8 activities to do with your children this Easter

The Easter holidays are coming and Norlander Hannah (Set 39) has listed eight activities to keep you and your children busy over the next couple of weeks!

There’s an activity here for all ages. Whether you celebrate Easter or are looking for ways to embrace springtime, there’s something fun and easy to set up. For more activities and inspiration, follow Hannah on Instagram.

1. Spring themed sensory bottles

Sensory bottles are a great activity for all ages to get involved with! They are perfect for introducing babies to sensory play but also provide a creative activity for older children.

All you need are some empty plastic water bottles and something to fill them with! You can use things that you find around the house or create themes for your little ones to explore, like these spring inspired ones:

Rice
Lentils
Sand
Pasta
Water (with glitter or food colouring)

2. Nature eggs

Do you need to make your daily lockdown walk a little more interesting for you and the children? Why don’t you make some nature eggs along the way next time! As spring is blooming, there’s lots of new things to discover and explore.

All you need for this activity is an old cardboard box and some elastic bands. Unfold the box and cut into an egg shape, then stretch the elastic bands over the egg and you’re all set for your nature hunt! Slide all your exciting natural discoveries under the bands to create a decorative Easter egg.

3. Carrots in cloud dough

Cloud dough is a quick, open-ended activity to set up which encourages children to strengthen their fine motor skills while having fun. This activity promotes conversations about gardening and where our food comes from, which is perfect for the beginning of spring.

To make ‘mud’ coloured cloud dough all you need is:

100g flour
100ml oil
60g cocoa

Mix it all together in a bowl until it sticks together when you squeeze it. Place it in a tray with an egg carton, some pretend or real veggies, animals and some tools for littles ones to explore with.

4. Sowing seeds

Maybe you’ve picked up gardening as a hobby over the last year, or even if you haven’t, it’s always fun to get your children involved in gardening. Why not plant something in the garden or window box this spring. Gardening is a great activity to teach children about caring for something and watching it grow. Depending on what you decide to plant, you can also learn about where fruits and vegetables come from and how food ends up on their plate! Or if you want to plant some flowers, sunflowers are a great plant to start off with. Children love the bright colours and caring for them so that they grow taller than themselves! My charges have planted some sunflowers recently and we’re patiently waiting for them to grow, fingers crossed!

5. Frozen flowers

Spring has sprung and all the pretty flowers are blooming! Your little ones may have noticed and are probably intrigued by them. A fun scientific way to let them explore flowers is by freezing them. Pop the heads of the flowers in ice cube trays, fill with water and freeze! Provide some warm water and pipettes or spoons and watch them melt. This is a great activity to do in the garden if we get some warmer weather.

6. Easter tuff tray

This Easter themed tuff tray allows babies to take part in their own Easter egg hunt. It’s also an exciting sensory activity that’s not too messy for you or your baby!

Use shredded paper or plastic and mix in fillable eggs to hide them for your baby to find. You can sit them in the tray or, if they’re crawling, they will love to find the eggs and roll them across the room!

7. Easter egg sensory puzzle

There are so many Easter egg themed activities you can do, from drawing to painting and designing, but this is one you probably haven’t tried before. You can make a sensory puzzle using cut-outs from a cardboard box. If you have older children they’ll be happy to design and build this, or you can get creative and make one for your little ones to play with! Collect some toilet rolls, a cardboard box and use a glue gun to create your giant Easter egg!

I filled ours with coloured rice, pasta, pom-poms, chicks and some scoops. You can take this outside to avoid the mess or if you’re inside, or place it in a tray or on a mat to make tidying up a bit easier.

8. Balloon races

All you need for this activity is a balloon, a straw and some string. To set this activity up, tie the string to create a taught line, for example between two chairs across a room. Blow the balloons up and tie loosely, as you need to be able to undo them! You can decorate your balloons and then tape a straw to the top of them. Put the string through the straw and get ready to watch you balloons whizz down the string when you undo them! You can also cut the end off, but you obviously wont be able to do it over and over again.

I hope you enjoy these activities. I also share lots of activity ideas on my nanny Instagram account, so please take a look for further inspiration.

Follow Hannah on Instagram