Dying Eggs with a Toddler Made Easy

It’s Easter time and a tradition that most of us had growing up was dying Easter eggs. I have wonderful memories of drawing fun designs on eggs with a white crayon and then putting them in the solution that comes in those kits you get at the store to reveal what I drew on the egg. Stickers were usually a huge hit as well. It was so much fun! But it was also often very messy!

So now that I have a child old enough to participate in this fun activity, I wanted a way to do it with as little mess as possible. I really didn’t want clothes or fingers stained! So, of course, I went to Pinterest and found some ideas that would be perfect for a young toddler and did some experimenting.

My son is 13 months old, so he really doesn’t have much interest, but I still really wanted to try it! I gathered some supplies from around the house, which also makes this very cost effective! Sometimes those kits you find at the store can be kind of expensive.

Method #1 :: Rice Shake

The first way to dye eggs was completely mess free! All you need is a Ziploc bag, rice, a spoon and food coloring. You add some rice to the bag and a few drops of food coloring. I did a bag with green and a bag with blue. Mix it around in the bag to coat the rice with the food coloring. Then you drop the egg in the bag and let your kids shake, dance with, or just roll around the bag. It coats the egg really well and your kids don’t have to touch anything! And the eggs turned out really cool looking! You can also switch the egg between bags to get different colors and designs.

Method #2 :: Kool-Aid

The second option sure smelled good! I added ¾ cup of water to a plastic cup and then added a packet of Kool-Aid mix and mixed with a spoon. My son then dropped the egg into the cup and we let it sit for a few minutes. He was excited to put the eggs in! I’ve heard of using a whisk when dying the eggs so that the egg doesn’t fall off a spoon and splash the water everywhere, but we didn’t have a whisk that was wide enough for the egg. The Kool-Aid made the eggs really bright colored, which I loved! And I love that it’s not toxic in any way because it uses something that we would drink. The cherry and orange flavors turned out great. The grape flavor turned more black so I wasn’t a fan of that one.

Even though my son wasn’t really into the whole egg dying thing, I think that these methods are a great and cost-effective alternative to making this tradition happen with your toddler, or even with your older children. I sure enjoyed it!