Kids love hunting for Easter eggs. Why limit the activity to just once a year?

We have a ziplock bag full of 10 plastic eggs. Anytime he wants to, my son asks us to hide them all. We have him sit in a chair in one room while we go to the next room to hide them. I count as I hide each one – he knows he has to wait till I say 10, then he comes running to find them. As he puts each one back into the bag, we count it. He has a great time, and here are some of the things he is learning:

• Delayed gratification – having to sit and wait for something fun teaches that good things come to those who wait.
• Counting and math skills – as he finds them, we talk about “You’ve found 7 eggs. How many more do you still need to find?”
• Observation skills – some of the eggs are very easy to find to build his confidence, some are much more difficult – challenging him to build his skills at observation, understand that things can be present but out of sight (under the towel, behind the clock, etc.)
• Persistence – sticking to one task until it is complete.
• Vocabulary – if he’s having a hard time finding something, we tell him to look “under” this, “behind” that, “next to” this, or “between” that. We also talk about what color each egg is, reinforcing his color vocabulary.
• Prediction – as we hide things in the same room over and over he can guess where some likely hiding places are based on past experience. Of course, we also trick him by moving on to new locations.
• Approximation skills – usually the last egg is somewhere really hard to find. We help him in his search by telling him when he’s getting “warmer” (closer to the egg) and “colder” (farther away). He’s had a hard time getting this concept and what it means for what direction to go, but he’s getting there.

Developmental note: My son is three years old – if I had a two year old, I might start with 5 eggs instead of 10. And “hiding” them would really mean leaving them in plain view scattered around the room.

For more ideas for plastic eggs and other eggs, check out my eggs post on my Inventors of Tomorrow blog, which focuses on STEM activities for kids.

Check out lots of other easy, cheap, fun and education activities for toddlers: https://bellevuetoddlers.wordpress.com/category/child-development/play-and-fun-activities/