[LovingJesusinAZ]

Ok . . . my son is 2.5 and as Easter approaches this week I've been thinking about how to talk with him about what Easter means to us. I did not grow up in a Christian household so I don't have a lot of experience to go on.

When I was in elementary school I asked my mom what Good Friday was. She told me about Jesus' crucifiction and read me a Bible book my Grandma had given me (My grandma became a Christian when I was 4). I was so freaked out by hearing he'd had his hands and feet nailed to a cross I was scared to even look at any of the books on the bookshelf with the one my mom read to me out of.

When we read to our son out of his Beginner's Bible we always follow up the story of the cross with the Resurrection. I don't want to "sugar coat" Jesus' sacrifice but I don't want to scare my son, either. Any ideas?

Christmas is easy to explain to a toddler as Jesus' Birthday. I'm just wondering how to explain the most important event in our lives in a way he might possibly understand.

[mcmama]

You don't have to get too crazy about the gory details. I used the Nelson publishing company's Toddler's Bible when my son was littleand it is really good for that age group. The stories are done really on their level.

My son always liked the story of Esau and Jacob in that version - "wanna hear the story where the liddle brudder wins".

It is very low key.

Toddlers really do not understand death, so the resurrection is even more difficult. Just tell him that Jesus died because there were some very mean people who did not understand that he was the Son of God - and Jesus opened up Heaven for all of us and rose from the dead to tell us all about it.

I did once teach a Sunday school class where one of the third graders had the idea of Jesus's resurrection confused with Night of the Living Dead. This was a kid who came once, just on Easter. So I guess he had no background and that was the only thing about dead people rising that he could understand.

[purelegance]

Originally Posted by mcmama

Toddlers really do not understand death, so the resurrection is even more difficult. Just tell him that Jesus died because there were some very mean people who did not understand that he was the Son of God - and Jesus opened up Heaven for all of us and rose from the dead to tell us all about it.

this is exactly what i was thinking, but janet has a MUCH better way with words than i do.

[QueenAngie]

We did the Resurrection Eggs for several years.

We focused on the positive and best part:
Easter is a time to celebrate Jesus
forgiving our sins so we can get to Heaven.

[Samual]

We've been doing this at the moment with the boys, Jamie couldn't understand the fact of someone being able to die, then come back again. We had to just explain why things happened and wait until he is a little bit older so then he can understand more later on, so at the moment it is kind of just the building blocks at the moment.

[LovingJesusinAZ]

Thanks all for your replies!!! DS went to church twice this weekend--once last night while DH and I attended the service and then once this morning while we volunteered.

We have been talking, when reading his Beginner's Bible, about Jesus having owies, but now he's all better. This morning, at church, the Sunday School teacher went through the Resurection Eggs. When she pulled out the spear my DS said "The spear hurt Jesus" and the whole way home he was talking about how the bad men hurt Jesus. We told him that Jesus is all better now so I guess that's where we'll take it from there Like Samual said--the building blocks are being laid.

[QueenAngie]

Originally Posted by Samual

We've been doing this at the moment with the boys, Jamie couldn't understand the fact of someone being able to die, then come back again. We had to just explain why things happened and wait until he is a little bit older so then he can understand more later on, so at the moment it is kind of just the building blocks at the moment.

Good points, Samual!

[abrahamalegre]

When we were young, my mom would tell us that Jesus loves us so much that he had to die on the cross. Not so much on the full bloody details, but on the point of it. Also, we had easter children activities such as outdoor egg-hunting and the likes.

[kalhayd2]

We got our 16 month old a story book about Easter. It's illustrated wonderfully and we read it often to her. Though it'll be a LONG time before she understands it.