Easter is not a part of our heritage but of course living in USA means, my children and I would never miss out on enjoying this celebration of spring and life.
I personally have organized two Easter celebrations within our community of 20+ families. One was a full on huge celebration with carnival games, scavenger hunt for adults even and even food. The second one is which one I am most proud of, which was on minimal preparation and Candy Less. Of course, we had that one mom revolt, saying kids would be super disappointed if there was no candy. But guess what?! They weren’t.
Our No Prep Celebration
Lesson learned, that the joy of the Easter celebration, other than the spiritual/religious aspect is also in the finding of those plastic eggs with their friends. The importance of any occasion is in it’s origin and it’s any way in which we commemorate the festival with fun.
The second celebration is the one I share here with you. I contacted all the families the evening before Easter weekend and asked them to give me 20 eggs per child in their family, filled with one non candy treat and ONE task that a child can do out of a list I had made. For eg. :
Do 5 jumping jacks.
Hug the person to the left of you.
Say something nice to a friend.
Take a circle around the group.
Do the floss.
Do the dab.
Give a high five to a friend.
Touch your nose.
The morning of, half hour before the party adults got together and distributed the eggs in a decided area. We marked a short area limited for the younger 5 and below kids. For the older kids when spread them out in a larger area, hidden in places etc.
As egg hunts go, it was all over in ten mins. What was MORE fun was we made all the kids get together and open their eggs and each kid did what was written in their eggs. The kids had a blast going around, checking out what was in their eggs. We got tonnes of videos of each kid and memories that lasted for ever.
Great practice reading for early readers.
Other ideas of Fun Easter Egg Hunts
Scavenger Hunt
Number the eggs and write clues within each egg about where to find the next egg. I did this one year for fun and it was a HIT! The kids have a blast going number by number because where most kids are concerned, they LOVE the mystery behind the hunt. My son even made a small scavenger hunt for me, after around his toys and had ME looking for eggs by giving me clues. “It’s next to the camel.” or “It’s in the princess caste.”
This helps kids think out of the box!
Games With Eggs
To be honest, we are more of an impromptu game creating family. We will cut papers up, count them and add them to gets. Draw on eggs. Match colors to colors. Those plastic Easter eggs are a HUGE source of a lot of creative thinking. Kids themselves invented so many. It all starts from the simplest – counting the eggs we have.
MORE IDEAS FOR TEACHING – https://everydayabovedirt.com/easter-activities-for-toddlers/
Night Fun
Use small leds or glow sticks and hide the eggs around your back yard or inside your house in the dark. The kids go crazy enjoying running around to music and acting like fireflies. It also helps fight any fear of the dark kids might have.
Read Stories
Fill the eggs with names of books and ask the kids to make a pile of books. Meanwhile, make sure to read to your child about the origin stories and talk about the many values Easter and spring brings forth.
Here is a list of non candy treats that you can find to fill the eggs if you want something more.
Do Crafts
It goes without saying that a beautiful way to celebrate is to do the many crafts you can enjoy with kids. Here is an easy craft that kids can do themselves.
For many more ideas you can goto our Pinterest page where we have curated a TONNE of ideas for theme crafts.
Let’s shift our focus from candy to the meaning of celebrations and imparting life skills through the merriment. Wishing you a Happy Easter!