Here’s one thing we’re doing for Lent with the kids this year: a prayer chain. I wish I could claim credit for the idea, but nope – I Googled, “Orthodox Lent with little kids” and someone had commented on some orthodox Mom blog with this idea. So, I made one!

Basically we picked 40 things to pray for, printed them, then cut them into equally(ish) sized strips of paper. Every night of Lent, we’ll pick one, and add it to the chain, and say a prayer as a family for that thing/person.

The project includes prayers for things that are very specific to our family (i.e. all of our kids, grandparents, etc.), things that are relevant in the world right now (30,000 kids under blockade in Artsakh, earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria), but then also more universal things – for instance, we basically copied over the prayers from Badarak every Sunday for “Travelers, Prisoners & captives, Anyone who is sick and suffering” etc. I hope we’ll be able to use it with minor tweaking for the next few years.

You’re welcome to use the template too, and adjust as needed for your family: