One Week Till Lent

My plans for Lent with the girls are simple.  I plan on trying this Almsgiving activity from Lacy's blog as a new component of our Lent.  We will box up our Alleluia.  We will say the Stations of the Cross in our home on Fridays as we have done every year.  And I am holding on to empty cardboard boxes to make a cross to give each girl on Ash Wednesday that they can begin to decorate as we progress toward Easter.  This is an explanation of this "Stickers on the Cross" activity, a repost from last year: 

I wanted to share something from our home that we are doing to prepare for Easter this year. I had originally planned on putting out the Crown of Thorns like we did last year. We did actually make the Crown on Shrove Tuesday.  But looking back at that post, I remembered that the girls didn't understand it then, and I soon realized that they didn't quite understand it this year either.   I was struggling with trying to explain the idea of relieving Jesus' suffering while leaving out the part where we caused his suffering (because they are still sinless!).   And there was the whole problem Turtle (and Rosebud to some extent) was having with figuring out the timeline of everything  ("Is Jesus on the Cross right now?  How many days?  When does He get off?").

   About a week into Lent, after a lot of thought and talking with my daughters' Catechist at the Atrium, my mom (also a CGS Catechist) and some good friends, I decided to throw away the Crown of Thorns and start over with a preparation activity that is less heavy and seems to me more appropriate for little ones.

So, we have our "Stickers on the Cross."  

My mom did this with us when I was growing up.  It is the same idea as the "straws in the manger" activity done during Advent.  Do something good, you get to put a sticker on the Cross.

But, we don't do it quite like that yet.  

I've told the girls that they get to put a sticker on for every day of Lent. The idea I am emphasizing is simply the idea of preparation and making our crosses more and more beautiful as we get closer to Easter.  On Easter morning, I plan to put a gold cloth draped over the cross, or perhaps a garland of flowers.  Some Easter treat will be at the foot of the beautiful decorated cross.  (We hide Easter baskets in their entirety in this family, otherwise I'd leave the baskets at the cross.)

I feel that the symbolism of the Cross is present in this activity but we aren't dwelling on the Passion, nor are we making this contingent upon good behavior -- which I would like to save until after the age of reason.

    My girls are still young.  Nothing they can do can hurt their Jesus, rather everything they do is a delight to Him.  The time for talking more about the Passion and Death and our role in that event is coming soon.  But I don't think that time is now.  The beautiful CGS philosophy tells me that this is an age in which the child does not need to learn the harsher details of the Redemption Story, but rather needs simply to rejoice in the relationship between the Good Shepherd and His Sheep. 

I linked this post up at Catholic Icing's Lenten Link-up.  Go there to see many wonderful Lenten posts!