EASTER is a great time of year for children of all ages, filled with bright colours and a few tasty treats, it is the perfect opportunity for moms and dads to spend quality time interacting with their toddlers.
“Rituals and traditions are a very important part of raising well-rounded, imaginative, happy children, while offering a creative opportunity to build positive family memories and improve little ones’ physical, sensory and emotional skills. A child with an active imagination is exercising the childhood equivalent of lateral thinking, a talent that will stand him in good stead in the real world, so embrace any ritual in your world view for its valuable contribution to your child’s development, explains Parenting and Pampers® Institute Expert, Sister Lilian.”
Creative Easter Activities & Healthy Snacks
“The traditions at special holiday times like Easter don’t have to be expensive or commercial. Concentrate on creative ideas that will enhance your child’s skills in a fun way,” she said.
Painting Easter eggs:
What you need: Eggs, acrylic paints in assorted colours, paintbrushes, glitter, glue
How to:
- Boil the eggs for between five and seven minutes.
- Remove from heat and set to cool (make sure your child can’t reach them while they’re hot).
- Squeeze the paints into small bowls and let your child paint designs and patterns onto each egg.
- Lay them out to dry on a baking sheet or flat dish.
- For a sparkly touch, mix a little glitter into glue and spread it on.
Create your own treasure hunt:
What you need: Sheets of paper, coloured pens and paints, decorated eggs, baskets
How to:
- Use an A5 sheet of paper and coloured pens and paints to draw a simple map of your house or backyard – wherever you’re planning to hide the eggs. Use big graphics and easy-to-follow clues.
- Hide the eggs around the house or backyard, or both.
- Decorate baskets with feathers, ribbons, bits of cotton wool and pom-poms, and let the hunt begin!
- Invite other toddlers for a playdate and make an afternoon to remember.
Easter bunny headbands
What you need: About three sheets of construction paper (white or coloured), safe glue, glitter, ribbons, sequins, coloured pens and markers
How to:
- Use the white paper to cut out of the main shape of the ears, and then cut the same smaller shape out of the coloured paper.
- Glue to the smaller coloured ears onto the white ears. Let your child decorate the ears with glitter glue or sequins.
- Cut a long strip of construction paper to fit around your child’s head. Let her draw patterns and pictures on the strip and then help her glue the edges together and glue the ears onto the strip.
- Let the glue dry before trying it on.
Healthy holiday eggs
These tasty treats are choc-a-bloc of healthy goodies, so you can give them to your little one worry-free!
Ingredients
100g pitted dates
150ml still water
75g raw, organic cashews
25g organic blanched almonds
100g carob, roughly chopped into 2x2cm cubes
25g fresh, shredded coconut
Method
- Cut or tear each date into two or three pieces, and soak these in the still water for 25 minutes.
- Using an electric handheld chopper, food processor or mortar and pestle, grind the nuts to a fine powder.
- Strain the dates, and keep the water.
- Place the dates in a glass bowl or blender beaker, add 10ml of the water they were soaking in, and blend until smooth. Add another 5ml of water if the mixture is too dry, but take care not to make it too loose.
- Add the ground nuts and mix well. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Once done, break off smallish pieces from half the mixture, and shape these pieces into ‘eggs’.
- Melt the carob by placing it in a glass bowl, and then placing that glass bowl over a small saucepan of simmering water.
- As the carob starts melting, use it to coat a thin layer onto each egg, with a pastry brush.
- As soon as the rest of the carob has melted, scoop it into the reserved date mixture and immediately mix thoroughly, adding 15g of shredded coconut.
- Shape this mixture into eggs, and roll these eggs in the rest of the shredded coconut.
- Store in an airtight container for 10–14 days in the fridge and 3–5 days at room temperature.
“Whether you’re making Easter snacks, a special treasure map or helping your toddler paint eggs, remember to use materials that are child-friendly, which means rounded edges on scissors, soft paintbrushes and non-toxic washable acrylic paint,” she said.
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