Sometimes a blog post comes across my path, and I am blown away by the creativity of the one who inspired it. This post is more of an incredible lesson plan than a craft, but does involve some ‘crafty’ things. Apple-onia is a tool that this mom uses to help her children create a story, solve problems, explore emotions as well as the science and nature of apples, and finally, solve puzzles. I encourage you to read all 6 posts on her blog so you can see the entire journey that Apple-onia went on with this adorable family. The first post from The Nature of Grace is where you can get an overview. Click here, the Applo-onia link, to pull up all the posts from the week. You will not be disappointed, and you will be inspired to do something this creative with your children!
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Making Easter Meaningful for Kids
Easter can often turn into more of a celebration of spring than a religious holiday, but for Christians the story of Jesus’ death and resurrection are the center of this observance. While all the decorated eggs and baby animals are cute and fun, there’s a deeper meaning behind the celebration of new life.
I’ve shared religious Easter activities for kids before, but I wanted to give you some more ideas if you’re looking for ways to make Easter more meaningful for kids.
I always love the idea of tying holidays to acts of service or kindness in the community, and Coffee and Carpool uses the Easter season to encourage her kids with kindness activities. The post includes some ideas you can use for acts of kindness, or you can come up with your own. For however many days before Easter as you want, you can make a paper chain and each link in the chain contains an idea for an act of kindness.
Some people take the reverse advent calendar idea and use it for Lent, or you can take time to clean the house as a family and find items you aren’t using that you can donate to others who might need them.
Using a symbol of the empty grave is a common way to teach kids about Easter (and there’s a crafty version in that Easter post linked above). This can be done with resurrection rolls (Yummy Healthy Easy has a super simple version made with crescent roll dough), or try this recipe from Around My Family Table for meringue resurrection cookies.
You can also use a tool like an Easter story egg to help tell the story of Easter to kids. And of course you can read books that touch on the religious aspects of the holiday. The True Meaning of Easter by Melissa Wingo follows a mouse through the Easter story and includes relevant Bible verses. And while it is more about Easter marking the coming of spring than it is about religion, Easter on the Farm by Phyllis Alsdurf includes a spread about going to church as part of their Easter activities. It also shares the tradition of the Easter tree made with spring branches, which some families decorate with sentiments about Jesus or things they are grateful for that God has provided.
Does your family have a special way of making Easter meaningful for kids? I’d love to hear about it!
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