Who doesn’t love watching toddlers do an Easter egg hunt in their cute Easter outfits?! It’s one of the most adorable things ever. It can also be kind of a confusing concept. “So, you want me to go pick up those plastic things? But don’t open them? Just put them in my basket? And do it fast without taking time to really look at them or else all the eggs will be gone?”
Here’s where practice egg hunts come in. Why wait until Easter and just do it one time? It’s much more fun to do a bunch of little egg hunts at home in the weeks leading up to Easter. While your toddler is gaining familiarity with egg hunts, excitement is building about Easter approaching. It’s great all the way around.
Katherine had her first Easter egg hunt right before she turned 2. It was going to be at our house with her and her cousin. So, it would be really laid back. But we still wanted her to know what to do. So, Joel had the great idea to go ahead and do some practice ones. Truth be told, we did an egg hunt almost every night after dinner. But it was so fun! She loved it so much she started asking to do them.
Then, when Easter Day arrived, she loved the egg hunt! She was already excited about doing it because she knew how it worked. And she loved finding all the eggs in the backyard.
The practice egg hunts were so much fun that we’re continuing them each year and doing a bunch of egg hunts in the weeks leading up to Easter.
A few tips for enjoying your practice egg hunts:
- Use easy snack food for the egg fillers. Think Annie’s cheddar bunnies, Annie’s bunny grahams, M&M’s, chocolate chips, mini marshmallows – easy snack foods. Put one thing in each egg. Katherine had fun shaking the eggs before opening them to guess what was inside.
- Go easy on the candy. You’ll be doing a lot of these egg hunts. And if you’re like us, you might be doing them right before bedtime. Put the candy in the “harder to find” eggs. And put crackers or non-sweet snack foods in the others.
- Do them inside and/or outside. Egg hunts can be anywhere – not just outside. Basement, living room, bedrooms – everywhere is a good place for an egg hunt. Go wherever is easiest for you, and switch up the location from time to time to keep it interesting.
- Switch up who does the hiding. For your older toddlers or siblings, let them take a turn doing the hiding.
And for Easter Day itself, if you’ll be going to a large egg hunt with a lot of other kids, have some extra eggs ready just in case your toddler doesn’t get a lot during the hunt. Some places will have a stash of extra eggs, but others may not. So, make sure you’re prepared and can keep those smiles going.
Have a Happy Easter!
Photo: Katherine at age 2 (almost) loving her Easter egg hunt!
