First, I wanted to mention a few things we did to remember the true meaning of Easter. I don't have a lot of Easter decorations. But I do have a bunch of the pictures in the Gospel Art pack. So I found all the pictures of Christ's last week and hung them on my wall.
We learned all about this last "Holy Week". This is what I decided to do this year and I thought it would make a great tradition. We take a few minutes each day to talk about or learn about what Christ did on that particular day of the week.
I found this blog: http://kanzlerthoughts.blogspot.com/2010/03/holy-week-day-one-palm-sunday.html It gave me a bunch of ideas about how to teach my kids about Easter and Christ. I give it to you in case you want to do something similar. You will have to search her site for the other days. They should be after this one. I also followed links that she had on her blog and they gave me ideas too. I just felt like this would be a tradition that could grow with us. This year we spent a few minutes just telling stories. But as the kids get older we could find better ways to teach, or they could take turns teaching, or we could read the verses for these stories, or whatever. We have never done anything except tell the easter story on Easter before- so this was fun!
Day one: Christ triumphant entry into Jerusalem. I printed off palm leaves from the computer and we shouted "Hosanna!" a bunch of times and got really hyper.
Day two: The cleansing of the temple. I just told the story. There are clever ways to do this if you plan ahead, but I didn't.
Day three: Parables. I told the kids a few of the parables and we talked about how important they must have been if Christ taught them on his last week.
Day four: More parables, also talked about Judas' betrayal.
Day five: The last supper, the atonement, and Christ's arrest. I made a "last supper". It was a mixture of a passover meal and what my kid's would eat. Let's just say that it was not Kosher. During dinner we talked about a lot of things (remember that we have very short attention spans at our house so these were very short conversaions.) Why the Jewish people celebrated passover, the introduction of the sacrament, the atonement, and his arrest.
Day 6: We talked about the trials and the crucifixion.
Day 7: We went to Andre's mom's grave and talked about how the people were sad that Jesus had died, but that they would be with him again. Just like they would get to meet their grandma Cherrie one day. (For an amazing coincidence, it was Grandma Cherrie's birthday that day!)
Easter: We talked about how this was the day that Christ was ressurected. We made the "Empty Tomb" rolls. (They were not a hit with the children in my house- kids are lame). We had the boys listen to President Monson's talk and it was specifically about the Easter story. That was a fantastic ending to the Easter week.
So here is what you've all been waiting for: a bunch of pictures of the bunny and candy side to Easter.
They got books in their baskets.
Dinner at my parents house. Me with my cute sisters and cute mom.
Another hunt!
Easter is fun!
3 comments:
Janelle, you are so clever. I like this idea. Thx for posting it. I finished my Lent activity.
So glad you found the Easter info helpful! I have so much fun each year celebrating Easter.
Just so you know - there is an amazing book where most of this info came from. It's titled "A Christ Centered Easter" by Janet and Joe Hales and can be purchased at Deseret Books. The great thing about this book, well there are many great things, but the Hales have activities for all ages! I highly recommend this book.
Thanks for stopping by and Happy Belated Easter to you!
~Megan (Orange Peanut)
You and Andre need to figure out a weekend you guys can come over for pizza. We have GOT to get together. Our kids are so much alike, it's hilarious.
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