Montessori friendly Easter Ideas
We’ve had a very rough winter here on the East Coast. When it wasn’t snowing, there was freezing rain. On the rare precipitation free days, the wind hurt our faces. Also, there’s still a global pandemic that makes it dangerous to see family and friends, so there’s that. While we aren’t religious in the slightest, I’ve really been looking forward to Easter this year. For us, it marks a return to springtime and warmer weather.
COVID-19 Precautions
“While children aren’t a high risk group, there have been many case of Long COVID in children, and we don’t yet know how this could impact them later in life. ”
By Easter, we’ll all be at least two weeks past our first COVID-19 vaccines, and half of our extended family will be fully vaccinated. Between the security offered by the vaccines and the ability to safely gather outside with masks and social distancing, “But if everyone has had at least one vaccine, why the extra precautions? That seems a little excessive!” Well, yes, however our Little Guy is still far too young to be vaccinated. While children aren’t a high risk group, there have been many case of Long COVID in children, and we don’t yet know how this could impact them later in life.
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A Bit of Whimsy
As we enter our second spring in the pandemic, I find myself wanting to bring more joy and whimsy into our lives. In the days leading up to Easter, I’ve got some ideas to inject some well needed fun into our routines.
Decorating Cookies and Cupcakes
Our local bakery is offering take-home decorating kits with a few cupcakes, a few sugar cookies, and enough icing and sprinkles to decorate them. I’m sure this isn’t a novel idea, and I would bet that a lot of small, family run bakeries around the country are offering similar boxes! If you’re up for it, you could also DIY a cupcake or cookie decorating buffet.
How is this Montessori Aligned? Practical life, of course! I feel like this isn’t dissimilar to the typical Montessori task of flower arranging. Instead of making a beautiful center piece, we’ll be making beautiful treats. This also gives little hands a chance to work on their Fine Motor Skills by squeezing icing bags, pinching sprinkles, and placing little decorations precisely on the cookies and cupcakes.
Why I love it: Anything that saves me from baking a dozen cupcakes that won’t get eaten or an entire batch of sugar cookies to fight with is a win in my book. As much as I may seem like Betty Homemaker with all the DIYs and cooking and baking from scratch, I have never successfully made sugar cookies with little cookie cutters. It doesn’t matter how long I refrigerate the dough or how precisely I follow the directions, the dough is a sticky mess and if, if I manage to get some cookies cut out, the edges and bottoms burn.
Cautions: The food coloring in the icing can stain fabric, so maybe don’t put your favorite white tablecloth down before this activity. This is also going to be an absolute mess with my 27 month old, but I’m trying to reframe the purpose of the activity from “making Instagram worthy treats” to “let’s just have a lot of fun!” Obviously, this is a sugar filled activity, so if your kids are still living that sugar free life, this may not be for you.
Easter Egg Hunt
I have many fond memories of Easter Egg Hunts in my grandmother’s back yard. My aunts would fill plastic eggs with coins and even a few dollars here and there, then place them all early in the morning. I’m certainly not going to give a two year old coins or cash, but that’s not the only option to fill some plastic Easter eggs! Try filling a few eggs with any of the following for an exciting surprise!
realistic animal figurines (Schleich and Papo are amazing, but there’s nothing wrong with Safari!)
duplo (What a fun way to gift a new set of giant Legos!)
felt or paper flowers for fine motor/matching activities
Easter Basket
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We absolutely don’t want to turn Easter into a major gift holiday, but I love putting together a little basket full of goodies for my toddler. It’s just fun! We have cats, and traditional plastic Easter basket grass is terrible for the environment, so I’m using some pastel play silks to fill up the bottom of his basket. Now that he’s 27 months old, we are much more relaxed about sugar than we were when he was only 15 months old last Easter. That said, he still doesn’t have the impulse control to not devour every treat in his basket immediately, so I have to exercise restraint and only put a few treats in. Here are some non-treat ideas to pop in a toddler Easter basket:
Book about spring - check out this post for my favorite, mostly Montessori aligned books about spring
soft doll - I love this Haba doll, but I’m hoping to have time to sew one up myself!
Montessori aligned toy
high contrast card for newborns (check out these DIY cards!)
lacing work for 12+ months (Themed lacing activities are so hard to find - make your own instead!)
Finger puppets - These farm finger puppets are adorable and perfect for spring!
Simple musical instruments - Bells are lovely, and so is this set
Religious Activities
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Of course, if your family is religious, you’d probably like to include some religious activities leading up to and on Easter. There are so many excellent religiously oriented Montessori resources out there, so be sure to check out Pinterest and your favorite Montessori Facebook groups for inspiration!
