Celebrating Easter

A few years back, God put it on my heart to begin celebrating and spending as much time on Easter as we do for Christmas. The events we celebrate through both of these are equally important for the fulfillment of God’s plan for salvation – and they shine of His Glory! We were using Advent to celebrate our Savior’s birth but what were we doing to meditate on His sacrifice and celebrate His resurrection? Out of that came our “12 Days of Easter.” Every year looks a little different and we’re still working toward the same kind of time and attention that we give during Advent.

This year we began turning our hearts toward Easter a little earlier than we normally do – by using weekly art lessons from the See the Light Crossmaker DVD to begin turning our thoughts toward the coming holiday. We started by watching the presentation of the Easter Story through art, and then each week we sat down to do one of the three related art lessons on the DVD. The kids had fun with watercolor, practiced creative lettering, and explored pastels. (Well, we explored oil pastels instead of chalk pastels because I had the wrong thing!) But we all fun together and we really enjoyed it.

The Crossmaker

The Crossmaker DVD is one of those in See the Light’s Bible Stories Collection. The Bible Story DVDs begin with a sweet retelling of a bible story through artistic depiction.

Each DVD:

• includes 3 separate art lessons that center around the story being told
• uses a variety of artistic materials
• all of them use the fluorescent color pencils or chalk so that once the piece of art is finished, a special “revelation” can be seen under the blacklight.

Spirit-Filled Easter Art

Christ-centered holidays have been important to me for a long time now. But also important is my ever-growing desire to add more art to our week and my long-standing preference to choose Biblically based materials for our school as much as possible. Pairing art with the gospel is a perfect match for us! I challenge my kids to think outside the box and make their art their own, so as we’re doing our art lessons, their brains are thinking. When we were nearly finished with the Creative Lettering lesson with Heidi Shorts, I told the kids that they could decorate around the lettered word on the rest of the paper. They all immediately decided to do an Easter scene – recalling what they know, thinking about how it makes them feel – this all comes out on the paper. I love that. =)

See the Light Shine

See the Light Shine is a company dedicated to making God’s word come alive while teaching kids some art skills. They have a team of skilled artists, including their Master Artist, Pat Knepley. Pat not only has a degree in Art Education but she spends her time teaching art to little kids – and I can tell!

1. The kids have no problem following along with her art lessons – or any of the other artists that work for See the Light, either.
2. The kids understand, they follow along, and they enjoy it! Even my 7 year old, who sometimes participates in an entire lesson, and sometimes moves on to something else in the middle of a lesson, does enjoy the art projects while he’s doing them!
3. Suitable for a variety of ages (even moms), groups or individuals, artistically challenged or artistically talented — the See the Light Team does a good job of walking you through each lesson step by step.

Win Your Own Crossmaker DVD!

Pat Holt, creator of See the Light, is giving away ONE copy of The Crossmaker DVD to one of my blog readers – and it’s easy peasy to enter. Follow the directions through the Rafflecopter app below. (If you’re viewing in RSS or email you may need to click through to find it.) The giveaway opens March 4th to U.S. residents and closes at midnight, March 11th, Central time. You’ll be notified through the email address that you signed up for Rafflecopter with so make sure it’s valid!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Just to clarify, the giveaway includes the dvd but not the Extreme Color Pencils or the Blacklight, both of which are available on the See the Light Shine website. (You can find a complete list of materials needed for all the lessons on the Crossmaker here.)

Even Better with a Discount Code!

If you don’t want to wait, or you don’t win one this time, Pat has given me a discount code for all of my blog readers for the month of March. This code is good for FREE SHIPPING on Crossmaker DVD or any of the Crossmaker Gift Sets (Ultimate, Deluxe or Combo) when you use the code “AMBER.” You can get started making Easter art projects for your holiday celebration right away! Thank you, Pat!

The Fine Print:

**A special thanks to Pat for providing me with a copy to review and a copy to giveaway. Although I was compensated for my time and for promotion, I eagerly reviewed this product because it meets a need and matches our learning and teaching style in our home. I was not required to write a positive review, but we have enjoyed this very much and this review reflects our experiences and opinions. My commitment to my readers, as always, is to provide honest, quality reviews. For more information on my own personal review standards and guidelines, read my page About Reviews.