It is Ash Wednesday! Today I have a whole list of Lenten activities to share with you. Here are a ton of books, prayers, and more that you can do as a family.
***This post has been updated on February 2022***
***Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. Thank you!
Meatless Friday Cooking with the Kids
Try new meatless meals during Lent and let the kids help you! I admit, I quickly lose my patience when I let my kids help me but if you let them help, despite how frustrating it can be, it can be a great sacrifice to offer up, especially during Lent. I plan on letting the kids help me prepare our Friday meatless dinners. You can check out my Pinterest board of Meals for Lent for possible dinner ideas and see what we will be trying.
Lent Board
Make a Lent board to help you along your Lenten journey. This is a great option if you are limited on wall space because you can easily fold it up and move around. You can get a tri-fold board from the dollar store, decorate it with Lenten symbols, add prayers, and so on. Check out my Lent Board post for more information.
Crown of Thorns & Sacrifice Jar
Make a crown of thorns and every time a child makes a sacrifice they get to pull a thorn out of Jesus’ crown. It’s a precious idea that even the littlest family member can enjoy doing. You can make a crown of thorns out of salt dough and toothpicks or you could use a small grapevine wreath and add toothpicks to that. Here are a couple of recipes I’ve found for making it yourself RECIPE 1 and RECIPE 2. I also have a free printable card to use for a sacrifice jar available.
Lenten Calendar
Keep a Lenten Calendar up to give your children a visual way of keeping track of Lent and countdown to Easter. I have a predated Lenten Calendar in full color available for FREE that you can download. I find this helpful that it’s already colored because I don’t have enough space to display several kids worth of Lent Calendars.
Stations of the Cross for Kids
A lot of parishes offer a children’s station of the cross during Lent. I highly recommend looking into this if available. If not, here are a couple of books that are great for kids.
- Stations of the Cross for Kids by Regina Doman
- Stations of the Cross for Children by Julianne M. Will
- Walking with Jesus to Calvary: Stations of the Cross for Children by Angela M Burrin
Here are a few more great resources for doing the Stations of the Cross with Kids
- Happy Saint – Stations of the Cross printables
- Stations of the Cross for Kids YouTube video
- 14 Stations of the Cross YouTube video
- Station of the Cross Cards with Prayers (pictured above)
Read Aloud Books for Lent
Read some books to help you really dig deep this Lenten season. Nothing like the power of a good book that really speaks to your soul and gets the brain pondering. I have provided a list of options for the whole family.
LENT BOOKS FOR FAMILY
- Bringing Lent Home with Mother Teresa by Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle
- Bringing Lent Home with St. Therese of Lisieux by Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle
- Bringing Lent Home with St. John Paul II by Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle
- A Family Journey With Jesus Through Lent: Prayers And Activities for Each Day by Angela M. Burrin
- Lent and Easter in the Domestic Church by Catherine Fournier
- My Catholic Lent and Easter Activity Book: Reproducible Sheets for Home and School
LENT BOOKS FOR CHILDREN
- The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
- Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig
- The Lost Princess by George MacDonalds
- The Tale of Three Trees by Angela Elwell Hunt
- Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado
- Make Room: A Child’s Guide to Lent and Easter by Laura Alary
- Stations of the Cross for Children by Julianne M Will
- Catholic Kid 365: Lent 2022 by Heath Morber
- Louie’s Lent by Claudia Cangilla McAdam
LENT BOOKS FOR TEENS
LENT BOOKS THAT FUEL YOUR SOUL
- Every Step with Jesus: Following the Saints in the Way of the Cross
- Above All by Elizabeth Foss
- Lenten Reflections From A Father Who Keeps His Promises by Scott Hahn
- The Fourth Cup: Unveiling the Mystery of the Last Supper and the Cross by Scott Hahn
- No Unlikely Saints: A Lenten Pilgrimage from Brickhouse In The City
- All She Had from Blessed is She (they also have devotionals for men and kids)
Prayers
Look up Lenten prayers to say as a family. Try praying the rosary every day with your children. I know this can be difficult with young kids but I suggest you give it a try. Maybe pray only one decade a day, taking the whole week to complete one mystery. There are many great tips to make it interactive for little ones on Pinterest. Happy Saints has a wonderful ebook of the Rosary that is beautifully illustrated. I do have a printable of some Lent prayers as well.
40 Bags in 40 Days
Declutter and rid your life of excessive worldly possessions to allow yourself to focus more on the priorities in your life, mainly Jesus. White House Black Shutters is a great website to help you get started. I also highly recommend Catholic Minimalism by Sterling Jaquith.
Confession
Since Lent is a time of penance, go to confession often with your kids. Going to confession often makes this amazing sacrament less scary. Often kids (and adults) are very intimidated by confession but if you go often and talk about how great it is to your kids, it will soon become a beautiful devotion that your kids will hold dear.
For those who need help, check out my Confession Guide for Kids. It is a step-by-step guide with a kid-friendly examination pamphlet to help kids with going to confession.
Other Lent Activity Resources:
- Another amazing FREE resource for kids is Holy Heros’ Lenten Adventure!! We have signed up for the past couple of years now, so I highly recommend it. They also have a ton of other products you can buy on their website.
- An idea for almsgiving this Lent is CRS – Rice Bowl. It’s a Lenten faith-in-action program that shows love to our neighbors who hunger and are in poverty. Learn more about CRS – Rice Bowl check out their website at www.crsricebowl.org.
- Formed.org – an amazing website that offers Catholic movies, ebooks, audios, and much more for all ages
- Preparing for Lent – here is a short video from Father Mike, who is always funny, about preparing for Lent
Here is a list of all my Lent posts
- Lent with Kids 2017
- Lent Board
- Best Easter Basket Gift Ideas for All Ages for 2022 – both religious and non religious
- 2019 Lenten Calendar (free printable)
- Free Printables for Lent
Check out all of my FREE printables available for Lent in the Printable Library. Not subscribed? No problem, just click the button below to subscribe and get access.
Do you have any special Lent traditions? Please share in the comments below!
Don’t forget to pin this post!
This is so interesting and sounds fun. I wasn’t brought up in any type of religious home but I’d love to learn more. I wish I had time for more learning on my part. Great post!
Thanks, our faith is a big part of our lives. It’s not a race , everyone learns at their own pace.
Thanks for the meatless meal ideas!
No problem, I always have trouble finding meatless meals
Where is the download for the free Lenten calendar printable?
The Lenten Calendar is in the Printable Library
Hi Roxanne,
I’ve subscribed with my email address and received a confirmation email. The printable library says that it is password protected, but the email did not contain a password. Am I missing it somewhere?
Thank you and Gob Bless!
Hello, You should receive an email containing the password. Email me and I will send the password ASAP.