Monday, March 9, 2015

Teens walk through Lent




 LENT FOR TEENS
Pray,Fast, Almsgiving

The other day I posted about the girls (ages 2 and 5) journey through Lent.  Well today I thought I would seek out some resources for the teens in our house.  They know to "give" something up for Lent, but do they truly realize what Lent really stands for and how to grow in Christ through Lent.

Well they are about to get some resources to help them to read, watch and reflect on.  (Hopefully, our Adult child will take a look as well)

The first blog post I read was called Lent: 40-mini-crucifixions by Faith Noah.  I like this blog because it is written by a young adult for teens.  It is easy to follow and understand, no big theological words to throw their attention span off track.  She lays out a very simple explanation of Lent and reasons behind some of the Catholic traditions.  Honestly, I think even upper elementary and middle schoolers would benefit from this.

The next blog post I looked at was also on LifeTeen called What to Give Up for Lent: 25 Creative Ideas by Life Teen.  They put a survey question out on facebook and it lists 25 of the responses they received.  Some of them are very creative, like going without shoes, giving up their bed and sleeping on the floor, spoons and forks.  Teens can be very creative and imaginative if we do not limit them and try to challenge some of their ideas.

I came across a website called Catholic Youth Works.  This website is full of links to other Lent and Easter resources.  Their are videos, challenges, missions, talks, reading and so much more.  I encourage you to take a look.  I liked the video

The last blog I looked at was from St. Michael's Parish in Maine.  It  appears upon further reading that their ideas came from Lifeteen.  However they have listed them  by Fasting, Prayer, Almsgiving.
I like the idea for fasting "Give a hug to everyone in your family", "Compliment each person in your family sometime today"- Wow not sure the teen boys are up for that!!  Some of these ideas could be a real challenge and put the teens in our house out of their comfort zone.  Which is exactly what Lent is suppose to do?!  Are we not suppose to step out from ourselves and challenge ourselves to so something different, something hard, something that calls upon the strength of God to help us through?!

I came across this video done by Father Jack Collins You Don't Know Jack..About Lent.  He stands out side of St. Patrick Church in New York City and ask people about Lent and Catholic Traditions around Lent. It is sometimes good to have multimedia approach when trying to teach our kids about Lent and Catholic Traditions.

So as we try to engage our teens in the family Lenten journey.  It can be difficult among the school and sports schedule.  We can still strive to educate, encourage and support them on their journey to follow Christ.

Friday, March 6, 2015

Our Lenten Journey 2015

As we spent the first two weeks of Lenten sick, we have had a slow start to our journey.  As we focus on Pray, Fast, Alms giving, the girls have set up a "Lenten Table" in our family room.

For Fast the girls put together Sacrifice Tubs.  They were each given a small shoe box size tub to fill with the toys, and books that they were willing to sacrifice for the Lent.  We put a sign on the top of each box that reads "Sacrifice Tub for Christ. No playing, Just Praying"  (Just realized that Sacrifice is not spelled correctly on their tubs.  Good thing they are too young to read.)  

I found the Cross Calendar on Pinterest.com  I forgot to pin it and have searched but can not find it again. Their is no website listed on the copy I have.  (if someone knows where I found it, let me know in the comments and I will give credit where credit is do)

Anyways, the girls color a cross each day until Easter.  Since we were sick we are a little behind on the coloring.


For Prayer, we are doing Prayer Chain for Lent that I found on Catholic Inspired.  http://www.catholicinspired.com/search?q=prayer+chain+for+lent&x=0&y=0
 We went with their premade pray strips, since we were sick and not up to doing to much thinking.
The girls help to glue and tape the strips together.  They have enjoyed taking one off each day and saying an extra prayer.


We have several different hands on Station of the Cross Activities that the kids use to play and pray.
We also have resurrection egg set.
The following Stations of The Cross, I made from a poster from Oriental Trading, and the symbols for each station came from ideas found on Catholic Icing  It all stores in a bag that I sewed to store all the pieces.

One morning before the girls got up, I start to make a Easter Egg Rosary.  I found on Pinterest which lead me to www.designsbybirgit.blogspot.com.  
We really have not done anything with it but add it to our table.  It was easy to make but does get rather large so I decide to just make a decade this time.  

For Alms giving the girls have gone through their clothes and have gotten rid of 4 bags of clothes to take Rose Garden Mission in Covington.   We also are planning to go buy some diapers for the mission we just have not to do it.  

As for mommy, she is participating in a small group Lenten study with other homeschool mothers. That our church is doing.  It was nice to be able to make one this week.

It is never to late to get started on your Lenten Journey.  

 Some of my favorite resources are


 "Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full."  Matthew 6:16 (NAS)


Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Peg Doll School

The girls and their friends have really enjoyed the Peg Doll Church that we painted.  We are still working on our growing our peg doll collection, but the girls do not seem to mind playing with unfinished peg dolls. Since most parishes have schools attached, the kids wanted their peg church to have school.  Our family does a mixture of home school and Catholic schools.

After a trip to Michaels, I found this "Train Depot"  I liked it because it opened all the way like their church.  The girls like the bench in front for the dolls to wait for the bus.





Since both the girls wanted to paint the school, I took off the hinges and gave them each a side of the "train depot."  I then just let them paint.  I am not a helicopter mom.  I set them up and went to do the dishes.  At the end I did go and fix drips and filled in places that were missed.




  I have to say we have the most colorful school around.

After the school dried for several hours, I put the hinges back on and it was ready for play.  The girls got right to it and set up the school.





They opened up the church so that it looked like they were attached just like at our church.


Girls are working on painting desks and chairs today.