How I Homeschool || Easter
With Easter around the corner, you may be looking for ways to bring the importance of Easter to the forefront in your homeschool days. In today's post, I'll share some of my favorite ways to highlight the true meaning of Easter throughout your homeschool and a few resources we use. As a bonus, check out my Easter Basket Guides at the bottom of the post and past videos to get ideas for your kids' Easter baskets this year.
Why is it Important
As a homeschooling mom who has been homeschooling for almost ten years, I see how many of us as homeschoolers spend a ton of time preparing our hearts and preparing our children's hearts for the advent season or leading up to the celebration of Christmas. And this should be done, but the fact is that it shouldn't stop there. Our faith as Christians is completely null and void if we do not celebrate the fact that Jesus defeated death. Jesus didn't just come as a baby to die for our sins, but he defeated death which is the hope that we have. I feel personally convicted and want to implore you to celebrate Christ's resurrection. Ultimately, I think more time needs to be spent on the fact that our God is not dead, and because He rose, He will come back for us, and we will be alive with Him in Heaven for all eternity. THAT is something to celebrate, and it's something our kids need to know.
Time of Day
Leading up to any holiday, I find it is easiest to focus my teaching about the holiday during our morning basket time. If you've watched my videos or read my previous posts, you know that morning basket is when we do our Bible time, read-aloud books, unit studies, and more. This is when we gather together as a family before heading off onto individual subjects. What better time to bring in all the great resources available to teach my kids about the true meaning of Easter.
Resources
There are many resources out there to help you teach your kids about Easter, but my go-to ones are listed below.
The Bible
Enough said! What better way can you teach your children about Easter's true meaning than in the Bible's Gospels, which depict Jesus' ministry, crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. Check out this helpful guide for more information on which scriptures to read.
Books
During our morning basket, I like to bring in seasonal picture books to read aloud to my kids. Easter is no exception. Here are some of my favorites I have included in my morning basket. As a disclaimer, these links are affiliate links, so if you use them, you support my YouTube channel and blog.
Resurrection Eggs
I've used these for several years, and they are a wonderful addition to our morning basket. There are many ways a family can use them, but in the past, we have opened one each day leading up to Easter and have read about the figurine inside.
I haven't used this book personally, but if you are looking for a picture book to pair with your resurrection eggs, this works with the eggs shown here.
Campfire Curriculum - Resurrection Day
One curriculum we keep coming back to is Campfire Curriculum. We love to use unit studies to learn more about holidays that are special to us, like Christmas and Easter. We used their Christmas unit study and enjoyed including it during our morning basket time leading up to Christmas. With Easter approaching, I am very excited to use their newest unit study, Resurrection Day.
Campfire's Resurrection Day unit study can be used as a whole family but includes breakaway individual grade-level specific activities. It also consists of a core connections component that allows you to take a break from your core subjects and instead include language arts, math, science, history, and so forth through the unit study. We do not use the core connections; however, I love that it is included. It also has a calendar that maps out the lessons for you.
Campfire curriculums are digital downloads. They can be used by all learning styles and include different activities that appeal to kinesthetic, visual, and auditory learners. Every lesson has a main lesson read by the parent and shares the focus for that day. They also have different levels that accommodate early learners for younger kids and growing and advanced for older learners. Each lesson takes about twenty minutes. Some optional games and activities can be used to enrich the experience. I don't do every single craft or game. I choose what works for our time and family. That is one thing that makes this curriculum great.
Something I love about this unit is the additional Bible reading that goes into where the name of Easter comes from and what it means. It includes a faith talk that helps guide family discussion surrounding the name Resurrection Day versus Easter.
Check out my YouTube video below to learn more about this unit study.
Easter Basket Ideas
As stated above, the main reason for Easter is to celebrate the burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. However, that does not mean I don't like to bless my kids and nephews with Easter baskets. This year, I've created Easter Basket Guides for both preteens/teens and babies/toddlers. You can find the images and links below to those items. In addition, I've included my past videos on Easter Basket Ideas. Members of my Grace and Grit Friends community on YouTube got a sneak peek into each of my kids' baskets with a members-only video from the past two years, also linked below. FYI, you can only access the video if you are a member.
Baby-Toddler Easter baskets
YouTube Videos
2023 - *Members-Only
2022 - *Members-Only
2021
2020
2019
2018
As I wrap up this post, I'll leave you with this quote from one of my favorite Bible teachers, John MacArthur: "The truth of the resurrection gives life to every other area of gospel truth. The resurrection is the pivot on which all of Christianity turns and without which none of the other truths would much matter. Without the resurrection, Christianity would be so much wishful thinking, taking its place alongside all other human philosophy and religious speculation." I pray you found the information shared here helpful and encouraging. Until next time friends!
