For a very long time I found myself homeschooling with a split brain mentality. One part of my brain would be concentrating on homeschooling. The other part would be fretting about, say, Lent and all that comes with it. It wasn't until I brought these two parts together and realized that I could weave Lent through our homeschool day that I began to celebrate both things instead of dreading the addition of the one.
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Instead of fighting with the additional things that come into our lives and try to overwhelm us, I learned that it is much easier to go with the flow of the liturgical year and incorporate it into our schooling. Adding that "one more thing" on to our days seemed like such a burden, but when I began to see that the practices of Lent could actually be a part of our schooling, things got much better.
Ways to Incorporate Lent in Your Homeschool Day
If you happen to do a morning time routine with your kids, this is the perfect time to weave those Lenten devotions in. You could purchase, or make your own, Stations of the Cross activities. We've done paper cut-outs of the stations, coloring books, felt pieces, and placed beautiful pictures around the room.
Want to bring some Lenten music to your morning time routine? Look up Theodore Dubois' recordings of "The Seven Last Words of Christ". It is hauntingly beautiful.
How about a good read aloud for Lent? I love the Vision Series of books on the Saints and a good one for this time would be to read about St. Francis of Assisi. He loved this penitential season so much that I read he made it longer than it is!
You could also learn about fasting and take time to bake different kinds of breads together or learn to cook simple meals and maybe some new soups for dinner. Talk to the kids about the benefits of fasting from things other than food. Catholic Icing has a ton of great ideas that you should check out for Lent.
If you don't want to put together your own plans, check out these Lenten Morning Time plans from Pam Barnhill. There are plans to get you through all of the weeks of Lent.
Bury the Alleluia
I've also included one of our favorite activities to do the day before Lent begins and that is to decorate the "Alleluia" and then bury it somewhere in the house. The kids have been doing this for years, hiding their decorated papers somewhere where they usually forget them, and then on Easter morning, after much thinking and remembering of where they put them, they bring them out and we usually hang them on the fireplace for the Easter season. You can get your free copy of the Alleluia here.
In addition to that, you can download a handy sheet that will help you and your kids decide what you'll be doing during Lent in the areas of praying, fasting and almsgiving.
Live Lent Together
There is so much to learn by living out the liturgical seasons in your homeschool. The resources are endless so if you don't see everything you want here, just do a quick search and in no time you'll be overwhelmed with choices!
The ideal homeschool is one where everyone is enjoying learning and isn't stressed because there's so much to do. Learn to flow with the seasons in your life and then you and your kids will be so much more at peace and learning how to enjoy learning.