T'was the Week Before Easter...

First, we've done nothing but Easter stuff this week. Beav seemed to think that Easter was simpy about a magic bunny that hides eggs around the yard with the end result of his frantic search being a basket filled with chocolate, games, toys, movies, and more chocolate.

Our fault, I fully admit. We had never taken the time to teach him anything else simply because of the "funness" and "magic" of the Easter bunny.

So this year we took to teach him about the true meaning behind "Easter". We've been working on a few hands on activities, such as making unlevened bread and resurrection cookies. Unlevened bread because that is what Jesus and his disciples at at the last supper...and resurrection cookies - well, that was a process in itself :) Here's what we followed....
http://www.squidoo.com/resurrectioncookies

Only I had Beav actually TASTE the vinegar...for maximum impact and understanding. (plus it's just so darned funny to watch their faces squish up!)

Everyone recommends that for maximum understanding of how Christ rose and Mary found the tomb empty to make the cookies on Saturday night and open the oven Sunday morning to reveal the cookies. BUT we're not going to be home on the weekend. So that is the great thing about homeschooling - you do what fits your family and schedule :) We made these last night and examined them this morning.

Needless to say, he was quite impressed...with the fact that the cookies were empty not with the cookies themselves. Quite frankly, if the cookies aren't double chocolate chunk, he is not impressed.

We have also been looking at some of the more secular traditions of Easter. The Easter Bunny... The decorating and hiding of eggs around the yard. I think he was quite impressed with my own memories of hunting Easter eggs around my grandparents farm - back when my grandparents still had cattle. I can remember climbing on stacks of hay and finding coloured eggs nestled in the bales...just as I can remember Gramma telling us "if the eggs aren't coloured, just leave them be!"

One thing he was quite fascinated with were the Faberge eggs. He was most impressed with the egg that opened up and revealed a miniture gold train set inside (1900). You can read the history of the eggs here http://www.mieks.com/faberge-en/index.htm and by clicking on "pictures" you are taken to photos of the known eggs. Of course, we had to look into tsars and tsarinas, Russia, Moscow and St. Petersburg and find those places on the map as "places we've visited" but it was done in both a light and fun way.

He was also quite impressed with Pysansky. He already informed me "Mommy, I don't think I can make one this year because I'm still too little but next year, we ARE going to make one of those eggs!" Alright...noted...Next year we are making Pysansky. Now to find everything we need for that (at least I have a year to do it!) I think I will have to bookmark this site to give me a hand next year... http://www.learnpysanky.com/

So today we are going to continue with our study of Easter. We are going to do some notebooking using Bible quotes as well as a few vocabulary words. He is also going to do a stained glass cross using tissue paper - a gift for his grandmother who has Beav crafts decorating her fridge. (It should be noted that while Ward is now 50, his mother still views him as "her baby" and thus, Beav is "her baby's baby")

Now, all I have left to do is create a map for the Easter Bunny to find us at Grandma's house. I am wondering if this is the last year for the true excitement of the egg hunt tho. Beav has already asked me if it is really me and Ward who hide the eggs around the yard....