I actually love Easter – the new flowers, the warmer weather and the long bank holiday weekends mainly – but also the special events and fun days that are created for little ones too.
I can’t wait this year to take Raffy out and about for fun activities and Easter egg hunts.
Chocolate overload?
However, for some of you (including me) the fun of Easter can often come alongside another slight concern – SUGAR! Importantly we need to remember that Easter is just a one off and that if your little ones are eating more sugar and choccies than usual, that’s perfectly fine and overly restricting isn’t always helpful.
“But I don’t want my little one to have chocolate…yet”!
That said, it’s also very easy to see how children can hugely overdo it on the chocolate stakes at this time of year, and I know parents often say to me that they find it hard that their little ones are often given huge amounts and/or it’s just expected that they will be having lots of chocolates at nursery/school or from family members.
I was actually quoted in a campaign last year that suggested that some children will consume over 10 times their sugar allowance over the Easter bank holiday weekend, and that is a little concerning to say the least!
If you’re wanting to somewhat keep an eye on your little one’s sugar intakes or feel they are too young to have lots of added sugar, then I wanted to write this blog for you, with some ideas and suggestions to help make Easter fun and exciting without worrying about how much sugar is going in.
I’m also going to be writing up some recipes/food ideas that I’ll post at the end of this week to help make your Easter weekend SUPER delicious too!
Raffy’s Easter this year!
This year I plan to give Raffy an Easter Egg hunt where he will roam around the garden looking for mini chicks that I’ve placed around for him to find. Each one will come with a sticker that he will collect and add to a piece of paper with a drawing we made on.
At the end (I’ll let him collect 10 or so), once he’s collected them all, I’m planning on giving him a little basket filled with a couple of toys, a homemade Easter egg a few of my Easter Biscuits.
I’m also planning on doing some cooking with the Rafster this Easter and getting out and about at some family friendly events with him as much as possible.
I got some lovely feedback from my followers on IG about what you LOVE to do over Easter with your little ones too.
Here are some of the tips I received:
- Put some bunny paw prints around the garden for little ones to follow
- Easter basket and Easter Bonnet making
- National Trust Easter Egg Hunts
- Letter matching with Easter words
- Easter puzzle in an egg
- A tray/box filled with shredded paper with eggs/toys to find (esp if horrible weather)
- Bluebell walk
- Make Easter eggs at home with little ones and Easter cakes
- Bluebell walks
- Decorate the house with the kids – Easter style
And a few more tips from me….
- Easter is a time to focus on SOOOO much more than sweets and chocolate eggs. There is plenty of delicious food available, such as hot cross buns, carrots (rabbit fodder), dried fruits, scones and homemade goodies can all be just as exciting as choccies for young children.
- Inside games can be so great for kids too – hiding things around the house, or playing hide and seek to celebrate having time off as a family.
- Try making rabbit masks, painting eggshells, making Easter cards for friends and family or doing other mini “hunts” inside too.
- Outside the weather should be warmer so activities outside such as catch, finding treasure or even outdoor picnics can be so much fun.
- Find out what’s going on locally and join in Easter egg hunts, local markets, plays and other exciting events.
- Make Easter eggs at home – one of my favourite childhood Easter memories is making Easter eggs at home with my dad. We melted chocolate, spread it into egg templates and popped them in the fridge. See below for some instructions on how to make these! I’m going to go for some darker chocolate options with Raffy this year!
- Make foods together – I’ve been doing some baking with Raffy recently and although this isn’t really possible for younger babies, it’s such a good way to get older babies involved. Try out my oatcake recipe and add some cinnamon or mixed spices to give them a good Easter twang.
- Easter fun in the garden – my plan this year is to bake some easter biscuits for Raffy, cut them into little chick, rabbit and egg shapes and offer these to him as easter treats alongside oatcakes with a lemony yogurt dip and also some homemade dark chocolate easter eggs – check out the recipes all coming on Friday.
- Use sticker books with Easter themes and give these as presents to babies or toddlers. Raffy loves stickers at the moment, so I’m using them to the MAX this year!
- Sainsbury’s and Paperchase also had some lovely ideas and activities for kids to do at this time of year, including egg painting, card making, easter bunny masks and activity books with stickers.
Feel free to send me more ideas of what you’ve been doing this Easter with little ones. Remember, I’m not suggesting for one minute that children can’t have chocolate, just that there are also other ways to celebrate and I’m offering plenty of alternatives for anyone who is looking to minimise children’s sugar intake at this time of year!
Making Easter Eggs at Home
I used these simple step by step instructions from my fav Jamie Oliver to create some eggs at home. I used quality dark chocolate for Raffy, as he hasn’t had milk chocolate yet, and I think he enjoys the bitter taste of the dark variety anyway!
I also poured dark chocolate into mini egg molds too, to make smaller, solid eggs and then I glued them together with a little more dark chocolate.
