We are in Holy Week already, so it is the perfect time to share with you two books that are great for sharing the true meaning of Easter with your kids. The first book is not actually just an Easter book. It shares a few of the stories of Jesus' life. It is The Three Trees retold by Elena Pasquali and illustrated by Sophie Windham.
In this traditional folktale three trees are growing together on a hill. Each tree has a different dream. One hopes to be made into a treasure chest to hold a valuable treasure and another hopes to be part of a boat that carries kings and the third just wants to stay pointing at heaven. Each tree eventually gets cut down and has their dream come true in a very different way than they ever imagined. The first tree becomes the manger in which a baby is laid on the first Christmas Eve. The second tree becomes a fishing boat where Jesus tells the storm to calm and the third tree becomes the cross on which Jesus dies. In the end each tree sees that God has answered its dream in a better way than ever imagined. It is a wonderful tale that brings the importance of Jesus to a child. The pictures are also beautiful and colorful. I really love this story.
This story is about Simon of Cyrene. The Gospel tells us he was ordered to carry the cross for Jesus when Jesus could not carry it anymore. This story is a Polish folktale that came from the Gospel. In this story Simon is heading to Jerusalem to sell his goods. He is ordered by the Roman soldiers to carry the cross. Simon asks what the man did to be sentenced to death and Jesus replies that he was preaching a message of peace. When Simon returns to where he put his goods down, he discovers them mostly destroyed. He heads home instead of to the market. He knows he cannot work on the Sabbath the next day, but when he goes back out to work he discovers all the eggs empty. Outside he sees twelve white doves and remembers the man saying he preached a message of peace and discovers that his crops have grown very quickly in the past couple of days.
This story helps bring the mystery and miracle of Easter to a child. It is based on a few lines of Gospel with flare added in. Each of these stories share a bit of Jesus' story with the reader in different and fun ways. I love these books and hope you will check them out.
To go with these books and every year, we like to plant our Resurrection Garden. This year we used some seeds from a fairy garden kit Hazel received as a gift. Luckily it grew quickly. Unfortunately Hazel does not know what she did with the Jesus peg doll I made a few years ago for our Resurrection Garden, so I used one of the plastic Jesus dolls from the eggs we got from Oriental Trading.
This story helps bring the mystery and miracle of Easter to a child. It is based on a few lines of Gospel with flare added in. Each of these stories share a bit of Jesus' story with the reader in different and fun ways. I love these books and hope you will check them out.
To go with these books and every year, we like to plant our Resurrection Garden. This year we used some seeds from a fairy garden kit Hazel received as a gift. Luckily it grew quickly. Unfortunately Hazel does not know what she did with the Jesus peg doll I made a few years ago for our Resurrection Garden, so I used one of the plastic Jesus dolls from the eggs we got from Oriental Trading.
He is about the right size for one of the crosses. On Easter morning I put him on top of the tomb. We will put him in there on Friday. It is a way to really reflect on the Easter story and a chance for young children to begin to understand a bit about it.
For other ideas to bring the message of Easter to your child(ren):
Happy Holy Week!! Please let me know what you do to bring the message to your kids.
For other ideas to bring the message of Easter to your child(ren):
Happy Holy Week!! Please let me know what you do to bring the message to your kids.
