Afraid of decorating Easter eggs with kids? Don't be! Follow these simple tips to help YOU and your kids have a fun time decorating Easter eggs together!
Last night, we decorated Easter eggs with our toddler for the first time. Let me rephrase that:
We let him actually help with the decorating.
I had grand visions of the night going perfectly. And you know what? It did go perfectly, but in a far different way than I imagined.
You see, sometimes I have really high expectations for holiday activities. That isn't always a bad thing, but I'm learning that with kids, expectations need to be changed. I will not get a perfect decorated egg while trying to help my toddler do his. Our eggs won't be featured on Martha Stewart, but the memories we created will be far more valuable. And that is what being festive is all about.
Activities don't have to be perfect for it to be meaningful and worthwhile. In fact, sometimes when we let go of our expectations, the holiday activity can take a turn for the better because we are more relaxed and can truly enjoy the moment.
Here are a 5 tips to help you enjoy the activity:
1. Boil your eggs.
This is probably a no-brainer, but growing up we hated eating hard-boiled eggs.
So once we were old enough, my mom just let us be reaaally careful with regular eggs. As in, we didn't boil the eggs before we decorated them. (We only cracked a few!)
If you are decorating Easter eggs with young kids, be sure to boil all of them.
If you don't like boiled eggs, try these Ready to Dye Non-Edible Eggs . We have used them before and they are a great alternative if you don't want to mess with boiling eggs.
2. Prepare for the Mess.
Spills and messes are bound to happen. Wrap the table in butcher paper or newspaper ChaChaand then you won't have such a big mess to clean up afterwards.
Tip: If the weather is nice enough, decorate Easter eggs outside to contain the mess!
3. Change Your Attitude!
Decorating eggs can be a lot of fun if you change your attitude about it. Embrace the mess. Expect a mess.
Dress your children in clothes you don't care about and let them dig right in.
Note: their hands will get sticky and colored, but that's okay! It will wash off. I'm pretty sure we all have got our hands dirty and survived to tell the story.
4. Use the right tools!
Good tools for kids:
- large spoons
- wire wisk (put the egg inside and have them hold the wisk to dip it)
5. Be simple.
If you're going to decorate eggs with young kids, keep it simple!
Save the Martha Stewart egg method you want to try for after the kiddos are in bed.
Do you decorate Easter eggs with your kids? If so, what works for you?
Hollie says
A fun variation for kids with no mess....,,,,hard boil eggs then use crayons to decorate. Still a lot of fun! Adults can use sharpies and do intricate picture designs. A lot of fun'