8 Fun, must-do Easter activities for kids
Easter, ah…that blessed time of the year when the family gets to spend lots of time with each other! If you have energy bunnies (aka children) or need to entertain some, we have the perfect list of fun, active activities and healthy treats to keep them busy for l the entire long weekend!
1. The classic Easter egg hunt
This may just be everyone’s favourite! So give this year’s egg hunt a bit of a twist by turning it into a treasure hunt:
- Put clues around your home or garden, or even inside the eggs, to find the next one until it leads to the prized stash.
- Or take it further and customise it to suit your family’s interests. Do your kids prefer numbers to words? Or tie the clues to animal facts, word games, riddles, jokes, geography, sports trivia, or places you’ve been to, for instance.
2. Dessert chef
There’s a lot of cooking and eating going on during Easter. So if you’re preparing dessert, get the kids to help you prepare these healthier alternatives to the Easter chocolate eggs staple! Not only are these recipes fun to prepare, they are also D-licious!
Chocolate fondue
There’s nothing more fun than a saucy chocolate fondue! Serve it up with your favourite seasonal fresh fruit.
Ingredients
1 cup (250 ml) low-fat milk
½ x 80 g good quality dark chocolate, broken into pieces
2 tsp (10 ml) sugar
1 tbsp (15 ml) cornflour
1 tbsp (15 ml) cocoa powder
¼ tsp (1,2 ml) ground cinnamon or more to taste
1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla essence
Click for the full recipe: https://www.mydynamics.co.za/recipe/chocolate-fondue/
Date and chocolate balls
Little hands will love creating these treats: the perfect combination of dark chocolate, mixed with the sweetness of dates, and generously rolled in coconut. Bring in the Easter spirit by adding food colouring to the coconut, transforming them into multi-coloured bites of bliss!
Ingredients
½ x 80 g slab dark chocolate, broken into pieces
1 tbsp (15 ml) cocoa
3 tbsp (45 ml) low-fat milk
1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla essence
250 g pitted dates, finely chopped
100 ml desiccated coconut
Coconut and cocoa to decorate with
Click for the full recipe: https://www.mydynamics.co.za/recipe/date-and-chocolate-balls/
Chocolate custard pudding
Avoid the sugar rush with this velvety pudding has lots of flavour and very little sugar. The combination of chocolate and berries is always a winner.
Ingredients
1 tbsp (15 ml) sugar
3 tbsp (45 ml) cornflour
3 tbsp (45 ml) cocoa powder
¼ tsp (1,2 ml) ground cinnamon
2 cups (500 ml) low-fat milk
1 tsp (5 ml) vanilla essence
4 small (400 g) ripe pears with the skin, cut into wedges
¼ cup (60 ml) chopped raw almonds
Click for the full recipe: https://www.mydynamics.co.za/recipe/chocolate-custard-pudding/
3. ‘Balloon egg’ juggling
From the kitchen to a big open space! All you need are some balloons, a few permanent markers or stickers, and you’re good to go. Blow up as many balloons as you need; get everyone to personalise their balloon/s by decorating it like an Easter egg using the permanent markers and other decorations. Then start playing:
- The chicken run: wedge the ‘egg’ between your knees and let the everyone waddle across the area until the finish line!
- Don’t drop the egg: let everyone hit their ‘egg’ into the air and see who can keep it in the air the longest without falling to the ground. Special prizes for those who can keep two or three up at once.
- Egg volleyball: all it requires is two players (or more) standing on opposing sides of the room, and an imaginary volleyball net and let the spikes begin!
Don’t be surprised if the kids come up with their own ideas!
4. The Bunny Hop
Let the kids make up their own ‘bunny hop’ dance steps and then host a dance party with family and friends!
5. Egg decorating
If your kids are crafty, or you want them to have some no-screen downtime, get creative with egg decorations! To make the eggs last (without the smell), hollow out the eggs by making two pin holes at the top and bottom of the egg and blow out the insides. There are so many awesome ways to decorate your egg – marbling, using rubber bands, tissues, stickers, nail polish – let the imagination run wild!
6. Easter egg rolling
A fun game for young kids: take one hard-boiled egg per child (plain/decorated); mark out the start and finish points; line up the troops and on ‘go’ they roll their egg from start to finish using wooden spoons. Switch it up by getting them to crawl on all fours and push their eggs along using their noses
7. Bunny sack races
Why not follow up your egg-rolling race with a sack race. All you need are sacks (or pillow cases for young kids) and bunny ears (for the Easter-vibe). At the start line, contestants get into their sacks and hold them with both hands at their waist. Then they race to the finish line while staying inside their sacks.
8. And finish it off with…the egg and spoon race
Put an egg (hard-boil if you don’t want the mess) on a spoon, and line up those contestants at the start line. The first person to reach the finish line with their egg on their spoon wins. Mix it up, and race it as a relay, a three-legged race, or as an obstacle course. Or use water balloons and large wooden spoons to race with.
Happy Easter!
References
1. Aspire Sports. (n.d.). Our Top 10 Easter Activities. Aspire Sports [Online]. Accessed on 24 March 2023. Available from https://www.aspire-sports.co.uk/blog/our-top-10-easter-activities
2. Legault, K. (2022). 11 active ways to celebrate Easter this year. Active for Life [Online]. Accessed on 24 March 2023. Available from https://activeforlife.com/11-active-ways-to-celebrate-easter-at-home/?utm_source=easter&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=easter
3. Slate, S. (2017). 10 fun ways to add activity to your Easter. Active for Life [Online]. Accessed on 24 March 2023. Available from https://activeforlife.com/add-activity-to-easter/