Sheen If it’s your first time teaching your child about Easter (like me!), let me share with you these easy and fun ways that helped me introduced this very important event in Christianity to my four year old son. The concept of Jesus’ death and resurrection might be a little hard for young children to understand, but their young and innocent minds shouldn’t be a hindrance for them to see and know what is special about this holiday.
Here are 3 easy and fun ways to teach your child about Easter:
Tell Them Jesus’ Story!
This is the most important thing about Easter —to let our kids know what happened 2000 years ago. However, this can be a challenging thing to do especially when we are talking to children ages 5 and below. Thankfully, with today’s technology and creativity, moms like me are saved from the trouble of miscommunicating Jesus’ sacrifice for all.
I just recently discovered this free Bible App for Kids from YouVersion that is designed to engage children with stories from the Bible. With the help of this app, we and our children can enjoy a fun and interactive Bible experience together. It has kid-friendly navigation that can help you find and select which story you want to read. My son and I like its interactive animation and questions that lets you see if your child understands and get the concept of what they are reading. Josh also likes the activity and games at the end of each Bible story.
For my son, after going through each video episodes, I would retell the story to him and read aloud. I explain it in a way that he would understand by using simple words. For example, I used the word “friends” to refer to Jesus’ disciples. When we were done reading the story about Easter, I let my son explore the app on his own. Shortly after, he called me and pointed on some people and said, “Mom, they are the Pharisees.” Great! He picked up something!
If you already have a child-friendly Bible or story book, amaze your children with you storytelling skills. I’m sure they would love it!
Make Them Remember the Cross
Now that they at least have an idea about Jesus, the disciples, and the empty tomb—we need to help them recognize the significance of the cross. Again, this might be something too much for them to grasp, so we just need to help them remember Jesus whenever they see a cross whether on TV, in church, or even in a book. I’m pretty sure the storytelling helped a lot for them to understand some important keywords there.
By making your own cross, it would make them appreciate more what Jesus had done and instill in them what it means. You can have your child draw and paint a cross or cut it out from a cardboard (like what we did). Make it creative, fun, and personal by writing your child’s name on it or simple sentences like, “Thank You for saving me Jesus.” Or “Jesus loves Me (or replace “me” with your child’s name).”
Of course, after this activity, you can use it to review if your child remembers the story or what Jesus did on the cross. Asking them why He was hanged there, and why it has become an empty cross now.
All about Easter eggs!
Easter eggs. I didn’t have any memorable experience making one in my childhood days. Seriously. But it would not stop me from enjoying and making a fun experience with my son while making our own easter eggs. Before we continue with this, we need to understand the meaning of Resurrection eggs. The egg is an ancient symbol of new life. It is also referred to fertility and restoration. In Christianity, eggs symbolized Jesus’ resurrection.
There are many interesting and fun ways we can do with eggs to teach our children about the meaning of Easter. Here are the activities we had with them.
• Draw and paint Easter Eggs
I got my Easter eggs printable from Art Craft and Fun blog. I love their free coloring pages which you can also add in your homeschooling activity. They have matching, coloring, and drawing pattern activities for this set. You can check them here.
Personally, I enjoyed coloring my own Easter egg. I haven’t done some arts like this for a long time but I certainly had fun doing it with my child.
• Easter Egg Hunt
We all know this very well. My son did it for the first time and he loved it! Can you imagine? He even played it several times in one day!
If your child still remember the story in the tomb, with this game, we can relate the story where Jesus’ friends couldn’t find Him. Fortunately he can’t be found in the tomb —because JESUS IS ALIVE! For this part, let’s just be resourceful and use the eggs we have colored or painted in the first activity. You can cut them out and use them for the egg hunting game. Don’t forget to give a prize to your child after they’ve found all of the eggs. If you can prepare beforehand, you can buy surprise eggs and use them instead. They would surely enjoy opening all of them and eat the candies inside!
• Make Easter Egg Gifts
One of the lessons that we can incorporate with Easter eggs is Jesus’ gift of salvation. He died so we can receive eternal life when we accept Him as our Lord and Savior. He gave something so precious to us—HIS LIFE. Let’s also teach our children the kind act of giving to others to show our love and care for them just like how Jesus has loved us.
I asked my husband to buy some surprise eggs with candy and toys inside. Then I told my son that we will give gifts to his cousins and friends because it is good to share and give to others, same thing Jesus has modeled to us. So I let him put the eggs in small pouches and asked him who he is giving each egg for.
I thank God for special moments like this with my son. He is not the only one learning. Jesus’ sacrifices are again being refreshed in my heart and mind. As parents, it is our responsibility to pass the truth (God’s truth) to the next generation. We do it by faith, because we can never take control of our children’s minds. We can only help, guide, and lead them to know Jesus and what He has done for all of us.
These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. — Deuteronomy 6:6-7 NIV
These are just some ways to teach your child about Easter. There are other creative ways to do it but for beginners, these could be a good start. The children in today’s generation are so blessed with parents who are intentional in leading them to know God’s word and promises. Let’s be part of this!
How about you? How have you taught your child about Easter?
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