• Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey
• The people cheered him, shouting “hosanna”
• Jesus and his disciples ate a last meal together
• Jesus’ friend Judas betrayed him with a kiss
• Jesus was punished, even though he did nothing wrong
• Jesus died on the cross
• His body was wrapped in linen and laid in a tomb
• The world was dark on the afternoon that Jesus died
• On Easter morning, the tomb was empty
• An angel said, “He is not here. He is risen!”
• Jesus died to take away our sins

There are many fun activities to help you teach these concepts to your child, from the Jelly Bean Prayer, to making a batch of Empty Tomb cookies. These yummy treats are sure to become a family tradition. I love how the author of Faithful Provisions relates each step of the cookie process to the Easter story. For example, there are eggs in the cookie, and eggs are the symbol of new life. We have new life in Jesus. There is vinegar in the cookie, and Jesus was made to drink vinegar on the cross.

If possible, try to make or buy a set of Resurrection Eggs. I recently discovered this learning tool, and used it with my granddaughter. It caught her attention, and helped her to learn many of the key concepts of the Passion of Christ. It is a bit much for one sitting. You might want to take several days to introduce all the eggs. But then, encourage your child to retell the Easter story to you, using the eggs as prompts. There are directions on the internet to make your own set of eggs, if you have more time than money.

I struggled to find good books for this unit. I rejected some because the cartoonish illustrations offended me. Jesus is real. He is not fiction. I felt the cartoons made Him seem like a fairy tale. I rejected the beautiful “Very First Easter” by Maier, because although the illustrations are gorgeous, the story was boring and too long for most preschoolers. I hope you’ll find a few Easter books in this list that your child will treasure for years to come. And may your family be truly blessed this Easter!

Five-Star Easter books:

• An Easter Gift for Me by Crystal Bowman
• The Easter Story by Patricia A. Pingry
• The Easter Story (St. Joseph Picture Books) by Jude Winkler
• The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado
• Benjamin’s Box by Melody Carlson
• J is for Jesus: An Easter Alphabet and Activity Book by Debbie Trafton O’Neal
• The Parable of the Easter Lily by Liz Curtis Higgs
• Donkey’s Easter Tale by Adele Bibb Colvin

Optional Easter Toys and Gifts

• Nail Cross Necklace
• The Greatest Adventure Stories from the Bible
• Religious 24-Piece Jigsaw Puzzle Jesus the Shepherd
• Religious 24-Piece Jigsaw Puzzle The Last Supper
• Easter Favorites CD by Cedarmont Kids
• Classics: Sunday School Songs by Cedarmont Kids
• Wikki Stix Bible Fun Kit
• Wikki Stix Alphabet Fun Cards for Learning

According to Legend, the first Easter Lily appeared at the Foot of the Cross, from the Blood of Jesus

• Number 3
• How Many Apples
• Squirrel Counting
• Easter Memory Game
• Easter Vocabulary Words
• Cross and Lilies coloring page
• Resurrection Maze
• Easter mini book
• C is for Cross letter tracer

Easter Lesson Plans for the Christian Preschooler

Photo Credits
Top: photo by Todd Anderson
Bottom: photo by Godizwithin

Select an area in your yard for the sandbox. Place it towards the back of the yard, so much of the sand falls off your child’s shoes (or bare feet) and clothing before he makes it to the door. Place it where you can see it from a window, but not too close to the fence. Find an area that is mostly flat, and gets shade for part of the day, unless you are planning to build an awning over of the box.

Think BIG! Build the biggest box your budget and your yard will allow. Ten-feet square is a nice size for two or three children. Mark out the area, then remove the grass and dig down. Sinking the box down into the ground will help keep the sand in the box and not blowing around in your child’s eyes on a windy day. It also helps prevent grass from growing up through the sand. Once you’ve dug the area out, level it as best you can, then loosely spread landscape fabric and staple it into the ground. This allows water to drain, but blocks weeds from sprouting.

Build the Largest Sandbox Your Budget Will Allow

Finally, fill the box with sand. Many recommend buying play sand in 50 pound bags. It would take a lot of bags to fill a large sandbox! Washed sand is the same thing as play sand, and can be bought in bulk. Washed sand is free from dust and debris, weighs about 2700 pounds per cubic yard, and is tan in color.

Six Methods to Discourage Cats from Using Your Sandbox

Most websites recommend covering the sandbox to prevent cats from dirtying it, but I always felt that covers were unwieldly and limited how much use the sandbox would see. Small children can’t move the cover by themselves. There are a number of cat deterrents that may work just as well.

1) electric fencing. If you have a tall backyard fence, then run a string of electric wire across the top of the fence out of your child’s reach. No cat will cross it.

2) Keep a non-cat friendly dog in the yard. However, although the dog might not mess in the sand, he will still leave calling cards somewhere in your child’s play area.

3) Scarecrow Sprinklers are motion sensitive and hooked up to a garden hose. They will blast unwanted pests with water, but not harm them. (Of course, teach your child to turn it off, or it will blast him, as well!)

4) Motion-activated pet deterrent uses a high-pitched sound and blast of air to send cats on their way, without water. Great for indoors, too.

5 Smells. Some smells are offensive to cats, even when humans can’t smell them at all, such as the wintergreen scent of Keep Away. Other homemade cat deterrent sprays use a variety of herbs and spices like lavendar, cayanne pepper, rosemary, or citronella. These sprays will last up to two weeks, but need to be reapplied regularly.

Spread Pine Cones or Gravel Around the Sandbox to Discourage Cats

If none of these methods work for you, then a web search should reveal more than fifty other options. Something will work. Of course, you could just cover your sandbox. I’d suggest screen instead of tarp for covering the box. You want the rain to wash the sand clean, rather than the damp dark tarp to keep the sand the right temperature and humidity for breeding bacteria.

Finally, you’ll want sandbox toys! Rotating the toys periodically will keep the interest level high. After spending all that time making the sandbox for your child, the best reward would be watching him enjoy it! So, for younger children, keep a supply of plastic measuring cups and spoons, small plastic cars, and play figurines will provide many hours of enjoyable, educational activity. As your child grows, add sand pails and sturdy shovels, then construction trucks like a dump truck and a steam shovel or back hoe. Children can bury things in the sand for scavenger hunts, or sculpt sand into interesting shapes with the addition of a little water. And sand can still be played with in the fall, even though the beaches are closed and it’s too cold to take off a jacket! There is a small window in the northern states when the sand simply freezes – effectively ending the sandy season for a little while.

Don’t forget, children model us. If you want your child to reap all the benefits of sand play, play with him in the sandbox! Once he sees how important you realize sand play is, he will play in the sand more. So what if he gets a little dirty? That before-bedtime bath is a great way to wind down from an exciting, educational day of play.

For further reading:
Sensory Play
Water Play
Working with Wood
Sand Castle

Photo Credits:
Top: amrufm
Middle: tammra
Bottom: bruno brujah

If your child already has a dog, wonderful! If you’re thinking about getting one, how about now? Otherwise, can you visit a friend who owns a dog? Does your community have a dog park? It would be a great place to go for a field trip, to see a wide variety of dogs and talk with the pet owners about how they take care of their pet.

Dog Begins With D

I hope you all have a great time this week!

“D is for Dog” lesson plans

Photo Credits: Top: by Vasile Tomoiagă Middle:GenBug Husky:Clyde Possum Golden Retriver: Sky Captain Two Dalmation: CuseGoyle West Highland Terrier:Randy son of Robert Basset Hound: Jelly Dude	Siberian Husky
Golden Retriever	songs: How Much is That Doggie In the Window? There was a Farmer Had a Dog Oh where, Oh Where has my little dog Gone?
books and more: Harry the Dirty Dog Clifford, We Love You Biscuit Storybook Collection Milo and Otis DVD	Dalmation
Westie Terrier	Basset Hound

We teach our children not to talk to strangers, and then, all of a sudden, because of something called “the Family Reunion”, that is exactly what we want our kids to do! The young child is often timid around strangers, even when those strangers are actually relatives that you just don’t get to see very often. So how can you help your child feel comfortable around his relatives, without forcing him to give hugs and kisses to such strange people?

There are several steps you can take, to make sure that everyone enjoys the reunion, create some wonderful memories, and forge some new friendships for your child that may last a lifetime.

Introduce Your Child to Your Relatives

The first step is to introduce your relatives using a photo album. Take large, clear pictures of each relative, alone. Using a magnetic photo album, insert copies of the pictures into the pages, along with large, clear labels of each name. Magnetic albums are not good for your photographs. Over time, the colors will fade. For albums that you want to keep, you’ll need to look for “archival quality” paper, that is acid-free and lignen-free. But for a toddler’s picture book, nothing quite holds up like a sturdy magnetic album. That’s why you’ll make duplicate copies of your photos. One to put in your child’s magnetic picture book, and another to save.

Make A Picture Book of Your Relatives

Grandmothers Are Moms with Lots of Frosting

Bring the album with you to the reunion. Let your child make a game of finding each relative in his book among the group that has gathered.

Plan Some Games Just For the Children

Organize some children’s activities in advance. You can ask every person attending the reunion to come up with one child-activity and one adult-activity. Getting together and talking may be exciting for the old folks, but the young ones will be bored to tears. Make sure they have fun, and they will want to come again!

Plan Some Fun Activities For Your Family Reunion

Maintain Your Child’s Daily Schedule

Don’t forget to keep your child somewhat on his schedule, even when on vacation. If he normally takes a two hour nap, and you don’t have him take a nap at all, you may be setting him up for a major tantrum when he gets over-tired. Nothing spoils the fun quite like a two-year-old acting like a two-year-old, and a bunch of older relatives giving you unwanted advice on how they never let their kids get away with that kind of behavior.

Avoid Hot Topics

Finally, if there are some touchy subjects that you really don’t want to talk about at the reunion, you might list them in the invitations in advance. Otherwise, try to think of all the annoying questions that really push your buttons, and brainstorm how you might answer them without causing conflict. Is there one relative that always brings up spanking? How do you usually respond to them? Is there a better way to handle that then what you’ve tried in the past?

When my children were young, my husband and I decided to homeschool them. Unfortunately, many of our relatives were public school teachers! As you can imagine, there might have been a lot of conflict at our get-togethers, but there wasn’t. My husband and I informed everyone in advance of our decision, and why. Then we went ahead and did it. We’d already earned the reputation for being a little “odd” because we didn’t let our children watch cartoons. I felt that most cartoons were violent, crude, scary, or perpetuating bratty behavior that we would not tolerate. So I had been censoring their television viewing habits for years before the homeschooling issue came up. At first, I remember hearing some relatives remark that cartoons were harmless, but a couple of years later they noticed how well-behaved and creative and intelligent our children were. Then when they heard someone else disparage children’s television programming, I heard those same relatives inform them proudly how we never let our children watch that stuff!

Family Reunions Are a Celebration of Life

Family Reunions Are a Celebration of Life

Books for Further Reading:
Family Secrets: The Path to Self-Acceptance and Reunion
Great Games: 175 Games and Activities for Families, Groups, and Children
The Berenstain Bears Family Reunion

Related Articles on this Website:
Building Family Through Tradition
Traveling with Tots
The Family Meal

Photo Credits:
Cousins: photo by Phil Scoville
Great Grandma with book: photo by Tom Eppenberger Jr.
Bubbles: photo by Max Stotsky
Kissing Cousins: photo by Makelessnoise

Young children get so engrossed in their activity, that they do not want to quit just because you say so. It doesn’t matter if they’re playing in the sandbox, coloring quietly, or throwing toys all around the room. If they are busy, and you tell them to stop, they are likely to pitch a fit. Depending on their basic temperament, they may merely sulk a bit, or they could wind up on the floor, kicking and screaming. So, how can you teach them that this is not appropriate behavior, without feeling like you’d like to join them on the floor for a tantrum of your own?

One method that works for many parents is the count-down method. This is more of a tantrum-avoidance technique than teaching control, but when it comes to a two- or three-year-old, it can be a real life-saver. Very simply put, you start counting down. But not like you are counting from ten to one to keep your own temper. Rather, you give your child several warnings that his activity is going to be ending soon.

Alerting Your Child That His Activity Will End Soon Can Help Reduce Tantrums

Young children don’t understand time. When you tell him he has five more minutes, it doesn’t really matter if you give him five minutes, two minutes, or fifteen minutes. You don’t need to set a timer, unless you really only have five minutes to allow him. What you are doing, is giving him clues, alerting him to the schedule, and allowing him time to prepare for the next event.

With the Count-down Method, the Young Child Can Leave the Playground Willingly

I use this technique at nap time, too. I lay down with her on my big, queen-sized bed. She has several books, and I take a romance novel. I read two books to her, then I let her look at her books, while I read. After a few minutes, I give her the five minute count-down, then we both put up our books. She rarely cries at nap time now. She usually hands me her books, rolls over and goes to sleep. Sometimes I may have to rub her back for a bit, but naptimes are not the major battles we once had.

You can use this technique when it’s almost time to leave McDonald’s playland, or time to finish eating supper if your child is a food dawdler. You can count-down when it’s nearly time to leave the sandbox, to take a bath, to go anywhere, to leave anywhere – any time your child needs to transition from one activity to the next.

After you have used this technique for a year, your child may actually be ready to learn to tell time. Then you can reward him with his own watch, and let him tell you when his five minutes are up! By then, hopefully, his tantrums will long have disappeared.

Other Resources:
The Happiest Toddler on the Block: How to Eliminate Tantrums
Raising Your Spirited Child, revised edition
Ten Days to a Less Defiant Child, the Breakthrough Program

Related Articles:
Why Two Year Olds Have Tantrums
Common Bedtime Mistakes Parents Make
Hassle-Free Bed Time

Photo Credits:
Tantrum:http://www.flickr.com/photos/citril/ / CC BY 2.0
Naptime Smile:http://www.flickr.com/photos/carbonnyc/ / CC BY 2.0
Swinging:http://www.flickr.com/photos/phild41/ / CC BY 2.0

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Some parents are able to dispense with the pacifier when their baby is about six months old, but others find that their child really needs it to calm themselves, to be able to sleep, or get back to sleep after waking in the night. Some time between the ages of two and four, most children will give it up. The question,then, is how to help them through this painful process?

How to get rid of the pacifier?

Here is one method that has worked for many families:

1. First, gather all the pacifiers you can find into one location. If your child is very dependent on them, you may find over a dozen in the car, your purse, the diaper bag, the crib, the toy box, and the silverware drawer. Make sure they are all clean. Because they are often wet and stored in dark places, they can be breeding grounds for bacteria. Now place the pile of pacifiers in a clear container in a prominent location. Perhaps a big, clear plastic jar on the kitchen counter.
2. Next, talk to your child about this. Tell him that he is growing, and soon he will not need a pacifier any more. Maybe you only spend a day on this step, or you might need to spend a week on it. Get some library books out on the topic of “growing up”. Help your child see that this is normal, that every body grows up. That it is okay to feel like a big boy sometimes, and still want to be held and rocked and kissed. Growing up does not have to be like going up a crowded escalator. Your child can take the stairs all by himself. Sometimes he’ll go up two steps, but then come back down one. Maybe he’ll run up three steps, but trip on the third one and want to sit there for a spell.
3. When your child is okay with the concept of “growing”, then you explain that every day he may have one pacifier, but it must stay in his crib. He can climb in his crib if he feels he really needs it. He may use it at nap time, and at bed time. But he may not take it out of his crib. And in the morning when he wakes up, HE will throw it in the trash. You will watch him do this, and make sure he doesn’t dig it back out! (Yuck!).
4. Gradually, the pile of pacifiers will diminish. As it gets smaller, praise your child often. Hold him a lot. Rock him. Comfort him. Sing to him. Don’t make him feel that he is losing your love and affection. All he is losing is something to suck. It may help, subconsciously at least, if you serve foods that require sucking. Don’t get him addicted to lolly pops! The pacifier is undoubtedly the lesser of those two evils! But you could make some frozen fruit-juice popsicles or put a straw in his glass of milk or juice.
5. Finally, the last day will come. He will throw away the last pacifier. Make it a party. Serve cake and ice cream and his favorite food for supper (assuming he has one). Take lots of pictures. Play a special game, and let him stay up just a little bit later than normal. Keep him busy all day. This would be a great day to spend at the park! You want to make sure that he is very tired at bed time, not over-tired and cranky.

Go through your regular bedtime routine, whatever that is. Often that means taking a bath, putting on clean pajamas and cuddling in the rocking chair to hear a story or two. Then put him to bed.

He might fuss a little. He might fuss a lot. Do not pick him back up. Do not bring him into your bed. You may go in his room, lay him down again if he is standing. Cover him and rub or pat his back. You may put on some soothing music. Reassure him that you love him.

Learning To Sleep Without a Pacifier May Take About a Week

If your child continues to have problems sleeping, you may want to get additional information. Here are two books on getting children to sleep. I haven’t yet read either of them, but I read all of the parent reviews posted, and they gave the books a five-star rating. Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child and The No-Cry Sleep Solution

Related Articles:
In Praise of Pacifiers
Why Two-Year-Olds Have Tantrums
Hassle-Free Bedtime

Photo Credits:
Upper:http://www.flickr.com/photos/chimothy27/ / CC BY 2.0
Lower:http://www.flickr.com/photos/aidanmorgan/ / CC BY 2.0