home school preschool Lent week

I am a little behind. 

as you know from my post last week 

that it was a mess.

the big kids didn't have school all week because of the insane snow storms and extreme cold

and

 when the big kids don't go to school it makes it's nearly impossible for the little ones to take naps.

 But home school preschool this week was all about preparing for the Lent season.

and I needed to learn about it as much as Miss Belle did.

so I made it a point to find time somewhere in the days to do our work.

We read a lot in our Bibles.

We have two children's Bibles.

one that is geared more to Catholic children and one that is just filled with lots of colorful pictures.

 the stories we read:

The Devil tempts Jesus

The washing of the Feet

The rich fool and the widow

I tried to stick with stories leading up to the lent season and the Lessons Jesus was trying to teach us about temptations and almsgiving.

 Technically Miss Belle is underage for the catholic practices of fasting and giving up something during lent.

but we believe if we expect them to participate when they are older they should practice now.

 So we did not eat meat on ash Wednesday or the Fridays during lent.

and when you choose something to give up during lent it is supposed to be a bad habit or something you do that is not seen by God as a way to live a good holy life.

but you don't always have to give up something you can actually take on something instead.

I felt like the taking on something would be a little more on Miss Belle's level.

so we made a list of 10 acts of kindness she can do from now until Easter.

She came up with them all on her own.

I just wrote them down. we will go over this list everyday as a reminder of a way she can help someone she loves.

 While reading the bible she kept asking me "what does that mean?"

or "I don't know that word"

so we made a vocabulary sheet that includes some words associated with Lent.

 We had plans to attend mass on Ash Wednesday but mother nature made that impossible.

so we made self portraits of each of us with our ashes on our foreheads.

 Then we made a countdown to Easter Sunday.

and listed all the important days leading up to it.

when we go over her list of kindness at the beginning of class we will also mark off a day on the countdown.

We worked on the letter Rr 

and she has officially completed her number and basic skills book so I picked up another number work book and we started that with the numbers 1,2,3, and 4.

Easter is extremely important to our catholic faith. it's everything actually.

and I want my children to celebrate the true meaning of the holiday. So the only way for her to know what that is would be to teach her.  I am so glad I didn't let the change in schedules stop me from doing this very important preschool lesson. 

and since I shared what Miss Belle's Lenten promise is I feel like I should also share mine.

it's a little personal but

i wanted to do something with more meaning than giving up chocolate or biting my nails.

I really wanted to do a better job at praying with my husband.

We both have strong religious beliefs 

we pray together as a family before dinner every night and we sit with the girls at bedtime and listen to their prayers. 

but we don't pray together. 

I always hear about how a couple that prays have a more intimate strengthened marriage.

our marriage is strong and great 

no complaints

 but if we can make it better then why not?!

so every night before we go to sleep and after we caught up on all the days happenings 

We ask each other to pray.

it's only been a few days and I can't say that our prayers have been answered yet

 but

it does feel great knowing my husband is praying for something only him, me and God knows about.

what are you doing for Lent?

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