Holy Week Book Activity — all you need is a pencil and paper

In order to get the four year old twins participating in some school work that will also interest the older children, I have been doing a picture book of the week accompanied by a drawing activity.

This week, we are reading The Easter Story by Brian Wildsmith. This story is a beautifully illustrated retelling of the Passion and uses the perspective of the donkey Jesus rides into Jerusalem. I like the donkey “angle” because we use our donkey figure when we talk about the Nativity as well, the donkey who carries Mary to Bethlehem. I have heard it said that when St. Josemaria Escriva would meditate on a gospel passage he would often picture himself as a humble donkey watching nearby, or working and helping the Holy Family.

To accompany the book, I found these instructions on how to draw a donkey, and we have been practicing this morning. I think I will continue to use this website for other book related drawing times. I really like the simple step by step approach, and later in the week we can try to draw donkeys from memory, to see what we have learned.