Easter Games and Healthy Activities for Kids

If you celebrate with the traditional Easter basket candy and a family dinner, your kids (and you) are likely going to be eating more than usual this holiday. One antidote to the extra food is to plan for the whole weekend to be filled with physical activity. Explore ​ideas for party games and activities that will keep the kids moving and engaged rather than focusing on food and candy.

These include egg hunts, egg relays, egg roll, an Easter parade, Easter bowling, capture the egg, and Minute to Win It games.

Make the Easter egg hunt more engaging. You can get your kids' minds working as well as their bodies with brain-teasing variations on the traditional Easter egg hunt.

• Make it into a scavenger hunt by designating which types of eggs they should find.
• Turn it into a search mission for an Easter basket by placing clues in the plastic eggs rather than candy or coins or providing a treasure map to find the eggs or a basket.
• Teach teamwork by searching as teams or as a team relay.

Easter egg decorating can combine both art and science. It's fun, it can be educational, and your child can enjoy expressing creativity. You can make it a part of your Easter party, turning it into a game. With a group of children, you can award prizes for the funniest egg, prettiest egg, and most colorful egg. Explore ideas for creative ways to decorate eggs, which might inspire you.

Easter is a time when many families come together or connect via long distance by phone or Skype. Engage your kids to learn the stories of these family members. You can make it comfortable for both sides by structuring it so they know what to expect. Make a list of questions your child can use in interviewing family members. Make up a family tree and then have your child write stories from what they learned. You can take the creative process further to make up a family​ storybook.

If a family member is having a health issue, this can be a way to discuss illnesses, aging, and sensitivity to health challenges with your child. Knowing the health history of their family will be important for them throughout their lives.

It's easy to go overboard with candy and feasting at Easter. If you are homeschooling or you want to give your kids' a math challenge, use a list of how many steps, miles, or kilometers you would need to walk to burn off typical Easter candy and Easter dinner items and have them find the total. Then brainstorm ways they can get in more activity for a healthy balance.

How do you keep the older kids entertained along with the younger kids? This is a challenge whether they are brothers and sisters or visiting cousins or the children of friends. Explore ​ideas that can involve the older children in activities with the younger ones, or that they can appreciate on their own. They include attending church, assembling Easter baskets for the less fortunate, assisting in cooking Easter dinner, hiding eggs for the younger kids, and more.