Easter

I've been thinking alot about Easter this last week. I've been thinking about how I want to celebrate it with my kiddos. Mind you it's Miss M's fifth one, but she's old enough now that traditions are important to start and making things meaningful is now relevant!

I got thinking of ALL the 'stuff' I/we do for Christmas. Let's be honest here, I start celebrating Christmas the day after Thanksgiving! Decorations, music, crafts, baking, gift buying/giving/returning, etc. It's a crazy but fun season of life. And even though my two are young, they are clear about Christmas...they know it's a celebration of Jesus' birth and they know it's time for fun!

Easter. Not so much fanfare, at least not at my house. But I really want to make an effort to change that. I'm on the search for good ideas, fun books, cool crafts, yummy recipes and meaningful moments that will teach my kids first that Jesus died on the cross for their sins and second that is a time to be joyful...a way was made so that we can live eternally in heaven! What is not to celebrate!

So I plan to share ideas that I find in the next few weeks to prepare my kids for Easter and for fun! I'm starting with an idea I read on a blog at Christmas time. That particular blogger keeps her Nativity set out from Christmas to Easter to emphasize the connection between Christ's birth and his death. I love the idea, although I didn't leave it out for two months. I put it somewhere I can grab it and I will do so about a month prior to Easter. I just found a Resurrection set in a catalog (nice perk of new job...Christian catalogs out the waazoo), it's the same idea as a Nativity set only it has a tomb instead of a stable, Jesus is an adult and Mary and others are featured, along with an angel. I'm hoping to order that by the end of the week. We can set both up and learn about the similarities and differences between these two significant scenes.

I'm boiling over with some other ideas but I'll pace myself! Feel free to post any traditions your family has, I love new ideas. Look for future posts about Resurrection Eggs, Benjamin's Box, neighborhood egg hunts, and dyeing eggs!

PS--you can find the Resurrection Set at www.livinggracecatalog.com item number PS265

first ever Friday Fun

I taught first grade for 9 1/2 years and I loved almost every minute of it. Don't get me wrong, teaching is hard work and sometimes very stressful. But the reward is far greater than the cost! A few years into my adventure in first grade I began doing what I ever so creatively dubbed "Friday Fun". It changed from year to year, even week to week sometimes. But the bottom line was, the students worked hard all week toward a specific goal and their reward was some Friday Fun. This came in the form of free recess, a video, a popcorn party, baking cookies, etc.

As I am getting into this whole blogging stratisphere I began to think I'd like to go back to Friday Fun. So my goal is to mention some activities, websites, places to visit, or whatever other fun thing I can dive into every Friday. And the best part is, unlike in my classroom, you don't have to do anything but log on. No pressure to remember your library books, or your sneakers for gym class, or your homework...just come visit me here and see what I have in store for you :)

The irony of today's post is that I've been thinking about it all week, waiting excitedly for Friday to arrive so I could post my idea. Of course neither Miss M or JB would take a nap today so I here I sit at 8:30 pm writing my post that I usually do around 1:30 in the afternoon, darn those two!

So here is my idea for this week, and it's not my own, it's just fun and yummy and it goes with Easter. Have you heard of resurrection cookies? This is a great activity to do with your kids tomorrow night before Easter. You can have some fun baking together, you can read scripture surrounding the story of Christ's death and then in the morning you can celebrate his resurrection with a yummy treat! I know, I know, who gives thier kids cookies for breakfast? Well, I figure if you're giving them a basket full of junk, what's one little cookie? Pack up the extras with a little note of explanation and send them to Sunday School to give out to the others in your child's class.

Check out http://annieshomepage.com/resurrectioncookies.html for directions.