Lent with Claire 2016: Resurrection Eggs

I mentioned in my Ash Wednesday post that we're attempting to do some Lent activities with Claire this year. It's such an experiment for us, given that she's a toddler (which = completely unpredictable), but we're going for it. I thought I'd document our progress along the way for you. Who knows what that will end up looking like... 

We're loosely following this Lent reading plan with Bear from the Jesus Storybook Bible. Note: if you have any kiddos in your life who don't have this children's Bible, I highly recommend it! We really like it (and so does Claire). We've given it to a few friends because we like it so much. One of the taglines is that it "whispers His name on every page," which it absolutely does. We love how it is so intentional about connecting every single story to Jesus and God's plan for us. We're actually on track with our readings (you know, 7 days in...yay us!), and Claire is sitting still and interacting with the stories so far, which is better than we got around Advent, so I'll take it.

One of the activities I knew I wanted to try this year was one that's been around for a long time: Resurrection Eggs. I decided to follow this template and started collected items from around the house to fill our eggs. The template includes little printable Bible verses from a children's translation of the Bible to go in each egg, which is nice. Classic Resurrection Eggs are comprised of 12 plastic Easter eggs, each filled with small symbols representing the parts of the Easter story. Technically, you're supposed to start these 12 days before Easter, opening the last one (the empty one- for the empty tomb!) on Easter morning. But, since our goal is to drive home the Easter story during Lent and because our child is so young, we decided to start this week, spending a few days on each egg. The theory is that the repetition of doing the same egg a few nights in a row will help her remember them as we move forward. 

The collecting process. You can kind of spy some of my supplies in the cups of my egg plate: an oyster cracker to represent the bread of the Last Supper, a stone from the tomb, a toothpick as the spear used to pierce Jesus' side, nails from the cross, purple cloth and a strip of thorns. I was able to find everything in our home or yard, which was really nice. 

And this is front and center on our dining room table until Easter (although I may have to transfer the eggs to another holding receptacle when we dye eggs closer to Easter...).

The first egg we opened has a small leaf in it (I snagged it from a rose bush in front of our house), representing the palm branches used during the Triumphal Entry. We did the most simplified explanation you could possibly imagine and sang a "Hosanna" song. It didn't mean anything to Claire, but we'll continue doing it anyway. She was extremely interested in our platter of eggs, picking up each one and gently shaking to see if she could guess what was inside (we told her we can only open one at a time. Lent is a season of waiting, so it seems appropriate for her to practice that discipline, too.). She is very much looking forward to finding out what is in each one, so I'm hopeful that this will end up being a good learning experience.

I also decided to try to do a Easter-related craft with Claire each week, since our first cra(p)ft went so well. I thought she might be able to connect with the symbols inside the eggs better if we did something fun and hands-on that related. Because the first egg has a leaf symbolizing the Triumphal Entry, I decided that we'd make a "palm branch" for Claire to wave around when we talk about it. I glanced at a construction paper "template" on Pinterest and free-handed one to cut out of card stock. Then, I braved the world of watercolors, and we painted it. Claire likes painting, so I figured she'd enjoy that part (which she did). We've been singing a "Hosanna" song when we talk about Egg #1, so now we have a bigger leaf to wave while we sing.

She thoroughly enjoyed painting her leaf.

And, for anyone still interested in some Lenten reflections, might I suggest the daily updates from our Boston church, Church of the Cross? Different members of the church are asked to reflect on particular passages of scripture everyday throughout Lent. Brad wrote a few while we lived there, and I always enjoyed reading different church members' perspectives. They're short and sweet, so it's not a big commitment or anything.

I'm going to try to post a Lent with Claire update (or something in that vein) every week. Assuming that the system doesn't completely break down and turn into nothing. I think it will be nice to have a record of it to look back on by the end of the year. Hope you enjoy!