Sweet Easter

"Sweet Easter" is a short talk about Easter for children which may told at a school assembly, a church service or shared as a family devotion.
 Link :  Sweet Easter Talk

Also check out the Easter 'pass the parcel' game on the same page above
https://www.eliab.com/sweet-easter.html

Reaching out at Easter

• Reaching out at Easter

  You may get your group of children or your family to think of ways in which they can reach out ot others with the hope that Easter brings.
  • Make some home made biscuits. Put a cross made of icing on the top and give them to someone in your family or friend who needs some encouragement.
  • Get some bulbs which are in flower as a reminder of new life. Make your own Easter wrapping paper around the flower pot and give them as gift to a neighbour or friend.
  • Attach a homemade Easter card (hand drawn or take a photo) which simply explains the Easter message.
  • Visit a nursing home or people who are shut in and don’t get our much. Perhaps take a gift to those who have lost loved ones during the last year.
  • Put up an Easter poster in your home.
  • As family make up a special ‘Easter Email ‘with some family news, a photo or two and include a bible verse or some thoughts about what Easter means to you. Send the email to your family and friends.
  • As family or group make up a special Easter Grace to be said before meals over Easter.
  • Learn how to make Palm crosses and give them away as bookmarks to people.
  • Organise a Christian Passover meal and invite your neighbours or friends.
  • http://www.wf-f.org/Seder.html
  • Invite people to your home after an Easter service on Good Friday or Easter Day.

Easter Reflections

• Easter Reflect

  ions

• 1. When a tree is cut through you see the ring pattern that runs right the way up and down the trunk. Good Friday is a slice through history that allows us to see the pattern of God’s love stretching forwards and backwards to infinity.
  2. “Nails were not enough to hold God-and-man nailed and fastened to the cross, had love not held him there.” Catherine of Siena 1333-1380
  3. A father shows his young daughter a bird’s egg:
  “Use all your imagination! What do you think it will grow into? the little girl stares at the egg she cannot make up her mind whether it is beautiful or not. What might it become? She guesses. A rock? A football?
  Her father smiles and points to the sky. A sparrow flutters into the garden right near where they are sitting.  The girl is open mouthed with wonder as only an small  child can be. How could there possibly be a relationship between the simple egg in her father’s hand and the bird in flight.. How could something with wings like that come from something as ordinary as an egg?  How could her father recognise that the bird in the air was born as the egg in his hand, when the two are so different?
  She doesn’t question these things. Because her father told her, she accepts them as fact. Wondrous, yes, but true! One day she will understand the answers to all those questions, and they will seem just commonplace realities of existence. But for now, her curiosit is satisfied; she can’t understand but she can marvel.
  And so we try to understand what it will mean to have a body transformed, but recognisable, in eternal life.
  4. “Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf of springtime.’ Martin Luther
  5. “Jesus has forced open a door that has been locked since the death of the first man. He has met, fought and beaten the King of Death. everything is different because it is so.”  C S Lewis

Looking for an Easter Family Service idea?

Looking for an Easter Family Service idea?

A Family Service address with considerable involvement is as follows:

Worship leader begins telling a story (let’s say about a lost rabbit) only to be interrupted by two young folk offering a chocolate Easter Egg (as a thank-you or whatever).

Worship leader thanks young folk, notices that it is an Easter Egg with sweets (say, chocolate buttons) inside, and asks children (and adults) if they would like to open it in church so that the egg and the sweets inside could be shared.

Invite a child out to open the egg but youngster finds out that the egg is empty.

The shocked congregation soon grasp the surprise of the disciples who found an empty tomb. Opportunity for details to be offered by worship leader.

On a pre-arranged cue the original two young folk come forward with an apology and with the bag of chocolate buttons. They thought that they would eat them themselves and that worship leader would never notice they were missing. They didn’t think it would be opened in church!

Those in the congregation particularly the children – who had been hoping for a sweet are pleased at the discovery of the chocolates. As they are shared, the congregation is in a receptive mood to reflect on the joy of the disciples when they discovered that Jesus was alive again.

This idea is from The Church of Scotland website. Prepared by Rev Douglas Nicol .

Favourite Night

Favourite Night ( An all-age activity for a family night or small group with children)

1. Ask the children (or families) to bring along their favourite item/toy/piece of clothing etc. for showing and talking about.

2. Have sheets of paper hung around the walls of the room/hall with different heading on each. eg. "Your Favourite Food, Colour, TV show, Takeaway Food, Holiday Destination, Sport, Hobby, Singer/Actor etc... (the children give answers including their names) Sheets could then be read out during the evening.

3. Devotions- Jesus "Favourite disciples" Peter & John ?

Talk about how showing favouritism can be unfair. Does God have favourites?

We all have different favourite likes and dislikes. God made us all different. Just because someone else doesn't like what we like doesn't make them wrong.

Talk about having favourite places to spend time.Time to think and reflect.

Ask the children to share their favourite story from the Bible and perhaps draw or act it out.

4. Play - Charades- guess your favourite TV show, singer, Bible character...

Celebrity Hats- Place names on hats for three contestants. They wear the hat and can't see who they are supposed to be. Contestants play 20 questions with the group. A correct answer means they get to ask another question until a contestant guesses what name is on their hat.

5. Ask the children ( or a family) to bring along their favourite food to share for supper.

Are you lost?

A grandfather was out walking with his grandson one day. "How far do you think we are from home?" he asked the grandson.

The boy said, "Grandpa, I don't know."

The grandfather asked, "Well, where are you?"

Again the boy said, "I don't know."

Then the grandfather chuckled and said, "Sounds to me as if you are lost."

The young boy looked up at his grandfather and said, "I can't be lost, I'm with you."

Ultimately that is the answer to all that worries or threatens us too. We are never lost; we are always safe- safe in the truest sense of the word when we are with God.

Sing with Children

New research into the effects of music on children has some interesting implications-

PLONKING kids in front of music videos such as the Wiggles or Hi-5 doesn't enhance their musical talent and may even hinder it.

New Australian research shows parents rely heavily on commercially produced CDs and DVDs for children's musical stimulation, claiming they don't have the time or musical talent for anything more creative.

"Research shows that music helps develop children's co-ordination, listening, language, communication and social skills."

Read the whole article from the HeraldSun.com.au "Hand-on parents strike a better chord with kids."

http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au

A Father's Laws Concerning Food and Drink

Check out this very humorous look at family life by Ian Frazier.

Household Principles, Lamentations of the Father