An egg hunt for the littles is pretty straight forward. Hide, find, enjoy the treats. But for older kids, make it more of a challenge.
Brittany Beattie shares five fun ways to shake up your average Easter egg hunt.
Unexpected Easter Egg Hunts
An Easter Egg hunt for the little kids is simple, slow-paced, and filled with delightful discovery. But staying ahead of the older kids is something else.
You need some kind of catch. A twist. An unexpected challenge. Brittany Beattie, of Family Fun Everyday, has cracked the code on Easter egg hunts for older kids. She shares five family-tested ideas.
1. Glow-in-the-Dark Hunt
Take your egg hunt to the evening hours! Gather Easter eggs with clear tops or translucent colors and pre-fill them with a surprise. When the sun sets, add a glow bracelet inside each one, put one or two bracelets on each child, and head into the backyard for an Easter delight!
Tips:
- You can get 20 glow bracelets for one dollar at the dollar store.
- Walmart usually has lots of clear-top large eggs leftover after Easter. Pick them up on 75% clearance and use them for larger prizes the next year.
- If you can’t find clear-top or translucent eggs, use just one-half of a large egg, cover it with Saran Wrap, and put a rubber band around it so the glow bracelet can glow through!
Here are some eggs with glow sticks that neatly fit inside!
2. Alphabetical (or Numerical) Order
Rather than having everyone run in chaos (and sometimes blocking out others), give every person a specific color of egg. Then label each one with a number or letter of the alphabet. Scatter them around the yard, and have everyone find their eggs in the correct order. It adds an extra element of fun! Tip: You can offer a small prize for the person who completes the hunt first.
3. Level the Playing Field
If you usually have a variety of items—large and small, games and candy—you know that everyone runs for the big items first. Mix up the hunt by writing the names of what you’d normally put in the eggs on small pieces of paper. For instance, “10 jelly beans,” “marshmallow egg,” and “jump rope.” Then every egg looks and sounds the same when you pick them up and shake them. After the eggs are collected, head inside to find out what everyone won!
Tips:
- This idea is especially helpful for egg hunts on hot days—all the chocolate can stay cool indoors instead of melting inside the eggs!
- If you want an even amount of eggs like 50 or 100, write the names of the items onto puzzle pieces (available at the dollar store). Then you can put together the puzzle afterward, and you’ll be able to tell if some eggs are still hiding outside!
4. Puzzle Twist
Instead of giving lots of little surprises (candy, dimes, etc.), invest in one large Easter surprise per person. Then write what it is on the back side of a puzzle. Assign everyone an egg color, and put that person’s puzzle pieces inside of the eggs to find. Once the eggs are collected, they can come back inside and put together their puzzle to see what their big prize is!
Tip: You can paint the top of the puzzle first if you want it to be harder to put together (for older children), write it directly on top of the puzzle for younger children, or write it on the back side of the puzzle and have them flip it over once the puzzle is complete!
5. Reverse Hunt
Rather than filling your basket with eggs, try to remove them from the basket! Grab dollar-store Lego-like sets with similar numbers of pieces but different items for each person. Then mix them all up in a single basket. Hand each person the instructions for their Lego set, and they have to keep opening eggs until they get the pieces for step 1. Once they complete step 1 in the instructions, they keep opening eggs to find the pieces they need to complete step 2. Can’t find the piece you want? Just close each egg back up so you can find it later. The first person to complete their creation wins a special prize! You can see it played on Brittany’s YouTube channel.
Brittany Beattie gets “aunt of the year” award for developing and sharing easy, inexpensive game ideas with her nephews. She is committed to helping families spend more time together. She publishes frequently at her YouTube channel.
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