Last week I took the girls to a local community day to celebrate Easter. There was craft and colouring in, lots of fun games, a petting zoo, ice cream and a fire engine to explore.

I think the girls had a great day out!

The day culminated in a huge Easter egg hunt where all the kids went berzerk hunting for elusive chocolates, carefully hidden within every crevice throughout the garden.

It was a whole lot of fun, it really was.

However, the Easter egg hunt was not without incident and there were quite a few unhappy children afterwards.

There were the younger kids, like Delilah, who were not as quick or savvy as their older counterparts and therefore missed out on their fair share of eggs.

And there were the older kids, like Matilda, who have sensory sensitivities which prevent them from getting in the scrum of kids searching for eggs. Which means they tend to miss out as well.

Unfortunately, this seems to be a familiar story, especially when you don’t have a plan when it comes to holding an Easter egg hunt.

But it’s not hard to put a few strategies in place to make it a fun event for everyone – even for kids with special needs.

And I guarantee you, there will be no tears, no cries of foul play and no injuries!

So how do you plan a fully inclusive Easter egg hunt?

Set clear boundaries for the search area

• Make it clear to all participants where they need to search. So be creative with decorating to set out the designated search area. Use ribbons, signs, bunting and cones to clearly mark out the search zone and discourage kids from looking elsewhere.
• Don’t put eggs in hard to reach places. Of course, still make it necessary to have a good look but don’t make it impossible for younger kids and for those who have sensory processing issues to find eggs of their own.
• Consider accessibility for kids with special needs – set an area that is safe to search and accessible for all, regardless of mobility.

Assign each child an egg colour to search

• Give each child a designated egg colour to search for. This will ensure they only take the eggs assigned to them. This helps ensure fairness and also encourages colour recognition for the little ones too.
• Assigning a dedicated egg colour for each child also removes the physical problems associated with an egg search, namely everyone rushing from location to location determined to get as many eggs as they can before they are taken. This makes it a more pleasant experience for younger kids and those with special needs too.
• For kids with a vision impairment, add a bell or something else that makes a noise to their eggs, to make it easier for them to discover.

Plan an Easter Scavenger Hunt

• Getting the kids to hunt for clues, instead of eggs, can also help younger kids and kids with low vision to be on a level playing field when it comes to the traditional Easter egg hunt.
• Clues can be read out so everyone can understand them and have a turn at decoding them. And with a definite location to search, it makes it easier for everyone to have a fair go.
• This can also make it more interesting for older kids who may be starting to outgrow the fun of the egg hunt – the best thing about a scavenger hunt is you can tailor the difficulty to perfectly match the needs of your kids.

These ideas are just some quick and easy ways you can make your next Easter egg hunt more inclusive for all.
I would love to hear your ideas too!