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It's a bit late for this, but I have seen so many great ideas for celebrating Resurrection Day that I wanted to be sure to post some of them.

I love the Names of Jesus Garland at The Homespun Heart. Hat tip to Keeper of the Home for the link. I adapted this to use as a children's ministry craft. You can read about that here if you are interested.

Holy Experience shares instructions for making an Easter Garden. Although we should have had this ready for Palm Sunday according to the directions, we're making one today or tomorrow (haven't found plants yet) because it is such a beautiful and visual way of "remembering of the grief of old beginning, the dazzling wondering of new beginnings." If you haven't visited this blog before, be sure to stop by just for a taste of the writing!

Make your own Resurrection Eggs. I use these in our children's ministry every year. We hide them and everyone takes turns opening his/her egg, sharing the contents and reading the Scripture. It is a fun, interactive way to share the Scriptures relating to Jesus' death and resurrection.

We have also made Resurrection Rolls before. We make these on Saturday evening, but we leave them in the oven overnight, "sealing" it with tape. We "unseal" the oven in the morning and pull out the rolls after I have warmed the rolls up a bit. The first time we made them, the kids couldn't believe that the "tombs" were empty the next day! We are going to try making our own marshmallows for this instead of buying them.

The Archaeological Study Bible's Easter Story Site includes notes, images and information about several historical aspects of the Resurrection.

The Urban Homemaker shared a link in her e-newsletter to a 5-day Easter Unit Study. Again, this is a bit late, but you could still squeeze some of it in.

Hold That Thought offers printable Easter-related Scriptures and quotes to make into a Scripture card ring. They also provide instructions and a template for children to make their own Story of Easter, scrapbook style.

Enjoy!

Please post comments at my new blog. Thank you!

~Andrea

Making a Jesse Tree as a family during the Advent season over the last three years really helped our family to focus on Jesus during the holidays. In fact, the first year we did a Jesse tree was the first year that we had a fairly relaxed holiday season, and that was with four children, ages 6, 8, 10 and 11. I think that purposefully taking the focus off ourselves and our own little family had a lot to do with that.

Last year we discovered the inductive method Advent study that I posted about and attempted to do that and the Jesse tree. That was a bit too much. We managed to do the Jesse tree and our usual Advent readings, but we didn't do much with the study.

We sat down as a family a few weeks ago to plan out the holidays a bit, and the kids asked if we could skip the Jesse tree this year and do the Advent study instead. We'll miss it, but we agreed. New traditions are good too!

If you are interested in learning about the Jesse tree and possibly using one this season, it starts this Friday, November 28. The links from my past Jesse tree posts are still active and updated for this year, so I will re-post those.

This site has simple printable ornaments in two sizes and Jesse Tree readings here. I printed the ornaments out on card stock and had my daughters cut them out, hole-punch them, and tie ribbon around each one. I already had a miniature Christmas tree, so I decided to use that rather than make one. The "Advent Reflections" (updated for 2008) include a short Scripture reading, a synopsis of the actual Bible story mentioned, and the Bible verses to read the whole story. When we are busy, we just do the short reading and synopsis. When we have more time, we read the entire story from the Bible.

Here are some other Jesse Tree links if anyone is interested:


Enjoy!

~Andrea

We did a free Advent study last year with the kids that uses the inductive method, and I actually remembered to look for it again this year before Advent begins! Actually, Kathryn (our youngest) requested it, so I should not take the credit. :-) The study was written by Eleanor Zweigle and is hosted for free at Our Grace Journey.

This study is a wonderful way to help keep your focus on the true reason for the season and to introduce the inductive Bible study method to children.

Click here to go to the download page for the Advent study.

Enjoy!

~Andrea

I found some good sites about the Jesse Tree last year, but my post was too late to be helpful for anyone. I decided to re-post last year's entry (lazy, I know) early enough to start. I checked all of the links, and they are still active. You will find a couple of different sets of dates. I will be using the same readings and I used last year (link within the post below), which begin on Wednesday, November 28. Some people do the Jesse Tree December 1-25. In my opinion, you can do whatever works for you! I think it's a great way to help keep the focus on Jesus during this holiday season. Now for the post:

---

December 12, 2006

I have always wanted to do a Jesse Tree, but I never get around to planning it and making ornaments early enough. I found a chart of readings and some printable ornaments at separate web sites, but many of the ornaments didn't coincide with the suggested ornaments on the chart of readings. I am always working on planning a Christmas outreach for our church at this time of year, so I never got around to putting everything together.

This year I found simple printable ornaments in two sizes and Jesse Tree readings here. I printed the ornaments out on card stock and had my daughters cut them out, hole-punch them, and tie ribbon around each one. I already had a miniature Christmas tree, so I decided to use that rather than make one. The "Advent Reflections" (updated for 2007) include a short Scripture reading, a synopsis of the actual Bible story mentioned, and the Bible verses to read the whole story. When we are busy, we just do the short reading and synopsis. When we have more time, we read the entire story from the Bible. I'm so excited to finally be doing this!

Here are some other Jesse Tree links if anyone is interested:


It is a little late to start this now, but it could still be done if you did a quick summary up to this point. I love showing my children how the Old Testament points so clearly to Jesus and this is a great visual to help with that.

In Him,
~ Andrea

I have always wanted to do a Jesse Tree, but I never get around to planning it and making ornaments early enough. I found a chart of readings and some printable ornaments at separate web sites, but many of the ornaments didn't coincide with the suggested ornaments on the chart of readings. I am always working on planning a Christmas outreach for our church at this time of year, so I never got around to putting everything together.

This year I found simple printable ornaments in two sizes and Jesse Tree readings here. I printed the ornaments out on card stock and had my daughters cut them out, hole-punch them, and tie ribbon around each one. I already had a miniature Christmas tree, so I decided to use that rather than make one. The "Advent Reflections" include a short Scripture reading, a synopsis of the actual Bible story mentioned, and the Bible verses to read the whole story. When we are busy, we just do the short reading and synopsis. When we have more time, we read the entire story from the Bible. I'm so excited to finally be doing this!

Here are some other Jesse Tree links if anyone is interested:


It is a little late to start this now, but it could still be done if you did a quick summary up to this point. I love showing my children how the Old Testament points so clearly to Jesus and this is a great visual to help with that.

In Him,
~ Andrea

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