Holy Week 2020

I always remember our friend Jenn doing Holy Week with her kids and getting to participate in the fun with her when I went to Haiti several years ago. (Pictures) This year Chloe is old enough to begin understanding and actually participate in activities. With the COVID-19 quarantine, we were home all day and so were the neighbors. Jessica was home all day and night with all 3 of her kids while her Stephen was activated with the army. She mentioned to me making a snack with David one day and maybe making it Easter themed. So I started planning something for each day of the week (Thank you, Pinterest) with the intention of giving her a little break and it turned out to be a lot of fun!

Monday: Resurrection Scavenger Hunt
I took this scavenger hunt and adapted it some. I found objects that represented most of the items on this list and stuffed them in Easter eggs. I doubled the items so there would be enough eggs for 4 kids to find. Then, after the egg hunt, we came in and opened them one by one and talked about them. As we talked about them, we glued them on a poster.

Tuesday: Bubble Fun
Several ideas recommended reading the story of Jesus cleaning the temple and then have kids clean the house with you. Since we were inviting neighbors to participate, I didn't think I should ask them to clean my house. Since most of the kids are really young, we talked about how Jesus washed our sins away when He died on the cross. You wash things with soap and water so then we played in bubbles.

Wednesday: Jelly Bean Bead Bracelets
I found a Jelly Bean Prayer Poem and Craft, but changed the craft into a bead bracelet. We read the poem together and made bracelets. Four little ones with beads didn't allow for any adult to be free to take any pictures. We were trying to prevent beads from going everywhere!

Thursday: Marble Painted Crosses
In my Pinterest search, I found marble painting and gave it a shot. It was a lot of fun! I cut out crosses on card stock for each kid. Thanks to having a newborn, we had several diaper and wipe boxes sitting around. I bought some paint and bouncy balls because I couldn't find marbles. Each kid took a turn with their cross. They put the cross in the bottom of the box, dipped the bouncy ball in paint and then rolled the ball around inside the box. As it rolled, it painted their cross. Best part: I handled the paint application on the bouncy balls and dropped them in the box for them so it was mess free!

Friday: Crown of Thorns Snack
I found this idea in a Google search. You make sugar cookies then put peanut butter on them and broken pretzels. The pretzels represent the thorns on Jesus' crown. David, the oldest kid, told me this sounded disgusting when I told him what we were doing. Before I knew it, his cookie with the peanut butter and pretzels was gone! So, I guess it wasn't that disgusting. :)

Saturday: Resurrection Rolls
I've heard of this snack from several people. You dip a marshmallow in butter, roll it in cinnamon sugar, wrap it in a cresset roll, and bake. The heat melts the marshmallow. So the cresset roll represents the tomb and the marshmallow represents Jesus. When you "go back" to the tomb, it's empty! Letting kids wrap their own marshmallows doesn't allow for this to be perfect, but overall they turned out great and were fun to make. I think 15 minutes at 400 degrees was a little much...I'd probably lessen the temperature next time.

We also had the traditional egg hunt on Saturday with friends!

This site has a lot of good ideas I might pull from next year. One idea was the "Light of the World" idea where you have cupcakes for dessert one night with trick candles. The symbolism is the world thought it had extinguished the light of the world by killing Jesus, but He came back! I was going to do this on Saturday and the resurrection rolls on Sunday, but the neighbors all had plans Sunday so we cut that activity and had a lazy day at home in our PJs...maybe next year!