Creative Ideas to teach your Children About Easter

Four Creative Ways to Teach Your Kids About Easter (taken from Hearts at Home) Read the Easter story right from the Bible one night after dinner or before bed. If you use a New International Version (NIV) or The Message Bible, it helps make the story easier to understand. The Easter story can be found in several places but you can start in the book of Mark chapters 15 and 16. Read the Easter story aloud while your kids are decorating Easter eggs. You'll have a captive audience. Keep a stash of jelly beans for mom and dad's use only. In the week leading up to Easter leave a few jelly beans with short notes telling your children how much you love them or how you see God working in their lives. Leave the jellybeans and notes in some fun places for them to find them (under their pillows, in their lunch boxes, in their backpacks, or on their dressers). Make your own Easter story eggs. Fill 9 plastic eggs with a Bible verse and a corresponding item that will help tell the Easter story. Number the eggs and place them in a basket you keep as a center piece on your kitchen table. Beginning nine days before Easter, allow your kids to open one egg each day in countdown order. Read the verse and talk about how the item is an important part of the Easter story. This helps tell the Easter story in a creative way. It's especially beneficial to those kids who best learn with hands-on activities. Here are the items you'll need: #9 Cracker Mark 14:22 #8 Three dimes Matthew 26:14-15 #7 Thorn Mark 15:17 #6 Two sticks (to make a cross) John 19:16-17 #5 Nail Luke 23:33 #4 White Cloth Matthew 27:57-60 #3 Stone Matthew 27:49-60 #2 Cinnamon Sticks Mark 16:1 #1 (Empty) Mark 16:5-6 If you don't want to make your own, you can find ready made Resurrection Eggs online or in Christian bookstores from Family Life.