by Michelle Tuesday

Created on: April 11, 2009

Just about any activity you do with children requires bucket loads of patience, smiles, encouragement, and soapy water. If you have all of those ingredients, plus hard-boiled eggs, some acrylic craft paint, and a paintbrush or two, then painting Easter eggs with children can be a fun and creative way to celebrate the Easter holiday.

If you don't have acrylic craft paint or paintbrushes, check out your local craft store or the craft section at Wal-Mart. Acrylic paints come in a huge array of color choices, but don't forget that you can mix paints together to make new colors. You can blend just about any color from red, blue, yellow, white, and black. Inexpensive variety packs of lower-quality brushes are ideal for this project, because the variety gives kids a sense of creative control over their work, and you don't have to worry about the kids damaging the brushes.

Heavy-duty paper plates, especially the wax-coated variety, make great palettes for pouring and blending paints. If have palette knives, you can use them to mix the paints together, but they aren't necessary. Brushes from your variety kit will work just fine. Large, disposable plastic cups filled about halfway with tap water are good for brush rinsing. Just instruct the children to rinse their brushes off between colors, and then dab the brushes on a paper towel. It's a good idea to give each child his or her own water cup, because children fighting over cups of dirty water are a sure recipe for disaster. Also, don't fill the cup more than halfway, because it's less to clean up if the cup is spilled.

If you have paint, paintbrushes, palettes, and water cups, all you need are hard-boiled eggs. It's a good idea to boil the eggs well in advance of the project and let them cool sufficiently. Keep the egg carton, because you'll want to use it to store the completed eggs while the paint is drying. This tip probably goes without saying, but make sure you boil an equal number of eggs for each child participating in the project, or you will have children fighting over the extra eggs. Once you have your eggs boiled, cooled, and on standby in the carton, you're ready to move on to area preparation.

Lay newspaper on the work surface, and then hand each child an egg, a palette, and a water cup. Lay the brushes out between them and let them choose which brush they want to use. Help them pour paint colors onto their palettes, or if you went with the primary colors, just prep each child's plate with the five colors

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>