Lent Activities

I got the idea somewhere on the internet to make a mosaic cross, so they used "bitter boo" (John's version of "glitter glue") and spring colored foam pieces on cardboard crosses.  

We also traced our hands on black construction paper, turned them upside down and glued cotton balls to make lambs.  They didn't quite turn out as cute as I expected, but the kids love anything that involves glue.  Then we read the Storybook Bible's version of Holy Week.  Leah and I also got into a long discussion about the Old Testament sacrifice of lambs for atonement and how John the Baptist declared Jesus the Lamb of God.  It was pretty amazing.  

Then my personal favorite Lenten activity morphed from the jelly bean jar idea.  First of all, I'm annoyed that somehow the only way to communicate spiritual ideas to young kids seems to always involve junk food full of sugar and artificial colors.  I wonder how people taught their kids about Jesus before jello and marshmellows were invented?  (Moving on...)

So my healthier and simpler version involves dark chocolate almonds to represent good choices that the kids make.  They can't suggest one for themselves or I'd hear "Look what I did, mom.  Can I have an almond?" for the next forty days.  And they can also lose one if they've made a not-so-good choice.  The yogurt covered almonds symbolize God's grace and they can't be earned.  We throw them in when we think of things we are blessed with that we don't deserve (like a new day, His new mercies every morning, etc.).  The goal is to fill the center jar by Easter in order to eat them all, but it's supposed to be impossible so that they wake up and the rest of the jar has been filled to the top with God's grace.  I'm surprised how much we're enjoying it and again hope that something of the truth and grace of God is settling into their little hearts.