For those of you with children, the Easter holidays aren’t just a lovely four-day weekend to soak up the British sun and gobble on Easter chocolate you impulsively purchased at the supermarket. Easter stretches out for two whole weeks and it’s generally a time when parents take off some annual leave to enjoy with their families. If you’re “lucky” enough to have small children, you know that any activity you plan can take hours of preparation with only fifteen minutes of enjoyment and quiet times from the little ones. I’m sure you know that from pandemic homeschool parenting. Eek! Let’s not have a reminder! So, if you’re struggling with how to fill those fourteen whole days with your family and your children, here are some Easter holiday ideas you can do with the family.
Escape abroad
Remember three years ago when we could go on holiday, book our children into a holiday club and enjoy two blissful hours sipping cocktails by the pool before the feeding frenzy began? Only barely recalled? Oh well! This Easter you can book a ten-day holiday to somewhere warm and family-friendly – just make sure it has one of those childcare centres, child-friendly food – oh, and don’t forget the mini-disco, so you can look like a cool mum/dad forming a train for the traditional CHU CHU UÁ song!
One of the best ways to keep your children happy, keep them entertained, and make lovely memories is to get away and change up the scenery. If your children are very young and haven’t been on a flight yet, even better (Minecraft on a tablet can help!). They will be thrilled at just how much there is to do and lots of time with non-stressed parents. And you may just have to post that hundredth picture where your youngest has his “creepy” posing face on because he is just not going to play ball when it comes to your picture-perfect holiday snap.
Go camping or glamping
Even though camping might be your idea of a nightmare, especially for those of us who see camping as sort of still doing all the cooking and washing up with none of the benefits of home, camping can be a fun family-friendly time to create lovely memories. Your children can help you prepare meals, roast marshmallows over an open fire, go for long walks (to tire out said children), and meet other families along the way. Camping can be filled with some late-night campfire camaraderie and singing and the children will be worn out by the daily activities of hiking, swimming, kayaking, and the like that they will be sure to go to bed early, giving the parents some lovely time to themselves and enjoy some beers with fellow campers.
Entertain with Easter-themed games and activities
There are many Easter-themed books such as a Where’s Wally style book called Where’s the Bunny? There’s also Easter-themed bowling (think carrots instead of bowling pins), Easter wooden trees to decorate, real egg decorating, Easter egg hunts, baking Easter treats (think Easter nests with melted chocolate or Rice Krispy treats with marshmallows or vegan marshmallows), or even just some good old fashioned games like Connect Four and Guess Who.
You can print out or buy an Easter-themed colouring book and set a competition for the most neatly coloured picture (with as many winners as you have children). You can do a Joe Wicks workout together with bunny hops, go for a long walk, go to the swimming baths, do crazy family karaoke (children love noise), create a sensory Easter-themed scavenger hunt, prepare and enjoy a Mad-Hatter’s Tea Party, or even build a den and add a starlight projector after cuddling up and watching your favourite family-friendly Disney+ tv show or film.
Make a home soundscape
If you haven’t managed to go camping or abroad and you want to entertain your children for an hour or so, you can record a soundscape of your home and get the whole family involved. You might think you all know every bit of your home, but have you searched through your home for the interesting sounds it can make? You can journey together around your house to find objects and things that make different sounds. For example, pop on the kettle and have a listen for the steam, scrape a stick against the garden wall, and listen to the (unopened) cereal box make a noise.
Have everyone be really quiet whilst you record the soundbite on your phone and pause for the next one so it’s in one long recording and once you’ve gone through all the rooms, capturing the sounds, you can listen back together and try to guess where the sound came from again. You’ll have a soundscape of your home! This activity can be as short or as long as you make it. There can be lots of noises found in the garden and the kitchen alone, as examples, and you can make noises with the duvet, the pillows, toys, and so forth in the bedrooms. This activity can work for older kids too, throw in a chocolatey Easter prize and what’s not to love?
Go on a day-long outing
During Easter, the National Trust and English Heritage have family-friendly days out and these are especially budget-friendly if you have a membership. The National Trust has Easter egg hunts and Easter trails in your region and English Heritage is hosting Easter crafts. You can keep costs down by bringing your own picnic which will be fun for the children too as you can sit on some blankets together or on picnic tables around the sites and tuck in.
There are also lots of free museums and galleries for an educational day out for the children if castles and stately homes are too much of a drive. Here’s a list of the top twenty free museums and galleries that are family-friendly. You can always go to the tourist information spot in your town, city, or village as well to see what other free, family events are going on where you live.
Vue cinema has discounts on films in the mornings called “Vue Mini Mornings” so you can snag some cinema tickets for under a fiver each (£2.49/£2.99), which means going to the cinema is more affordable and now you’re even allowed to bring in your own snacks.
Make a time capsule tradition
Finally, something for all ages is to start a time capsule tradition around Easter, which will be something they’ll appreciate more as the years tick by. The idea is to gather interesting facts and memories to add to your time capsule. It allows children to think about the future and reflect on the positive experiences in their life (or difficult times, knowing there’s a way forward). You can include a factsheet for each child such as their age, height, favourite things, etc; interviews with family members or someone outside their home like a grandparent or friend; drawings or stories; a description of a typical day; photographs; a reflection on what they’re most looking forward to; a discussion of the favourite things they’ve done; and/or a letter to their future self. You can make your time capsule something simple where they write something on one piece of paper and keep it in a folder somewhere so it doesn’t become extra clutter that is more stressful than helpful.
The takeaways
Do you plan on partaking in any of these Easter holiday ideas with your family? Let us know on our social media what your favourite family-friendly activities are to do with your family at Easter. Did we miss any great ones off our list? Chime in and give other parents out there some fantastic ideas!
The good news is that having your little loved ones home for Easter doesn’t have to interfere with your own morning pampering session (or your abroad pampering session). You can enjoy Tria’s Age-defying laser in a few minutes per morning. A few minutes per day and a few weeks and you’ll start to see a noticeable improvement in your skin, fine lines, and discolouration. Just don’t forget to wear sunscreen and maybe lock the bathroom door even if you can hear protests and see little fingers poking in from under the door – dad can deal with them for a morning!