Most parishes walk the Stations of the Cross during Lent, and most children under about seven cannot follow fourteen readings standing still. A booklet they made themselves gives their hands and eyes something to do at each stop.
Most Catholic parishes observe a set of fourteen stations depicting moments in Christ's journey to the crucifixion, usually walked as a group during Lent, often with a reading or a moment of reflection at each one. Exactly how your parish orders it, and the words used at each stop, vary — ask your own priest or parish office for the version they use.
The shape that works here is the same one behind everything on this site: a thing made beforehand, used for real later. A blank page for each station — numbered, with space to draw or stick a small picture — gives a young child a job at every stop instead of fourteen minutes of standing still.
Let the drawings be simple and let them be the child's own. A parent redrawing 'the right picture' turns the child's job back into an adult's.
We do not print the words said at each station. Prayers, readings and exactly how the walk is led are your parish's to provide, not ours to guess at — the booklet has a line for you to write in what your own priest uses.
Fourteen is the common set in most Catholic parishes, but exactly how a particular parish walks it is theirs to say — check with your parish before assuming.
Drawing one picture per station works from about four or five with help turning pages. Younger children can hold and carry the booklet without illustrating it themselves.
We leave that blank deliberately. Ask your parish for the wording they use and write it in yourselves — we are not going to print prayer text we have not been given by the people who lead it.
Part of our guide to Christian holidays with young kids.