One of my favorites that we will use next year during lent and leading up to Easter is called God's Easter Gift by Brenda Castro. I found it on Amazon for about $10. The story starts with brother and sister going to Easter Mass then to an Easter Egg Hunt in the park. They believe that the hunt will be a traditional egg hunt with candy and goodies. This is no ordinary Easter Egg Hunt but an egg hunt that takes them through our faith. The children notice how light and beautiful the church is Easter morning. I have to say I notice the same thing when we went early (7:30am) Easter Mass. The sun was just shining through the windows onto the sanctuary that was filled with lilies. The statues and cross were all uncovered and church just lit up with joy. Anyway back to the story. The children are told that Easter is more than candy and toys, but something very special. The children go through the park looking for the most beautiful eggs. As they find the eggs they open to see beautiful art work and discover one of God's gifts. The stories in the eggs include Lent, Palm Sunday, washing feet, Last Supper,Garden of Gethsemane, Good Friday, Resurrection. The girls attention was a little hard to keep through the whole book, but I think I will make some eggs to go with it for next year and we will read just one egg at a time. The artwork is amazing and the illustrations are fantastic. What a great gift to give our children reading material that helps them grow in their faith.
Here are some pictures:
Another book the girls received was Horray! I'm Catholic by Hana Cole I got from Amazon for about $12 This is a short book that the girls really enjoyed. It is never to early to teach our children some apologics about their Catholic faith. Throughout the book the same question is asked "What makes being Catholic great?" However the answers to this question are different and take our children through different aspects of the Catholic faith. The book starts out in church and the little things like candles, bells, stain glass windows to vestment colors, receive communion. The book talks about Jesus love and forgiveness for us. The book touches on specials days like Christmas, Lent, and Easter. The book touches on serving other through charity. The girls really enjoyed listening to this book and it held their attention. It has rhythm to the reading that I think helps at this age.
