Pre Easter Activities for Kids

From Elizabeth:
As a Baptist, we don't celebrate a church calendar and often we hit Easter with a quick-Jesus died and rose again, okay now bunnies, eggs, flowers! While Christmas has a big lead in (we can't escape it) Easter doesn't. In college I had an Episcopal roommate (and friend) so I began celebrating Lent and I LOVE it-how it prepares us for Easter. Here are some Lent activities for children I found on the web, we are going to try the Pot one and save the jelly beans for next year (I kinda edited the meanings of the pot one but might work on the jelly bean's wording).
Let me know if you do anything special (and you don't have to call it Lent).

Prayer Pot Instructions
On Ash Wednesday: Place the prayer pot (little clay pot-can be made or bought) in a special place where it can't be missed, perhaps the center of the family table. It reminds everyone that Lent is here, but remains empty for the next few days.
On the First Sunday of Lent: A small heart cut from construction paper is placed in the pot during the main meal, to remind everyone of God's love and that they should show their love for, and be kind to, others.
On the Second Sunday of Lent: A small seed is placed in the pot to remind everyone that God's love for them constantly grows and that they should show love and compassion for other people.
On the Third Sunday of Lent: Place a rubber band in the pot as a reminder that God always stretches His patience and everyone should do the same for others, even when it isn't easy.
On the Fourth Sunday of Lent: A marble is placed in the pot to remind everyone of all that God has given to us and the importance of taking turns and sharing with others in all that they do.
On the Fifth Sunday of Lent: Add a Band-Aid to the pot to remind everyone that God ‘binds up the broken-hearted’ and we should help other people when they are sad or hurt.
On Palm Sunday: Place a tiny piece of a palm, to remind everyone that Jesus is their King and they should remember to say their prayers to Him.
On Easter Sunday: The last item is a tiny piece of eggshell to remind everyone that Jesus rose from the grave and will always be with them and is always ready to hear their prayers.

Last year our kids were 3,4 and 6 and we felt 40 days to give up one thing was a bit long for them. We came up with this idea instead to go along with the jellybean prayer and it was a hit at our house. The kids are excited to do it again this year.

On Ash Wednesday we set out a glass jar for each child with a small copy of the jellybean prayer taped to it. We determined a behavior to go with each jellybean color (corresponding with the prayer). Each day the kids could earn a jellybean of any color they followed through on. They could not eat the jellybeans until Easter. The kids could not earn white jellybeans, these represented the Grace of Christ, which is a gift not earned ourselves. On Easter morning, the kids woke to find their jars filled up where they were still empty (lacking) with white jellybeans (Christ's grace)

This is how we interpreted each color. You can make your own ideas based on ages and needs of your children.

• Red is for the blood Christ gave (each morning we chose something to sacrifice that day to earn the red jellybean. It had to be something they would have had the opportunity to have or do on that day)

• Green is for the palm's cool shade (green jellybeans were earned for good deeds. It was a good dead to provide shade for Jesus with the palm)

• Yellow is for God's light so bright (yellow jellybeans were earned for sharing God's light through kindness to others)

• Orange is for prayers at twilight (orange jellybeans were earned for attentive behavior during bedtime prayer time and night time bible story)

• Black is for sweet rest at night (these were earned for going to bed good. we used blue though, as our kids are not fans of black jellybeans)

• White is for the Grace of Christ (these we could not earn as mentioned above)

• Purple is for His days of sorrow (we earned these through apologizing to anyone we hurt with our words or deeds that day)

• Pink is for each new tomorrow (pink jellybeans were earned when we forgave those who apologized to us for hurtful behavior)

During the course of 40 days the kids did not tire of this activity and have talked about how fun it was throughout the year.
Of course, the Easter bunny might not want to bring any more jellybeans for the baskets!!