Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Easter Meaningful Ideas for Kids

With Easter coming up at the end of this week, I was looking for ideas for my children to celebrate the true meaning and greatness of Jesus rather than eggs filled with toys and candy.  I came across this awesome blog article from Impress Your Kids and liked it so much I want to share it here as well.  This is how one Mom shared Easter with her daughter:




easter traditions for kids


On Good Friday last year, Lydia and I took a round baking dish outside and filled it with dirt…we were making a mini-garden. Then we found rocks, sticks, plants, moss and leaves to cover and plant in our new garden. The final piece was a giant potato. Yup, like from Idaho. We chopped the bottom off and carved out a little hole in the middle. We placed it cut-end down and suddenly, it wasn’t any garden. It was the tomb and garden where Jesus was buried.
Lydia was so proud of our garden. I was impressed at how beautiful it was. A great reminder of what Jesus did for us–but also a pretty decoration for our Resurrection Sunday celebration. By Good Friday evening, the leaves started to look a little dingy. By Saturday night? They were looking downright pitiful. That night before Lydia went to bed we looked at our garden again and talked about how Jesus’ friends must have been feeling. Thinking back to when we made our garden–it seemed like a long time ago! This whole time Jesus had been dead and his friends were so sad–and scared and confused. After Lydia went to bed I did a little doctoring to our garden


easter garden
 
And when Lydia woke up she was shocked to see our garden alive with beautiful flowers and growth and LIFE! I loved seeing her little face staring at the flowers in amazement (instead of greedily looking through her Easter basket). I loved the waiting we did from Good Friday to Resurrection Sunday. I loved the gorgeous picture of LIFE and beauty the flowers gave us. I want my kids to know and understand what Jesus did for them on the cross. I want Easter to be as big and as exciting and (dare I say?) magical as Christmas. This is just one way we’ve decided to help impress the greatest gift and miracle onto our children.

HOW DO YOU MAKE EASTER ABOUT ‘THE LAMB’ AND NOT ‘THE BUNNY’?

If you have a post on your blog (new or old) about the REAL meaning of Easter including traditions, activities, games, crafts or even just conversations you’ve had with your kids, pleaseplace the URL in the linky below! If you don’t have a blog, please leave your story in the comments. I want this post to be a giant treasure trove of great ideas to impress our kids with the resurrection!



resurrection





I can't wait to try this with my kiddos this year!  This blog is full of other wonderful ideas to share the meaning of Easter with you kids - check it out!

2 comments:

  1. What a wonderful idea! That little garden is awesome! Love the tomb potato. Having children create a craft (or mini garden) revolving around the true meaning is a great way to focus on this important day. We've just never celebrated with bunnies, baskets, and eggs. We attend church, have a yummy dinner, and spend time with family/friends, thanking God for His Son and what He did for each of us. Blessings to you and happy Easter.

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  2. That was truly a fantastic idea on getting the kids involved in the true meaning of Easter. Easter has always been one of my favorite holidays because of new beginings, new life, new hope and more wonderous miracles our Lord has performed.

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