Question of the Month: Easter traditions

Kids in the Capital is all about parents in Ottawa helping each other out by sharing tips and advice. Each month we ask a parenting question and we want to hear all the gems of advice you have to share. Just leave your answers in the comments! And if you have a question you’d like to see be a future question, leave it in the comments too! Happy Easter from Kids in the Capital!

Question of the month# 6: Easter traditions

The Easter Bunny, like Santa, tends to have different plans of action for different families.  We want to know what happens at your house at Easter!

Are there Easter egg hunts (indoors? outdoors)? Special gifts left on the kitchen table? Does he bring toys or food treats? Do you decorate for him?

Do you have other Easter traditions not related to the famous bunny?

How do you celebrate Easter?

Easter Craft : paper bag bunny

by Rebecca With Easter coming up, we are all about bunnies and eggs in this house right now. This easy paper bag bunny activity is great with preschoolers, but my toddler loved it too.

What you will need: Paper bag (baby bunny above is made with the mini ones) White bristol board, or white foam Coloured paper (or foam) for the nose A Coffee filter Markers (black and pink or purple) Glue Stick

Directions: If working with a toddler, cut out bunny ear shapes with the bristol paper/white foam and a nose from the coloured paper foam. If working with an older child, have them cut out predrawn shapes with assistance. Draw a line down the middle of the bunny ears. (All ages can try this) Staple or glue the bunny ears on (staples keep them there better/longer) Glue on the nose and draw whiskers and eyes (I helped my 2 year old, but my son did it himself. See below) Crush the coffee filter into a ball for the tail. Glue on the back side. Have fun with your bunnies! (our bunny family that my kids made)

Rebecca blogs about family and motherhood, is a self-professed foodie, and dabbles in online engagement and community giving.  She has a strange love for maple syrup that can possibly only be matched by her love for chocolate and coffee.

Easter chick craft

By Vicky The Spring season is so rich with learning opportunities and art ideas for children! Flowers are blooming, birds and insects are plenty, and Easter is around the corner.

Here is an easy, and very cute craft you can whip up with your kids to help decorate for Easter! You could also turn it into an Easter card. This craft is perfect for kids aged 3-6 years.

Supplies needed

-Yellow and orange construction paper -glue and scissors -markers and googly eyes if you want

On a piece of yellow construction paper, draw an egg (the chick's body) and two bird's feet (making the legs long so they dangle off the body). Let your child cut them out, or you can cut them ahead of time and let them do the glueing. Glue both the legs at the bottom of the egg. On a piece of orange construction paper, have your child trace both of his hands with fingers spread. Once cut out, these will be the chick's wings. Glue the wings on the sides of the egg.

Next cut a diamond from orange construction paper, fold it in half and glue it in the centre of the egg so that it opens like a bird's beak.

For the eyes, your child can draw his own, or use googly eyes, or even just cut out black circles from construction paper.

If you want to get even more creative, you can use brads as hinges for the wings and legs!

There you have it, an Easter chick!

Vicky is the mom to 4 year old son named Joel and 20 month old daughter named Mieka. You can read her blog at blog Some Kind of Mom.

Making Easter Eggs

A favorite Easter tradition growing up was making pysanka. Although we aren't Ukrainian, we were exposed to pysanka living in Winnipeg and because it is so much fun, and so beautiful to make, we adopted the tradition as our own.

I hadn't made pysanka in years, but after taking a local workshop with some friends I decided to try it with my kids. I was nervous at first because I wasn't sure about letting my four year old and two year old handle the tool used to draw on the eggs with hot wax. In the end it turned out fine. I offered them the tool to draw with, after heating it over the candle flame myself, but they passed. They much preferred to just tell me what to draw while they watched.  (Kids that are six and older could probably use the tool themselves, with supervision of course.)

We spent a really enjoyable few hours talking about what to draw on the eggs, me drawing it and them watching the eggs in the various jars of dye. We used six colours of dye: yellow, orange, pink, red, blue and black. In other words every colour of dye I had!

After each colour of dye the kids made sure to pat off their egg with a paper-towel. After the black dye I used the candle flame to melt off all the wax and reveal the art underneath!

I won't even pretend that what they made is pysanka because the designs are in no way reflective of traditional Ukrainian folk designs. (Although it is possible to make faux-pysanka with kids!) But it was a good chance to introduce them to the idea and show them pictures of pysanky. I am pretty sure that this will be a now yearly Easter tradition!

Before making pysanka I did some other crafts with the kids to get them familiar with the idea of decorating eggs. I started by drawing egg shapes on paper and asking the kids to decorate them with their own designs. Then the kids painted the designs.

Next I let the kids paint on eggs. They had a great time doing this. I even showed the kids how to blow out the egg by poking two holes in either end of the eggs and then blowing out the egg yolk and whites. I think this was a highlight for both of them! (Tip: make sure both holes are a good size or you'll be blowing in vain). The only problem with a blown out egg is that the shell is easier to break, as my two year old found out.   

Does your family decorate eggs at Easter? Have you ever made pysanka?

Brie is the mom of a 4 year old daughter “the girl” and 2 old son “the boy”. You can read her blog at Capital Mom.

Kids in the Capital Anniversary Party!

We were pretty excited when Kids in the Capital turned one. So excited that we decided to have a party! When: May 1st from 10-12pm Where: St.Luke's Park at Elgin and Frank Who: All of our readers and contributors are invited! That means you!

We hope that we will see you there. The plan is to play, visit and meet new friends.

Amanda from Little Lotus Yoga is going to be doing a 15 minute kids' yoga session with the kids at 11.

Shop Haven, Eko Bear, Jen and Jodi's Friendly Kitchen , Sara McConnell Photography and Spoiled Sugar have all donated prizes!

We can't wait to see you! (Let us know if you think you can make it so we can plan for appropriate numbers :))

Brie and Lara