When looking at the calendar early this year, I was thankful for the late timing of Easter. I (mistakenly) thought it meant we'd for sure have warm weather and that everything would be in bloom. ha. That didn't happen.
But I was also thankful because there have been too many years where it seems like Easter sneaks up on me, it's here and gone before I have time to contemplate it. I don't want that to continue to happen, and I don't want that to be my kids' experience. So I liked knowing there were more weeks on the calendar between the beginning of the year and Easter. It helped me plan ahead, and I do believe some new family traditions were started.
Our Easter Hill
I had seen this idea on a few blogs and read about it in Noel Piper's book, Treasuring God in our Traditions. So we thought we'd give it a try this year. The idea is that you create a setting, a salt-flour dough mound, that acts as the stage for the events of the passion week.
We created the mound, with an opening for the tomb, and a hole for the cross, a couple of weeks before Easter.
You poke several small holes all over the top of the mound, so that "people" can stand in them later. Bake it several hours, and when it's done and cooled, you can paint it if you want.
Now, every other example that I've seen of this uses little stick people made from pipe cleaners. Well, my pipe cleaner skills aren't terrific, plus I didn't think pipe cleaner people would tolerate being played with by a two-year-old so well, so we opted for something a little different. We used mini craft sticks, round wooden plugs, my husband's drawing ability and fabric scraps to create several of the characters present during the passion week. I did add little pieces of pipe cleaner to the bottom of the stick so the people would stand up in the holes we'd made on the hill. (I might recommend using toothpicks, though.)
Both kids loved these little stick people, but Lily especially enjoyed them. For about a week and a half before and for a week after, when I put them away amidst her protests, she spent many hours with these little folks in her hands, retelling and acting out parts of the Easter story. They may or may not have been participants in other types of stories as well. :) Easter week we used the people and the hill to tell a part of the story each day. (Sorry my photography skills are poor.)
Jesus teaches the crowds.
Jesus is arrested and on trial.
Jesus is crucified.
The tomb is sealed. The soldier stands guard.
(This happens Friday and remains like this all day Saturday.)
Sunday morning - the tomb is empty!
The soldiers are as dead men.
Jesus is Alive!
Such a fun way to teach this most important story to little ones. And I'll admit, I had quite a bit of fun with this too! So go, get started on your disciples - if you start now you can surely make all twelve. We just had a measly band of four!
And another keeper...
Our Easter Tree (or Resurrection Tree)
Again, I'd seen similar ideas on a couple of blogs and Noel suggests something similar in her book. I started by having William cut a small limb of one of our trees in the backyard. Now, if we lived further south, surely our branch would have already been covered with leaves. But, in the frozen northern tundra, ours was still completely bare, which was good.
We secured it in a vase, and then began adding decorations. Twelve days before Easter we began talking about one "ornament" each day, using the children's Story Bible when we could, to again tell the events of Jesus' last week before he died and was raised to life. Again, our kids loved this. By the end Lilyanna could tell you the part of the story that went with each ornament, and Liam could talk about several of them too.
I love to see these things making their way into their hearts and lives.
I love to see their excitement about it.
I love to have a creative way to teach and express it.
We started at the bottom of the tree and worked our way up.
Day 1 - Donkey: Triumphal Entry
Day 2 - Piece of towel: Jesus washes his disciples' feet
Day 3 - Cracker: The Last Supper
Day 4 - Praying hands: Jesus' prayer in the garden
Day 5 - Torch: Jesus is arrested at night
Day 6 - Rooster: Peter's denial
Day 7 - Pouch of coins: Judas returns the silver to the temple
Day 8 - A wash basin: The trial of Jesus, Pilate washes his hands
Day 9 - Crown of thorns: Jesus is beaten
Day 10 - Cross and Nails: Jesus is crucified
Day 11 - Stone: Jesus is dead, the grave is sealed
Day 12 - Empty tomb: Jesus is Alive!
There are lots of different ways you could do this, but this worked for us. William suggested putting each ornament in an egg, hanging the eggs on the tree and opening an egg each day. Might be a fun thing to try, if your items are small enough.
It also reminded me of our Jesse Tree that we do at Christmas. This one tells the significant stories leading up to the birth of Jesus, reminding us of why we need a savior. As you can tell on both trees, I borrow the kids' toys, scavenge items from the backyard and pull out miscellaneous craft supplies to make the ornaments. That's what makes it fun (and affordable) for me. The kids seem to like it too, except, I guess, when they want to play with that particular item. But hey, it can be borrowed from the tree and returned later.
Putting something like this together would be a great summer project. The first year we did it, December was half over before I'd made/found all the ornaments. It was fun, but we all know there are lots of other things to do in December.
There you go...an Easter post that ends with Christmas.
Though it's a couple weeks past, I hope you all had a blessed Easter and continue living in the joy of the resurrection every day!
No comments:
Post a Comment