Feeling a little bummed that the social distancing guidelines have canceled your local Easter egg hunt?
We found a solution, thanks to Good Housekeeping magazine: It’s a virtual hunt! Invite your people.
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Here’s how it will work.
1.) Contact your family members, friends or anyone else you’d like to include.
And agree upon some kind of video-conferencing system. For just a few of you, FaceTime would work (slide up mid-conversation and you can add others to your call). For any group larger than five or so, you might want to try Skype or Zoom.
All the adults on the call should decide how many eggs they’re going to hide, whether they’ll be doing outside and inside (as in, front or back yards, decks, whatever options you might have at your homes), and what to stuff the eggs with -- little toys or treats?
Firm up a time, perhaps, noon Sunday and make sure everyone can easily access the Zoom link or the Skype session, so that when the time comes for your hunt, you don’t have antsy children, ready to get going, paired with technical difficulties.
2.) Right before go-time, make sure your eggs are in place.
If your hunt is at noon Sunday, maybe your spouse could distract the kids while you hide the eggs. Or, if that sounds too challenging, it might be a reason to do your hunt first thing in the morning, when the kids wake up -- that way, you can hide the eggs before bed.
Here’s an important note: When you’re planning the event, make sure you and the other adults are on the same page. For example, if you plan to hide four in your living room: one behind the couch, one on a TV stand, one near the fireplace and one near the sliding-glass door, you should have the other organizers follow suit. Give them detailed descriptions of all your hiding places. And if your living rooms don’t all have the same features, you should just aim to make your “hiding places” as similar as possible.
These are the kinds of details you’re going to want to nail down on your preparation call.
It’ll be fun -- this way, Grandma can give hints ... and cousins in Michigan, Texas and Florida can search for the “same” eggs.
It’s like a scavenger hunt.
Guests can even read clues, and the kids can work together to find the eggs.
But back to step No. 2. Get those eggs hidden!
3.) You could even drop hints (like visual cut-outs) around the house. “This way!” with an arrow, for example.
Make it fun! We’re sure Pinterest has some cute ideas and print-ables.
And get the kids excited. This can be just as fun as a community-wide egg hunt or a church event, and your children will still have interaction with their friends or other relatives.
Everyone’s still searching for treats. But we’re doing it safely by staying at home.
4.) You could make it as basic or elaborate as you’d like.
Here’s a specific suggestion from Good Housekeeping: “To make it even more personal, ask each host to make a special egg for the people in their house. They can label an egg with someone’s name, and when a child finds it, they can show it off to the corresponding loved one. Go the extra mile by designating prizes that you know your guests will love like extra chocolate bunnies or small toys.”
5.) Tally the eggs at the end.
Who found the most?
And remember what we said up top: It’s probably easiest if everyone’s prizes inside each egg are relatively similar. You don’t want any tantrums because the cousins got the “cool” prizes, do you?
If you have older kids who can handle a little competition, maybe consider having a prize for the winner. (For children younger than 6 or so, skip this).
What do you think? Anyone up for a virtual Easter egg hunt?