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Resurrection Eggs: An Easter Tradition

Spring is in the air, and that means it’s time to start making plans for Easter! What to wear, what to eat, who to spend the holiday with, and when to die Easter eggs?! Easter is such a lovely holiday, isn’t it? Sure, flowers are in full bloom, new life and greenery abound, and goodie-filled baskets are aplenty, but celebrating the Savior of the world rising from death to life is an incredible honor that leaves me in awe year after year (okay, day after day…minute after minute). But, if we’re not careful, Easter is yet another holiday that can get lost in commercialization and candy along with Halloween and Valentine’s Day.

I try to be intentional when celebrating especially meaningful holidays like Christmas and Easter. It’s important that my kids know the incredible significance these days hold. Several years ago I found these Resurrection Eggs and they quickly became an Easter tradition in our home. It can be hard for young kids to grasp the idea of a Biblical truth that still brings life today, so giving them something to see, hear, feel, and touch is essential. We faithfully use these Resurrection Eggs as an Easter tradition in our home.

The Resurrection Eggs set comes with a dozen eggs filled with trinkets that help tell the story of Jesus’ arrest, crucifixion, and resurrection. Accompanying the eggs is a booklet that correlates each portion of the story to an egg. As you read the story, the children open an egg to find a meaningful symbol to help them understand and relate to it.

resurrection eggs

You can either do them all at once or spread them out over the days leading up to Easter. Our family does them all in one sitting. The Resurrection Eggs appeal to kids of all ages. My boys are 12, 8, and 3, and we’ve been using them for years. They take turns opening the eggs after their dad or I have read the page of the story. We give them time to talk or ask questions as each child holds the item, and then we move on to the next part of the story. Spoiler alert: the final egg is empty, just like the tomb! This certainly isn’t the only time we talk about the Easter story with our kids, but it is a fun, hands-on Easter tradition that makes the Easter story come alive for our children year after year.

5 Ways to Stay YouTube Safe

I would have DIED of sheer star power if YouTube had existed when I was a kid. I would have blown. it. up. with videos of yours truly singing, dancing, acting…it’s really a shame the public didn’t have the chance to see what a gem I was. The world wasn’t ready. (Bahahahaha! Thank you Lord Jesus it didn’t happen. You really are looking out for me.)

On a serious note, YouTube is awesome. Whether we want to laugh, learn, reminisce, or DIY, it’s all right there! I seriously can’t imagine going back to a world in which we needed archaic instruction manuals to know things. I mean, ain’t nobody got time for that. I’d much rather search YouTube for an immediate demonstration on how to repair a car/fix the dishwasher/get a baby to sleep/remove giblets from a chicken/perfect a messy bun/slice a mango. YouTube’s got us covered, guys.

Also, people are making actual fortunes by loading videos on YouTube. My kids even have their own channel! Just to be clear, they’re not making fortunes (bums), but they’re having fun. I think these will be precious memories to look back on when they’re older.

Hands down, the biggest use of YouTube in our home is for watching sports. My boys watch the highlights of just about every NFL and NBA game. They watch highlight reels of their favorite athletes and try to emulate the plays. They often throw it back to the good ol’ days and watch legendary athletes they couldn’t otherwise see today.

Just as with everything else this day in age, YouTube is inevitably corrupted by bad apples. Inappropriate content, misleading click bait, and detrimental influences are all readily available via the medium of YouTube. Some parents avoid it altogether and some stick their heads in the sand and choose not to deal with it at all. I believe there’s a happy medium. There is a way to keep your kids safe on YouTube while allowing them to view positive or valuable content.

1. Determine safe, appropriate YouTube accounts your kids are allowed to watch. As we started letting the kids dabble on YouTube a few years ago, I googled safe, kid-friendly YouTube channels and made a list of those we could trust. The kids knew they were ONLY allowed to watch those specific channels. A few of our current favorites are (non-sports related): EvanTube, Super Hero Kids, Dude Perfect, Ryan’s Toy Review, and Toy Lab TV, and of course their own channel, Sports Sons! These channels post only trustworthy content to keep kids safe on YouTube.

2. Set ground rules and clear expectations. This is the. most. important. thing. Let your kids know that watching YouTube is a privilege and you won’t hesitate to shut it down if it’s used incorrectly. Tell them there’s content on YouTube that is inappropriate that they’ll always have to watch out for, but they’ll be mainly safe if they stay within the set boundaries. (You don’t have to go into detail about what “bad stuff” is out there…just tell them that some people put stuff on YouTube (and all over the internet) that no one, especially kids, should see.) Let them know you’ll be watching, listening, and monitoring what they’re watching. Tell them about the safety app you have installed. Bringing the potential issues to them BEFORE they experience them and helping them understand the risks AHEAD of time keeps the monsters out of the dark, so to speak. This way you’ll all be on the same page.

3. Kids watch YouTube in the family room. This is essential! My kids predominantly watch YouTube (and everything else) in our family room. I’m in and out of the room but usually within earshot. We rarely have had anything come up on YouTube that’s not appropriate, but if I’ve heard someone utter a questionable word, I’ll poke my head in and say, “Hey, bud. What are we watching?” This holds the kids accountable for using caution in what they watch, and it keeps us parents informed.

In full disclosure, my kids do have a TV in their room with no channel access. We put it there for the purpose of them playing Xbox. We do have it set up for them to watch YouTube, Netflix, and Hulu. They only utilize that privilege on Friday and Saturday nights when we let them watch a movie or show at bedtime. Thanks to the other safeguards and expectations we have always had in place, we have never had an issue with this (knock on wood)!

4. Turn on Restricted Mode. Under the Settings tab on your YouTube account (scroll to the very bottom of the page), there is the option to turn on “Restricted Mode.” It takes two seconds. This only removes content that has been flagged inappropriate. So, if a video has been posted that is inappropriate but has not yet been flagged, it will still show up. Note: my husband is a gun guy (builds them, paints them, shoots them, and competes with them) and YouTube doesn’t seem to be a Second Amendment fan. Even gun videos that are clean and appropriate won’t come up with this filter on.

5. Install a safety app on devices. These are a MUST when your kids receive their own devices. Not because they’re going to seek out anything bad, but because the bad stuff falls in their laps. A quick Google search will reveal many different options. A handful with great reviews are: Net Nanny, Secure Teen, Teen Safe, and MM Guardian. We use MM Guardian for my 12-year-old’s phone right now.

A few things to keep in mind regarding this app for us:

  1. This is the first safety app we’ve tried (it was recommended to us),
  2. My son doesn’t have cell service on his phone as of yet – he just uses it for apps, browsing, and i-messaging, and
  3. It works really well thus far!

I’ll soon write an entire blog post on the functions and benefits of this particular app and introduce the features of the others.

And finally, my disclaimer: These are the guidelines that have worked for our family. They’re certainly not foolproof nor will they work for every family. This is not an end all be all or a substitute for actual parental supervision (darn it!). These are, however, suggestions you can implement to protect your children if you allow them to watch YouTube. Do you allow your kids to watch YouTube? What precautions do you take to keep them safe?

Simple Spring Break Ideas

Anyone else have a serious case of spring fever? I’m dying over here. It’s funny, but I used to love the cold weather. As I’ve gotten older I am less and less tolerant of any temperature that is below 60 and over 80. Anyone up for a move to Hawaii?

Alright, FINE. If I can’t live on a tropical island somewhere, I’ll just soak up the sweet days of spring here in North Texas before too cold becomes too hot. For now, dreams of self-tanner, cut-off shorts, sundresses, spring-colored nails, and quality family time with some fresh new inexpensive and free spring break ideas are swirling in my head.

First of all, we’re not spring break travelers. My kids are such homebodies, although I’m sure they’d have fun on a spring break getaway, they’d feel cheated that they didn’t get time to be at home on their week off. I guarantee it. When I was a teacher, the LAST THING ON EARTH I wanted to do was pack up and go somewhere during my week off. Even now that I work from home, I prefer traveling in the summer when we have plenty of time to prepare and ample time to recover. My goal for spring break is simply this: to be intentional with our time together and hope it’s memorable for us all.

But, if I don’t think of spring break ideas ahead of time, that week will fly by almost without notice. I’ve gathered some of our favorite, free, simple, and inexpensive things to do as a family (nothing crazy, just low-key yet meaningful, fun, and intentional) and put them on our 2019 Spring Break Bucket List. We won’t get to all of them, but we’ll get to some, and that will be just perfect. Here are my spring break ideas:

Read a novel together. One of my favorite things I do with my older boys on a regular basis is reading together at night. Our consistency in doing this ebbs and flows depending on what season we’re in (too often practices and homework dominate our evenings). Some of our favorite reads so far are The Adventures of Winnie The Pooh, Wonder, Harry Potter (we’re on book 3 now), and The One and Only Ivan. We seriously look forward to this time so much. It’s a great way to connect with my kids and spend time with just my big boys (I put the little one to bed first). Over spring break, I’m hoping we’ll finish the third Harry Potter book, The Prisoner of Azkaban.

Start (or in our case, continue) a family devotional. If you haven’t read my post on our favorite family devotionals, head over here for some great suggestions! I also saw that Tony Evans recently came out with a family devotional in his Kingdom series, called Kingdom Family. It’s less than $8 on Amazon. Do you know and love Tony Evans? I find such incredible wisdom in his words and in his work. I will definitely be checking this devotional out.

A trip to the zoo. We have a small zoo about 15 minutes away, and we sometimes make the trek to the Dallas or Ft. Worth zoos or even the drive-through zoo. This is fun for all ages, educational, and it will certainly help you get your steps in.

Look at the stars. I always vow to do this with my kids and never do. I’m going to try to make that happen over spring break. I’m thinking blankets in the bed of the truck, snacks, and cuddles.

Go for a walk or bike ride. Taking walks on a sunny day puts me in a great mood every time! There’s just something about that mix of vitamin D and endorphins. My boys love riding their bikes, but I don’t have one. I’ve been thinking about getting one, but I’d have to get a toddler seat to mount, as well. What do you think? Should I get one? I need input!

Let the kids take turns choosing and cooking dinner. Okay, so I’ll probably only do this once per kid, but it will be fun one-on-one time and a learning experience for them, as well.

Have a front yard family baseball game. Play catch, hit some balls, even set out some makeshift bases for a real live showdown. Girls vs. boys? Adults vs. kids? Make it interesting! My husband doesn’t let the kids win. He makes them earn it. (And they usually do!)

A trip to an amusement park. My parents got us season tickets to Six Flags, so this is always a fun option. Again, this is winning entertainment for every age! My three-year-old can’t stop talking about how much fun he recently had at “Flick Flags.”

A family picnic at the park. Give us a nice day at the park and a bag of five sandwiches, chips, fruit, cookies, and some drinks, and my kids will have a blast and never want to leave. This is free fun at its finest! Bonus: they’re really tired at bedtime!

Complete a random act of kindness. Or two or three! Pay for someone in the drive-through line, leave a quarter in the basket at Aldi, take blankets, socks, shoes, or gift cards to the homeless, volunteer at the local food bank, or leave a surprise on a neighbor’s doorstep. This will be a fun activity to complete together as a family

Spend individual time with each kid. If you can, carve out a morning or afternoon to spend one-on-one time with each kiddo. If you have two kids and a partner, split them between you. If you have more than 2 kids, get creative! You’ll never regret spending time with them, and you’ll both have fantastic memories of Spring Break 2019!

Happy Spring Breaking, friends!

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