the time for salvation."
We pray the rosary and Stations of the Cross, using the Stations and rosary boxes, and having pictures to display.
I have done the lamb with the cotton balls a few years, but have struggled with that image for the children. If I'm focusing on the Good Shepherd laying down his life for his sheep, the Lamb of God is a symbol that I want them absorb later.
We have prayer cards that we have done in calligraphy from the Psalms and other parts of the Bible that we display. Working on them is a huge act of contemplation.
And we work on Ukrainian eggs off and on during Lent, discussing the symbolism of eggs and candles and light and beeswax and the symbols we use on the eggs.
I have long struggled interiorily on how to make Lent more tangible for the children, but do feel there is such a wide difference compared to Advent. I can't nor should I make it look or feel the same with activities.
Advent is a preparation for Christmas which was more of a public event. The Light of Christ entered the world. There was a long waiting and then rejoicing. When he came, it was in simplicity and poverty, and recognized only by the poorest and Gentiles. But it was more of a public feast. And the birth of a child is naturally joyful, filled with fulfillment of great anticipation.
Lent is quite different. It is an interior liturgical time. We are imitating Christ, going to be alone like Him in the desert. No one witnessed his time there. If my activities have more of a quiet and interior focus it is because the season just lends itself to that, and I have decided to not struggle against it.
The other difficult thing for me is the balance for children. Younger children who have reached the age of reason need more of a focus on love, unconditional love for Jesus. We all need it, but as we are older, we have need for repentance. Turning our hearts to God is appropriate for us all, but the littles don't need as much focus on their sinfulness.
It happens naturally, but I also don't like to focus too much on the Passion until closer the Holy Week. My boys have shown to be extremely sensitive to these things, and so I don't dwell on the Passion and Death. If the boys want to dwell on Christ and the events of His Passion, it is from their desire and comfort zone, it does not come from me.
We do pray the Stations, and this year my older son is reading out loud from the old Magnificats, and watching the movie The Redeemer, The Master, there is much discussion and singing and acting out the Passion with blocks and Playmobil Roman soldiers.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Susana
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Family Journey with Jesus through Lent
Our family LOVES this book! I think it is especially awesome for homeschooling families as it has some "historical" details that can send you off onto some rabbit trails!
You can also check out Catholic Child Catalog's Lent & Easter section for more stuff here.
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Mami to ds12,ds11,ds10,ds8,dd7, dd4, and ds 2.
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Angie Mc
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Thank you, all!
Love,
__________________
Angie Mc
Maimeo to Henry! Dave's wife, mom to Mrs. Devin+Michael Pope, Aiden 20,Ian 17,John Paul 11,Catherine (heaven 6/07)
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4Real Forums : Domestic Church
Topic: Lent for Little Ones
