This year, Easter is Sunday, April 16.
His first Easter, four-month old Julian slept through the whole thing, but once he got his first taste of modern American celebrations of this holiday the following year as a determined toddler, he never looked back. Since he is not actually Christian, his experience of Easter was limited to the hunting of plastic and hard-boiled eggs. And hunt he did.
The egg hunting was so much fun, I realized we should be doing this in the backyard whenever boredom strikes. The more the merrier, so this might be something to suggest when your relatives are visiting. A little fresh air is good for everyone.
So the activity of the day is to conduct an age-appropriate treasure hunt for pre-verbal toddlers.
Materials needed:
- three or four of the same object, such as golf balls, tennis balls, or plastic eggs. (We use lemons from our backyard tree).
- small gift bag
How to do it:
- Place objects in a grassy area in plain view.
- Hold a small gift bag on behalf of your little scavenger.
- Announce the hunt: “Let’s go find some golf balls!”
- Model the desired behavior: “I found a ball – now I’ll put it in the bag!”
- Help child “find” another object and place it in the bag.
- When child is not watching, take “found” object and toss it from the bag back onto the grass for more finding fun.
- Practice this exercise periodically so that when Easter rolls around next year, your toddler will be kicking butt and taking names.
Related: Plastic Easter eggs can be played with before and after Easter
