Teach Real Meaning of Easter with Egg Spoon Race

I pulled out my Fat File on Easter. Over the next few days I will be sharing some fun and memorable ways Rob and I teach our kids the true meaning of Easter.

Because Easter baskets, egg hunts, and chocolate bunnies sometimes overshadow the true Easter story, Rob and I try to celebrate Easter with an activity every evening of the week leading up to Easter. Our hope is that these hands-on activities will make the true meaning of Easter "stick" with our kids.

Rob and I enjoy playing games with our kids and then using the game to teach a short lesson or what we like to call a"zinger". We have been known to take advantage of the teachable moments that games or crafts provide when all the neighborhood kids are over at our house. We also use this teaching technique in Sunday School.

For example, one game we play at Easter time is Egg on a Spoon Race.

Supplies needed for this game:

making tape or rope to mark lines
hardboiled eggs (one for every 2 people)
a spoon for every person (plastic spoons are fine!)

Directions:

For this game you need 2 lines. Each child needs a partner (so perhaps Mom and Dad will have to play too! or the neighbors!) The #1s line up on one line and the #2s line up on the other line. Partners need to be facing each other. Give each kid (#1 and #2) a spoon. Players #1 put a hardboiled egg on their spoon and race to the other line, to their partner where they will transfer the egg to their partner's spoon. Then Partner #2 will race to the other line. If the egg should fall, players must walk back to the line where they began and begin again. The first pair to get their Player #2 to the other line wins.

Now here is the teaching zinger. After you have played this game a few times and laughed and had fun, you ask your kids, "What do you think I should do with these broken eggs?"
Kids will give lots of answers. David always says, "Eat them!" But one kid will say, "Throw Away." And that is when you jump in with the zinger.

You say, "A lot of times we are like these broken eggs. A lot of times our hearts are all dirty and yucky. What things make our hearts dirty and yucky?"

Kids will say "lying, stealing, disobeying, being selfish, etc."

And you continue on with "Some would say that because we have done these bad things, we are no good and should be thrown out. But Jesus loves you and He is very good at taking broken things and putting them back together again. Jesus is really good at taking those yucky things out of our heart and replacing then with good things."

So in 2 minutes you have taught some big, abstract, glorious truth!!

Do not get overwhelmed that you have to present the whole Easter story or worried that your kids are not grasping the point. The goal is to expose your kids and give them little understanable bites.

And when Easter has passed. . .
and the chocolate bunny's head has been bitten off. . .
and Easter grass remnants are being found throughout the house. . .

the truth that Jesus loves your kids (and you!) even when they are broken and do bad things will be remembered. Now that is Easter!

I posted this idea at Censational Girl's and Someday Crafts' Easter Link Up Party. Check them out here and here. Easter recipes, crafts, decor, and ideas galore!