by Lori Lite
Easter tips for family fun allow you to put your own creative spin on Easter and incorporate stress management.
I can still see my daughter with her hands on her hips declaring her truth. “I understand the Tooth Fairy and Santa, but really now, a giant Easter Bunny hopping from house to house hiding eggs?” Holidays are a wonderful excuse to reconnect with family, share stories, look for signs of hope, explore relaxation, and spark your creativity. It doesn’t matter if you celebrate a particular holiday, or you just want to believe that a giant bunny hops from house to house hiding eggs. Use this hopeful holiday to create your own family day.
Tips:
Keep the magic alive by putting some carrots in the mailbox for the Easter Bunny. Be sure to leave some good bite marks on them.
Extend the fun by hiding plastic eggs with words in them. When the kids collect all of the words can work together to assemble them into a sentence. The sentence is a clue to where their present is hidden. For more than one child, use a different color of paper for each child’s sentence.
Be creative and think out of the candy box. A gift can be tickets to a movie, clothes, jump ropes, seeds, or toys. One year my children were surprised to receive bags of wild flower seeds with instructions to disperse them on a nearby hill. We had hours of fun. Think of crocus or daffodils to plant in a pot or ground. A Chia pet can add a splash of springtime to any window.
Create new traditions. Set up a spring colored picnic blanket outside (or inside if it is cold out). Set out colorful feathers, plastic eggs, and flowers from the dollar store. Glue them onto straw hats or even umbrellas. Be sure to include dad. See who can make the funniest hat. Wear your hats when you go on an Easter egg hunt that the kids set up for you. Make it a tradition to wear them as you go on an annual Easter hike. Even silly traditions take hold and encourage family bonds.
Encourage emotional intelligence and stress management. Print out positive statements or affirmations and glue them onto eggs. “I am starting fresh.” “I am growing.” “I am full of life.” Experience and talk about rabbit energy. Hop around like a rabbit and float on a breeze like a bird. Discuss when it is good to use rabbit energy and when it is helpful to have bird energy. Talk about the colors of the eggs and flowers. Do the different colors evoke different feelings? Does light blue make you feel relaxed? Does orange make you feel happy? How does holding the egg make you feel? Is it relaxing to roll it around in your hands? Can you look at egg and only think of the egg for any amount of time? How does it feel to stop the chatter in your head? Stress management lesson plans and relaxing stories make this possible all year long.
Be colorful and roll it forward. Arts and crafts are endless for this holiday. Find new ways to color eggs. Cover eggs in scotch tape before dipping. Let dry and remove tape for fun effect. Let older siblings help younger so they create their own special bonds and memories. Don’t micromanage. Roll it forward by asking each child to color a special egg to give to a neighbor, a senior citizen, anyone that could use their spirits lifted.
Get kids moving and outdoors. Invite children’s friends over to decorate their bicycles with a spring theme. Go on a scavenger hunt looking for signs of new life. Take a camera for photos. Paint or make a birdhouse to hang up. Remember to look up too. The very act of looking up can lift our spirits.
Share and learn what eggs symbolize to various cultures. Discuss your religious symbolism or create your own personal meaning. Encourage children to share what an egg means to them. The celebration of new life, rebirth, new chances, new hope? The circle of life, abundance, joy, newness, feeling strong, feeling fragile, breaking out of our shell?
Look up and add Easter trivia and Easter egg facts to your conversation. Did you know that the first Easter baskets were designed to look like a bird’s nest?
Stress Free Kids founder Lori Lite is a freelance blogger, social media strategist, parenting expert, and successful entrepreneur. Her line of books and CDs are designed to help children, teens, and adults decrease stress, anxiety, and anger. Ms. Lite’s books, CDs, and lesson plans are considered a resource for parents, psychologists, therapists, child life specialists, teachers, doctors, and yoga instructors. Lori’s award winning books received national attention on Shark Tank and her sort after accessible tips have been featured in hundreds of publications to include: CNN Living, Real Simple Magazine, USA Today, Family Circle, Working Mother Magazine, and Web MD. For more information visit Stress Free Kids and for daily advice follow Lori on Twitter and Facebook.