Thoughts on Holy Week

Hans Memling's Scenes From The Passion of Christ

find a list of the scenes here

We began our Holy Week watching The Ten Commandments and talking about Passover.  Passover started on Monday and as Jesus was a Jew he celebrated Passover.  During Christ's Passover meal he proclaimed that the meal symbolized himself and he died at the hour that the Passover Lamb was sacrificed in Jerusalem as you can see in Matthew 27:46, 50, Mark 15:34-37, and Luke 23:44-46.  The New testament calls Christ our sacrificial lamb and John the Baptist called him, "the Lamb of God."  So for me the Passover is linked with the celebration of the Resurrection this Sunday.

There are some really nice Old Time Radio Shows being offered by the Erskines of homeschoolradioshows.com.  Check their page this week for some nice Easter themed freebies and while you are there check out the cds they offer of Old Time Radio specifically for educational purposes.  If you sign up for their newsletter you will receive frequent free program links from them as well.

Another tradition we have this week has to do with food of course.  Good Friday we make Hot Cross Buns which are an old tradition going back centuries in England.  My dear British friend, Rachel, of The Jacobite Rose makes the BEST but I'm too much of an American to do flour paste crosses and I do a nice big fat cross of icing across each bun.  I've written more about them here.

This week we will also read the accounts of Jesus' life this week in the Gospel begining in Matthew 21: 1 and continuing through to the end of Matthew.  I've been thinking of doing the Stations of the Cross with my children this year as well.  There are some excellent resources for that here  and here .

Also this week we will be cleaning up our Easter Garden.  Another idea I received from my ever resourceful friend Rachel.  You can read more about that here.

No matter what I do it's not the activities that are important.  It's knowing that Christ freely gave his life as a substitution for my own so that our relationship with God could be reconnected.  All that Christ asked is that I remember and believe.  The activities are just to help me focus on that fact and teach it to my children.  I pray that you will also meditate on this during this week.

Patrick's Day

If you have read my blog for awhile you know that I'm very fond of St. Patrick's Day celebrations.  Patrick was indeed a great man and an excellent role model for us all.  For one, he is a great example of forgiveness.  Young Patrick was stolen from his home on the coast of Britain by Irish raiders.  He was taken to Ireland and lived there as a slave.  Homesick, sad and lonely he cried out to God and was eventually lead by God to escape and return to his home.  But once home God asked him to go back and tell the people who had captured him about God's plan for their salvation through Jesus Christ.  And Patrick did it.

On this day my family not only remembers Patrick, but also the Irish people.  I've posted many other things on this blog that you may be interested in checking out again or for the first time about St. Patrick's Day.  Here are some new things.

St. Patrick's Old Time Radio I especially enjoy the show "Beat the Band."

Notebooking Pages and More notebooking pages for your kids.

Saint Patrick Curriculum

Toymaker St. Patrick's Day fun and the new Celtic Circle box

One of my favorite movies about the Irish is the Secret of Roan Inish. This movie is a fairy tale on film. It has beautiful imagery, a great story, wonderful actors and a soundtrack you'll want to hear again and again. Here are the trailer and a video with some clips of the film.  Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh! May the Blessings of St. Patrick's Day be upon you.

Lullabies of the World

 Lullabies of the world  by Metronome Films is a collection of animated films based on lullabies of different nations. I'm really not sure if this is even for sale anywhere as I can't seem to find it for sale, but I'm in LOVE with the clips I'm seeing on Youtube.  My children only very, very rarely request lullabies at this point in their lives, but I would love this just for me.  It reminds me of when my daughter was a toddler (she is now 11) and we got the the Baby Bach DVD.  We watched it all the way through and at the end my husband turned to me and said, "that was so relaxing I'd watch it everyday."  Hee...hee!!  I feel the same way about these videos.  Beautiful, intriguing animations and lovely songs combine to create very enjoyable viewing that both children and parents will like.

There are several on Youtube; French, Yiddish, Greek, Indian are a few I saw.  The link I provided above takes you to several more too.  The videos I've embedded here were posted by the creators of the film.  The Turkish Lullaby is my favorite, but I love the portrayal of weary parents in the beginning of the Chukchi Lullaby.

Gerald McBoing-Boing

Dr. Suess' birthday this week is the perfect excuse for me to share one of my favorite animated shorts, Gerald McBoing-Boing.  This story written by Theodore Geisel is one of my favorites because of the animation style.  I love the Mid Century style of the UPA Cartoons from the 50's and 60's.


If you enjoy this too search for "UPA Cartoon" on youtube for more (Jot the Dot was a UPA Cartoon).