Lent for Kids

Lent begins today with Ash Wednesday.  Every year our church does a neat Lenten activity.  Families collect one item for the food pantry each day during Lent, and then bring their boxes to church on Easter to donate.

We like to include the kids, so they painted our Lenten box.  Then we wrote a Bible verse on it (John 3:16) and put 40 little boxes on it so that we can check off each day as we add the food.

I think this is a nice way to mark Lent with little ones.  Giving up something for Lent is not developmentally appropriate for small children, but this is a simple, tangible way to mark the 40 days, and focus on the giving part of the season.  The message I stress with the kids is that we give to others as a reflection of the love that Jesus gave to us.  

I also found a neat printable Lent calendar here that we have used.  It is another way for kids to visualize the 40 day season of Lent.  Enjoy!