This past weekend I facilitated the coloring of Easter Eggs with my three and four 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. I’d like to share some of the lessons I learned with you so that you might adjust your own egg dying session accordingly.
- Yellow and blue make brown.
- Any color + any other color make brown.
- $0.97 for a kit of anything to entertain your kids for an hour is a good freaking 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.
- “Gentle!” doesn’t go a long way during this activity. Idle threats about you and daddy finishing the rest of the eggs alone are more effective.
- When your child cracks the fourth egg in a row with her raw motor skills and frequent color "checks," don’t sigh heavily or said child may run from the room crying.
- (See above.) IF you DO drive your child from the room, loudly saying something like, "I guess we’ll just dye the rest of these eggs without her," works well to draw them back in ASAP.
- 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 so as not to waste it.
- Someone in the group (possibly dad) may insist that the last round of eggs stay submerged for over an hour to reach "maximum color saturation" and then 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, don’t try to fight it.
- When you open your kit and find not one, but 2 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 is NOT enough for 2 children, because:
- 18 easter eggs X 3yo man-handling/4yo excessive color checking = 12 eggs
- What you drew with a wax crayon and what you THINK you drew with a wax crayon are 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 three year old’s hand looks and operates like a man hand when playing keep away with a delicate egg.
Originally Published on Pecked To Death By Chickens
Susan Maccarelli,