*this first book, Journey to the Cross, will be our “main” text in addition to the Bible. This book has 40 readings in it which are the events in Jesus life leading up to His death and resurrection. We will read 1 page/reading each day starting with the beginning of Lent, Feb 25th.
*This book, Benjamin’s Box is a story that you can read to go along with the Resurrection Eggs. If you have younger children and want to teach them the true meaning of Easter, you should really check into getting the Resurrection Eggs, they are wonderful! We will be doing this the final week leading up to Easter.
*If you have younger children, the Resurrection Eggs are probably my favorite Easter resource ever! 🙂 You open one egg at a time (I know some families choose to open 1 egg today leading up to Easter) and each egg has one thing in it to help tell the story of Jesus death and resurrection. There are things in it like coins that Judas got paid for betraying Jesus, a piece of cloth that his body was wrapped in, a stone to represent the stone in front of the tomb, a cross, etc. I have seen these eggs at walmart, but most Christian book stores would also carry them.
*To go along with the resurrection eggs, a WONDERFUL video for age 3-6yrs (maybe) is Mrs. Patty Cake’s Eggstravaganza! My oldest is 7 years and she still enjoys it, but it is geared for preschoolers. She talks about the resurrection eggs, opens some of them and tells the Easter storoy along with cute, simple and singable songs for the kiddos!! It’s alot of fun!
*This book called Mrs. Katz and Tush is a Five in a Row selection (our homeschool curriculum.) We will be using this book the week before Passover and Good Friday. This year I wanted to teach my children a little bit more about Passover and what that means. This book is a good introduction to that. I am also planning to get together with 2 friends and plan our own Passover meal complete with foods that they ate! I’m very excited about that!
Links and Ideas
*A neat and meaningful idea I read about last year was to take 2 boards/wood and nail them together like a cross. (hopefully David would do this part!) And then have each person in the family write down a sin that they need to confess. Then each person will nail their sins to the cross. (with daddy’s help.)
*Here are the Easter resources from Homeschool Share. (there are units for 2 of my favorite Easter books for children: The Parable of the Lily and The Legend of the Easter Egg, both stories about the true meaning of Easter for us as believers.)
*Here are lapbook and notebooking components for Mrs. Katz and Tush
*Here is a Lent blog called These Forty Days, this blog is from a Catholic perspective, many of the prayers on this site are beautiful and directly from scripture. Not all of it is in line with where I am theologically, but much of it is very useful for me as well.
*I am going to do this Lent Map/Countdown with the kids. Each day we will color in 1 square as we “countdown” to Jesus resurrection day!
*There are a few Lent and Easter handwriting/copywork pages on this site
*I love this idea!! This site shows you how to teach and show your children about the 10 Plagues. It is SO creative!! I’m definitely going to use this, starting 10 days before Good Friday. And then I read another friend’s idea to hang a red cloth over your door on Passover Night and Good Friday as a symbol and picture for your kids!
*Here is a sweet poem you can read with your kids, while eating jelly beans of course!
“The Jelly Bean Prayer”
Red is for the Blood He gave,
Green is for the grass He made,
Yellow is for the Sun so bright,
Orange is for the edge of night,
Blue is for the Sky He made,
White is for the Grace He gave,
Purple is for His hour of sorrow,
Pink is for our new tomorrow,
A bag full of jelly beans
All colorful and sweet
Is a Prayer
Is a Promise
Is a small child’s treat.
Other Children’s Books for Easter
As always Candace, thank you so much for sharing your Lent/Easter ideas.
I will certainly be praying for you this Lenten season! We ARE soul sisters!! May the Lord reveal himself to you in mighty ways these upcoming weeks!
Much love sweet friend!
I love so many of these ideas and considered doing a fast from computer stuff. But, so much of my current work has me tied to it that I couldn’t go that route. So, a spending fast it will be again.
I did tag you on my blog today for a fun post, but understand if you can’t do it until after Easter arrives.
http://daybydayinourworld.blogspot.com/2009/02/blog-fun-first-initial-game.html
Love your Easter/Lent ideas! I’m stealing some. 😉 I’ve always wanted to do the Resurrection eggs, and this will be a great time to begin that. TFS your resources!