Easter is on its way and with it comes a break from school for kids and the chance for the whole family to get together. If we’re really lucky, there’ll also be some warm spring weather to brighten things up. Two weeks is plenty of time to get away from it all for a while, recharge, let off some steam and let loose with the young ones for some serious fun.

Here are some of the best Easter games for children (and adults!)…

 

Guess the number of eggs
Let’s start things off easy. When the kids come down in the morning and sit down for breakfast, see if they spot the jar of eggs on the counter. Before they go scrambling to open the lid, tell them how it works: Everyone has to guess the number of eggs. At the end of the day when they think all the fun is over (and they’ve had the whole day to eye the jar from many angles), give them one last chance to guess. Once all the numbers are in, the closest guess wins the jar! Why not make it interesting and hide an object in the middle of the jar. If anyone can guess what colour the object is, they get a bonus prize.

 

Nature scavenger hunt
Send them out with an egg box each, any size you like. You’ll typically have two dipped rows with, say, three or six spaces. Along one row, in each space place a small object from inside the house, e.g. a bottle cap, a pen lid and a coin, each different colours. Give each child a box of their own, with different objects and colours in each. There mission will be to venture out into the wild (or just the garden), scavenging for any objects from the natural world that match the objects in their box by colour. It will be fun for everyone to see what they find on their travels – anything from snail shells and bird feathers to flowers and worms!

 

Egg toss
Let’s move things up a notch. Let’s play a game of catch – with real eggs! This is a great, easy game for medium to large groups of kids. Line them up outside facing each other in two rows. Now, see how long each facing couple can keep up an egg-toss rally. Maybe expand the gap between the two rows if things are too easy. See if they can speed things up… The last child without egg splat on their hands or at feet wins!

Egg obstacle course
Staying in the spirit of real eggs, have the kids complete your very own obstacle course. They can even help you design it if they like (don’t let the cunning ones set traps!) The mission is to make it to the end of the obstacle course while still holding (one-handed only!) an unbroken egg in their spoon. How do you build an obstacle course, you ask? Get creative! There’s lots of ways you can incorporate garden furniture, croquet sets and trampolines into the mix…

 

Easter egg hunt
Who doesn’t remember embarking on an Easter egg hunt as a kid? There’s no fun quite like spotting something colourful and shiny in the most unlikely of places, and popping it triumphantly into your little basket for later. White, milk, dark, hollow, filled, gooey, flakey, coated… Mmmm, all the possibilities! But for this last game, it’s best to use the small and wrapped variety. Organise the ultimate hunt, keeping kids hungrily searching bushes, playgrounds, mazes and Wendy houses for hours. And if they don’t know where to find them all? You will…