The Reason for the Season

We really want to make sure the children understand the true meaning of Easter so I did the below activities with the children yesterday and today (although, I'm sure only Lukas will have any memory of these things.).  I got the ideas from "Thriving Family" magazine and an online article from Focus on the Family. Last year, we baked "He is Risen" rolls, which is also a fun activity.

At breakfast yesterday, before we did any of the activities I had planned, I asked Lukas what we celebrate at Easter and he answered, "That Jesus died on the cross and is risen!"  If he learned nothing more from the other activities, I'm thankful that he already understands the core truth.

Before we dyed eggs, we talked about 6 characteristics that describe Jesus and wrote them in crayon on the eggs. Lukas came up with all of them (however, some with a little prompting from me.  I'll let you guess which ones those were.).  In total they are: Savior (Lukas decided this egg should be red for Jesus' blood), God's Son, Risen, Loving, Son of Man, and Sinless.

Today at lunch we talked about the Easter story and read verses related to each part from my childhood Bible (written at a 3rd grade level) for better understanding.  Here's what we discussed: 1) Bread crumb: Jesus ate dinner with His friends (Luke 22:14-15) 2) Cross: The next day, Jesus died on the Cross (John 19:17-18) 3) Strip of cloth: He was wrapped in cloth and placed in a tomb. (John 19:40) 4) Rock: A stone was placed in front of the tomb. (Matthew 27:59-60) 5) Empty egg: Jesus' friends came to the tomb and saw the stone had been moved. The tomb was empty! (Luke 24:1-3) 6) Candy: Jesus is alive.  That's the sweet surprise of Easter. (Matthew 28:5-6)

We used the "Easter Bunny" as a symbol for what Christians should look like, act like and be like.  Hopefully, when you click on the photo above to enlarge it, you can read about it in more detail.