I think that Easter is one of the harder "holidays" to teach. I have been on a serious quest to find ways to help a 3 yr old understand words like crucifixtion, resurrection, rose from the dead, died for our sins... hard concepts for a 3 yr old! Today I went to the bookstore & found a good video/cartoon about Easter, the real meaning of Easter. After nap today we watched it & she asked good questions and was very interested. My favorite part was that while she was watching it she said, "Mommy Jesus reminds me a lot of Daddy". My eyes filled with tears & I stopped to text jason. I mean could there be any better compliment?! And how blessed are we to have such an incredible man as the leader of our home. I am so proud of him, I really wish that he could have been here to hear it first hand! (ok enough rambling...)
A couple ideas I found were:
#1--Resurrection Rolls
Start with...
Roll said marshmallows in melted butter. Just enough to get ‘em wet.
we were pretending the marshmallow was Jesus. (I know. Just go with it.) I explained how when Jesus was put in the tomb the women were going to rub his body with precious oils and good smelling spices. So, that’s what we were doing–dipping Jesus in the butter…er, oil. (I know, it’s weird. Keep reading.)
Then roll buttery marshmallow in brown sugar/cinnamon-sugar mix.
Or you know, roll Jesus in the spices.
Place one marshmallow on the wide end of a crescent roll. Roll up and make sure you pinch the edges so it’s sealed tight!
Now, I explained about the tomb and it being sealed with a rock. So we pretended the crescents were the tomb and we sealed Jesus…er, the marshmallow up in the tomb.
Cook for the appropriate amount of time.
If you don’t seal the crescents up tight, your marshmallows might leak out…not a pretty sight. And kinda confusing if you’re pretending they are supposed to be Jesus…
As we waited for the tomb-snacks to cook, we read a few stories about Jesus’ death and resurrection.
When the timer rang, I put one tomb-snack on the plate. I reminded her that this snack was like Jesus in the tomb. I asked her what she thought happened to the marshmallow. Then we opened up the crescent and peeked inside. Our marshmallow was gone! It was a big empty roll! And AMAZED. She stared at it—and was almost afraid! She said, “But where did it go?!”
I explained to her that just like we were surprised that our marshmallow was gone, Jesus’ friends were surprised, too. They didn’t expect Jesus to come back to life. But he did! And he’s alive today.
#2-- The tomb/ garden
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.
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 will be looking a little dingy. By Saturday night? downright pitiful. That night before look at the garden again and talk 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 the kiddo goes to bed its time for you to get to work!
And when they wake they will be so surprised to see the garden alive with beautiful flowers and growth and LIFE! I love the gorgeous picture of LIFE and beauty the flowers gave us.
I want my child to know and understand what Jesus did for her 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 child.
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