Now that my oldest son, James, has been in preschool, I realize how tedious spring break can be for parents. A whole week of being home all day long. Heaven help us.
There are plenty of fun day camps available over spring break, but since my youngest isn’t old enough for them, we decided it wasn’t worth it to send James. Instead, I scanned the internet and Pinterest for ideas, and boy were there plenty to choose from.
I tried not to get sucked too far in to the black hole of “Easter crafts and activities for preschoolers.” I found enough to do at least one craft, a fun egg dyeing project and a game each day this week. I collected my supplies and organized everything for each day. Here are some of our favorite activities so far.
Easter Bingo
This easy game is great for both my 2- and 4-year-old. I found free printable game boards online, but you could easily make your own. We used edible markers — goldfish, jelly beans, blueberries, anything small and edible work. When someone got Bingo they could eat the markers on the board. Fun AND yummy!
Plastic Easter Egg Games
You could spend hours on Pinterest looking at ideas of things to do with colorful plastic eggs. One great ideas is to color sort pom poms into the same color egg with tweezers or tongs. It’s great for both kids as I can make it more advanced for my older son by adding more colors and timing him so he can try to beat his last time. I help my 2-year-old learn his colors by asking him what color pom pom he’s picking up, or requesting he pick up specific colors. Surprisingly this kept them busy for quite a while. I’m thinking of adding new elements to sort, 
anything that matches the colors of the eggs would work.
The traditional hiding and finding of the eggs is also great fun. My 4-year-old enjoys hiding them for his little brother to find. I’ve also looked up some fun things to put in the eggs to liven up the game, like pieces of a puzzle they can put together afterward, or stickers they can use to decorate a flower pot and then plant a flower inside. Easter egg hunts never seem to get old with little ones. For parents, on the other hand, it can get exhausting trying to remember where you hid the eggs after the 20th hunt.
Egg Dyeing
Finding crazy new ways to color eggs with the boys has become an obsession of mine. There are a plethora of ideas out there, so you have to weed through the unrealistic, too complicated, overly zealous options to find ones that can be done quickly and easily with little kids.
Our tried and true method is to make up a paste of “paint” using baking soda, water and food coloring. The kids paint the mixture onto their eggs using brushes — the more baking soda on the eggs, the better. Next, squeeze a few drops of food coloring directly onto the eggs. Lastly, put the eggs in a bowl and pour some vinegar onto them, which creates a fun, bubbly volcano-like eruption as the vinegar reacts with the baking soda. You’re left with a pretty, pastel, swirly designed egg.
The boys used a dozen eggs with this method, trying different color combinations. Next we are going to try rolling the eggs through shaving cream drizzled with food coloring. When the shaving cream dries the color swirls are left on the egg.
I think I see a pattern here — the messier, the better.
I think by the time James starts back to school next week, I’m going to be ready for a nap.
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Mandy Watts is a stay-at-home mom who lives in Crownsville with her husband, Justin, who runs their family business, and their two sons, 4-year-old James and 2-year-old Luke.
