So, I know this is the first post in like 8 years, but I am bound and determined to not forget important things, so even if it is on a rare occasion that a post gets written, I am still going to write. Anyway, Easter is the reason for this post and I had to post a fun idea to engage children in the Easter holiday. I am all for doing the traditional Easter things, egg hunting, dying, and baskets, but it was important for our family to teach our children the REAL reason that we get to do all of those fun things, which is Christ. So, I wanted to do a countdown to Easter since our advent calendar at Christmas was such a hit with him. Well, what I decided on was a pre-Easter egg scavengar hunt each morning.
So, what I did was get 24 plastic eggs and numbered them through 24 with a permanent marker. Next I filled them with Jackson's favorite candy and each morning I hide one somewhere. After breakfast, (sometimes we don't make it to breakfast before he is asking to find his 'treasure egg') we then talk about finding our egg for the day. But before we go 'hunting' I talk to him about some of the most important aspects of Easter. For example, one day I told him, 'Do you know why we celebrate Easter? And then I told him that Jesus died on the cross for you and me and everyone!' So the next day when I asked him why we celebrate he was able to tell me that fact about Easter. Then, I would add something else to that on the next day. On the days that I added something that was harder for him to get, we would just repeat that fact for the next few days. So, now on the 15th of April when I ask him why we celebrate Easter he tells me, ' Jesus came and died on the cross to save sinners like you and me, and he rose from the dead and beat sin!' It has really been a blessing to me to see him learning Truth.
After that, it is time to find the egg! He gets so excited and usually can tell me what number we are on before I can. He then gets two clues from me that lead him to the egg. Of course at this age they are verbal clues, but eventually they will be harder clues that I will probably have written out. I do the first clue leading him to the room the egg is in, so an example, 'Go to the room where you go to sleep.' or 'Go to the room where we 'tackle' (momma's bed). He takes off and runs to that room where I give him his final clue. One of the clues I led him to the other day was in his play room and then I told him, 'Look in your toy where the cows, horses, and pigs live.' He immediately went to his barn and found it sitting in the chicken nest.' I LOVE watching him get so excited, and proud of himself when he finds it! Although at this age I have the same candy in each egg, he still acts like he is SO surprised at what might be in it. :) He also loves that he gets eggs with funny faces on them.
He tells me, 'I wonder what face my egg will have today.' Then once he finds it, he makes up a story about why the egg was sad, happy, or silly. I tell you what, this child is SO much fun and I love encouraging his little creative imagination. So, I am so thankful that we are doing this and hopefully it will be a fun tradition for years to come!
