Have Your Children Write and Illustrate Their Own Holy Week Book

Some years ago, when all my children were young, we enjoyed a hands-on Holy Week during which we did a different art project each day in conjunction with the readings. 

This year, we'll be continuing a writing and illustrating project that we began at the beginning of Lent - one that you could easily adapt into a Holy Week book in your home.

Our Simple Lenten Project

First, let me tell you about our simple project:

At the beginning of Lent, I was looking for a way to get my children and I back into regular Together Time studies including Bible reading.  I also wanted to highlight narration, writing, and handwriting skills.

Thus, when I spied three copies of Upon a Tree, a 2016 devotional booklet from Creative Communications, in my Lenten files, I decided that we would use the booklets for a simple Lenten project: Each of my children would write and illustrate their own book, retelling parts of Salvation History.

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To do so, I placed three primary composition books (somewhat like these ones) and the devotional booklets near our kitchen table.  Then, daily, we took these out, along with our New Saint Joseph, Family Edition of the Holy Bible, pencils, and colored pencils, and I read the Bible verses noted in the devotional.

On some days, we chatted about what the Bible verses said, how they related to Salvation History, and what their application to our lives might be, while, on other days, we simply read the little poems in the devotional that went along with the Bible verses and then carried onto the next step.

That step was to have children either write and illustrate a narration about the verses which we had read aloud or to compose a poem or story segment related to them.

Then, I would help them correct their spelling, punctuation, etc. and comment on their handwriting efforts.

Some days this worked beautifully for all of us.

Other days, one child or another wasn't into it and rushed their work.

While, admittedly, on still other days, we neglected to get to our simple project and, then, played catch up later on.

Regardless, here we are, headed into Holy Week, ready to write the final portions of the story of the Passion before adding a page for the Resurrection on Easter Monday.

And I am pleased. For, although my children and I did not manage to make Bible reading a daily Together Time habit this Lent, we got closer to making it one and each of my children wrote their own simple Salvation History story.

How Could You Adapt Our Idea for Holy Week

I know what we have been doing is not rocket science - just reading the Bible, chatting, narrating/writing, and illustrating - but it is worthwhile, and because we are doing it in bound notebooks, it will become a keepsake for the kids that they can reread in future years.

You could do a similar thing this Holy Week, using an inexpensive primary composition journal, printing out free story writing paper, or using a blank book; then, reading the daily readings, and having your children write and illustrate.

Alternately, read a page or two of a favorite Lent/Easter picture book, such as The Easter Story, A Child's Easter,  He Is Alive,  Love One Another, or He Is Risen: The Easter Story each day, look up the Bible verses that would correspond to what you read, read those, then write and draw away.

In the end, you should have a lovely, child-written-and-illustrated book to read for years to come.

May you have a blessed and beautiful Holy Week!