I love the spring time when I get to watch everything bloom back to life after a barren, cold winter. I love that we celebrate Easter in the midst of all this rebirth, when we celebrate our Savior's atonement, when he overcame death himself. When I started my family I committed to focus on Christ during all our celebrations, especially as the world has tried to commercialize the reason for these celebrations away. For Easter our family focuses on Christ all week, using many of the resources I have listed below. We take Saturday for secular celebrations, including egg decorating, egg hunts and Easter baskets. On Saturday night we read the passage about Christ's body being laid in the tomb and then we take a cut out of Christ and place it in a box (the tomb). In the morning the children find it opened and the cut out missing. In another area of the home they find this cut out with a plastic cover representing his spirit reunited with the body. This is a great visual to teach about his resurrection and the reason for Easter. All of our food and activities on Sunday focus on Christ's atonement and resurrection and ultimately the reason we celebrate Easter.
Several years while my first child was still a baby, I came across this wonderful book called, A Christ-Centered Easter. After reading through a friend's copy, I decided it was a book I had to have and I have used it every year since. This book began my passion for celebrating Christ during Easter. I have added to my collection of Christ centered books and activities through the years and I wanted to share with you today a few of my favorite and cherished traditions for Easter.
My favorite activity in this book is Easter Week, Day by Day. We begin on Palm Sunday with the triumphal entry and each night for family scripture study we read passages of Christ's last week. As we read about the stories we post a picture on the wall and by Easter Sunday our wall is covered in pictures of Christ. This year I will be adding these amazing video clips of the Life of Christ. We used these video clips during our Keeping Christ in Christmas celebrations and they really brought the scriptures to life for the children and we were taught by the spirit through them.
This is a fun activity for little ones to count down seven days to Easter. Each day they get to cut out a picture of Christ and glue it on the day.
I love everything that Discover the Scriptures has to offer! I use many of the games and activities each year from Discover the Joy of Easter. You can get sample pages and learn more about this resource at their website, here. Another one of their programs we have really loved is the New Testament Studies, these include Discover The New Testament, The Life of Christ and The Acts of the Apostles. I print out the age appropriate packets for each child and we use these for our personal scripture study time in the morning. I also like to use some of the activities and study projects from The Life of Christ during Easter time.
I just came across these cute flip books on why we celebrate Easter from The Red Headed Hostess blog, this year. I haven't had a chance to try them out yet but wanted to add them to my collection of resources. She also put together this study packet for adults to dig in to the last week of Christ's life. I have been using this study guide this month for my personal scripture study and have gained wonderful insights. You can download this PDF for free, here.
I refer to this as the ultimate resource guide to a Christ Centered Easter. This is a list of stories, activities, color pages, videos and pictures, all based around Christ and his atonement.
This blog has some great Christ centered Easter activities, treats and other resources.
I bear witness that Christ atoned for each and every one of our sins. I know that if we repent we can once again be clean and through his atonement we can be with our loved ones once again that have passed from this world and into the next. Christ suffered everything, he knows what we are going through and he can help us through our toughest trials if we come unto him. I pray for his peace, love and spirit to be with you and your families, not just this week but for the years to come. Happy Easter!
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