Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Clean Week/Lenten Survival Kit

Here is a look at the bag I pack to help get us through the long Great Canon Services this week. These items are chosen so the kids can be kept quietly busy while still singing along with the responses to the Canon. The wonderful green book is a homemade coloring book created by the little princess' godfather (Erin's wonderful husband). It contains line drawings of every imaginable saint and feast day. The kids enjoy coloring these, and they also love to take blank sheets of paper and trace the images - great practice for future iconographers :) I try to rotate out a good selection of books, preferably ones that pertain to Lent or Pascha, but not always. (My favorite new book right now is The Man and the Vine - a beautifully illustrated rhyme about a man growing the grapes for the Eucharist wine - it is a very moving children's book). The crocodile hunter likes to have a prayer book, and the Queen has crayons and a few small wooden figures to play with. All of the books you see are available through St. Nectarios Press or Conciliar Press.

3 comments:

Pres. Kathy said...

I have started to make a bag like this for my little guy, but we only last around 10 minutes in church at one time. It is getting better, thank God. But the cry room has become our best friend.

Erin said...

I'm glad you said something about The Man and the Vine. I've been looking at it and wondering about it but haven't bought it yet. Sounds like a Pascha basket gift waiting to happen. My three-year-old has been surviving this week on a million reads of The Wonderful Life of Russia's Saint Sergius of Radonezh.

Alicia said...

Thank you for taking the time to share once again. It really helps those of us just getting started. I ordered some things from http://www.orthodoxchristiancraftsupply.com/ and add them in. I have the older two do readings in the car and then they they get the stuff from the bag once we are in church.

Alicia in New Zealand