Simple Easter Ideas: Literacy Egg Hunt & Resurrection Garden

The Easters of my childhood were magical due to the location we celebrated in (Florida, visiting my grandparents) and the very unique way my grandparents celebrated with us. On Easter morning we awoke to find the “special tide” had visited the small lagoon near to their home– the entire beach was covered with the most amazing shells! My sister and I would fill our buckets with treasures, completely unaware that the adults had conspired to create such an (un)natural phenomenon. (Clearly the world was different then because I don’t have 479 pictures of the event, or even one!)

Fast forward a generation and I haven’t exactly been able to recreate my childhood traditions with my own bookworms! However, the two traditions we began last year were memorable enough that almost a year later, PreK Bookworm recently asked if we’d be repeating them! I was pretty shocked that he remembered them. Wish I had that kind of brain power!

For our egg hunt, we stuffed each egg with a letter tile, hiding 52 total letters (upper and lower case).

As the bookworms found each, they matched the letter on an alphabet poster (from the dollar store).

When the whole alphabet was found, they were presented with Easter baskets, filled with books. They didn’t miss the candy as they were blissfully unaware that’s a thing. I did add a bubble wand after this photo was taken. 😉

The second tradition that we all loved was our Resurrection Garden. On Good Friday, the bookworms helped me dig some dirt into a pot, carve a hole in a potato to represent the tomb, and search for & put in place a rock to roll over the entrance to the tomb. And there it sat, prominently displayed in all its ugliness until the glory of Easter morning.

After the bookworms went to sleep on “Easter eve,” Daddy Bookworm went to the grocery store and bought some flowers which we used to create a Resurrection Garden. When they awoke Easter morning, they were so excited to celebrate, “He is Risen!” (I’m sure you’re aware, this was not my original idea. Social media has its downfalls, but it does inspire some great ideas once in a while!) I liked the simplicity of this activity, and that it helped my bookworms put some tangible understanding of the time between Good Friday & its events, and the power of Easter morning!

Prior to Easter, we read a few Easter stories (a very few. there are just so many terrible ones!) and primarily focus on the Biblical account from our children’s Bibles. I blogged our shortlist of Favorite Easter Books That Aren’t About Bunnies. The Jesus Storybook Bible has my all-time favorite version and it makes me cry every single time.

What are your Easter traditions? I would love to hear how you and your family celebrate, if you do! I’m working on ideas for Easter baskets now. Spoiler: there will be books. LOL. Are you following along on Instagram or Facebook?