Teaching Your Children about Easter
- forsinglemoms
- Apr 9
- 4 min read
by Sheila South
A The Kids & Me Contributor
Every Christian mom’s heart’s desire is to see her child place his faith in Jesus Christ for salvation and to start his relationship with God. But how do we explain this abstract concept to younger children? Surely we can, for the Bible tells us in Mark 10:14: “When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” Undoubtedly, as we grow older, we can understand in more depth and with more appreciation the sacrifice that Jesus paid for us on the cross to restore us to God. But how can we start our little ones on their own faith journey?
Picture Books
Easter is a particularly difficult subject to address with children as it deals with death and it has its own set of words to explore and understand: disciple, palm branch, Last Supper, cross, tomb, dead, rise again and sin to name just a few. A young child can easily misinterpret these abstract ideas.
A picture book can help make abstract things concrete especially when a youngster may be unfamiliar with a lot of terminology. Your search results for a picture book about Easter will likely render misdirection about the Easter bunny, Easter eggs, and baby chicks. With a bit of diligence, the really heart-told Biblical story of Easter can be found, though. Here are some of my favorites. The links provided are for read-alouds, but you can watch the videos to find your favorite Easter telling and then buy that book, or show your child the pictures in the video with the narrator muted while you read the story to him.
1) My Little Easter Story by Christina Goodings is a picture book that stays true to the Biblical telling: Jesus entering Jerusalem on the donkey, His overturning the tables in the temple, the Last Supper/ celebration of the Passover with the disciples, Judas’s betrayal, the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus’s arrest, Jesus’s trial with Pontius Pilate, the crucifixion (words only/no image of Jesus on the cross), the women and the angels at the tomb, Jesus’s appearances after His resurrection, and an ending with the Great Commission. Delightful how teachings of Jesus are intermingled with the story just as they are in the gospels.
2) The Story of Easter illustrated by Helen Dardik is another Biblical account of the events we now call Easter. This telling offers a bit more emotional insight into the story and ends with the reason we celebrate Easter: to give God thanks for the promise of eternal life.
3) The Easter Story by Patricia Pingry presents us with a gospel emphasis through the telling of the Easter Story.
4) God Gave Us Easter by Lisa Tawn Bergren is a spiritual gem. This rendition does not focus on the nuts and bolts of what happened with the actual events that we now recognize as Holy Week. It is rather a secondary understanding of the significance of those events presented through the lens of a young polar bear with his dad. This book mentions the Easter Bunny and Santa to put them in proper prospective with the actual reasons for Easter. Lovely interpretation.
(Bergren does a fabulous job of dealing with Santa from a Christian perspective in her Christmas story: God gave Us Christmas.)
5) The Story of Easter by Jean Miller is a matter-of-fact and accurate accounting of the events surrounding the Passover, the Garden of Gethsemane, Judas’s betrayal, and the crucifixion, the tomb, the two women and the angel, and Jesus’s appearances after His resurrection. Additionally, there is an explanation of Holy Week events, Christian symbols and terms, and popular ways to celebrate Easter.
6) Easter by Gail Gibbons provides a cut and dry presentation of the facts of Easter like most of Gail Gibbons’s work. About half-way through the book the author begins exploring the history of pagan contributions to the celebration of Easter including the origin of the word “Easter”.
Resurrection Eggs
When your kids are ready, the best presentation of the Easter story is scripture itself. All four gospel books give insight to the events of Holy Week and how God accomplished for mankind redemption from sin.
Matthew 26-28 |
Mark 14-16 |
Luke 22-24 |
John 12-21 |
Resurrection Eggs* are a great way to introduce particular scriptures and to review them from year-to-year. The commercial eggs come with a devotional pamphlet of 12 passages that walk through the events of Holy Week. There is an object in each egg to represent the gist of the corresponding passage (except the last one – it is empty to represent the empty tomb!).
You could easily purchase a set of plastic eggs and collect your own objects to represent the parts of the story you would like to emphasize. Or, maybe your child would enjoy selecting small objects himself? Lots of ideas presented here:
New Release Movie: The King of Kings
Currently, a new movie has been released entitled “The King of Kings”. This is an animated film which I have not seen myself, but here is an encouraging review:
Hope these ideas have eased any apprehension of bringing the Easter story to your young ones and that you have a blessed celebration of Holy Week. He is Risen- Happy Easter!
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