4/23/14

Celebrate Spring, but not Easter


Don't get me wrong. We love celebrating the resurrection of our Risen Saviour, Jesus. This year we celebrated twice, first by hosting a Passover celebration using this Haggadah, and then on Resurrection Sunday, by going to church and sharing a special meal as a family.

However, when I was a young mom I heard a pastor talk about the pagan roots of the word Easter and it has forever spoiled me on wishing people a Happy Easter, or celebrating it in the traditional way (it is a little easier in Mexico where they say, Feliz dia de Pascua, or basically, Happy Passover).


While I would never judge you for how your family commemorates the Resurrection, we try to keep Sunday focused on observances directly related to Jesus and then have a separate celebration for all the fun spring related activities, such as egg dying, egg hunting and any other spring activities we decide to do. Although I realize you could tie these activities into the new life we have in Christ, for us, it is easier to just celebrate the seasons that God made as a separate event from major events in the life of Jesus. Once again, I am not judging you for how you celebrate.


Last year we hosted a moms and kids play day here, with an egg dying station, egg hunt, and a relaxing place to chat while the children played. This year, our schedule is a bit crazier, and I still wanted my children to have a celebration, so we picked a rare free afternoon and had our own little party.

The first thing I did was set up our learning shelf with a couple new spring related activities. I reshelved our ocean books and filled the basket with spring themed books and then I printed off some egg shapes.
With the egg shapes, I created two activities. One set, I cut out and wrote numerals to 6 and then put them in a basket with some small poultry objects for an engaging counting activity.


The other set with designs I placed in a basket with some nice, fresh markers and let the children decorate them and cut them out.



After a visit to the library, where I collected some more books about spring, we came home and did a couple more activities. First we dyed eggs, using a kit that I purchased at the dollar store. Using food coloring in water or vinegar water would work just as well and be even more economical.


Then we made these Bird Nest Treats and filled them with Cadbury Mini Eggs. That was the yummiest part of our day!


Want more spring celebration fun?  This site has amazing montessori based activities for preschoolers.

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