Written by Dr Tessa Grigg

We have put together our favourite ideas for Easter fun, with your child’s development firmly in mind. Have a great time whilst developing visual skills, gross and fine motor coordination, hand-eye coordination, laterality skills, motor planning, colour recognition, colour matching skills and so much more.

Of course, these fun Easter ideas also include you! These activities need to be fully supervised by an adult. You’ll find a range of exciting and educational ideas for babies and toddlers that can add a unique twist to your long weekend. 

Easter Activities for 0 to 2.5 years

Plastic Easter Eggs

Oh the things you can do with plastic Easter eggs!

1. Host a Colour Coordinated Easter Egg Hunt

If you’re able to buy a bunch of different coloured plastic eggs, you can run another type of Easter egg hunt. With this style, you can assign a colour to each child and they have to find all the eggs scattered around. 

2. Make Them Glow!

Place battery operated tea-lights inside for a magical egg hunt. Hide them and take your baby/child to find them. 

You can do this activity during the twilight hours (sunset) or once it is dark enough for the glow of the tea-lights to be obvious. It’s a great way to wear off any of their excess energy before bed!  

You could even go one step further and use glow sticks or glow bracelets/necklaces bound with a rubber band. It’s great for rolling in front of your baby for a tummy time/vision game. Don’t forget to dispose of these safely and properly. 

3. Rolling and Posting Activities

Create DIY games using plastic eggs like rolling them down a cardboard ramp and cutting holes in a shoe box to push the eggs through. It’s a simple activity that will help with their motor skills. 

A tip for rolling eggs? Be sure to add a marble inside to give the egg more weight and ensure it rolls in a relatively straight direction.

 

Easter Activities for 2.5 to 5 years

1. Homemade Maracas

Here’s where the plastic eggs come in handy again! Put items inside the plastic egg to ensure they’ll make a sound when shaken. Use tape to stick the egg to the top of a plastic spoon and you’ve got yourself a home-made maraca.

2. Easter Cooking

You can be creative with sweet treats for the Easter long weekend. Baking is a great way to get your young children excited. From chocolate nests to Easter cookies, keep it simple so they can join in on the fun.

You could even add some creativity at breakfast time and let them create an Easter bunny with their pancakes and toppings. Remember to show them a picture of an Easter bunny or make one yourself to set as an example.

3. Read a Book

There are plenty of Easter themed books to choose from at book stores. Add an Easter book to your gifts this Easter and read the story together. Whether it’s an interactive book or a rhyming story, they’ll enjoy the experience of storytelling and learning something new. 

 

Dr Tessa’s “Eggs-traordinary” Easter Egg Hunt

It’s not Easter without an Easter egg hunt! With Easter around the corner, it’s time to prepare for an amazing Easter Egg Hunt or a Treasure Hunt. 

Dr Tessa is sharing her Treasure Hunt plan that has had great success with young children. It helps with executive functions such as problem solving, patterns, perseverance and self-regulation – it’s superfood for the brain!

Once you have the basic equipment, it can be used over and over, providing hours of fun. You can use it during other times of the year too like Christmas. The ideal age range for this activity is kids aged 3 and 4 with some help. Kids aged 5 years and above will be able to mostly self-manage this hunt. Kids under 3 years will need a buddy.

What you will need:

• 10-15 small photos of hiding places around your property (the place where you are going to set the Treasure Hunt/Easter Egg Hunt). 
  • Make the photos about the size of a small matchbox. To make these permanent, you could laminate them or cover them with clear sticky tape. For single use, print them on paper. If you are using plastic Easter eggs, ensure the photos fit inside the egg.
• 5+ items (one for each hiding place) that you can blue-tac the photos to or eggs that you can hide. The number of hiding places depends on the age of the children and their attention span. This makes the photos easier for the children to find. 
• 1 puzzle per child with the final clue on it that is visible when the puzzle is completed. This puzzle (Woof) has 10 pieces to hide when cut up. Hide two pieces at each hiding place (5 hiding places).
• Make the puzzles in different colours so the children know which puzzle is theirs. The puzzle can be made on a card so it is easier to cut the right number of pieces.
• Adjust the difficulty of the puzzle according to the age of the child.
• Alternatively, if there are two children, you could have one puzzle, and they find one piece each. 

 

Setting the Treasure Hunt

• Start: Give the children the photo for hiding place 1 and one puzzle piece so they know what they are looking for.
• Hiding Place 1: Hide two puzzle pieces and the photo of Hiding Place 2.
• Hiding Place 2: Hide two puzzle pieces and the photo of Hiding Place 3.
• Hiding Place 3: Hide two puzzle pieces and the photo of Hiding Place 4.
• Hiding Place 4: Hide two puzzle pieces and the photo of Hiding Place 5.
• Hiding Place 5: Hide one puzzle piece so the children can complete the puzzle
• Hide the Treasure based on the clue. For example, for the “Woof” puzzle, the final piece of the treasure can be found in the dog’s bed.

 

The first time they do this, the children may need a little help, but they will quickly get the idea so when they do it again they will be able to manage themselves. Each time you repeat this, change the order of the photos and the clue on the puzzle. 

Try to make the clues a little cryptic so the children need to work it out. Adjust to the ages of the children. With two or three children, you can have two or three separate trails going. Make the items that you blue-tac the photos onto different (e.g. one lid colour for one child and a different colour for the other) or use different coloured Easter eggs. 

This would also be fun for grandparents or teenagers to set up for the young children. This Treasure Hunt might become a new Easter tradition. Enjoy!

 

Fun Things To Do With Your Kids For Easter

You can find even more ‘how to’ ideas and the clever people who pinned them on our Pinterest board here. For some more general Easter ideas, you could do: 

• If you are staying at home this Easter, try eating your meals in different places. In a homemade hut or ten, in a garden or outside under an umbrella or gazebo. The brain likes routine, but it also likes novelty so try mixing it up!
• Make Easter bonnets or hats that you can all wear at a meal or snack.
• Include your child or children in wrapping and giving an Easter egg to a neighbour or a friend. It is good to learn about ‘giving’ from an early age. You could also make a homemade card to go with the egg

No matter what activity you do with your kids this Easter, remember to enjoy your time together and stay safe! Happy Easter!