I have a vivid memory of my first Easter Egg dyeing experience as a mom of three. I had a 3-month-old infant literally at the breast while a toddler and a preschooler dunked eggs into plastic cups of colored water. I used my free arm to mop up spills and maneuver that wire dunking apparatus when littler hands couldn’t manage it.
I’m sweating just thinking about this now, a decade later.
On the one hand, what a feat! The brightly colored eggs that we produced that day were the result of some seriously A-game momming. On the other hand, they weren’t exactly gorgeous. They were cracked and adorned with cheap stickers and lacked a unifying esthetic, as the kids say.
I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how much fun egg-dyeing became when my youngest was about six. In the little years we stuck with the most basic dye kits (I learned to hide the stickers and the little cardboard display rings and the cellophane shrink wraps and anything else that was bound to cause bickering or overwhelm), but in recent years we’ve started to branch out into specialty egg dyeing kits and new techniques.
Creative Egg Decorating Ideas For Big Kids, Tweens, And Teenagers
When your kids have the fine motor skills, patience, and ability to manage minor disappointments like a dye-job-gone-wrong or accidentally-dropped-by-a-sibling masterpiece, there are so many fun ideas for upping your Easter egg dye game.
Here are a few we’ve enjoyed – and a couple I’ve got my eye on!
The EggMazing Egg Spinner Decorator
This is the kind of purchase I usually roll my eyes at. I figured it would break immediately or not function as advertised – but we’re going on year three with our EggMazing Egg Spinner (affiliate link). The kids on the packaging are younger, but my tweens and teen love this thing.
Paas Tie-Dye & Marble Decorating Kits
If you are willing to read and follow more advanced instructions, AND if your kids will enjoy a more process-oriented decorating project, we’ve been really pleased with the results from the Paas Tie-Dye and Marble decorating kids. If you’re not there yet, the basic kits are probably just right for you! Paas kits are available in most major retailers and very affordable.
We haven’t tried them yet, but the Color Whip and Speckles decorating kits look really fun!
Hand-Lettering & Marker Doodling
Using permanent markers to add text or doodles to already-dyed eggs is a really fun way to challenge artistic kids – or get in on the fun yourself! One year – 2019, according to this egg! – I pulled up samples of hand-lettered Easter greetings on my phone and played around with designs on eggs the kids had already colored.
This year I have my eye on these Colorful DIY Easter Doodle Eggs from Sam at Color Made Happy.
Featured Image by Karolina Bobek on Unsplash
