Christ-centred Easter activities for your little ones

Have you ever struggled to keep Jesus the focus of your Easter celebrations? Try "decorating" your children’s heart, mind and soul with Resurrection stories and traditions this year:

• Help your children memorize Bible verses (Genesis 1:1,27; Joshua 1:9; Psalm 69:13; 100:5; 119:105; Matthew 22:37; John 13:34; Colossians 3:20; 1 Thessalonians 5:17; 2 Timothy 3:16; 1 Peter 5:7; 1 John 4:8,19).
  
  
• Host an egg hunt in your yard for the kids in your neighbourhood. Fill eggs with candy, inexpensive cross necklaces, Christian-themed bracelets and stickers. Offer mini Bibles and Adventures in Odyssey^® CDs as prizes.
  
  
• Make a rectangular cake and cut it in the shape of a cross. Decorate with icing that says, "Jesus is risen!"
  
  
• Write messages on hard-boiled eggs in crayon before dyeing – Jesus loves you, Born again, He is risen, Jesus died for you, The tomb is empty, Hallelujah, My Saviour lives or We love Jesus.
  
  
• Have the egg hunt on Saturday, reserving Sunday for worship and reflection on the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
  
  
• Take a nature walk to collect stones, sticks, leaves, grass and tree bark. When you return home, use a shoebox lid to create a Resurrection scene that includes a hollow tomb of rocks, a hill with three stick crosses and a stone that is rolled away.
  
  
• Read Bible stories to your children daily. A resource, such as Crystal Bowman’s The One Year Book of Devotions for Preschoolers, follows the Bible one day at a time.