Celebrating the Resurrection with your kids...

How do you focus your kids on Christ during Easter instead of just Jelly Beans, Bunnies, and Egg Hunts? Now I love all of the three above, and our house will be full of Easter delight, but I really struggled last year finding GOOD Christ-centered activities for celebrating Easter.

My calendar had marked last week to "begin planning Easter activities". Well, I have been a tad busy having a baby and all.... but now that I am back to normal (yeah right...maybe in denial! But this is a relaxing outlet for me) I thought I would think about it.

One thing we did was use parts of Noel Piper's Lenten Lights devotional. You have 7 candles and we centered ours around a cross. You can either celebrate the 7 weeks leading up to Easter (way too long for my little llamas) or the 7 days (much better). We used some of the verses, but mainly it was just another visual reminder at meal time that this week was Special... it was all about God's Son! And our Salvation!

There is always the trusted Resurrection Eggs

of which I am a huge fan (though I think we need to replace a few cracked eggs this year) Walmart used to carry these, but I think they nixed them...we wouldn't want Easter to become too Christian and offend anyone now, would we? You can pick one up at your local Christian Book store. Even last year at 2 1/2 Charlotte had memorized what was inside every egg. It is a great memory tool.

Here is a great Jelly Bean Prayer that we sent out last year to all our preschool friends with little baggy of jelly beans.

My next great find was the Good News Magnet Set by Alphabet Alley.

I put this on the side of our fridge and lets the kids play with it. Alphabet Alley doesn't seem to have them on their site right now (kinda weird) but I found it being sold on another site. They also have a Nativity magnet set that the kids loved playing with this year.

I also looked high and low last year for an Easter Resurrection Playset (kinda like the little people nativity set?) only to be very disappointed at the options...basically there are none. I did come across a plush/stuffed tomb that zipped and all the characters could come out of the tomb...can't find that online anywhere this year...wait I found it.... thank you Catholic Supply .

I think there was a reason I didn't buy it last year...maybe the $32 price tag! And the fact that my kids would probably destroy that in .2 seconds. Did you hear what happened to our stick manger this Christmas?? BAD NEWS!

Instead, We resorted to making our own tomb out of homemade playdough

(from Noel Piper's book Treasuring God in our Traditions)

We painted it and borrowed some little people figures to play out the scene. It was a hit! But I still think a plastic or wooden Easter Play set would be beneficial for little minds learning the real meaning of Easter. (hint, hint...little people...get with it. Did you know they make a Little People Hanakkah set? Who knew? Why not easter?)

This site also has some great activities for celebrating Christ's Resurrection the week leading up to Easter.

And since I know the real reason you all clicked over to the blog was for a little baby fix, check in later for more pics of Helen. Loading the pics to the computer is the part I slack off on...getting them on the blog is easy.

Happy Easter Planning...

Please post your tips as well for "Treasuring Christ this Easter"

"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus,

the Author and Perfecter of our faith"

Hebrews 12:2


~~If you landed here searching for Resurrection Play Set or Easter ideas, visit this link
to get an updated list of ideas and posts on Easter Traditions.
 Including Making your OWN Resurrection Playset!