Easter egg hunt in tiny garden - making it last longer

[LeeMiller]

I have promised DS and his friend (4) an egg hunt this weekend. Our garden is small with limited hiding spots (flowerbeds are full of thorny roses so out of bounds) so I’m looking for easy ideas or hiding places to make it last longer than 30 seconds. I’ll hide paper eggs (different colour for each) so they don’t melt and it’s all fair, then they can exchange them together at the end. So what are your tricks? So far I’ve come up with:

• Burying eggs in sand/soil and they dig them out
• Eggs hidden in tent/tunnel/ball pool
• pass the parcel style wrapping/lots of boxes to be torn open with egg in the middle
• eggs in balloons that need popping
• simple cereal box piñata
• an obstacle course and they get an egg at the end?

Treasure hunt with simple clues?

Do it in the house as well.

Could they make/decorate a basket for their eggs before they do the hunt?

I like the basket idea, that will use up 5 mins.

Clues seems like a lot of effort and neither can read yet, I guess simple visual clues? Or maybe tasks like throw a ball into the net etc

We are decorating and lots of the house is out of bounds, so I’d prefer them to run around outside.

Could each egg have an action they need to do to get it and they bring it back and have to e.g bounce like a bunny. Also have then run each egg back to you when they get them rather than going from egg to egg.

When mine got older , I didn't want to hide small chocolate eggs as they'd never find them, or rats/foxes would instead

So I hid dozens of those tiny yellow chicks about . There was a 5 for a small egg or 15 for a larger egg reward .

Or what about hide an egg and blindfold them , give them "Warmer/Colder/Warmer" directions when they get nearer ?

We've done it in the house before. To save everything being opened, we let them walk around and tell them if they're getting warmer or colder, so they know which room to focus on. We've put them on the front door before, so don't forget that.

Simple picture clues work well

I've done a few egg hunts for this age group. They always find it more difficult than you think. Also their attention for the hunt is quite limited so don't bank on dragging it out too long.

If you're worried keep the last couple of eggs in your pocket and hide them during the hunt.

Best egg reveal we did was inside the shed. We made a nest and put the eggs in it with a toy bird we happened to own sitting on the top.

You could make an arrow trail out of sticks for them to follow. Or cut up a picture into a jigsaw and they have to find all the bits. When you put them together the picture reveals the final location

We did one last year for my nieces aged 5 and 3 at the time. I did it with my sister and she had plastic eggs and chocolate ones. They loved the finding but so much and we're handing me the eggs to look after. I just popped a few they'd already found back down! Like in flower pots etc. So you could extend it that way

Thanks for the ideas. I have a couple of cotton bags I will get them to decorate first.

Drawing some visual clues sound doable. Also I think I will put out lots of toys and stuff in the garden for more hiding places - the garden isn’t teeny tiny but is a bit sparse. Then i think I will do quick chick piñatas for the chocolate eggs since I have some yellow crepe paper.

My son absolutely loves egg or treasure hunts and I usually end up rehiding them (or he hides them and finds them again himself 😂) so I guess if I just have tons of eggs that will keep it going for a bit! Or chicks is a cute idea too.