Creating a joyful Easter for the whole family is all about embracing the excitement and fun this time brings. For children, it’s a welcome break from school, full of chocolate eggs, sweet treats and familiar traditions.
While Easter egg hunts and outings are always popular, it’s worth considering how to make these experiences enjoyable for everyone. A little thought around pacing activities and offering sensory-friendly play options can make all the difference. Finding that balance helps create memories that feel positive and inclusive for all.
How families can take time to enjoy it all
The adventure of trying to find something that is hidden has always been something that children want to conquer. There can be a lot of fun creating stories or riddles to be solved before claiming the reward. Making up your own stories e.g. ‘The Lost Chick’ can create opportunities for mystery tours around the garden or house, climbing, crawling and discovering using natural obstacles and some common objects around the house or garden to create a lot of imaginary fun that is unique to your family and space or you could just adapt great stories like ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’. Either way it can create lots of magical suspense, laughter and will always deliver a nice treat at the end!
For children who enjoy the sensory experiences in play, fill bowls, boxes and tubs with lots of different sensory textures to explore, fill, pour and touch. Containers with cereals, rice, oats and lentils can provide lots of sensory seeking opportunities for those who prefer dry messy play and for those who like things a little messier, cooked spaghetti, filled custard pots and jelly can provide new ways to explore and hide treasure!
Having plastic bowls and spoons and tongs available is also a good idea as children often love to move things from one container into another when exploring materials. If you find yourself really wanting to embrace messy play outdoors, you can spread a bin liner on the ground, create some big blobs of shaving foam with a small plastic egg inside one of the blobs. Invite children to guess where the egg is hidden then (with dramatic build- up of course) use a spatula to splat each of them. The children will obviously want this repeated until they all get a prize!
For the creative buddies, Easter egg wrappers make great materials to cut, stick and decorate Easter egg templates or you could add some flowers or leaves for a lovely link with nature, but you may actually prefer to finger paint and decorate Easter eggs. Whichever option they choose will look like a masterpiece fit for any kitchen fridge! There will also be enough chocolate floating about to create short cookery sessions that could make classic rice Krispies buns, Easter egg nests, chocolate chip cookies or chocolate covered strawberries if you want to try a semi healthy option!
Try to manage the expectations
There are many invites to many family events and opportunities to have a great day in lots of different places. Sometimes these can be overwhelming and a sensory overload of sight, noise, movement and smells for some children. Knowing your child’s sensory preferences and tolerances will help you navigate these days so that
everyone gets something positive from the experiences while recognising the limits on what is manageable for them and for you.
Keeping some routines in place, e.g. mealtimes and bedtimes will help keep consistency and understanding
about what is happening each day and that helps children manage anxieties and expectations. It may also help to have some rules to help support joint understanding of the expectations e.g. only one egg can be eaten today.
Above all, enjoy what Easter brings this year. Kids and chaos may often run together but these experiences provide opportunities to discover, explore and enjoy sensory fun both inside and outside the home, creating memorable moments to share and enjoy.
Top tips for Easter fun at home!
- Create small manageable activities for each day.
- Adapt popular short stories for children to add a new twist to a treasure hunt.
- Make use of easter egg wrappers to design your own egg collage.
- Explore messy play with dry and wet materials and let the children lead their fun!
- Keep activities short and fun to encourage experiences that want to be repeated.
- Include some ‘quiet time’ to help children regulate and re-set.
- Make time for you! Find time for a walk, coffee with a friend or just listen to a podcast to help you recharge your batteries.
Article By Karen Turley from Specially Connected – a community interest company based in Downpatrick Northern Ireland, which supports families who have children with additional learning needs. It was founded by Downpatrick born Karen Turley, who has extensive experience in teaching and advisory roles within the special
education sector working in Northern Ireland.
For more information visit speciallyconnected co.uk or following them on Facebook and Instagram (@speciallyconnected).
