Great Lent with my Little Ones

Sunday of Orthodoxy

As most Orthodox Christians, I eagerly await this spiritual journey through Great Lent.  What an awesome gift !  But as my children start to become a little older, I begin to wonder how can I make it mean something to them...in their own little way.  I thought about a calendar, like the ones sold HERE.  It looks wonderful and I think it's a great idea.  But in our house, that presents a few challenges.  Sophia is REALLY into all things letters and numbers.  Prices, sizes, bar codes, grocery flyers, microwave clocks, etc.  I have had to put our Melissa and Doug calendar away for a little while because she was "missing the point" of the daily flow of things and only interested in manipulating the numbers, moving them around, etc.  Along with that, we have a more pertinent issue....which is Demetrios !  There is NO WAY those cute little magnets would stay on the refrigerator in ANY sort of order !  I think next year, when they are 5 and 3 years old, it might be a better idea !
So, I sat down with the kids on Clean Monday (the first Monday of Lent) and explained (mostly for Sophia's benefit of course) the fact that we were starting this period of Lent.  I kept the conversation fun and simple.  I reminded her of Pascha last  year - and then began to add this period of preparation to her explanation.  I explained that we'd be changing the rhythm of things in the home a bit.  Any new plan seems to excite them, so this is good !

We have added some additional prayers and prostrations to our morning prayer time.  We've also added times throughout the day for the Jesus Prayer.   The kids seem to be enjoying this even more than I had anticipated - Glory be to God.   I try to find a time during the day for them to at least SIT somewhere near me while I read aloud my assigned Kathismata from the Psalter for the Psalter reading group.  Of course, there are the extra Church services which they notice right away! They are trying (and being reminded...CONSTANTLY) to act with LOVE toward one another, not to yell or hit, to share more, donate some of their things, etc. etc.    I think seeing their little efforts in this area is my favorite.  We enjoy listening to the Hymns of this time in both Greek and English.  I think our favorite is Gates of Repentance.  If you have have not listened to it, I cannot recommend it enough !  Sophia has also been trying to teach her little brother to chant the Christos Anesti (Christ is Risen)...so she is taking over some of the teaching around here too.

So, these are some of the things we are trying to do a little differently around here to make this period stand out a bit for our children, at their own level of understanding, without overwhelming them.

If you have young children (or maybe they are older now)..what kind of things did you do during this time to make it meaningful and help them to understand ?