Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street, talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night.

DEUTERONOMY 6: 6-8

By Beth Herrinton-Hodge, associate for curriculum development for children and youth, Congregational Ministries Publishing

A woman in my congregation once brought her 7-year-old granddaughter to worship on Christmas Eve. The child was touched by the story and celebration of the birth of baby Jesus. The next time the child attended worship with her grandmother was our Maundy Thursday service. As I stood before the Communion Table and prepared to serve the bread and the cup, the child turned to her grandmother and said, in a loud wail, “Grandma, they’re going to kill and eat the baby Jesus! He was just born! Well, I’m not eating!” She crossed her arms in front of her with a frown. The grandmother appealed to me for advice: How could she help her granddaughter understand these crucial events of our Christian faith?

It’s a short few months between the joy of Advent and Christmas and the passion, pain and triumph of Lent and Easter. When it’s explained, most adults can grasp the symbolic nature and annual rhythm of the Christian year. But for the child who is more literal, the interval between the baby Jesus, whom we meet at Christmas, and the adult Jesus, whom we crucify and bury during Holy Week, is just too short.
How do we help our young concrete thinkers embrace the meaning of Lent and Easter without scaring them or pushing them away?

Read more at www.pcusa.org

by MaryJane Pierce Norton, Associate General Secretary of the General Board of Discipleship

Easter is the key experience of the Christian faith. After all, we are Easter people.

Yet we often find it difficult to observe Lent, the season of preparation for Easter, with children. And when Easter comes, we may still find it hard to talk with children about this most important observance. Oh, not the part about new clothes, changes in the seasons, and the joy of Easter day. What makes it hard to talk with our children about Lent and Easter is that we cannot come to Easter without death. And talking with a child about death is no easy task.

Look at how differently we approach Christmas. Talking about a new baby, the joy of Mary and Joseph, the angels, the shepherds, and the wise men is fun. There is a hint of danger as the Herod plots to kill all the boys in Bethlehem two years old or younger. But we also know that Jesus escapes.

We feel at ease with Christmas. We give gifts, remembering the gifts of the wise men. We sing songs, recalling the familiar words of the scripture. We look forward to Christmas with joy. And we impart that same joy and excitement to our children. Part of our task as adult Christians is to share the Easter story with same ease.

“Why was Jesus Killed?”
Often we have done a good job helping our children see Jesus as a man worthy of love. They learn that Jesus loved people. Jesus taught people about God’s love, and he cared for people whom others ignored or ridiculed.

It’s really hard to understand how a man we see as good could then be mocked, tortured, and put to death. It is always a shock to be confronted with the events of Holy Week.
Children will have questions about Jesus’ death. Particularly older boys and girls will be struck by the injustice. They see Jesus as good, and it won’t seem fair for such a man to be beaten and killed. It is important to struggle with our children around this question. We can help children understand that is was not God who put Jesus to death but other people.

Read more at pockets.upperroom.org

By Denise Oliveri
www.psscentral.com

Getting kids involved in the ministry of helping others is the best way to teach them about how we are to serve others and follow the example that Jesus gave us. These ideas are fun and rewarding. They can be adapted as a Children's Ministry program or ways for families to work together.

Service Project Ideas

• - Clean and organize give-away clothing closets.
• - Sort through and organize donations given to agencies.
• - Help prepare and serve the food at a soup kitchen or hospice.
• - Clean up, set-up, or tear down at a soup kitchen.
• - Help move small furniture for shelters.
• - Perform puppet shows, musicals, concerts or choir performances at shelters, soup kitchens, or hospices.
• - Do yard work or general cleanup of any facility-from weed pulling to vacuuming.
• - Help prepare bulk mailings to benefit an agency.
• - Promote fund-raisers on behalf of the service agency.
• - Paint furniture, walls, or items that don't need to be "perfect."
• - Paint over graffiti.
• - Gather and deliver items for people in need. This is a great way to get involved with inmates' families.
• - Play with homeless children on day visits or by sponsoring a trip for children in homeless shelters.
• - Visit and serve people in an elderly community.
• - Work at the Special Olympics.
• - Plant trees and shrubs at a location in dire need of environmental care.
• - Organize the canned and boxed goods in a food pantry.

Read more at: baptist-church.suite101.com

© 1995-2010 The Nemours Foundation. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

It's easy to feel disconnected, as many parents juggle work, school, kids, and activity after activity. But some simple things can bring a family closer — playing a game, going for a hike, or cooking a meal together.

One of the most satisfying, fun, and productive ways to unite is volunteering for community service projects. Volunteerism also sets a good example for your kids and helps the community.

Reasons to Get Involved
Why should your family lend a helping hand?

1. It feels good. The satisfaction and pride that come from helping others are important reasons to volunteer. When you commit your time and effort to an organization or a cause you feel strongly about, the feeling of fulfillment can be endless.
2. It strengthens your community. Organizations and agencies that use volunteers are providing important services at low or no cost to those who need them. When a community is doing well as a whole, its individuals are better off, too.
3. It can strengthen your family. Volunteerism is a great way for families to have fun and feel closer. But many people say they don't have the time to volunteer after fulfilling work and family commitments. If that's the case, try rethinking some of your free time as a family. You could select just one or two projects a year and make them a family tradition (for example, making and donating gift baskets to care facilities for the elderly around the holidays).

Read more at kidshealth.org

Children’s books are primarily for entertainment and enjoyment. They can also be an important teaching tool for a parent and can lend themselves to good family discussions and the support of critical thinking. Occasionally, while reading to your child, look beyond just the pure enjoyment of the story to the possible lesson that could be learned. Questions that can be used for any story include:

• If you were in this story, who would you be?
• What is your favorite part of this story?
• If you could change the story, what would you change?
• What might a different ending be?
• What do you think we should remember from this story?

One caution: do not over-engage the child into always having to think of the meaning. Some stories are to be read just for the joy of reading. If you are using it for discussion, only ask a few questions---about as many as the child is old.

Heartfelt’s themes for March are explaining Easter to children and doing family mission/ service projects.

Easter Books
Helping children understand the events of Holy Week and Easter without frightening them can be challenging. My Easter Basket and the True Story of Easter by Mary Manz Simon is a lovely board book for young children that tells the story through the colors found in an Easter basket. Your discussion might include:

• What is your favorite Easter color?
• What part of this story do you like best?
• How do you know Jesus loves you?

Brian Wildsmith’s The Easter Story uses stunning illustrations to capture the familiar story of Jesus’ last days on Earth through the eyes of the donkey that carried Jesus into Jerusalem to the shouts of Hosanna! It allows the children to focus on the donkey and the beautiful paintings instead of the scary parts of the story. Reassure your children by focusing on Jesus gift of life eternal for us. Questions for discussion:

• How do you think the donkey felt during various parts of this story?
• Why was the donkey not afraid of Jesus?
• When do you think the donkey was most afraid?
• Does this part of the story scare you?
• What do you think is the most important part of this story?

Helping Others
Two books that have secular Easter themes, but focus on helping others are Easter Bunny Blues by Carol Wallace and Minnie and Moo: The Attack of the Easter Bunnies. Both are easy reader books for early elementary children and create similar story lines where the animals work together to make sure the children can experience their Easter egg hunt. Some of the animals are a bit reluctant to get involved---just like we sometimes make excuses---but they all come through in the end. Questions for discussion:
Is it easy or hard to make excuses when we don’t want to do something or when we don’t know how to help?
Which animal would you be in this story?
How might you be able to help others?
What part of this story do you think we need to remember?

Fun to Make Crafts for Easter has lots of fun things to make that could be shared with shut-ins or people in nursing homes during the Easter season.

• What would you like to make?
• Who could we share it with?
• When we help others, how does that make us feel?

Remember God has a giant heart, but God’s only hands are ours.

A Small Treasury of Easter Poems and Prayers illustrated by Susan Spellman

• 
  Angels Inc. by Bruce McBay
• Anna the Bookbinder by Andrea Cheng
• Benjamin’s Box by Melody Carson
• Easter – Finding Out About Holidays by Elaine Landau
• Easter by Gail Gibbons
• Kids Care! by Rebecca Olien
• Kids Making a Difference for Animals by Nancy Furstinger & Dr. Sheryl L. Pipe
• Legend of the Easter Egg by Lori Walberg
• Monsieur Saguette and His Baguette by Frank Asch
• My Easter Basket: And the True Story of Easter by Mary Manz Simon
• Story of Easter by Aileen Fisher
• The Child’s World of Helping by Jennie Davis
• The Empty Room by Jon Mikkelsen
• The Kids Guide to Service Projects by Barbara Lewis
• The Parable of the Lily: Special 10th Anniversary Edition by Liz Curtis Higgs
• The Easter Story by Brian Wildsmith
• The Easter Story by Patricia A. Pingry
• The Story of the Empty Tomb by Bryan Davis
• The Very First Easter by Paul L. Maier
• The Week That Led to Easter by Joanne Larrison
• Trainstop by Barbara Lehman
• Volunteering by Amanda Rondeau
• When I Care About Others by Cornelia Spelman

Check out mission websites such as Church World Service at The Church World Service website.  It gives information on how to assemble special kits, which may be Baby Kits, School Kits, Hygiene Kits, or Emergency Clean-up Buckets.  These kits are especially needed since the earthquake in Haiti. 

• Birth, Death, and Resurrection: Teaching Spiritual Growth Through the Church Year by Judy Gattis Smith
  
  
• Children’s Activities for the Christian Year by Delia Halverson
  
• For Your Children: Creating Communities of Faith in Our Families by Martha Bettis Gee
  
  
• Making a Home for Faith: Nurturing the Spiritual Life of Your Children by Elizabeth F. Caldwell
  
  
• Seasons of Faith: Teaching the Christian Year by Marcia Joslin Stoner