How to keep your kids busy this Easter

It’s almost Easter, and you’re probably wondering how you’ll keep your children occupied during this holiday. Not only for their sake but also yours, we’re providing you with ideas on activities to stimulate their minds and to burn some of their excessive energy.

We know how parents struggle to find ways to keep the little ones busy without sticking them in front of the TV or let them run completely wild. It’s also becoming colder as the winter starts moving in our direction and having them outside may cause a further worry of them catching a cold.

To celebrate Easter, we’ve gathered all the egg- and bunny-related activities that will ignite your and your kids’ creativity and guarantee loads of fun.

Dying Easter Eggs

With simple ingredients, you can create your own bright, vibrant and colourful Easter eggs. You can choose the colours, but we suggest sticking to rainbow colours – yellow, red, blue, green, purple, orange, etc. It’s recommended to use gel liquid food colouring for dying eggs because it’s concentrated and will give you more vibrant colours. Ordinary food colouring can also be used, but you will need to use a lot of drops.

Method:

Hardboil the eggs and let it cool. Lay down some wax paper or a table cloth to protect your surface. Squeeze out six drops of food colouring into a bowl. Do the same with the other colours in separate bowls. In the case of general food colouring, we recommend 20-30 drops. Add two tablespoons of vinegar and mix. If you notice that the colouring is changing to a darker colour (for example purple to black), consider placing the egg directly into a bowl of vinegar and don’t add vinegar to the colouring. Then, add one cup of warm water and mix with the colouring. Carefully, place the eggs in the bowls with tongs or a spoon and let it sit for 10-13 minutes. Remove them from the bowls and place them on a paper towel to dry.

Egg Carton Bunnies

This is an easy activity using recycled items and other supplies lying around the house. Give every bunny a unique personality and fill them with different candy types. Your children will enjoy painting the egg cartons with shaded colours, and you can use the bunnies as part of table decorations or as part of an Easter basket.

Method:

Start by cutting two egg compartments and trimming off excess to ensure a flat top to the cartons. Place the two compartments on top of each other with the flat tops touching and tape the two backends together with masking tape. Open the egg cartons and place another piece of tape on the inside. Let your kids paint the egg cartons with their preferred colours. We suggest using blue, yellow, and pink that match mini eggs. Once the paint has dried, add two eyes and a pink pom-pom for the nose with glue. Cut two ears out of foam and glue it on too. Take a black marker and add whiskers and eyelashes to the bunnies’ faces. Fill the bunnies with your choice of candy and enjoy.

Paper Plate Easter Sewing Craft

Your little ones will adore this sewing craft activity, and it’s great for practising beginners sewing skills and strengthening fine motor skills for preschoolers. You’ll need paper plates, yarn and a few other materials to have an afternoon of fun.

Method:

Draw an egg shape on the back of a paper plate with a pencil. Use the first cut-out as a pattern to trace on the other plates (if you’re planning to make more than one). Poke your scissors into the centre of the paper to make a slit and then cut out the egg shape from the plate. Punch holes with a hole punch around the cut-out egg shape – follow the shape until the egg shape is surrounded by holes. Cut off several strings of yarn, but make sure that they’re long enough to cover the egg-shaped hole. Tape one end of the yarn to the back of the paper plate and add a plastic needle to the other end. Let your children sew the strands of yarn through the holes in different directions – up and down, side to side and diagonally. When the yarn is used up, tape the end to the back of the paper plate.

Add wings from yellow material and a beak from orange material. Heat the glue gun to glue the wings and the beak and use two black buttons for the eyes. When everyone’s done with their crafts, you can string them all together and have it as Easter decoration.

There are plenty more ways to keep your children busy. Visit www.thebestideasforkids.com for more activities.