Lent Activities 2012

Lent is almost over. Tomorrow is already Palm Sunday. Holy Week is here. How fast time flies! Didn’t we have 40 days of Lent?

Let me share the simple activities we had this year for Lent through this post. I got these ideas from the blog of other homeschooling moms and I just modified them to fit our needs and preferences.

First, we had a Lent calendar and poster. We had one last year, too. We used a lamb calendar last Lent wherein Yanthy glued one cotton ball each day on a square in our lamb Lent calendar. This served as our Lent 40-day countdown. It also helped me teach him that Jesus was the lamb that was slain or offered as atonement for our sins.

This year, I asked him to stick a coin each day on our Lent calendar which also served as our Lent poster. It served as our Lent 40-day countdown this year using the coins that Yanthy put in it every day of Lent. I improvised and made a churchlike calendar where there are 40 squares to teach him that we need to set aside some money for alms giving. He will donate his coins tomorrow when we attend Palm Sunday Mass. I wanted to build up on the Lent lessons I taught him last year. I already taught him that there are 40 days in Lent and that Jesus was the Lamb of God offered for our sins. This year, I wanted to teach him what we Catholics focus on during Lent. Thus, I included the words PRAY, FAST and GIVE ALMS on our Lent calendar and poster this year. He traced the words using his crayons and he stuck them on the poster using masking tapes.

Second, we made an alleluia garland and hid or “buried” it inside a gift box wrapped in purple paper with a pink bow. We placed the gift box on our altar and we will open this gift on Easter Sunday to bring out the alleluia garland and hang it in our home. This symbolizes Jesus’ death and resurrection and gift of salvation to us.

Here’s how we did it.

1. Yanthy and I traced circles on a white cardboard.
2. I asked him to cut the circles.

3. I wrote one letter each of the word alleluia on the circles cut using broken lines/dots.
4. I asked Yanthy to trace the letters.
5. We punched holes on the circles.
6. I asked Yanthy to shoot a yarn on the holes of the circles so that all circles would be in one long ribbon, which we would use when we hang it on Easter Sunday.

With this simple activity, Yanthy was able to practice his fine motor skills through tracing, cutting, writing and shooting the ribbon on the holes just like when putting shoelace.

Third, I introduced my little boy to John 3:16 and helped him memorize his first Bible verse. We did an art project for this. You can click here to find out more. Yanthy also has a song that reminds him of the verse. He loves singing it!

Fourth, we served in the Ash Wednesday Mass as part of the Music Ministry just like last year. Actually, our family has been organizing the Masses in the community where live since last year. This has been a good way of teaching our little boy service by our example.

Fifth, my husband and I exposed our little boy to songs apt for Lent and which help tell the story of Christ’ Passion and gift of salvation to humanity. One of my son’s favorites is the worship song Above All. He was first introduced to this song last year during Lent also. He saw the video of the song with Christ undergoing His Passion and it had a big impact on him. This season of Lent, one of his favorite pretend plays is to pretend that he is crucified just like Christ. And he kept on asking why Jesus was crucified.

These are simple activities that I find helpful in imparting our faith to our little boy. Next year, I plan to teach him more things about the season of Lent through additional activities fit for his age.