EGG-straordinary Lenten Rosary Project for your Family

The post, EGG-straordinary Lenten Rosary Project for your Family, was first published on the Catholic Sistas blog in 2012. It came to my attention today, that the link was broken so I am reprinting it here for Lent 2013. Enjoy!

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I've been reflecting on Lent for the past week and how I am going to observe this time of penance, alms giving, and prayer. My thoughts then brought to mind the little souls with whom we are entrusted as parents, grandparents, and God-parents. Since my babies are all so young (2 - 6) I thought it would be best to help them in the 'doing' and 'praying' categories. The resulting project reinforces/teaches all of the prayers of the Rosary (most know the Sign of the Cross, Our Father and Hail Mary). This can be a transitional addition to their customary nighttime prayers - reciting a decade of the Rosary, while concentrating on a particular mystery each night.

This simple, inexpensive and effective craft combines reciting a nightly decade of the Rosary with some good actions and creativity thrown in for good measure:

Lenten Rosary Project Materials List:

• Plastic Easter Eggs (1 larger egg for the Our Father and 10 smaller eggs for the Hail Mary)

• Colorful curling ribbon or pipe cleaners 

• Paper and markers/crayons

• Tongue depressors or Popsicle sticks

• Glitter glue, puff paint, stickers or other embellishments

• Hot glue gun and glue sticks

Lenten Rosary Project construction:

• Thread pre-cut sections of pipe cleaner or small strips of ribbon through the holes on both ends of the small plastic Easter eggs, until you have a chain of 10.

• Tie a knot in the ribbon or bend a 'knot' into the pipe cleaner and hot glue inside each egg to secure.

• Add one larger Easter egg to your chain for the Our Father to complete the decade.

• For the cross, shorten one of the tongue depressors and then form into a cross shape. Secure with hot glue and embellish with a sticker, if desired.

Lenten Rosary Project instructions:

Say one decade of the Rosary each evening using your Easter Egg Rosary and add your offerings (good deeds, petitions, or coins) for that day. This is a good time to discuss behavior, sharing and giving.

• Chose a petition, good dead, or prayer for each member of the family and write/draw on a piece of paper.

• You could also have your little ones earn pennies to share with the poor.

• Place these papers or coins inside a plastic Easter egg.

• On the weekend you may choose to draw or color pictures depicting the mysteries you have prayed during the week and make a booklet to go along with your newly completed Rosary.

At the end of a 5 day week you will have said all five of the respective mysteries and by the end of 4 full weeks you will have said all 4 sets of mysteries...and the COMPLETE Rosary. You should now have corresponding booklets with pictures of the all  20 mysteries.

You may now move on to coloring pages of the Stations of the Cross as your activity. Continue to use the Rosary you have made for praying a decade every evening as a family, as is now your practice. Last year, 3-year old Simon and 1-year old Rachel  learned all of their rosary prayers this way. The family developed a nightly rosary 'habit'.

On the evening before Easter Sunday, parents may wish to fill each egg with a treat or surprise and then hide the eggs for the traditional Easter egg hunt on Easter Sunday. Or you could keep them intact and still fill with treats. Your kids will have had a chance to count down the 40 days and reap a reward for their patience and efforts, seeing a tangible result! Hopefully you will also have enhanced your family prayer habits. God bless you...and may we all have a fruitful Lent.

Let us all pray for one another!

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Here are some links to coloring pages for use with your Easter Egg Rosary Project:

Stations of the Cross coloring pages for all of the stations.

Stations of the Cross carousel - a great way to display the colored pages.

Lamb of God Lenten Calendar uses cotton balls on a cute lamb print-out.

Walk the Lenten Path  to countdown the days, put a sticker on each square every day.

Almsgiving Activity for Children During Lent fill this cross-shaped craft with coins.

Catholic Rosary coloring pages to print. Includes Luminous Mysteries and much more!

Catholic Rosary Diagram page to color.

Sign of the Cross diagram and coloring page.

Our Father - prayer coloring sheet.

Hail Mary - prayer coloring page.

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*Note: you could also do the above project using a paper chain much like those that are made during Advent to adorn your Christmas tree. Each 'link' in the chain could be a Hail Mary and a larger 'link' could be added for the Our Father. You could write on the slips of paper before creating the links.