The Joys of Easter Egg Coloring With Kids

Susan Maccarelli

This past weekend I facilitated the coloring of Easter Eggs with my 3 and 4-year-olds.  The ordeal unfolded much like the way training an Angora rabbit to use a lint roller might.

As with everything, it was a learning experience, and I’d like to share some of the lessons I learned with you so that you might adjust your egg dying sessions accordingly.

  • Yellow and blue make brown.
  • Any color + any other color make brown.
  • 97 cents for a kit of anything to entertain your kids for an hour is a good deal.
  • The best part of egg coloring for the kids is dropping the tablet in vinegar and watching the color explosion.
  • The best part of egg coloring for parents is dropping the tablet in vinegar and watching the color explosion.
  • There WILL be crying and pouting.
  • There will be jubilation.
  • Reminders to be “Gentle!” doesn’t go a long way during this activity.  Idle threats about Mommy and Daddy finishing the rest of the eggs is more effective.
  • When your child cracks the fourth egg in a row with her developing motor skills and frequent color ‘checks’, don’t sigh heavily or said child may run from the room crying.
  • IF you DO drive your child from the room, saying something loudly like “I GUESS WE’LL JUST HAVE TO DYE THE REST OF THE EGGS WITHOUT HER” works well to round up the stray.
  • Even if your husband takes a hard-boiled egg to work each day for breakfast, he will NOT like the suggestion of taking one of the colored eggs as his snack (something about pastels and manliness).
  • Someone (possibly Dad) may insist that the last round of eggs stay submerged for over an hour to reach ‘maximum color saturation’ and may refer to them later as ‘MY eggs’ when showing you his work.
  • No matter how long you let the tablet dissolve, a purple egg WILL have flecks of pink all over it – embrace this.
  • When you open your kit and find not one, but two copper wire dippers, you will praise PAAS and all of their employees for preventing an egg dipper cage fight from occurring between your two children.
  • 18 eggs are NOT enough for two children, because: 18 easter eggs times the force of a three-year old’s manhandling, divided by the times a 4-year-old excessively color checks = 12 eggs.
  •  What you drew with a wax crayon and what you THINK you drew with a wax crayon is not the same thing
  • Shrinky plastic sleeves don’t actually fit over any egg I’ve ever seen and are only included to encourage mom to force them onto a too big egg, breaking the egg and upsetting your child in the process
  • A 3-year old’s hand looks and operates like a man hand when playing keep away with a delicate egg.

 

READ MORE IN THE PLAYROOM


PIN IT FOR LATER:

The Joys of Easter Egg Coloring with Kids


 This post was syndicated with permission to BonBon Break Media LLC.

Susan Maccarelli authors a humor blog called Pecked To Death By Chickens, and feeds her attention-seeking behavior by having her submissions featured on such sites as Blogher, The Huffington Post, In The Powder Room, Mamapedia and BonBon Break. Susan has also been published as a contributor in the mom humor anthology I Still Just Want to Pee Alone. In addition, she is the creator of Beyond Your Blog, a resource site that focuses on helping bloggers and writers successfully submit their writing for publication, and the host of a weekly podcast featuring editors sharing tips for getting published on their sites.