Keeping Christ in Easter with Egglo Entertainment {A TOS Review}

It is very important to my husband and I that our family is celebrating the real reasons for each of the holidays throughout the year. The holidays have become so commercialized and filled with pagan symbolism, that there were times in the past that I wasn't sure I wanted to observe them. However, these holidays are full of meaning for our Christian faith, so I didn't want them to fall by the wayside. I love being able to find new products to help us incorporate Jesus into Christmas and Easter. This year we have had the privilege of trying out several products from Egglo Entertainment.   Along with the entertaining  The Egg-cellent Easter Adventure Book and Glow In the Dark Egglo Eggs, there is a full program to help a family or church group focus on the true meaning of Easter. A wonderful adventure can be created using just these two items. However, by adding the other elements, a well-rounded program can be available for children.  We received the following physical products:

• The Egg-cellent Easter Adventure Book 
• Glow in the Dark Egglo Eggs w/ Instructions      
• Egglo Treasures Scripture Scrolls
• Egglo Bible Verse Stickers

In addition, we received a download of  The Egglo Glow in the Dark Egg Hunt Event Curriculum. 

There are additional, optional products available as well:

• Egglo Easter Egg Stickers
• The Egg-cellent Easter Adventure Character Stickers
• The Egg-cellent Easter Adventure Book on DVD
• The Egg-cellent Easter Adventure Audio Book

I would like to take some time to share some more details about each of the products we received. 

The Egg-cellent Easter Adventure

In this 40 page, full color book, 3 children, along with their dog, are led on a glow-in-the-dark adventure to help discover the true meaning of Easter. We are introduced to our main characters in a scene of utter chaos, as the families are gathered together in the kitchen trying to get ready for their Easter celebration. Hardy and Anastasia are siblings, and their cousin Pascal is visiting with his parents and baby sister. From the start we can see that these children have some lessons to learn. At least one of them demonstrates one or more of the following characteristics: boredom, impatience, selfishness, and fear. 

Their adventure begins in the attic, where they discover a glowing Easter egg which contains 2 scrolls. One of the scrolls contains a Bible verse in direct relation to one of the sins the children has been displaying. The other scroll contains a riddle which is a clue as to where they will be headed on their journey. Before they know it, they have been magically transported to a new place, Egypt in this instance. 

Throughout their adventure, which includes 4 glowing eggs and 8 scrolls, the children travel from Egypt, to Easter Island and the waters below, on to a volcano on Iceland, and finally to a clearing full of friendly animals, a cross and a chest with the ultimate treasure. I believe I will not ruin the surprise, but you may be able to figure out what the great treasure was. 

Not only did they discover the true meaning of Easter, the children also learned to be guided in the light when in darkness. They learned to what the Bible had to say about their behavior as well. Their journey always brought them into a situation where they had to deal with those issues. 

Glow in the Dark Egglo Eggs

We received a box of 12 glow-in-the-dark eggs. There are green, yellow, blue, and pink eggs, half of which have a cross on them, while the other half are plain. All we had to do was charge them by holding them to the light. You can use sunlight, incandescent light, or florescent light. Unlike the majority of Easter eggs I have seen, these eggs open down the side instead of across the middle. These eggs have multiple uses, including egg hunts, scavenger hunts, and crafts. 

Egglo Treasures Scripture Scrolls

At 1 1/2 inches long, these scrolls fit perfectly inside the Egglo eggs. They are made from glossy paper attached to thin slits in the plastic rods. On each scroll is a verse that helps the user to focus on Jesus. There are a lot of verses that focus on Jesus being the Light. As you can see in the picture above, the verse isn't quite the actual Bible verse, but it is a shortened version to help get the point across. 

Egglo Bible Verse Stickers

To help reinforce the memory verses, this pack of 12 stickers has the exact same verses printed on them. The actual section of the sticker that comes off is slightly larger than the scrolls with the verse written in a slightly larger font.

The Egglo Glow in the Dark Egg Hunt Event Curriculum

This 60 page, downloadable book contains a wealth of information to help an Easter celebration focus on the true meaning of Easter. After a short introduction and a how-to-use-this-guide section, you will find the following sections:

• Tips for Decorating
• Snack Suggestions
• Devotion
• Opening Activity
• Story Options (for telling the story of Jesus's death and resurrection
• Question and Answer (discussion section)
• Bible Application Activity
• The Egg-cellent Easter Adventure Story
• Bible Memory Verse Activity
• Egglo Hunt Guidelines
• Additional Resources (including invitations, decorations, and coloring pages)

As you can tell, this is geared more toward a big group than a family, but that doesn't mean a family can't use the resources found inside. 

So, how did we use our Egglo Easter Eggs, especially because Easter isn't until next month. 

As I knew I was going to have several weeks to use these products, I wanted to use them as a devotional leading up to Easter. We started out by reading the story book, a few pages per night. Each time the children in the book found an egg, I ended our reading with a sense of suspense. We had to wait until the following night to find out what was on the scrolls in each egg. There were times the kids were not amused. Personally, I think it helped to teach them a lovely sense of anticipation, and not having to have something right away. It also spread the book out, as there is a lot of reading per page. 

After we finished reading the book, our nightly devotions focused on the eggs. On the first night, after charging up the egg, I hid it and turned off the lights. The child who found the egg, was the hider the next night. Each night I added one more egg, so after about 2 weeks, we were using all the eggs, and the children had all had multiple times helping to hide the eggs. I'm not sure which they enjoyed more, helping to hide the eggs, or hunting for them. They had a blast. 

After the eggs were found, the children gathered on the floor at my feet and we had our devotion time. I would open the egg, pull out the scroll, and read the verse. Then I would read the full verse from my Bible and we would work on memorizing the verse. I only read the verse from my Bible on the night it was introduced. Every other night, I just read from the scroll. Once they learned the verse they got a sticker to put on their cross charts I made. I allowed the younger children to recite after me, but I did expect the older girls to memorize the verse, especially because they were short. 

There were two yummy snack ideas that we tried from the Program Guide.

For Kids and a Mom in the Kitchen, the children and I made "Jesus is the Light" Torches. We set them aside to be eaten for dessert after our special lunch.

For lunch that day, I made the children healthy versions of the "He is not here" Empty Tombs. I spread peanut butter on half a bagel and stood it up in a pile of lettuce grass. A cucumber slice was the rolled away stone. I added some cheese in the shape of a shining light cross, to balance out the meal.

The children enjoyed their lunch and their dessert very much.

For our lesson time the following week, we made "Jesus is the Light of the World" Lampstands. This was an idea I came up with as I wanted to see what we could do with the eggs. 

We used the Egglo Eggs to make an oval candle flame print. The I wrote the words "Jesus is the light of the world" in the eggs, one word per egg. The children then painted the candle flames.  I helped the younger children draw their lampstands, but the older girls did a great job with their own. 

As a surprise on the day we finally had all 12 eggs in our basket, we had some fun putting John 1:5 together. This was a fun activity suggested in the Program Guide. 

I had the hubby blow up enough balloons for one balloon per word in the verse. Then I wrote the verse on with permanent marker. After we did our egg hunt and memory verses, I had the children go in the other room while we dumped the balloons in the middle of the living room. The children were then to put the verse in order.

The following night, we took turns popping the balloons and figuring out what word was supposed to be in that space. 

We continued on until all the balloons were popped, and we could say the entire verse from memory. 

These Glow in the Dark Egglo Eggs are a unique idea, and a wonderful object lesson for teaching children that Jesus is the light of the world. I love that the story teaches the real treasure in Easter is Jesus. It helps to give a Biblical basis for the Easter egg hunt. While we don't include the Easter Bunny in our Easter celebration, we have always hidden eggs. I love that we can have our hunt at night and teach the children that no matter how dark it is, Jesus is still with us and he will be our light. The Program Guide is a wonderful resource to help expand the activities. 

I plan on getting our eggs, scrolls, and book out again, closer to Easter so we can focus our hearts on Jesus. We will also be doing the scavenger hunt suggestion at that time. I can foresee these becoming a permanent part of our Easter celebration. I would also like to see if our Venture Club leader would be interested in having an egg hunt with the children at the church around Easter. 

If you would like your Easter Celebration to focus more on Jesus this year, and for years to come, I would definitely recommend the Egglo Eggs. All of the items I mentioned at the beginning of this review can be purchased separately, and some can be purchased as a part of a kit. You can check out all their products and the current prices in their shop. 

Don't forget to stop by to see what my fellow Crew Mates thought of the Egglo Eggs.