A few years ago, Easter time snuck up on me and I had only a few days to prepare how and what I would do to make the season special and reflective for my children. I tried to throw some things together, but the season came and went and we barely brushed on the topic of Jesus’ death and resurrection. I realized that just a couple months before that I had spent weeks preparing and celebrating Jesus’ birth at Christmas, but what about the most important part of the story? I decided from that year on I would spend just as much energy preparing our hearts for Easter as I do for Christmas.

My desire is to mark their hearts with traditions and give them warm memories of togetherness in our home during the season leading up to Easter. I want to make it memorable, fun, and most of all, draw them to their Savior as we seek to share and live out the gospel story. Out of these desires, I decided to create a guide to follow in our home and I am so honored to share it with you.

Related: How Do I Explain the Gospel to My Children?

In this blog post:

• About An Expectant Easter
• What An Expectant Easter includes
• What a week of An Expectant Easter looks like
• Preparing for An Expectant Easter
• Using An Expectant Easter in your homeschool co-op or church
• Other Bible curriculum from Treehouse Schoolhouse

About An Expectant Easter

An Expectant Easter is a Bible-based, Charlotte Mason-inspired curriculum designed with your whole family in mind. It’s an invitation to gather your family to center their hearts on what Easter is all about. Through Bible stories, hymns, poetry, art studies, picture books, projects, baking, tea time, and nature studies, your family will spend three weeks connecting together and focusing on the newness of Spring, the sacrifice that Jesus made, and the power of his resurrection.

Related: An Expectant Easter Booklist

The foundation of your lesson time will include reading a passage of scripture to your children. These passages will be studied in chronological order to complete the crucifixion and resurrection story by the end of the curriculum. Children will love opening a Bible Story Easter Egg each day that a new story is read, which holds a clue to the day’s story. 

To practice sequencing and retention of the stories, they will enjoy putting the clues in order as you progress through the passages. Children will orally narrate each Bible story and complete a written narration in their “Easter Story Narration Notebook.” They will then illustrate the day’s passage, completing a 12-page keepsake by the end of the season.

If you have younger children, they can narrate the story to you and you can write what they say. Then they can draw the pictures. Another fun way to narrate in the early years is by acting out the story with toys and props. Here are some great tips on getting started with narration in those young years!

Each week your family will also memorize a passage of scripture, worship together with a hymn, enjoy a poem, and study a biblically-themed piece of artwork. Here’s why we love including art study in our homeschool! Along with that, each day you will snuggle together and read an Easter-themed picture book and then enjoy a coordinating handcraft or baking project that reiterates a theme in the story. 

Related: Picture Study in Your Homeschool: Why and How?

On Fridays, you will have a sweet time together over tea and a treat and reflect on all you have learned. You will also complete a gentle and engaging spring-themed nature study.

What An Expectant Easter includes

This 3-week curriculum includes:

• Weekly grids with an overview of lessons
• Daily plans that are detailed and easy-to-follow
• Materials list broken down by week (and linked here in my Amazon storefront for easy ordering)
• Booklist including read-alouds, art study, and nature study (click here to download the full booklist!)
• Bible Story Egg Hunt Guide
• Scripture memory display sheets & copywork
• Poetry display sheets & copywork
• Picture study sheets in high-resolution, full color
• 12-Page Narration Notebook
• Kid-friendly, classic Easter recipes
• Handcrafts with detailed instructions and step-by-step photos

An Expectant Easter is available as both a digital download and hard copy. The hard copy includes:

• Spiral-bound Teacher Guide with daily lesson plans and hands-on connections
• Spiral-bound Narration Notebook (make sure to order an extra one for each child!)
• 1 set of Student Sheets including display sheets for the memory verse, art, hymns, poems, copy work, and menu inserts 

If you are short on time (or printer ink!) I suggest the hard copy. But if you’re able to print at home or locally, the digital option might be a better fit for your family. 

What a week of An Expectant Easter looks like

This curriculum was designed as a sweet invitation to family-style learning that creates warm memories of togetherness while reading living books, making hands-on connections, and writing scripture on their hearts. Here is a glimpse of what An Expectant Easter looked like in our home for Week One of the study.

Each day, the kids memorized John 3:16-17 through recitation and copywork.

They enjoyed the poem “To The First Born” by Louisa May Alcott. One of the days they studied Alcott’s life and another day they illustrated a picture of what the poem spoke to them. Here’s why we love to include poetry in our homeschool! 

Related: Poetry in Your Homeschool: Why and How?

The first week’s hymn was “In Christ Alone.” Singing brought tears to our eyes as we sang together. We enjoyed discussing the meanings of phrases in the hymn and listening to it throughout each day.

For art study, each day we observed and discussed Leonardo Da Vinci’s piece, “The Last Supper.” One of the days we did a deeper study into the artist’s life and another day the children replicated the piece.

We also studied four portions of scripture this week, and the children responded to the reading through narrations and drawings. Each day, the children hunted for a clue to the day’s scripture using the Bible Story Easter Egg Hunt. We began with Jesus’ journey into Jerusalem. Then we learned about Judas’ plan to betray Jesus and when Jesus washed the disciples’ feet. We ended the week with the Last Supper.

Each day we read aloud an Easter-themed picture book. We enjoyed Humphrey’s First Palm Sunday, The Easter Egg, The Egg Tree, and Bunny’s First Spring.

After reading, we did a fun project that connected our hearts to the story. We made palm branches and role-played the story, made salt dough egg ornaments, made an egg tree, and no-sew sock bunnies!

Friday was set apart to have a time of reflection on all we had learned throughout the week and a special Spring nature study.

We made Easter Egg Fruit Pizza and while we munched, we each recited what we had memorized this week and discussed what God has been teaching us through the lessons.

For the nature study, we used Signs of Spring Scavenger Hunt and Spring with My Senses worksheets on a nature walk and then recorded our experiences in our nature journals.

Related: Adding an Easter Holiday Unit Study into Your Homeschool

Want to try the Easter Egg Story Hunt? Download the Easter Egg Story Hunt, an activity that tells the Easter story in chronological order in a special, meaningful way.

FREE DOWNLOAD: Easter Story Egg Hunt Activity

Preparing for An Expectant Easter

If you own or already ordered your copy of An Expectant Easter, I’m honored you’ve chosen us to walk alongside you and your family in this season. I would love for you to join our Facebook group, where you can connect with me and other families as we unwrap this gospel story together. 

Once you either receive your hard copies of the curriculum or you finish printing off the digital version, here are some things you can do to prepare for using An Expectant Easter:

• Print (or order) copies for each additional family member.
• Organize your curriculum in a 3-ring binder or by displaying sheets in your homeschool space.
• Review the supply list and gather supplies for hands-on activities or recipes. You can also visit my Amazon Storefront where you can find all the books and materials I recommend for this curriculum.
• Place books on hold at your local library. If you’re having trouble finding all the read aloud books at your local library or bookstore, the read aloud YouTube links are included in the booklist.

To see how I set prepare for An Expectant Easter, in this video I invite you into my home and workspace as I prepare for my own family’s time Easter study. I share plenty of tips and tricks for printing, organizing, and preparing for a beautiful and life-giving time this season. 

Using An Expectant Easter in your homeschool co-op or church

As a previous Children’s Ministry Director, I know how special Easter can be in a church classroom and children’s church setting. An Expectant Easter would be a great way to bring some intentionality to your small group this Spring.

Although this guide was originally designed for in-home use, many churches and small groups have adapted An Expectant Easter for their ministries by combining days or picking their favorite pieces from it to be used in the weeks leading up to Easter. You can purchase a small group license to bring meaningful learning to your small group, homeschool co-op, or children’s ministry. 

Related: How to Homeschool in Small Groups: Co-ops, Social Groups, and More

Other Bible curriculum from Treehouse Schoolhouse

If you are looking for other Bible resources for your homeschool, consider these Bible studies for kids and families from Treehouse Schoolhouse.

Rooted Family Bible Curriculum 

Embark on a journey of the heart guided by Scripture, beauty, art, hands-on connections, and family discussion with Rooted Family Bible Curriculum. Instill courage, confidence, and Biblical character in your children by rooting them in their heavenly identity, their devotion to God, and the wisdom of Scripture. It’s about giving children a solid root system in the Word of God before we launch them into the world.

Rooted is an 18-week family Bible curriculum. Each week centers around one declaration statement related to the themes of Identity, Devotion, and Wisdom. Rooted incorporates beauty subjects with Bible study including daily Scripture readings, discussion and prayer prompts, hymns, poetry, and art study.

Related: Introducing Rooted Family Bible Curriculum

A Treasured Thanksgiving

A Treasured Thanksgiving is a Charlotte Mason-inspired curriculum designed with your whole family in mind. It’s an invitation to study the historical Thanksgiving story in a hands-on way. Spend two weeks diving into history themes like the Pilgrim’s voyage to America, the Wampanoag people, the First Encounters, the First Thanksgiving, and the relationship between the Pilgrims and Native Americans in the first year. Featuring a robust book list of picture books and chapter books, this study will provide resources for the whole family.

Related: Introducing A Treasured Thanksgiving

A Connected Christmas

A Connected Christmas is a curriculum designed to connect hearts to the heart of Christmas – to the truth of Jesus coming to earth to seek and save the lost. Explore the nativity story through Scripture readings to delight in festive carols, stories, poetry, art, baking, and handcrafts.

Related: How to Use A Connected Christmas with All Ages

A Connected Christmas: Around the World

Celebrate Christ’s birth and connect hearts to the truth of Jesus while experiencing how Christmas is celebrated across the globe with A Connected Christmas: Around the World. Give your children a way to travel the world as you explore the Christmas season in different languages, climates, and cultures. Experience the unique traditions of different countries through festive carols, stories, poetry, fine art, baking, and handcrafts.

Related: Introducing A Connected Christmas: Around the World

A Virtuous Valentine’s

A Virtuous Valentine’s is a Charlotte Mason-inspired curriculum designed to study the life-changing love of God in a hands-on way. Through Scripture readings, beauty subjects, picture books, hands-on activities, and a look into the history of Valentine’s Day, this study provides an invitation to delve into the profound depth of God’s love and how it shapes our relationships. Explore how God’s love is unconditional, how love is expressed through acts of kindness and encouragement, how compassion and empathy can change hearts and lives, and how true love is demonstrated through selflessness and sacrifice. Your study will conclude by celebrating and creating memories together with a Valentine’s Day Tea Party.

Related: Introducing A Virtuous Valentine’s

Will you study the Easter story with your family this year? Share your experience in the comments below.