Benjamin's Box

I ordered Benjamin's Box: The Story of the Resurrection Eggs (Melody Carlson and Jack Stockman) for Easter, but Amazon UK's supply was delayed and it didn't arrive until today. My little one is still enjoying her Resurrection Box, and the book is a little old for her, so although it is still Eastertide I'm going to put it away for next year.

Benjamin's Box was written to use alongside this set of Resurrection Eggs. Benjamin, a young boy living in Jerusalem, collects a number of items in his treasure box as he follows Jesus during his final days. The items in the eggs match the book, and give the child both a tactile way to explore the story and an aide-memoire to recall the events of the first Easter.

The text is fairly simple - fine for preschoolers, though too wordy for toddlers. If I had used it this year I would just have looked at the pictures with my Little Cherub and talked about the items rather than try to read the book to her. Great literature it is not, but it is readable enough. Here is a sample:

One bright spring morning, Benjamin sat outside in the sunshine. In his hands was a wooden box.
"Hi Benjamin," called his friend, Eli. "What's that you've got?"
"It's my treasure box," said Benjamin. "My grandfather gave it to me before he died last year. He said it was very,very special."
Eli opened it and looked in. "There's nothing in it except for some old straw. How can this be a treasure box?"
Benjamin shrugged. "I don't have any real treasures yet. But my grandfather said this straw came from the bed of a baby who was born in a stable. My grandfather was a shepherd then, and he said the baby would grow up to be a king."

The option to buy the resurrection eggs ready made make this a very simple way of setting up a hands-on Easter story activity ... one that can be repeated year after year. It would also be quite easy to fill one's own set of eggs, or to put the items into a treasure box filled with straw (shredded yellow tissue paper would do nicely). To make your own set you would need:

1. Small toy donkey (or fake fur would also fit with the text)
2. Coins
3. Cup or goblet
   
4. Praying hands (a printed picture would do, and a twig would work as an alternative - again, this fits with the text)
5. Leather strip
6. Crown of thorns (or points broken of cocktail sticks to represent thorns)
7. Nails
   
8. Dice
9. Spear (I would use a Playmobil spear)
   
10. Small piece of white cloth
11. A stone
12. Nothing! - the twelfth egg is empty to represent the empty tomb

The book is published by an evangelical Christian apostolate, with a "Ten Tips to Leading Children to Christ" included at the end. As an adult it is easy to see that the last page of the story has an evangelical slant, with the emphasis on forgiveness and telling others the good news, though I personally wouldn't have a problem reading it to my daughter. During the page about the Last Supper the book says "But what did Jesus mean when he said the wine was like his blood and would be spilled, and the bread was to be broken like his body. It made no sense." I would either tweak the wording or point out that of course, we know that it does make sense because the wine and bread really were His Body and Blood. These quibbles aside, I think the book can easily be used by Catholic families to help bring the Easter story alive for young children.

Liturgical Year Boxes

Since Ash Wednesday my 21 month old Little Cherub has been having a wonderful time with liturgical year boxes. We started with a Stations of the Cross Box, and have now moved on to the Way of Light (Stations of the Resurrection) for Easter. Each box contains fourteen laminated picture cards and fourteen matching items. To give an idea of how we use the boxes, here is a description I posted on my blog ...

I mentioned at the beginning of Lent that I had put together a Stations of the Cross box for Little Cherub, using a set of laminated cards of the Stations that I made and the items listed here. It has been an enormous success. Cherub adores it! At least once or twice every day she rushes over to the drawer where the box lives pointing and repeating insistently "bo'! bo'!" Today it was three times.

We sit down with her "box", tip out the contents and set out the cards one by one, matching the items as we go.

The first station ... "look, Jesus is having his hands tied with rope. What do we need?" ... "ro'!" She finds the piece of string and puts it carefully on the picture.

The second station ... "look, Jesus had to carry a heavy cross. Can you find a cross?" ... some dithering between the small crucifix (The Twelfth Station) and the little wooden cross, then she puts the cross on the picture.

And so on. Every station now has its own point of interest to her. The fourth station ... "Ma'!" (Mary) as she points at the picture of Our Lady. The eighth ... "Baby!" ("Yes, that is the women of Jerusalem with their babies. They are sad. They are crying because Jesus is going to die"). The tenth ... tugs at her dress to show me that Jesus' clothes were taken away. The eleventh ... much demonstration with a plastic nail (useful find in a magic set belonging to her older sister!) poked at her hands and feet, my hands and feet, and any other hands and feet in the vicinity.

The pictures on their own would never have held her interest in the way these little objects do. They make the story real and tangible for her. Many thanks to Irene and her husband for sharing their idea. It has made one little girl (and her Mum) very happy.