Adventures in Parenting

It’s easy to get excited about Christmas as one of the major events in our Christian faith.

But it’s not so easy to get excited about Easter, which is just as important if not more so, in our Christian faith.

It’s easy to have cute bunny and egg decorations and crafts, but not so easy to talk about Jesus’ death on the cross. And try to explain about someone rising from the dead?? How do you talk about the true meaning of Easter at children’s level?

With children, learning always has to be experiential. Sitting down and merely telling them the story does not work as well as doing something with them that shows what it means for Jesus to die on the cross and rose from the dead.

Here are 3 ideas to get you started on teaching your children about Easter:

1. I’ve been using the Resurrection Eggs from Family Life to teach the Easter story for many years. It’s a hands-on way for children to see and feel the items associated with the events of Jesus last days on earth. Each egg contain items such as 3 nails to represent the nails that nailed Jesus to the cross, a piece of leather thong to represent the lashes Jesus received, etc. The Resurrection Eggs hold the children’s interest and serve to remind you all the details of the story.

2. This may be weird, but I like to take my children to the cemetery. If you live in the Los Angeles are, I recommend going to the Forest Lawn in Glendale that showcases a beautiful stain glass masterpiece of Leonardo da Vinci’s immortal painting of the Last Supper, and a mural-size paintings of the crucifixion and resurrection, both with narration. What better place to talk about the important issues of life and death than at a cemetery! The surrounding naturally lends itself for conversations about Easter.

3. Make these delicious meringue treats while telling the Easter story.  The recipe along with the meaning of each ingredient as related to Easter is explained in a way that children can understand. Food always make a good object lesson!

What do you do to teach the true meaning of Easter?