Do these things instead

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I suddenly realized that Easter weekend is quickly approaching and this is something that I love to add into our homeschool schedule. Any way that we can add in Biblical teaching/holidays/events in our homeschool day is a win! Truly, Easter is the most significant holiday of the year for us believers; we tend to celebrate Christmas more because of how popular it is and, lets be honest…the food, traditions, gifts, and other treats…its a wonderful time of the year – we love Christmas in our home! But let’s get back to Easter. We need to get better at celebrating Easter in our homes. I know that Easter bunny, egg hunt (how do those two even fit together?!!) are fun and cute, but what purpose do they actually serve in teaching our kids about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Easter is so much more than a fun little activity on a Sunday afternoon where they get rewarded with candy. The world is intentional about how they disciple our children *away* from Christ, so we need to be intentional about the way we disciple our children *toward/for* Christ.

This article is all about things I have done in the past to include Easter week in our homeschool and some that I am planning to do to make this significant event become a core memory for my children. You will be amazed at how well your kids will respond to these Easter ideas; I guarantee they will not miss that little egg hunt you were planning on doing.

Act It Out

Act out the events that happened each day of Passover week, leading up to the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. This can help the story of Easter come alive to kids in such an impactful way. They are guaranteed to remember details about Easter and the redemptive story of Jesus like never before. It is also a good chance for them to connect with Jesus emotionally as they “live out” His last week alive on earth.

Hang in there with me while I highlight each day of the week of Easter and how you can act out/teach each day in your homeschool or morning time together. If you would like, feel free to skip to the rest of the list!!

Passover Week (leading up to Easter Sunday)

Jesus Anointed at Bethany (Matthew 26:6-13): The anointing of Jesus at Bethany is not something we often associate with Easter Sunday, but it is such an important event in the story of Jesus. So much so that Jesus says that wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, this story would be told. The most important part of this story is that the woman who anointed Jesus was not a perfect woman, she was sinful. Out of all the religious people there, she was the only one who received revelation of the death of Jesus and gave her most precious item to Jesus as a gift. Encourage your kids to run to Jesus even when they have disobeyed or done something wrong. Encourage them to give their most precious thing they have to Jesus. Act out the story of the anointing of Jesus; make it as realistic as possible, break a real vase or jar, use real coconut oil, etc. Lead your kids in an exercise of confessing their sins to God and giving their deepest emotions to Him. Have each one separate their favorite thing and set it aside for the week (they can get it back on Resurrection Day)!

Triumphal Entry (Mark 11:1-11) On Palm Sunday, Jesus rode in to Jerusalem on a donkey, fulfilling the prophecy from Zechariah 9:9. He became the sacrificial lamb who would soon take away the sins of the world. The people were receiving Him as their King by throwing their palm branches on the ground for Him to cross over. Act out the story of the entry of Jesus. Go on a walk and Have them gather large leaves or they could lay out their clothes or blankets for the “donkey” to walk across. 

Destroyed the temple: The next day, Jesus cursed the fig tree (teaching on the importance of constantly bearing good fruit in our lives) and He went into the temple to find the people buying and selling instead of worshipping and praying. He flipped the tables over and reminded them once again that their walk of faith is different than the way of the world. Act out the story of Jesus at the temple (Mark 11:12-25) by setting up stands with pretend or real food items and other sellable items (clothes or toys). Remind your children of the importance of having faith in God for everything that we need. We do not need to run to our own resources in order to survive, Jesus promises that He will provide for all of our needs.

Temple Teaching (Mark 12): the authority of Jesus was questioned at the temple and he begins to teach in parables. You could choose any of these parables to talk about in your homeschool morning time or have each child choose one and have them teach it as if they were Jesus. Something very significant that happened there was the old woman who came and gave her very last coin as an offering. You could definitely act out this scene, and lead your children in a moment of reflection: whether or not they would be willing to give everything they have to Jesus. I truly believe that it is so important for us to present these very deep teachings of Jesus to our children from a young age so that they can be rooted in their hearts early on. Even though they may not have a full understanding of it, it will be as a foundation in their hearts.

Mount of Olives (Mark 13; Matthew 24) Jesus is now alone with His disciples at the Mount of Olives. He begins revealing to them certain details about the end times. In our home, We love to talk about the “end times” and the return of Jesus. It is something our children are looking forward to, to be re-united with Jesus. One of the key verses for us as missionaries is Matt 24:14 which talks about the gospel being preached in the whole world. We love to talk about this and remind our kids that this is the reason that we came to Thailand and how important it is for us to be telling people about Jesus in this place. Act out the teachings of Jesus on the Mount of Olives

Passover and Last Supper on Maundy Thursday (Mark 14:12-72) This is one of my personal favorite days to act out with my kids. The Last Supper is a somber event in which Jesus predicts his death and betrayal of one of His own. But his love towards his disciples is so evident and He gives us the BEST example of what it means to be a leader….a true servant to all. He washes the disciples feet. Growing up, our church always observed feet washing along with communion. As a child, I didn’t understand but I grew to value this practice so much. This is an opportunity for you to “pretend” that you are Jesus and wash your children’s feet, praying over them as you do. I truly believe that this simple act will leave a mark on their little hearts. After the feet washing, you could have the “Last Supper” together. Make some simple unleavened bread and put it all together with a simple fruits/cheeses platter. Buy some grape juice and you’re all set to serve communion with your children. Doing this in our homes with our children is so so powerful….you do not have to only do this at church with the Pastor leading it! Simply eat the bread together while you talk about what happened to the body of Jesus during the process of his crucifixion, how his body was broken so that we could be forgiven for the bad things we have done. Drink the juice together while you talk about the blood of Jesus being poured out, symbolizing a new promise (covenant) of eternal life with Him. After this, comes the garden of Gethsemane…another solemn event that shows the humanity of Jesus: He wept and cried out to God, asking Him if there was another way. He knew the pain that was awaiting Him; not the physical pain, but the separation from God that He would be facing. This can be an emotional thing for kids to realize about Jesus, but so important for them to process. Have your kids act out the betrayal of Judas and the arrest of Jesus (including when the disciple cuts off the soldiers ear and Jesus heals him….my kids love that part).

Good Friday: This is the day of the trial, crucifixion, Death, and Burial of Jesus (Mark 15:1-47, Matthew 27:1-62, Luke 22:63-23:56, and John 18:28-19:37) Read through each passage with your kids so that they get a good understanding of how it happened and have them act out the story, including the betrayal of Peter. Challenge your kids about denying Christ among their friends. When we read it, it’s easy to say that we would never do what Peter did; help them to understand the circumstances and what was at stake for Peter in that moment. Challenge them of what they might do if someone asked them choose between Jesus or death. It isn’t a popular topic to talk about with Kids, but I believe that now more than ever we need to prepare our kids to learn to defend their faith at this level (and us too ☺️)

Saturday in the Tomb (Mark 16:1, Matthew 27:57-66) This is the day that they anointed the body of Jesus and wrapped Him for burial. Tell them the story of Joseph who had become a disciple of Jesus and gave his own tomb as a place to lay the body of Jesus. Talk about what the disciples must have been doing/thinking/feeling on this day….they were sad, hurt, confused, disappointed, angry, lonely….process those emotions with your kids. 

Resurrection Sunday!!! Our faith as Christians is completely built on the account of the resurrection of Jesus. This is the reason that we have hope for a future resurrection and we have the promise of the return of Jesus. Celebrate BIG this day. Act out the story of the women going to the tomb. Help them to imagine how it happened that Jesus rose up from the dead and what the soldiers must have thought. Walk them through and act out the different encounters that Jesus had on that day (Mary, Peter, two disciples on the road to Emmaus, the disciples in the upper room). Wake up your kids before sunrise and go for a walk to “see Jesus” ….go to a place where you can watch the sunrise together and talk about what the resurrection of Jesus means to us today. They could even act out the story there if you want!! Don’t forget to give back their special gift that they gave to Jesus…plus you could give special gifts along with it to show how the cross and resurrection is redemptive for our lives and Jesus always gives back more than what we give to Him.

Make a Passover Meal

Last year, I decided to make a passover meal on the Friday of Easter weekend with my girls, similar to what it probably looked like for Jesus and His disciples. We were having a hard time financially and did not have money to go buy all the special things and we barely had anything in the pantry to eat. So I gathered the last of the flour to make some bread without yeast that and the last of the fruits/cheeses, etc to make a fun little snack board for us to share together. We talked about what it was like for Jesus at that Last Supper and how He must have been feeling. We prayed together and thanked Jesus for his death on the cross and all that it means for us today while we ate the simple meal!

Things to include in your meal:

• unleavened bread
• crackers
• loaf bread
• vanilla wafers
• jams
• honey
• cheeses
• grape juice
• orange juice
• grapes
• apples
• bananas
• olives
• nuts
• raisins
• dates
• the options are limitless

Wake up for the Sunrise

I remember when I was a kid we always had Easter Sunrise Service on Resurrection Sunday morning. My mom would always buy new dresses for my sister and I and we would go with our family to church just before the sunrise. We had our normal Easter service, while the sun was rising. I have such a fond memory of this that I get super emotional as I remember back, After the Easter service, the whole church would have a potluck breakfast together and I would get to play with all my friends. Then we went home and everyone took naps! It was the literal best! Ive been wanting to imitate this for my kids but haven’t been able to do it yet. Who knows this will be the year!! 

Memorize Scripture

There are literally thousands of verses from the Bible that you could choose from, but if you look through the 4 gospels and the story of Jesus (Easter), you will find lots of options for memorization. This can be done in the morning time of your homeschool. Kids thrive on memorizing things, why not use that to our advantage as parents and have them memorize Scripture. Some of the verses that I memorized as a child, I still can recite today! It is a powerful took for the Word of God to be set as a foundation in their hearts and minds.

Here is a little treat for you momma, if you happen to like coloring pages like I do 😉 And you can use the verse on this coloring page to memorize together as a family.

Coloring Sheets

If your kids are like mine, they love a good coloring sheet. You can give them a coloring sheet for each day of the week leading up to Easter and let them color it while you read the events of that day. The visual images along with the story will help them to capture the information better and for a longer period of time.

Here are some coloring pages Ive put together for you and your kids to enjoy!

Crafts

I am not so good at coming up with crafts. But there are so many people who are. Search for some craft ideas for Easter and take some extra time in your homeschool day to do a fun craft together. Or set them up to do it on their own while you make dinner, then you can talk about it over dinnertime.

• Make toilet paper role people
• create a 3D tomb
• make the 3 crosses with popsicle sticks
• paint the characters on rocks
• paint book marks
• trace palms of hands and glue on paper for Palm Sunday
• make a bracelet to tell the story of Easter

Watch “The Passion of the Christ”

This obviously depends on their ages and maturity level. This movie is very intense, even for adults, and it shows a lot of detail in the violence that was committed against Jesus. So maybe this one is more for you as parents 😉 But it is worth mentioning here as a good resource. I would only recommend for teenagers.

Watch Superbook

Watch the Superbook episodes “The Last Supper” and “He is Risen” and Superbook Easter Special….all available on Youtube and they are so good.

Trueway Kids

If you haven’t added this site to your list of go-to’s in your home and homeschool, you should! They provide amazing lesson plans for dozens of stories in the Bible. They have a special 5 part series called “Gardens of Grace”that goes along with the Easter story. Do 1 lesson a week leading up to Easter Sunday, or do 1 per day in the week leading up to Resurrection Day. The lessons always come with craft ideas and fun songs to sing together as a family.

Trueway Kids 

Goodie Bags

Instead of throwing an egg hunt and them collecting candy, you could give them a bag of goodies and remind them that the gift that Jesus gives us through his death and resurrection on the cross is a free gift. We dont have to do anything to earn it, just receive.

Things you could include in a goodie bag

Fun Fact

Here in Thailand, they have an “egg themed” lunch after their Easter church service. All of the dishes they make have some form of egg in them (and of course, lots of peppers) and they serve it potluck style together. It is a very special tradition for them.

Melissa Chaves

Hi! I’m Melissa and I am so glad you are here!
Together, we can learn and grow as we navigate
this marathon called motherhood!